Teacher Agency end of year wrap-up

As we wrap up another year, the Auckland Central Community of Schools Teacher Agency website has just been updated with our end of year overview. After 2 years of leading the Teacher Agency initiative for the #ACCoS1 Kahui Ako, I am pleased to see the progress we have made building a shared language and shared understanding of this nebulous concept across a number of different schools. If you have not had a look at our interactive matrix or our teacher inquiry database I invite you to take a peek. Link to our site is below.

Many thanks to all the schools who have been part of this initiative and so willingly opened their minds to the work we have undertaken in this initiative.

* Remuera Intermediate School

* Remuera Primary School

* Victoria Avenue School

* Kohia Terrace School

* Meadowbank School

* Epsom Girls Grammar School

Teacher Agency Website

GOALS

Goals for 2019 were tailored to suit the strategic direction of each school, in collaboration with senior leadership teams. 

Remuera Intermediate School

Increase teacher agency via appraisal/inquiry work with PALs

Build collaborative practice as a cultural norm

Broaden collaborative network using Teacher Agency website database tool

Kohia Terrace School

To continue the culture of Teacher Agency so that it becomes ingrained in school culture so that every child benefits from teacher’s steady professional development

Meadowbank School

To clearly link team collaborative inquiries with the Teacher Agency Matrix

To use teacher agency to implement the Meadowbank Language of Learning thereby increasing learner agency

Remuera Primary School

Our Goal was to promote understanding of Teacher Agency as a concept with our PLG group and begin to interact with the Teacher Agency Matrix

Epsom Girls Grammar School

ISLs to gain an understanding of Teacher Agency and to use this to develop their Leadership Goals in relation to working with the members of their PLGs

GUIDING RESEARCH

Sinek: 

Start with the why

Sinek: 

Finding the words for your why

Hattie & Donohoo: 

Collective Teacher Efficacy

Goddard et. al: 

Collective teacher Efficacy

Learning Forward: 

Moving from compliance to Agency

Calvert: 

The power of Teacher Agency 

Riveros et. al. 

A situated account of Teacher Agency and Learning

Priestley et. al: 

Teacher Agency: What is it and why does it matter

Fowler: 

Leading inquiry at a teacher level

TKI: 

Collaborative Teaching

EVIDENCE OF IMPACT

Teacher Beliefs: 

No change in mean score or quartile scores over the course of the year. One outlier value in T4 introduces long tail.

Capacity to Act: 

Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)

Professional Learning: 

Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in tail, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)

Collaboration: 

Slight increase in mean values. 

Reflective Practice: 

Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)

Wellbeing and Resilience: 

Half-value increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in lower quartile from 4 to 5 (developing to proficiently agentic), 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic). Highest increasing element overall.

Additionally, qualitative data was collected (teacher voice) and excerpts from this are recorded below.

What did our Teachers have to say?

Teacher agency has shown me how I can keep improving and adapting the way I teacher with the support of other teachers.

Using the matrix has raised many questions and resulted in robust discussion at the school.  We are using it to discuss what teacher agency means at our school.

It's more in the front of my thinking now where as previously I've focused only on the student having agency

My understanding has developed more through using the matrix to self assess.

I gain a greater understanding each time I re-assess myself

I have enjoyed making connections with others to develop my professional practice. I have been able to use my agency to come up with goals that I want to work on.

At first I thought I was agentic but realised that this was not the case at all times at work.

I have appreciated being given the opportunity to contribute ideas/options/test out my theories/enhance my practice.

I have seen the children stop and think when I coach them rather than just listen to something I might be saying.

I have become increasingly aware of my own practice (using the matrix) and am trying to implement and embed strategies to increase my agency

I am now reflecting more on what I need to work on, and areas I usually avoid. I have a better understanding of what it means to be agentic.

At the start of this year, I had never even heard the words "teacher agency" before and had no idea about what it was or how to be an agentic teacher. I have come to understand that teacher agency is about being in charge of your own professional learning and actively seeking opportunities to reflect and make  positive changes to practice. Over the year I have also come to understand that being an agentic teacher can involve taking risks and stepping out of your comfort zone. I have learnt that I won't ever get to a place in my career where I will say to myself "I am consistently and highly agentic, there's nothing more I can do." Reflection and being agentic is an on-going learning process throughout our whole careers that we need to think about and be aware of. 

Haven't scored as highly this time as my understanding has grown and I realise that some things are a bit more complex than I first believed.

As my understanding of Teacher Agency has grown I believe I have been able to develop further as a practitioner.

My understanding of teacher agency has remained the same throughout the year.

Last year we regularly talked about agentic practice. This year although we've focused on inquiries we haven't actively discussed and built teacher agency. It would have been useful to keep up the mini sessions in staff meetings to raise awareness - especially for new staff (RI)

There are aspects that have changed over the year such as collaboration and wellbeing. This has been helped by a network of people who are also interested in the topics.

My understanding around the concept and elements of Teacher Agency have remained the same. The change has been the way that I have used the elements in my practice. I have really pushed the well being and collaboration element in my practice.

