Session Type: Poster Accepted by MIG(s): Time Allotted: 60 Description: This poster describes a research project that provides public school principals leadership training in the process of change. College professors lead principals through an assessment of readiness for change and then provide a theoretical basis for organizational change as principals learn to better implement school improvement plans. Abstract: Leaders, like never before, are expected to be able to lead their organizations through change and innovation. Yet the history of educational change in the United States during the last three decades is a history replete with failed attempts at innovation with the limited results as noted by Fullan (2007) “innovation was adopted on the surface, with some language and structures being altered, but not the practice of teaching” (p. 6). The history of educational reform is abounding with good ideas that fail to get implemented. The following research initiative along with its accompanying leadership development plan sought to address the need to effectively train principals in the art of leading organizational change. The presence of change knowledge does not guarantee success, but its absence ensures failure.
The public demand for improved schools coupled with top-down bureaucratic expectations heightens the difficulty for the principal in leading a change innovation in which teachers can embrace. Constant attempts at school improvement during the past three decades have left most teacher facultys suffering from initiative fatigue. When principals introduce new curricula or educational approaches this fatigue prevents even effective approaches from gaining traction.
This research initiative attempted to provide principals with a sound theoretical basis for change by providing them with eight well known theoretical approaches to change and then providing them coaching on how to choose and execute a change approach that is right for them. Theorists for change that are included in this research include de Caluwé and Vermaak, Edgar Schein, Black & Gregersen, Kurt Lewin, John Kotter, Van de Ven & Poole, Don Dunoon, and Michael Fullan. Providing a range in approaches for change allowed principals to utilize an approach that reflects their leadership experience as well as their followers’ acceptance of the need for the change. Expecting every leader to find success using the same approach would be like expecting all people to see better using the same eye prescription for their lenses.
The research project included three randomly selected public school districts in Indiana. It involved the training of eleven school principals in a two year study. This research includes a development session that would demonstrate the successful approach used by researchers to engender teacher support for the implementation of public school improvement plans. The principal training and development session took an approach to faculty development which features adult-friendly collaboration coupled with appropriate assessment to determine faculty readiness for change and includes a cognitive-coaching model of delivery. This research approach to training utilized technology to allow principals from around Indiana to connect and collaborate through a BlackBoard platform. Assessment to measure leadership readiness and stakeholder support was conducted with the use of technology through the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ). The training of principals in leading change used the web to dialogue about and to assess effective change practices and accelerated their leadership development aligning perfectly with the conference theme Leadership 2.0: A Time for Action. The goal was to transform leadership knowledge and practice in Indiana.
This principal training approach has been instrumental in implementing a research project designed to help public school principals guide their teachers through a curriculum change. This development session includes the assessment of both leaders and followers to determine their readiness for the new change initiative and provides a collaborative approach to determine the best theoretical approach to change.
In the leadership development sessions used to assist principals and school improvement teams in understanding the theoretical basis for organization change, leaders were provided a short primer to assist them in understanding the different approaches for change. School leaders were then coached on choosing the appropriate change process based upon their leadership experience and follower acceptance of the changes. This primer would be made available to ILA participants attending the session. Session participants would be guided through the coaching process used to train public school leaders in directing the change process.
Too often educational leaders take an organizational approach to change that is designed to pull all the right levers to change the curriculum so that individuals would follow. According to Black and Gregersen (2008), research concludes just the opposite. Lasting success lies in changing individuals first; then the school will follow. Unlocking individual change and personal growth is at the heart of our proposed failing schools intervention process.
Assessment of the Research Project
Assessment of leadership development will be ongoing and continuous throughout the two-year study. Based on Kelly Hannum’s (2009) research on leadership development assessment, the research team will serve as a) planner and designer, b) assessor, c) capacity builder, d) translator and boundary spanner, e) advocate, and f) reflective practitioner. Assessment on the effectiveness of school improvement plan would be conducted at key intervals as specified by Kirkpatrick (1998) to include a) immediately following training, b) after new learning, c) when transfer to real life occurs, and d) after final results. Assessment will include a) tracking influence, b) measuring satisfaction, c) assessing knowledge and skill acquisition, d) monitoring behavior and performance changes, e) determining results, and f) tracking goal achievement. These assessment data will be correlated with ongoing student learning data provided by NWEA twice each semester.
References
Black, J. Stewart & Gregersen, Hal B., (2008) It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations Publisher: Wharton School Publishing Pub. Date: 2nd Rev Ed edition January 20, 2008 ISBN: 9780132319843
De Caluwé, L., & Vermaak, H. (2003). Learning to change: A guide for organizational change agents. London: Sage Publications.
Dunoon, D. (2008) In the leadership mode, Trafford Publishing Victoria, BC, Canada
Fullan, M. (2007) The new meaning of educational change, Fourth Edition Teachers College, Columbia University
Lewin, Kurt groups, Experiential learning and action research
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-lewin.htm
Schein, E. (2004), Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey-Bass a Wiley Inprint, San Fransico, CA. Third Edition
Vella, J. (2002) Learning to listen, learning to teach, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Company. San Francisco, CA
Jim Freemyer, Indiana Wesleyan University
Bio: Jim Freemyer completed his doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Educational Leadership. He has a B.S and M.S. degree in mathematics and another master’s degree in administration. He spent 17 years as a high school principal, eight years as the director of the master’s in education program at Indiana Wesleyan University, and the past two years as a full professor teaching organizational change and research statistics in the doctorate in leadership program at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Brad Oliver, Indiana Wesleyan University
Al Long, Indiana Wesleyan University
Mike Trego, Indiana Wesleyan University
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