Moving from a top-down culture to one of collaboration

“ When schools are under pressure to improve, they tend to abandon collaboration in favour of top down edicts. Collaboration seems like a luxury they can no longer afford. But rising expectations call for more collaboration, not less. Principals who need to raise achievement are driving with the brakes on unless they build cultural norms that support faculty working together.”

Source: October 2009 /Volume 67/Number 2

Developing School Leaders pg 67 – 72

Creating Collaborative Cultures,  Kohm and Nance

A collaborative culture requires what Garmston and Wellman (The Adaptive School) refer to, as the Four Group -Member capabilities.

Karen and I have used the capabilities to show what teachers and leaders need to be aware of in order to shift from a top down

 culture to one of collaboration, thereby taking the brakes off and accelerating a faculty’s capacity to improve instruction as Kohm and Nance state.

In top-down cultures (From)	Garmston and Wellman Group Member Capabilities	In collaborative cultures (To)
Teachers discourage challenges to the status quo.	·       To know one’s intentions and choose congruent behaviours. ·       Setting aside unproductive patterns of listening , responding and inquiring . ·       To know when to self assert and when to integrate . ·       To know and support the group’s purposes , topics, processes and development .	Teachers support one another's efforts to improve instruction.
Teachers depend on principals to solve problems, blame others for their difficulties, and complain about the consequences of decisions.		Teachers take responsibility for solving problems and accept the consequences of their decisions.
Ideas and pet projects belong to individual teachers; as a result, development is limited.		Teachers share ideas. As one person builds on another's ideas, a new synergy develops.
Ideas are limited to the “tried and true ”		Educators evaluate new ideas in light of shared goals that focus on student learning.

Brakes? What brakes!