After considering the meaning of this concept, I have come to realise that this is of huge importance to me being a happy and successful practitioner. Being free to make decisions in the best interests of my students (and indeed myself) invigorates my classroom behaviour and attention to what is happening for the students. I am always overly reflective, but tend to struggle with self care and as I am generally quite critical of my own practice, struggle with seeking constructive criticism.

As an individual in charge of a subject area I have found my understanding of being agentic has been useful in terms of taking action to solve my own problems or working to find solutions that will help systems and processes within the cluster of schools. 

I see teacher agency becoming increasingly important to focus on as education is continually changing and this requires teachers who can adapt and be agentic.

I feel I am growing in my ability to identify areas for growth, seek advice and implement change with greater confidence than ever before. Seeking guidance and support from other teachers in regards to what is working for them in their practice has been incredibly supportive of my own growth and development

As the year has progressed my understanding of what makes a truly agentic teacher has evolved. As I have put some of the ideas from our PLG into practice as a teacher, a learner and as a leader of a team it has reminded me of what is effective about my teaching practice and my strengths (this has been validating) It has given me direction and sparked my interest in areas of my teaching where I could learn from others and progress professionally. Thank you!!

Alaric Nicholls, 

Across Schools Leader

Complex Times: More than just a leader with Tom Hoerr

Keynote 1: Tom Hoerr 

On August 20th, Learning Network NZ put on a conference for middle leaders entitled “Complex times: More than just a leader. Tom Hoerr was the first keynote speaker, and below is a summary of his presentation with 5 key take-away lessons. 

At the outset, Tom made it clear as to his “biases” as he called them. Tom believes that:

• Teachers make the school
• A leaders job is to facilitate and support everyone's growth in the school
• A leaders job is not to make teachers happy, but to make teachers grow
• Leaders are change agents

Tom then asked the audience: “What if staff meetings were voluntary”?

Who would attend? Why would they be there? Who wouldn't and why not? How can this type of thinking influence leadership within our schools?

Using French and Raven’s 5 forms of power framework as a basis, Tom added a 6th and very important source of power, relationship power (also referred to elsewhere as relational trust).

Social Power

People do our bidding in response to various forms of social power:|

• Reward power (diminishes over time)
• Coercive power (diminishes over time)
• Legitimate power (ie by position such as principal or DP)
• Referent power - (ie charisma)
• Expert power (ie expertise)
• Relationship power

Tom then systematically went through 5 key lessons: 

1. Focus on the positive (Rule of 5)

Based on the work of the Gottman Institute, there is evidence to suggest a “magic ratio” of positive to negative comments to build and maintain relationships. This ratio is 5 compliments to 1 criticism. That 1 criticism however also covers neutral comments and missed opportunities. For example, if a principal walks into a classroom where a teacher is leading an amazing lesson or trying something new or challenging and the principal fails to comment on it, that missed opportunity is effectively the same as a criticism. Maintaining a 5:1 ratio is essential for all positive relationships - whether they are personal or professional. 

2. Mistakes can be good

Making a mistake is not always a bad thing. In fact, some mistakes are to be encouraged! Imagine this for example: A moderately sized school where Senior Leadership observe every staff member teaching as part of their appraisal process, leaders already know they are going to see high quality teaching and learning when they walk into certain classrooms. Those top 20% of teachers however are the ones most at risk of stagnating. What if the senior leaders said to them in advance, “I want to come and see you make a mistake” - what message does that convey to those teachers? It has been said that if you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard enough. Isn't that what we tell our kids? Growth without mistakes is somewhat limited. There are three types of mistakes we can make as teaching professionals - which ones are you making?

Kinds of mistakes	What they mean	What they are
OLD mistakes	Repeat errors. Lack of learning	Dumb
NO mistakes	Error free - but no learning	Not smart
NEW mistakes	Trying new ideas	Brave and wise

3. Decision Making

Think of a decision that “inflamed” staff at your school - that caused friction. How much of the upset was about the decision itself, and how much was about HOW that decision was handled and communicated? Often leaders put a lot of thought into WHAT is decided, whereas in actual fact it is often more important to consider the HOW of decision making. Decisions can empower or reduce people and it is human nature that we implement best that which we helped to frame. Good decision-making is done with intent and transparency. If school leaders have decisions to make, what sort of decisions are they? Are they your decisions, my decisions or our decisions? Ensuring clarity around who decides can avoid unnecessary conflict amongst staff.

4. Drop your Tools

This lesson centered around the true story group of “smoke jumpers” (highly trained parachuting firefighters) in Mann Gulch, USA, in 1949. A large forest fire broke out, and a newly assembled team of professionals were flown in to control the blaze. They jumped from a higher altitude than usual to avoid turbulent winds and high levels of smoke. The radio was damaged in the drop, so they lost communications from the outset. Additional to this, the fire separated the men. Each firefighter was carrying their usual equipment set, weighing in at just over 20kg worth. They initially thought the fire was relatively easily controllable, but later found it was anything but. 

