Q U E NTIAL E S N O C MENT E G A N A M
Consequential management
Consequential management © Haugaland VGS, Bergeland VGS, Krami Malmø og TAMU Authors Rasmus Kjær og Kristian Gert Sørensen Editorial team Bergeland VGS, Heidi Mjaaland og Kari Johanne Norheim. Haugaland VGS, Solveig Rossebø Kalstad og Eirin Nordahl. Krami Malmø, Mikael Andersson og Linda Jensen. Copenhagen 2018 Printet in Danmark 2018
Table of Contents Chapter 1: Management in consequential guidance environments........................................ 6 Formation-based management............................ 6 Attitude management........................................... 7 Between attitudes and goals................................. 8 What is important? ............................................... 8 How to execute this in practice?.......................... 10 Chapter 2: Clear organisation in practice.................. 13 Chapter 3: Experience-based quality development.. 19 Chapter 4: An out-reaching guidance culture........... 25 Chapter 5: A practice-oriented learning culture....... 30 Exercises for chapter 2................................................. 36 Doing away with bad marks................................ 36 Fragmented management group......................... 39 Exercises for chapter 3................................................. 41 Student retention................................................... 41 Taking a round at the workshop......................... 43 Exercises for chapter 4................................................. 46 The mobile phone.................................................. 46 Seize the learning situations................................ 48 Exercises for chapter 5................................................. 51 Evaluation of group guidance............................. 51 Emotional involvement........................................ 53 4
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Chapter 1 Management in consequential guidance environments This pamphlet is about management in consequential pedagogical environments. Management is often characterised as executing activities and creating results through others, meaning a process whereby an organised group is influenced to achieve a certain goal. What this influencing entails in practice depends on the manager’s leadership style, the organisation of and dynamics between the employees and, not least, each individual’s willingness to participate in realisation of the commonly established goals. This pamphlet focuses on management in practice in consequential guidance environments. It should be noted that this is not a manual. Rather, it contains examples of good practices that can help achieve the ambitions that function as the driving force for consequential guidance.
Formation-based management This means that the management of a consequential pedagogy environment must ensure that the framework and organisation of the pedagogical day-to-day activities is conducive to the participants’ opportunities to reflect on and take responsibility for their own actions within their community. In other words, it is the students’ independent reflection and self-formation that serves as the common frame of reference for assessing whether the management of the consequential guidance environment is functioning as desired. Are the guidance-related ef6
forts facilitating the self-formation of students and participants, who are independently and responsibly learning from and reflecting on the consequences of their actions?
Attitude management Without a common frame of reference, the risk may be that the participants become victims of a counsellor’s attitudes or subjective feelings in a given situation. The attitudes that make up consequential pedagogy are, in short, the following: • • • • • •
People are what they show themselves to be through their actions People learn through the consequences of their actions People have a responsibility for the connection between actions and consequences People always act in relation to others, and thus, they are formed in social contexts People learn through practical actions People should not exercise their freedom at the expense of the freedom of others
The aim of this attitude management is not to create a rigid pedagogical approach, but rather to clearly establish what view of human nature the management of the pedagogical environment is based on. This ensures that pedagogical actions are always grounded in something robust and, not least, that they revolve around future actions that participants can take in their lives. Thus, employees should avoid discussing pedagogic challenges without 7
providing reasoning and considering their doubts in relation to the fundamental attitudes. Pedagogical employees should also avoid talking about participants’ possible actions without themselves concluding what they can do to better help the participant. Finally, participants should always walk away from a meeting or conversation on pedagogic challenges having identified what he or she will do differently in the future in relation to other specific participants.
Between attitudes and goals Attitude-based management provides the possibility of well-considered analysis of the results made evident through data collection. After all, regardless of attitudes, the purpose of each pedagogical enterprise may vary. For some institutions, the goal is for the participants to become self-reliant through guidance. For others, the aim is for the participants to achieve a lasting association to a vocational field. In other places, the primary objective may be to help students complete a higher education. These are all goals that must be strived for, regardless of the fundamental pedagogical attitudes. In consequential pedagogy, it is important to maintain congruence between the measurable results and the attitude-based measures with a view to facilitating the participants’ self-formation. For example, one could imagine that many people could be forced into work or education through coercion and punishment, but that would not be conducive to the ambition of developing self-determination and responsibility for one’s own actions. Thus, there must be con-sistency between the external goals the management seeks 8
to achieve and the attitude-based processes that are implemented in order to achieve that goal.
