Welcome to 2017. Are you ready to make a resolution to make 2017 a better year for professional learning than 2016? If we have learned anything from our last spin around the sun, it’s that teachers are the “learning whisperers” of education…if we will only listen.
A recent post from a veteran teacher about her upcoming retirement caused me to think deeply about the importance of listening to teachers’ voices to improve professional learning. Her comment:
“Well it’s finally here… the year of retirement. It seems like yesterday when I walked into the principal’s office as a first year teacher. Forty four years and hundreds of kids later…it’s time. I love what I do. I’ll miss my students and colleagues who are like family, but I won’t miss data collection, professional learning communities and professional development…”
Why did this teacher feel negativity toward professional development?
The teacher’s comment that she will not miss professional development may be due to lack of teacher agency. In Moving from Compliance to Agency: What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work, teacher agency is described as “the capacity of teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and contribute to the growth of their colleagues” (Calvert, 2016). I wondered if this teacher had opportunities to construct her own professional learning or was her experience one of compliance activities?
This educator’s experience parallels recent research about professional learning. Findings indicate a disconnect with the learning that teachers need and want and what they actually experience.
The purpose of professional learning is to improve professional practice and student outcomes. However, in the Teachers Know Best report commissioned by the Gates Foundation, teachers reported that their professional development was “not connected to their core work of helping students learn.” The study also found that teachers with more learning choices report much higher levels of satisfaction with professional development. Teachers who choose all or most of their professional learning are more than twice as satisfied with professional development as those with fewer options. Another finding was that for many teachers, professional development was viewed as a compliance activity. However, learning that directly supports teacher practice, such as planning and reflecting on instruction, are valued much more positively because it taps into their motivation to help students learn (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014).
How teacher agency can resolve feelings of disconnect
This dissonance between what teachers want and need … and what they get … could be resolved through teacher agency. So how can schools partner with educators to cultivate teacher agency? Here are ten strategies to develop teacher agency in schools.
- Create a culture of continuous learning.
- Recognize that teachers are agents of their professional growth and must drive their own learning.
- Ensure teachers are involved in the planning, delivery and assessment of professional learning.
- Listen to teachers’ voices and promote choices for professional learning.
- Allocate time during the school day for educators to learn collaboratively.
- Give educators the autonomy to implement learning communities focused on problems of practice of their choice.
- Involve teachers directly in data analysis and encourage them to pursue professional learning that aligns with instructional needs.
- Leverage educators’ relationships to build strong learning communities.
- Advocate for job-embedded choices for professional learning, i.e., collaborative lesson planning, lesson observation in colleagues’ classrooms, participation in the feedback process, developing formative assessments, analyzing student work, virtual professional learning networks, reflective logs/ journals, etc.
- Develop professional learning systems that provide educators with the structures and support needed to advance teacher agency.
Establishing learning connections can help
Social scientists have long known that information becomes knowledge through a shared social experience. Social connections motivate learners. The more socially connected educators feel, the more invested they are in their learning. In Good to Great, Jim Collins found that people “loved what they did because they loved who they did it with.” What if educators capitalized on these relationships for professional learning (Collins, 2001)?
Professional development for many educators has been like the Hotel California lyrics, “You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!” Do you know teachers who have “checked out” from professional development because it was irrelevant or ineffective yet choose to “never leave” because a better option was not available?
The thought provoking words of the teacher nearing retirement is a clarion call for change. When teachers are more connected with professional learning, they are more likely to change how they learn. My belief is that by partnering with teachers, 2017 will be a better year with more effective opportunities for professional learning.
For your 2017 New Year’s Resolution, which of the ten strategies for developing teacher agency will you adopt?
References
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2014). Teachers know best: Teachers’ views on professional development. https://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Gates-PDMarketResearch-Dec5.pdf.
Calvert, L. (2016). Moving from Compliance to Agency: What Teachers Need to Make Professional Learning Work. Available at https://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/pdf/teacheragencyfinal.pdf.
Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. New York. NY. Harper Collins.
