Working together: Lessons learned from school,family, and community collaborations

Recent advances in treatment modalities and the manner in which services are organized have made it possible to serve children with severe emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) in a more responsive and less restrictive manner. Current approaches rely on collaboration among child‐serving agencies as well as between parents and service providers. In this article, we explore the role of schools in collaborative efforts on behalf of children with EBD. The demands on school personnel in local school districts are examined, the elements required for effective collaboration are articulated, and an exemplary model of comprehensive collaboration is described. Impediments to effective collaboration are summarized, and suggestions for how to create and sustain reliable partnerships are offered at the level of individual provider and child‐serving organization. Attention is given to contextual factors, such as financing and organizational structure, and also to programmatic issues. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 419–428, 2006.     

Organisational transition challenges in the Finnish vocational education – perspective of distributed pedagogical leadership

The article examines organisational challenges in the Finnish vocational education and training (VET) to support students’ lifelong learning pathways. Investigation of organizational challenges is done through the students’ transitions either within one school level or from one school level to another or to working life. For supporting the students’ learning pathways, it is argued here that specific attention has to be paid to collaborative practices of the personnel in order to guarantee the transitional fluency. This kind of collaboration is here called distributed pedagogical leadership. For examining the shared practices in the frame of distributed pedagogical leadership, the article introduces both quantitative results from a national survey and a Finnish VET case school and qualitative results from this particular school as several interviews of the leadership team and the teachers.     

Educational Collaboration in the Restructuring of Schools

The need for improved collaboration among educators in the schools has been repeatedly documented in both first wave (legislated learning) and second wave (empowerment/school restructuring) education reform movements. This article describes the role of educational collaboration as one important key to professional sharing of best practices in the restructuring of schools. Critical issues and practical strategies for developing and implementing this shared planning, decision-making, and problem-solving process are discussed. The importance of operationally defining educational collaboration as it is to be implemented in each individual school is emphasized. issues and strategies for developing school norms that support educational collaboration, including redefining and clarifying professional roles, systematic staff training and support, developing organizational structures for collaboration, and providing professionals with adequate time for collaboration, are reviewed and critiqued.     

Suggestions for the delivery of psychological services in secondary schools

The present paper describes the past, current, and suggested future practices in the delivery of school psychological services at the high school level. Because high schools differ from elementary and middle schools (i.e., organizational structure, student characteristics and needs, etc.), school psychologists need to use different approaches in the delivery of services at the secondary level. It is proposed that school psychologists must become integrated into the total social system of the high school to be most effective. Methods for accomplishing this objective, including collaboration with other school personnel and utilization of community resources, are discussed.     

Smarter,Better, Faster,Cheaper

This article examines and critiques the leadership capacity of department leaders in a high school and attempts to gain a deeper understanding of how department leaders perceive their role as teacher leaders, making a distinction between what an individual department leader does in his or her position and teacher leadership as a form of continuous learning and innovation through collaboration. How do department leaders practice leadership to improve student learning? The author provides an investigation and analysis of the current level of leadership capacity exhibited by department leaders in a high school. A close look at the role and function of department leaders in this high school reveals an absence of the teacher leadership necessary to promote the broad-based leadership capacity that results in improved student achievement.     

分布式领导:缘起、概念与实施

分布式领导是近年来兴起的一个概念,自提出以来受到极大关注。分布式领导理论是组织思考的根本改变,它将领导定义为学校所有人的责任,而不仅仅是校长等少数人的行为。分布式领导致力于在组织成员中分享领导职能,建立清晰的愿景和目标,提升组织成员的领导能力,同时考虑到学校组织结构和管理体制、绩效责任制度以及学校文化等因素的配合。     

Creating School Environments Responsive to Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transgender Families: Traditional and Systemic Approaches for Consultation

The authors review research on (a) gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) families and the nature of discrimination against them; (b) school factors that hinder and facilitate equity for GLBT families; (c) instituting change through organizational consultation or large group-level strategies; and (d) instituting change through traditional consultation or small group and individual level strategies. Taking an ecological perspective, the school is viewed as a system trying to maintain the status quo in the face of increasing pressures to change. The need for systemic change when establishing antiharassment and GLBT-friendly environments in schools is highlighted. The consultant identifies the obstacles hindering change and empowers the system to reorganize itself and connect with resources that will help establish collaboration between straight and gay members of the school community. This role requires a unique combination of expertise in social processes, group dynamics, organizational change, and GLBT issues. Specific consultant strategies for small groups and individuals are identified. Resources for consultants and future research directions also are provided.     

