MY EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING THROUGH INTERACTING WITH THE RESPONSES OF EDUCATORS TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Section 3: Narrative portrayals of leadership factors that would lead the school to organisational learning
4.3. Memoranda and Letters
4.3.2. Letters to respondents
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will be improved, curriculum implementation will be improved and teaching and learning will be improved.
In improving the quality of educators I must establish norms of continuous adult learning to heighten competence and effectiveness I must, allow for experimentation and must remain open to new ideas.
I must identify and develop potential education leaders; encourage ongoing professional growth and self-fulfilment of educators; build a collaborative work culture and promote team spirit through developing improved attitudes towards education and develop within educators’ skills of self- assessment, goal- setting for improvement and coping skills to keep abreast of change and innovation.
In improving the quality of education I must improve the quality of interactions and relationships to improve team effectiveness, the professional work climate by creating clarity, integration and commitment to goals at all levels. I must also have the courage to eliminate dysfunctional structures and practices. To improve curriculum implementation I must clarify content knowledge in the curriculum in order to increase and up-date this content knowledge in subject areas. I need to provide models of what successful implementation looks like and coach educators for technical support and implementation problems. Finally in improving teaching and learning I must develop individual educator’s strengths in order to improve their technical skills in teaching, build competence and develop collaborative structures and supportive relationships.
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Response letter 1. Acknowledging the messages in the questionnaire, the negative statements and motivating educators towards a new commitment.
Dear educators
It takes courage for a person to externalise his/her frustrations to his/her boss. I take this opportunity to thank you for the courage that you took to let me see the kind of a leader I am, and the frustrations that it exerted on you as we worked. I am very grateful for your eagerness because that has opened an opportunity for me to learn. I am taking this time to apologise for the inconvenience my behaviour has caused the school and now I take this time again to wake up and amend what has been broken. I have learned that I have not been of service to you; I have learned that you no longer have trust in me. I have realised that I have created fear in some of you, hostility and insecurity in others. I am aware just how much damage has been caused to you and to the school.
I am quite certain that with your help we will succeed. I have seen the potential that you have and I am fully convinced that strategies and techniques that can take our school to a higher level you already have in mind. Come let us adjust our behaviours and communication so that we address the challenges that face us. Come let us acknowledge our widely different attitudes and take on a new responsibility and adopt a positive disposition towards our duties so that we are able to make our dream about the future of our school real. Together let us let go of all the practices of the past, let us stand together and hold each ones’ hands and rebuild our school.
The responses that you have given indicates to me that you are tired of living in the situation that we are at, you need to move into a changed vibrant situation that will always talk to your growth and development. Its long time that you have been dreaming dreams that have not been realised, that is evident in your utterances. You are the ones that have the power to determine what your future is and you are the same person that will make it real. Come let us use this opportunity to acquire our work experience and work on our skills now. We need to establish together a collaborative culture where all of us will participate in decision making and vision sharing. Together we will be able to develop a set of values that will assist us in developing this collaborative culture and together we will lead our school towards lifelong learning and improvement.
Regards Luphoko T.A.
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Response letter 2. Inviting educators to school improvement planning Dear educators
Thank you for your responses and your request for development of policies and programmes for development and improvement in the school. This needs planning. School improvement planning is not a duty that the principal can do alone seated in the office. School improvement planning is an inclusive process that aims at developing strategies that will help us to develop. Such planning will help us to manage change and to determine the direction that we will take for our development. This planning embraces all forms of planning that we will undertake. We need operational planning where we shall be looking at the scheduling of the programmes and events on a day to day basis; we need to do tactical planning of how we are going to distribute the resources to areas where they are needed so that the goals of the school can be achieved. We also need to do strategic planning where we will be planning for longer- term goals and objectives to determine the direction in which the school should move.
This activity can not be performed by a single person; it involves all role players in the school. I therefore kindly invite your participation in this exercise so that we can come up with a plan that will be suitable for all of us. As we plan we also have to realise that our duty is not a once off event, we need to review and evaluate our planning process at regular intervals, so that a new planning phase should be at a level higher than the preceding one. This shows that school improvement is a constantly upward spiral movement which makes ongoing organisational learning possible. On this note I therefore invite you to become involved in school improvement planning with me. Your ideas and your opinions are the most important contributions that we need now as building blocks for our plan. Your positive contributions and your participation indicate and direct a clear path towards growth and achievement for all of us.
When we have planned accurately and commit ourselves to implement our plan successfully, the quality of education in our school will improve; we will also be developed as experts in the areas we with which are operating. Continuous evaluation of our plans will make us continuous developers and we shall be learning every day. Come lets join hands and build our school, you have the power and the responsibility to reconstruct this school
Regards Luphoko T.A.
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