For those feeling overwhelmed by all the confusing changes in standards, frameworks, assessments, practices, beliefs, materials, and behaviors, Michael Fullan's General Session presentation offered encouragement and constructive ways to deal with "the change mess" of today's education.
Schools that manage change best, asserted Fullan, are those with a collaborative work culture. "And how do those schools get that way?" he asked. They develop a collaborative work culture as they become professional learning communities, go "wider" by connecting with the external environment, and go "deeper" by taking time to explore the fundamental values and purposes of education, said Fullan, dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Professional learning communities flourish in a culture of sharing, trust, and support, observed Fullan. One way to nurture that culture, he said, is through assessment literacy, which he defined as (1) the capacity to examine student data and make sense of it, (2) the ability to make changes in teaching and schools based on that data, and (3) a commitment to engaging in assessment discussions. When teachers and administrators share responsibility for assessment literacy, teacher isolation is reduced and collaborative work increases, he noted.
"Going wider"—connecting with the external environment—requires educators to embrace five areas, Fullan said, insisting that "you need the outside to get things done." He listed these connections as being critical for success:
- Parents and community. "Involve community agencies as well as volunteers and adult aides," he advised.
- Technology. "The more powerful technology becomes, the more indispensable good teachers are," he said.
- Corporate connections. "The way to get resources is to form partnerships. And the more a school has its act together, the more attractive it is to outside sponsors."
- Government. "Professional learning communities become critical consumers of government policy. They use data for improvement, not embarrassment."
- Professional development. "This helps establish a common, clear vision of what constitutes good teaching."
Going Deeper
To go "deeper" means to become a moral change agent, said Fullan, reminding his audience that every person is a change agent. "Being a moral change agent means hard thinking and soul searching about making a difference in young people's lives," he continued, adding that the capacity to improve education for children derives from motivation for reform, skills in working for reform, and resources for reform.
"But capacity building is not just the creation of and participation in new structures; above all it is the creation and development of new cultures," Fullan argued. "How do you reculture an entire school district? It's relationships. Everything I'm talking about is relationships," he said.
Encouraging his listeners to manage the complexity of change with courage and hope, Fullan concluded his presentation by quoting Czechoslovakian leader Vaclav Havel, who wrote in 1986: "Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. It is hope, above all, that gives us strength to live and to continually try new things, even in conditions that seem hopeless."