The Role of Beliefs in the Use of Information Technology: implications for teacher education,or teaching the right thing at the right time

ABSTRACT

The decision of teachers whether to use or not to use computers depends on two basic categories of factors: factors at the school level and factors at the teacher level. At the school level the principal plays an important role in the support of innovations in school. The principal supplies financial, organizational and moral support and should give the innovation a long‐term perspective. However, teacher factors outweigh school‐level factors. Teachers have strong beliefs with respect to the content of their subject matter as well as to its pedagogy. The case studies described in this article show that those beliefs appear to change only very slowly. Teachers adopt new media if they can use them in accordance with their existing beliefs and practices. From the results of this research, implications are drawn with respect to the content and strategy of initial and in‐service teacher training in the field of information technology (IT).     

Traditional Assessment,Consultation, and Intervention Practices: Urban School Psychologists' Use,Importance, and Competence Ratings

This article examines the practices of school psychologists who work within an urban school district. Participants (N = 86) rated 20 specific practices on their current use, their importance, and their level of competence. Overall the school psychologists rated their involvement in traditional assessment activities as significantly more common than consultation/collaboration and prevention/intervention; however, they indicated consultation and prevention/intervention activities as significantly more valued than traditional assessment practices. Participants also noted prevention, intervention, and functional assessment as their top priorities for professional development. Thus, a practice gap was noted with regard to what this group of school psychologists' value and what they do. Results are discussed within the context of current educational reform initiatives.     

中小学教师职业嗓音负荷问题研究

课堂教学用嗓有不同于日常言语交流用嗓的特点。通过调查研究分析中小学教师职业嗓音负荷问题,提出从预防训练入手,采取高校与教育行政部门合作开展教师职前职后嗓音培训的方式,从技术对策和组织措施两个方面改善教师嗓音问题。     

Teacher Receptivity to Collaboration: Levels of Interest,Types of Concern,and School Characteristics as Variables Contributing to Successful Implementation

Mandates at the federal, state, and local level are calling for collaboration of classroom teachers and specialists to deliver services to students at risk and with special needs in mainstream settings. To facilitate implementation of collaboration successfully, it is necessary to identify and address variables associated with teacher receptivity toward collaboration, such as level of interest and concerns. Other variables, such as school and teacher characteristics, may also impact the implementation process. The purposes of this study were threefold. We wished to determine (a) whether regular educators and specialists are interested in collaborating with one another to achieve the inclusion of students who are low achieving or have cognitive disabilities into regular classes, instead of their placement in separate pull-out classes; (b) what kinds of concerns, needs, beliefs, and attitudes about participating in a collaborative project may be characteristic of teachers at various levels of interest; and (c) if level of interest and attitudes/concerns are related to teacher and school characteristics.     

Cooperative Learning and the Organization of Secondary Schools

This article describes the inter‐relationship between school organization and classroom instructional style. Two distinct models of school organization, the bureaucratic and open‐systems models, are characterized in terms of three major dimensions of school life; a. the behavior of administrators, teachers and students, b. work design and tasks, and c. space‐time allocations. It is shown that the bureaucratic model of school organization parallels, and sustains, the traditional whole‐class method of teaching in all of the three dimensions. An open‐systems model of staff organization at the school level is required to sustain an alternative form of classroom instruction such as cooperative learning. The approach presented here emphasizes the inter‐relatedness of all three dimensions of schooling at the organizational and classroom levels. It also claims that the implementation of genuine instructional change, that entails new patterns of interpersonal relations in the classroom, is contingent upon similar changes being made at the level of the school as an organization. Lack of attention to school organizational change may explain why efforts at changing instruction at the classroom level frequently fail to yield results.     