What is important? The objective of any consequential guidance institution is to further each individual student and participant’s self-formation through social and vocational/academic learning. A student- and participant-oriented management approach could accordingly help managers of consequential peda-gogical environments identify what the most important tasks are, as well as how they ought to perform them in practice. In this pamphlet, we have highlighted some approaches on the basis of interviews and case collection that a management team could consider adopting if the aim is to implement a consequential guidance culture. In order to organise and manage such efforts, the management must work actively within four focus areas: 1. Clear organisation: A clear and attitude-based framework for management, employees and students. This ensures a common frame of reference for decisions and makes the guidance-related follow-ups with participants and students more logical and natural. This will also make the connection between ac-tions and consequences more apparent. 2. Experience-based quality development: Collecting information, data and actions that form the starting point for follow-ups, sparring, supervision and development. This is connected to the fact that 9
the atti-tudes only have value if they are tested out in relation to the results that they lead to in practice. 3. An out-reaching guidance culture: Managers and staff must be accessible and close to the students from day to day. This is connected to the necessity of individual follow-up, where both students and teachers understand the interest in contributing to the community. 4. A practice-oriented learning culture: Managers and staff work together to create a learning culture in which they consider together how their (pedagogical) attitudes work in practice and whether they are appropriate in relation to new knowledge, results data, daily challenges, etc., and in that way foster a culture where everyone is interested in learning and developing the overall organisation’s work.
How to execute this in practice? A well-functioning consequential guidance environment is dependent on an attitude-based approach to the four focus areas:
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Attitude management
A practice-oriented learning culture
An out-reaching guidance culture
Clear organisation
Management attentions points in consequential guidance environments
Experience-based quality development
The attitudes form a background framework that governs the pedagogical approach to each and every indi-vidual. Thus, the attitudes become a professional basis for the managers’ and employees’ work. This ensures uniform pedagogical practices in relation to each and every single student. The consequential pedagogical view of human 11
nature is based on the notion that it is actions that make people who they are. Therefore, it is also through concrete actions and experiences that the guidance environment must be developed. This is why the three focus areas of clear organisation, an out-reaching guidance culture and a practice-oriented learning culture all rely on experience-based quality development. Information, actions and data should be analysed with a view to developing, supporting and renew the three focus areas. The three focus areas will also influence one another. For example, one could imagine that through sparring and staff meetings, the employees end up determining that the students are not aware of the school’s expectations or their own rights. The conclusion could be either to provide a better intro programme or to entirely rethink aspects of the school’s organisation. At the same time, one could also consider whether the employees are generally making themselves sufficiently accessible to the students. Using the attitudes as the fundamental approach, managers should orient themselves after the four focus areas when organising and managing consequential guidance environments. Each focus area will be explored separately and in greater depth in the following chapter, providing insights into the specific challenges associated with consequential pedagogical management.
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Chapter 2 Clear organisation in practice In a consequential pedagogical institution, it is essential that the management develops and maintains a clear organisation of day-to-day affairs. Clear structures and expectations are a prerequisite for ensuring that an individual knows what he or she is supposed to be doing every day. At the same time, it is this clarity that makes it possible for an individual to predict the consequences of their own actions. This ensures that there is a clear matching of expectations and makes following up on the employees’ and students’ actions in a critical, recognising way entirely logical and natural. A school has prepared introduction folders for both the employees and students. The folders include information on what is expected of students and employees, and not least, what they can expect of one another. In that way, the folders form the basis for the shared obligation everyone has in relation to the common purpose. The folder also contains clear role and responsibility descriptions that elaborate on the ways in which each individual can live up to the common attitudes and norms. This example elucidates how the management can promote a clear structure and culture from the very start. The written and common reference point ensures that everyone is familiar with the norms, rules and conditions that they are expected to respect.
