Faculty Development: Critical steps prior to any professional development. Making sure all of the pieces of the puzzle are in place.

By Don Sternberg, Ed.D.

As a principal, you cannot be everywhere at one time. This may seem as the antithesis of a job description of a principal, as our presence throughout our school and into each crevice requiring some degree of leadership is important. Trying to be everywhere for everything and for everyone will only result in you being less effective in many places as opposed to being highly efficient in the places that you really need to be. The only way a principal can have an effective school, one that satisfies the needs of its students, teachers, parents, and community, is to establish a cadre of educators that see their role not only as classroom centric, but also being beyond the threshold of their own classroom. Each teacher must view themselves as an important and crucial puzzle piece within the context of the entire school picture and your role is to develop that effective faculty montage.

Prior to having any successful professional development (PD), you must initially establish the practice of faculty development. Faculty development is creating and truly empowering a cohort of educators who understand their importance within the context of the entire school picture. A principal’s initial assessment must be; how does each faculty member view themselves in terms of the entire school picture? Do they individually see themselves as important puzzle pieces? Is it important for you to reflect and ask yourself, what have I done to establish the faculty’s presence, prominence, and credibility within the composite that is our school?

We Are All Puzzle Pieces
One must cultivate and grow teacher ownership of the processes of the school as an integral component of faculty development is associated with building instructional teams. You need to understand how each faculty member views their role in making their puzzle piece interface with their colleagues. If each teacher views him or herself as a piece of the puzzle that serves to create the big picture, with an understanding that no puzzle can be considered complete sans other pieces being effectively in place, you can start the faculty development process.

The most interesting and pivotal component of this process is that you, as principal, can influence the shape of each puzzle piece. Rather than accepting teacher leaders as they come to you, by seeking out teachers and cultivating their skills to fulfill needs within the school, you are actually shaping the puzzle pieces. And by extension, the next piece of the puzzle that comes along is reflective of the puzzle piece prior to it and where you see that piece fitting into the piece that comes after it. All of this sets into motion faculty members who can ‘fit’ (work) together to create a highly effective school. You cannot escape the concept (and should not attempt to do so), that there are some teachers that should be more empowered than other teachers. Deal with it and make it work for the school. Your ability to utilize the various puzzle pieces and bringing to fruition a well-defined school picture is important.

Isolation Is Your Enemy

The initial starting point is to determine who are the teacher leaders within your school? The best teacher leaders are the ones 'anointed' by colleagues and not the ones 'appointed' by you. Learning who these people are is important. The key is to have these staff members share their expertise within small, collaborative, informal groupings of colleagues addressing various issues throughout the school. This will effectively address your inability to be everywhere at one time.

How you arrange those puzzle pieces will go a long way to enhancing school wide success. For isolationism is your enemy. So too is having individual teachers creating their own puzzle piece. Privacy of practice and having teachers establishing their own place within the puzzle will not necessarily lead to an effective school-wide outcome. You must cultivate an atmosphere of trust – sort of an industrial-based Research and Development atmosphere – where people work together and support each other.

Everyone’s Role in the Puzzle
Establishing a high degree of trust amongst the puzzle pieces and you is critically important. The establishment of trust allows puzzle pieces to fit and, ultimately, work together by establishing connections between theory, mandates, problem solving, effective pedagogy, and high yield outcomes. Everyone needs to understand their role in the puzzle and how their piece interlocks with the other pieces.

Trusting and respecting each other is not about agreeing with everyone or liking everyone. It is about being willing to listen, understand different points of view, and respecting those differing views as a constructive part of the process. One self-assessment of trust can be how many times have you been 'invited' into a discussion initiated by teachers? The relationship of puzzle pieces fitting together will be inconsistent if your classroom visits are fragmented and based upon inconsistent contact with faculty members. Is there a sense of interdependency? This sense of interdependency creates camaraderie and that is extremely powerful.

One way of knowing about your collaborative ability and the consistency of your presence is to run this test. If you walk into a classroom and the teacher stops what he or she is doing and asks, “…is everything O.K”; you have not been around enough.

One concept to keep in mind is that while meetings are important to any endeavor that represents faculty development it is more important what happens between formal professional meetings. Your efforts should be to first establish a theory-based pedagogy culture and then develop practices so that it fits (puzzle-wise) into the school. We have all consistently read the virtues of the principal being the instructional leader. However, part of that process is the managerial effort of putting the puzzle pieces together in an effective manner because what gets managed well gets done well.

All of the Puzzle Pieces Rely on Each Other
Can you create an ethos where teachers feel responsible for meeting the needs of the school? To a large degree, the satisfaction of the team members is reflected in their contributions to meeting the needs of not only their colleagues but the entire organization. This kind of attitude produces stability. You are creating an ethos where people rely on each other and where teachers are self-disciplined. You are seeking to create an ethos where teachers believe that Monday mornings aren’t bad.

For faculty development to come to a positive fruition, one must guard against the concept that reinforces a pervasive and deeply flawed belief that all teachers are essentially the same - interchangeable puzzle pieces rather than individuals. Keep communications flowing because surprises create resentment and issues of trust. Faculty independence can be counterproductive to the concept faculty development because the faculty development process seeks to create an ethos based upon cooperation.

As the picture of your school’s needs will change from year to year based upon  many factors, encouraging proactive thoughts and feelings about change is about looking for opportunities to address forthcoming changes. Being proactive is about being prepared and having people who understand their role within the picture.

The Final Puzzle Piece

If you have not thought about or attempted to help teachers reach their fullest potential by understanding how they fit into the picture puzzle that is your school then you are creating cookie-cutter puzzle pieces. Shared purpose, shared skills and a shared understanding create an outstanding school. Discussion is the basis for learning. People have to identify problems, share methods and strategies, and resolve problems through interactions. Having the right people in the right place with the right skills is what completes the picture. It is all about finishing the puzzle. Highly productive and empowered puzzle pieces created through faculty development make effective decisions and get things done. 

Don Sternberg, Ed.D. (sternbergd@wantaghschools.org) has been the principal of the Wantagh Elementary School for 32 years. He was the New York State Elementary School Principal of the Year (2009) as well as being recognized as a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. He is co-president of the Nassau County Elementary School Principals’ Association and is an adjunct Lecturer at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, teaching educational administration classes. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. He has written articles for national and state publications. His book, The Principal: Traversing the Hire-Wire with No Net Below: 79 Place..., is available through Amazon.com through School Leadership 2.0's Book  Store.  Just click on the title above.