Teacher collaboration and professional development in the workplace: a study of Portuguese teachers

This article reports on findings from research aimed at investigating teacher collaboration and professional development in the workplace. It draws upon a broader study carried out in a school in Northern Portugal. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and written reflective accounts. In total, 80 teachers participated in phase 1, 11 key informants participated in phase 2 and 10 teachers participated in an intervention/training project (phase 3). Findings suggest that problems and limitations in relation to collaborative work are situated at the organisational level, such as time and working conditions. Lack of training in collaboration, and issues such as motivation and personal difficulties, also emerged from the data. Teachers tend to stress the importance of interpersonal relationships at school, but they also identified formal meetings when they described the contexts and opportunities to work collaboratively in the workplace, namely department meetings and projects driven by central government or school administration initiatives. Implications for teacher collaboration and professional development are discussed.     

Factors promoting and hindering data-based decision making in schools

Although data-based decision making can lead to improved student achievement, data are often not used effectively in schools. This paper therefore focuses on conditions for effective data use. We studied the extent to which school organizational characteristics, data characteristics, user characteristics, and collaboration influenced data use for (1) accountability, (2) school development, and (3) instruction. The results of our hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis from this large-scale quantitative study (N = 1073) show that, on average, teachers appear to score relatively high on data use for accountability and school development. Regarding instruction, however, several data sources are used only on a yearly basis. Among the factors investigated, school organizational characteristics and collaboration have the greatest influence on teachers’ data use in schools.     

Site-Based Transdisciplinary Educational Partnerships: Development,Implementation, and Outcomes of a Collaborative Professional Preparation Program

In this article, we describe the conceptual framework, development, implementation, and outcomes of an experimental professional preparation program. University students from preparation programs in general education, educational administration, school psychology, and special education formed transdisciplinary cohorts that were placed in school settings to complete a variety of activities designed to foster greater collaboration among disciplines in serving children and youth at risk. We describe what was learned throughout the project as well as its operational structure, outcomes, and future directions for transdisciplinary professional development.     

Learning From Others: Developing Preservice Teachers’ Workplace Skills

Being a teacher requires the ability to work with difficult behaviors—not just of students and parents but also of colleagues. Preservice teachers need the opportunity to develop and practice collaboration and communication skills in school settings. This essay draws on research from organizational psychology to offer a framework for understanding challenges to workplace collaboration in school settings and strategies for developing these skills in preservice teachers.     

School autonomy in the province of Buenos Aires,Argentina: evidence from two school districts

This article provides empirical evidence of policy adoption, outcomes and consequences of decentralization and school autonomy initiatives enacted in Argentina during the 1990s. The study examines what school autonomy meant in Argentina and how it was adopted at the provincial and school levels. Using qualitative data on school districts of the Greater Buenos Aires, the study analyzes the role that organizational and political factors play in the implementation of school autonomy reform. Given that previous studies showed that reform praxis varies across environments, this research looks comparatively at the outcomes of the reform process across organizational systems (i.e. provincial and former national) and diverse local sociopolitical environments.     

The relationship of organizational corruption with organizational culture, attitude towards work and work ethics: a search on Turkish high school teachers

The aim of this study is to analyse organizational corruption and to determine its level of relation to attitude towards work, work ethics and organizational culture. The data in study have been collected from 441 public high school teachers employed in the central districts of Ankara in the school year of 2008–2009. Data have been collected through ‘Scale for Organizational Corruption’, ‘Scale for Attitude towards Work’, ‘Scale for Work Ethics’ and ‘Scale for Organizational Culture’, all of which were developed by the researchers in this study. Correlation and regression analysis techniques have been used in analysing the data. It is concluded from the study that there is a significant, though at an average level, relation between organizational corruption, organizational culture and work ethics and that there is a negative significant relation, though at a low level, between organizational corruption and attitude towards work. It is also concluded that the variables for attitude towards work, work ethics and organizational culture explain 38% of the variation in organizational corruption.     

Research News

In secondary schools, subjects dominate teaching and also the organizational structures. Typically, subject department heads perform a middle-management role in secondary schools and often this role is taken-for-granted and unquestioned. In this article, we examine the impact on secondary school culture and the resulting changes to practice when the department middle-management structure and roles are open to revision. We investigate the experiences of two schools that are part of a longitudinal study on reculturing and restructuring in all secondary schools in one school district in Ontario, Canada. Our research indicates that structural change initiated by school level participants is a prerequisite to real change and that structural changes preceded cultural changes. However, it is the process of creating the new structures that is the key consideration as mandating an alternative might not be facilitative of cultural change. The primary research question guiding this article is: what impact does involvement in restructuring a middle-management organizational model have on the culture of a school and the change process experienced by staff members?