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The strength of a clear structure is that the institution gains a shared reference point. The challenge is that a written product may also contribute to making the culture rather resistant to change. Therefore, it is important that the management allows the written product to be a dynamic interpretation tool at staff meetings, where the practical challenges of living up to the expectations that have been put down in writing are made clear. Over the course of the students’ education, institutions should hold planned meetings with the students. This creates a formal space in which a teacher and student can discuss the student’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as agree on specific action plans. In order to support the students’ social and academic/vocational learning, several higher education colleges and institutions have prepared training record books or assessment forms which are used in the students’ transition meetings and status meetings. These ensure that both the teacher and student are able to assess the student’s education while also enabling them to jointly specify what social and academic areas the stu-dent should work on up to the next meeting. The training record books and assessment forms form the basis for recurring evaluation at set intervals, which show how the student is progressing. Regular appoint15
ments concerning this type of follow-up are essential, as they guarantee that the students are seen and heard. In consequential pedagogy, there is a special focus on the student’s social competences, as social and academic/ vocational learning are equally important. The objective is for the student to be able to be part of as well as contribute to their community. Hence, follow-ups not only revolve around academic/vocational progression, but are also based on the student’s own assessment of what is needed in a social sense for them to function better in the academic/vocational community. In order to support consequential guidance, it is crucial that the management and employees set up a clear learning framework which ensures natural follow-ups on the students’ actions. Several higher education colleges and institutions have decided to work with individual, academic/vocational and social learning objectives for the students. The teachers’ role is to set up, explain and follow up on the students’ learning objectives. Furthermore, the teachers use their colleagues as sounding boards in planned meetings such as staff meetings, team meetings and vocational teacher network get-togethers. The learning objectives ensure that the students know what the teacher is following up on, as well as what they need to work on at any given time. This places an obligation on the teacher to follow up on the student’s learning objectives, while it also creates better opportunities for the student to obtain guidance from the teacher. What 16
is crucial is that the learning objectives do not remain a strictly collective matter. They should serve as a basis for individual goal-setting and individual follow-up.
In practice, it is time-consuming for staff to create consistency between collective learning opportunities in relation to a specific task on the one hand and set up individual learning objectives on the other. If individual follow-ups do not refer to the shared learning framework, this increases the risk of misunderstandings, a lack of action plans and irrelevant follow-ups.
What all the above examples have in common is that all consequential pedagogical institutions must build a clear organisation in order to facilitate student learning. This requires the management to get involved in and support the staff in terms of the organisation in general, throughout the student’s education and in the students’ specific working tasks.
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Crucial questions • How can you introduce your staff and students to the expectations of the college/institution? • How can you support the students’ academic/ vocational and social learning process between their status meetings? • How can you set up learning objectives for the students, and how will you follow up on them individually? “We work on the premise of one school, one culture and one pedagogy. This ensures that our six faculties work on the basis of a common denominator so that every single student gets a new shot, as they can always act differently tomorrow.” Peter Kastholm, Managing Director, TAMU.
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Experience-based quality development Consequential guidance is governed by a number of fundamental attitudes to what it is to be human. People are what they show themselves to be through their actions. Accordingly, people determine the course of their own lives. However, this always occurs in interaction with external circumstances and conditions. In the same way, consequential guidance must be run and managed with respect for what turns out to work in practice. This clear attitude serves as a safeguard against the guidance provided not being arbitrarily governed by pedagogical and political trends in society. On the other hand, a systematic effort must be undertaken to utilise practical experiences to determine whether one’s pedagogical aims are actually having the desired effect. Instances where that is not the case would always serve as grounds for trying something else. A school has developed a database that makes it possible to monitor the progress of individual students as well as student groups through their education. The database allows the school to monitor the rate of completion, dropouts, resumptions, etc. For each department, this results in a vertical and horizontal overview that makes it possible to analyse the effect of various pedagogical measures. This forms a basis for discussions on the extent to which a change is needed, or if the current approach(es) are producing the desired effect in accordance with the fundamental pedagogical attitude(s). 20
This way of utilising data is naturally not unique to consequential guidance and educational institutions. For those who wish to combine data with management of a consequential guidance intervention, however, it is crucial to regard data as an analytical starting point. A high dropout rate over a single period does not necessarily indicate a pedagogical fiasco. It may instead be due to closer monitoring of students who exhibit actions typically associated with substance abuse, for instance. Through confrontation and clear demands to make different choices, more students thus decide to drop out of the education and instead enrol in a temporary rehab process. In that way, the findings revealed from data must always be analysed in relation to the original aim of a given measure.
Typically, employees find the concept of data to be shrouded in mystery. In consequential pedagogy, data is everything that is commonly accessible between us humans, and thus, the sheer volume of data can quickly become overwhelming. That is why the management must actively consider which types of data to focus on and who is responsible for interpreting it.
