Cultural shifts in a PLC

Among many essential conditions necessary for schools to engage in the PLC journey is a culture that nurtures collaboration and supports risk-taking. I find many schools that have had leaders or staff members attend a PLC training, and upon their return to the school, they want to get PLCs established quickly. In their enthusiasm, they fail to attend to the culture of their school, the support structures in place, and creating a compelling reason for increased collaboration.

This brief post is targeted at the cultural shifts within a school system. To understand a school's culture, it is important to first understand what is meant by any organization's culture. The culture of a school is like an individual's personality. Our personalities are often grounded in 'family history', our genetic make-up and life experiences. Changes in personality typically result from traumatic events, chemical or physical changes in the brain, and/or hours of counseling/therapy.

Similarly, school cultures are often the result of the influences of the communities the school resides in, the collective personalities of the staff, and the history of their collective work. Changes in school culture often result from significant (perhaps traumatic?) events, structural changes in the school's organization, leadership changes (both formal and informal leaders), and/or hours, (truthfully years) of collective work on a shared problem of practice.

When choosing to engage in journey of establishing a Professional Learning Community, it is important to consider the current culture of the school. Some questions to consider might be:

1. How well do the staff currently collaborate?
2. What is the history of the school regarding sustaining a focus on new initiatives?
3. How supportive and engaged are school leaders?
4. What structures are in place that support or nurture collaboration?
5. What are the staff values and beliefs regarding shared responsibility for student learning?

I believe the best approach toward a significant change in practice, like creating PLCs, requires creating a shared understanding of why this change is necessary, building shared ownership of the process, and providing resources (time, money and professional development) to support the change process. More on these important essential conditions later.

One important first step is to engage a local planning and leadership team. Hopefully such a leadership team already exists locally (site council, School Improvement Leadership Team, Leadership Council, Faculty Senate, etc.). The team should be representative of the staff and administration, include key communicators, and have broad decision-making authority regarding the use of building-wide resources. This team is encouraged to consider the current school's culture, and explore the implications of moving toward sustained collaboration among staff. Processing the questions listed above, and exploring how to respond to the school's unique culture is a critical first step in the PLC journey.

Tracking the change in a school's culture is addressed on our website, and further resources can be found at: PLC Washington