A Work Plan for Leading and Sustaining PLC’s
Sarah Potter
Continuous Improvement and high standards raise the bar for educators. It demands that educators are constantly learning and refining their knowledge, skills and attitudes. In order to meet the needs for Educators, professional learning communities have replaced more traditional professional development as an effective and sustainable means for improvement. A leader will need to ensure they are intentional about supporting professional learning communities to support educators in the learning. Leaders will need to be mindful to have both short term and long term goals to support an effective and sustainable PLC.
As Hargreaves (2003) describes “a strong PLC brings together the knowledge, skills and dispositions of teachers to promote shared learning and improvement” (p. 170). This writer agrees with Hargreave’s (2003) vision, which includes a PLC that shares in the learning as members work towards a common goal. In order to achieve this vision, an effective leader will embrace the suggestions of Michael Fullan (2001) and Peter Senge (1990) to create a shared vision, encourage a moral purpose, build relationships, and promote a collaborative school environment. These fundamental beliefs will be the underlying values and understandings for this leader to lead to an effective and sustainable PLC.
Shared Vision
In order to ensure all members of the PLC will participate most effectively, a leader will support the creation of a shared vision as a target for learning by the members of the PLC. The shared vision ensures all members have a common understanding (Senge, 2000). A leader will provide opportunity for the group to create a collective strategy that all members stand behind and understand. As a short term goal, a leader will guide the members of the PLC through facilitated discussions to provide opportunities for everyone to share their points of view and include their collective discussions as the backbone of the shared vision. A leader will realize the value of staying positive and supporting the vision, as they too are contributing members to the shared vision. Together, the PLC will build a sense of commitment as they work together towards a shared goal (Senge, 2000).
Once the vision is established, the shared vision will act as a compass to guide the work of the PLC (Senge, 2000). The shared understandings from the vision will be part of everyday conversations, and visible during the instructional day. As educators co-teach and co-plan, the actions in the school will reflect the outcomes of the shared vision. Members of the PLC will not only be able to articulate the vision, but use the vision as the backbone of their daily teaching practice. This shared understanding will support the sustainable action of the PLC and support the underlying purpose for action (Fullan, 2001).
Moral Purpose
As an educational leader, it will be important to evoke moral purpose in the members of the PLC by encouraging individuals and teams to action. Fullan (2001) suggests a leader should work to maintain and promote a strong moral purpose and empower others to do the same. The leader of the PLC will be supportive and encourage the ideas of the group. The leader will be a co-learner along with the other members of the group by being part of asking questions, brainstorming ideas, working together and innovative thinking. The moral purpose will be the internal drive for staff to act on continuous improvement as they work to meet the goals of the shared vision (Fullan, 2001). Each member of the PLC will feel an imperative to work collaboratively to ensure the shared vision is achieved. Just as Kohm and Nance (2009) suggest, members will take responsibility for their learning in a collaborative manner and feel empowered to continue to share the learning. As the learning unfolds, the moral purpose of each individual will fuel the learning towards the shared vision.
The moral purpose will also be accompanied by strategies for realizing the shared vision (Fullan, 2006). Members of the PLC will work to create specific strategies that relate to the shared vision, but also speak to them as required action to meet the vision goals. One example of a short term strategy for this leader will include asking educators to write their teaching philosophy. As a constant reminder of the shared vision, each member of the PLC will create a short statement to articulate how his or her teaching philosophy connects to the vision of the PLC. Teachers from the school will be asked to hang their statement in front of their classrooms as an exercise to not only remind them of their passion for teaching, but also to be mindful that the PLC’s shared vision.
It will be especially important in a leadership role to not only model, but support others with resources, and time, to ensure all members feel empowered to utilize strategies to act on their moral purpose over the long term. A leader will need to honour the work of the PLC as they walk through classrooms, and converse with educators. A leader will pose reflective questions to help support the purpose and vision of the PLC. As a leader creates the foundational structures including timetabling, collaborative periods during the day, allocating money for resources or providing release time for staff, the moral purpose will be fueled to move the shared vision forward. It is with purpose and passion that a team will flourish to meet the shared vision (Fullan, 2004).