High winds meant that the fire was advancing at a rate of 200 meters per minute and the flame front was over 10m tall. It soon became obvious that these men were in a race for their lives. The leader made the call “drop tools and run for your lives!” Sadly, the first part of that message was lost, and all bar 2 attempted to outrun the fire still carrying all their equipment. “Drop tools” was not a command or strategy they were familiar with - it was not an instruction they had trained for. All except 2 of those smoke jumpers perished in the fire as they were unable to move quickly enough through the long slippery grass while still carrying 20kg worth of kit. 

What lessons can we take from this?
Firstly, these highly trained professionals relied on their tools to perform their jobs and indeed to save lives. There was no shared understanding of the problem and the response that it required. As it turned out, most of the crew didn't even recognise the problem until it was too late, and they paid the ultimate price. Additional to the lack of shared understanding, there was also unclear communication. The firefighters became separated by the blaze, and this separation, the damaged radio equipment, and the noise and pressure of the situation meant that the “drop tools” message was not clearly and adequately communicated. Lastly, the “drop your tools” order was counter-intuitive. “Which tools? Why? Where do I drop them.” 

So to bring this back to a teaching and leading context:

1. What are the implications for leaders of schools?

2. What are our tools? (as middle leaders)

3. What are their tools? (as teachers

5. Excellence vs Perfection

The final lesson was entitled “excellence or perfection” and it centered around a school cafeteria. At this school, the principal was having problems getting the students to stack their food trays after lunch. Approximately 95% of students did do the right thing and tidy up after themselves, however the remaining 5% left a mess and additional work for the cafeteria staff. As annoying as this, the question becomes, what lengths do you need to go to in order to achieve perfection - the full 100%? Would getting total compliance mean that school leaders had to be punitive to the detriment of the 95% who were already compliant? So this begs the question - when is excellent enough. When can we forgo the ideal of perfection and settle for excellent? This is a question that applies to teachers and educational leaders alike, the world over.

Want to read more by Tom Hoerr? Try these two texts:

Alaric Nicholls
Across Schools Leader
September 2019

Teacher Agency Initiative Update: From defining our why to using data

Throughout the first term, the teacher agency initiative worked on inducting two new schools into the initiative (Remuera Primary School and Epsom Girls Grammar School), co-constructing our 'why' statement, updating the teacher agency progression matrix that was developed last year, and finally using the matrix 2.0 to collect baseline data for 2019.

We began the year with revisiting our 'why' with a view to co-creating a 'why' statement to guide our work in this initiative - however finding the right wording proved to be more difficult than anticipated. The reason? Trying to put feelings into words is not always as simplistic as it sounds. Enter Simon Sinek, whom we have used several times previously to guide us.

Simon says (no pun intended) that the 'why' we do things exists in the limbic part of the brain that controls our feelings. This is the reason we say things like “it just doesn't feel right” when trying to wordsmith a statement of purpose. Simon Sinek and his golden circle gave us permission to look at the feelings and emotions that sit behind our teacher agency initiative. This video Finding the right words for your why gave us guidance with our ‘why’ statement.

A word cloud generated by the group of across school leaders, in school leaders and principals clearly showed the elements that led (or keep) us in education. Coming through strongly were emotions such as ‘joy’, ‘pride’, and ‘satisfaction.’ If these were the central drivers and motivators for us as educators, then these also needed to drive our why. Ie, how can we as educators get more of those feelings of pride, joy, happiness and overall satisfaction? The short answer is by continually developing our practice to maximise the possibilities for student success, which in turn elicits these very emotions. This is what we FEEL when our students succeed.

Next on the agenda was a review of the teacher agency progression matrix. This matrix was devised by those working in the teacher agency initiative early in 2018. Feedback suggested it was time to make minor refinements, and also add in a 6th element, wellbeing and resilience. Why ‘resilience’ in a matrix that provides a potential roadmap for teacher growth you ask? Other elements of the matrix require teachers to be open to challenge, to be highly reflective, and to invite constructive critique. This can only happen with any depth if teachers have some level of resilience. Work by the Resilience Institute suggests that wellbeing and resilience are intertwined - hence the new matrix element: Wellbeing and resilience.

With the new matrix v2.0 in hand, the in school leaders collected baseline data from the staff in their respective schools (Kohia Terrace, Meadowbank School, Remuera Primary, Remuera Intermediate, and Epsom Girls). The group recently met to analyse that baseline data with a view to informing our strategic directions for the year.

So what did our initial data tell us? Interestingly, wellbeing and resilience was the lowest scoring element across the initiative, with over ⅓ of teachers surveyed (n=123) scoring themselves in the lower half of the matrix. On the other hand, scores from the reflective practice matrix element looked very healthy in the combined schools data. This is encouraging, as reflective practice sits at the heart of the concept of spirals of inquiry. Its the individual school data however that really informs our actions. Based on this data each school in the initiative is now defining actions to effect an increase in one or more elements of the teacher agency progression matrix. Our next meeting will be in week 7, term 2.

Alaric Nicholls
Across Schools Leader

Teacher Agency Initiative