Build Trusting Relationships
Relationships are key to the foundation of a PLC (Fullan, 2001). In order for members in a learning organization to embrace change, trusting relationships will be pivotal. Members of the team will need to feel they can take risks safely (Fullan, 2001). Members of the team will be encouraged to try new teaching strategies or use instructional tools with differentiated support based on their needs. Members will begin to feel more supported as they learn and work together (Robinson, 2008). As the relationships begin to be developed, the leader may need to spend extra time with individuals of the group to build relationships. As trust grows in the PLC, members of the PLC will utilize their colleagues to ask for help, and work together to support one another. A leader will strengthen relationships amongst the PLC by modeling conversations and facilitating discussions to strengthen trust (Hord & Hirsch, 2008). Everyone’s feelings will be respected and heard. The role of the leader will be to listen attentively, paraphrase and pose reflective questions so that everyone in the PLC feels their thoughts and feelings are honored, and that each member is contributing towards the shared vision. When relationships are built and encouraged, the PLC will support the sharing of information amongst the team and build their collective knowledge (Fullan, 2001).
According to Dufour & Dufour (2003), the culture of the PLC will be positively impacted if the group has an opportunity to build a shared knowledge collectively. A leader will be most influential if he/she participates as a co-learner with the other members of the group (Dufour, 2003). Together, the members of the professional learning community will learn and co-create their learning outcomes that are built on trusting relationships. Each of the members of the PLC will be viewed as equal contributing members of knowledge to the group. The group will work together as equal partners to learn, contribute and discuss what they each bring to the professional learning community. Trusting relationships will translate into an environment that supports collaboration and most importantly as Dufour (2003) suggests, professional dialogue.
Collaborative Environment
When collaboration is embraced, the members of the PLC will work collectively as a team. As a leader, the school environment will set the tone for co-learning and co-constructing outcomes. Educators will feel comfortable to co-teach with their peers, to share ideas and effective practice and most importantly to welcome other educators in to their classrooms. The leader will need to ensure the environment with which they work is designed so that members feel they can share their points of view, feel empowered to make a difference but also feel respect and trust to work together. In order for collaboration to take place, the leader will need to schedule time for staff members as well as create space for the collaboration to take place. According to Dufour (2003), a leader will be particularly mindful of modeling empowering behaviours by asking thought provoking questions, confront questions and celebrating successes in order to support a collaborative environment. A leader will also value building relationships by ensuring there is time, resources as well as creating a culture where members respect and trust each other (Dufour, 2003).
Once collaboration is established, members of the PLC will transform teaching behaviours to continued learning and improvement (Kohm & Nance, 2009). This collaborative environment will set the tone for the professional learning community in many ways. Examples of collaboration may include teacher moderation, moderated marking, team teaching, or co-planning but most importantly educators will work together towards the common vision over time. A leader who supports and models a culture that allows for risk taking, inquisitive reflection, and will be evident in a collaborative PLC environment. When all members of the PLC work together to interpret student work, or school data they collectively establish shared knowledge, and work collaboratively to achieve their purpose of the PLC (Dufour, 2003).
Conclusion
The education system today has embarked on the creation of PLC’s as the vehicle for collective learning and reflective change. PLC’s have replaced the conventional styles of PowerPoint professional development into a community of learners who differentiate their learning based on their collective needs to meet the goals they have established. When a PLC is truly sustainable and effective, it will have key characteristics that include a shared vision, moral purpose, and an environment of trusting relationships and collaboration. The leader of the PLC will be instrumental to ensure these qualities are supported. As Senge suggests, a leader will strive to create a learning environment where “collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together” (1990, p. 3). An effective leader must strive to lead and learn by their core beliefs that include a shared vision, empower a moral purpose, trusting relationships, and a culture of collaboration. These qualities will not only serve to be instrumental in an effective Professional Learning Community, but will serve to be foundational as a leader beyond the PLC, the school and the community.
References
Dufour, R., & Dufour, R. (2003). Building a Professional Learning Community. School Administrator, 60(5), 13. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Fullan, M. (2001). A Remarkable convergence. Leading in a culture of change (1-11). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Fullan, M. (2006). The Future of Educational Change: System thinkers in action. Journal of Educational Change. 7(3). pp. 113-122. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Beyond standardization: professional learning communities or performance-training sects? Teaching in the knowledge society: education in the age of insecurity (pp. 160-188). New York: Teachers College Press.
Hord, S. M, & Hirsch, S. A. (2009). The Principal’s Role in Supporting Learning Communities. Educational Leadership, 66(5), 22-23. Retrieved from EBSCO host.
Kohm, B., Nance, B. (2009). Creating Collaborative Cultures. Educational Leadership, 67(2), 67-72. Retrieved from EBSCO host.
Robinson, V.M.J., Lloyd, C.A. & Rowe, K.J. (2008). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: an analysis of the differential effects of leadership types Educational Administration Quarterly 44, pp. 635-674. Retrieved from: http://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013161X08321509
Senge, P.M. (1990). The Fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York NY: Doubleday.