Data and experiences are not just information that is compiled on a computer, however. In the day-to-day affairs of the organisation, it is crucial that counsellors, teachers and managers make themselves accessible to the stu21
dents, thus making it clear how interactions are influenced by the pedagogical approach in practice. It is also in this regard that it becomes possible at an informal level to discuss and gain new perspectives on the significance of various new measures and structures introduced in the organisation. A school has decided that the management is responsible for organising school excursions, where the staff actively strive to participate in or be present at the students’ activities, both during and outside of class. On the excursions, the managers learn more about the students’ well-being, challenges outside of school and all the other factors in general that are crucial to a well-functioning educational environment. Just like a counsellor can seek out students in their social environments, it is also an important managerial competence to want and take the time to be part of the students’ environments over the course of a school day. This also applies to guidance institutions, where an environment with e.g. sofas and a shared kitchen creates better opportunities for a more informal interaction between managers, staff and participants. In consequential pedagogical institutions, the management approach is always based on the students’ learn-ing outcomes. Therefore, it may also be important to systematically organise the students’ access to lodge complaints and influence the organisation’s further development. A school with several departments spread across the whole country has established a direct channel of complaint to the 22
school’s management secretariat. This gives students an opportunity to directly highlight unfortunate consequences of the management’s predispositions. In what instances is the information being provided to students inadequate? When does the school prioritise rules over the students’ well-being and learning outcomes? The direct complaints channel can have a positive effect in that many students do not necessarily complain on behalf of others, but occasionally seek to give an impression of the general state of the school, not for their own sake, but for that of future students. This open approach to continuously measuring the indicators of what the guidance is aimed at provides a better basis for continuously adjusting the pedagogical measures so that they do not counteract the original intentions.
Employees will often find that the students’ interpretation of the state of affairs is divergent from their own. In that respect, the management’s job is to actively involve the employees in identifying solutions to the challenges expressed by the students. This creates space for differing interpretations of the same situations, while making everyone responsible for agreeing on measures that they must implement going forward.
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Crucial questions • • •
What data would you need to collect in order to measure the effect of your pedagogical approach? What actions could you take to engage with the students and get an impression of what the new measures mean to them? How would you ensure that the students have a say in the future development of the organisation?
“Data is not a new phenomenon, but it is necessary if we are to know what our effect is and create results. If we do not monitor the results of our actions, we are essentially fumbling in the dark and allowing our gut feeling to determine the right course of action. Data ensures that we have a common basis on which to work.” Solveig Rossebø Kalstad, Principal, Haugaland VGS.
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Chapter 4 An out-reaching guidance culture Consequential guidance is always based on actions as they appear in a given situation. Consequential pedagogical institutions should be characterised by having an out-reaching guidance culture, as this creates more and better opportunities for an individualised approach to each individual student. This requires managers and staff to be accessible and to work closely with the students so that they see their actions, while at the same time allowing the students to seek guidance. The management of a higher education institution decided to close down the staff room so that the managers, staff and students all ate and took their breaks in the same area. Additionally, the management decided to move the department head’s office among the students and staff so that it was the first thing they would see upon entering the institution each morning. The elimination of the physical distance between management, staff and students increases the accessibility of management and staff. This makes it quick and easy to engage in guidance in the students’ social environments. It also makes it possible to notice actions that are not directly tied to education, but which can still have an important effect on the actions of students or others during class. The management and staff thus gain a far better familiarity with the students, allowing their guidance to be tailored to the individual. 26
The elimination of the physical distance may present challenges for the employees and students, as they no longer have their own separate common areas. Thus, the employees are no longer able to discuss certain matters in the staff room, and the students, constantly surrounded by the staff, may in the worst case feel as though they are being monitored. It is therefore important to agree on how to be pedagogically and professionally present in the student’s social environments and, not least, how to seek out sparring with colleagues on pedagogical dilemmas.
In order to foster trust in this out-reaching guidance culture, it is important that the managers lead the way to eliminate the barriers that may exist for students in relation to seeking guidance. This requires a greater openness to students who wish to discuss something with a teacher/ counsellor which must be demonstrated very clearly. The management of several higher education institutions have introduced a principle that the manager’s door must always remain open. This signals that nothing is more important than the guidance of each student, also when such opportunities emerge spontaneously. 27
In order to support a consequential guidance culture, it is crucial that the management succeeds in seizing opportunities in which the employees or students seek guidance. The implementation of this principle ensures that the employees and students know that the management prioritises guidance and that asking for guidance is encouraged. The management can foster a guidance culture among employees and students. This requires that the management is attentive to which situations and activities employees should make themselves accessible in, while also considering how the employee should be present in such situations and activities. The management of a guidance institution is particularly attentive to the activities in which the participants are part of. Thus, they have prioritised spending time during staff meetings on prioritising and considering which activities to participate in, as well as how. Accordingly, no activities are held without having clarified in advance how, as a professional counsellor, one is expected to be part of it: As an equal participant in the football match, a participating counsellor in the cooking of a meal or perhaps purely as an observer? The management’s strategic use of the activities ensures that the employees can use the informal activities to further guidance between and among the employees and participants. This increases the opportunities for informal guidance as well as the involvement of the employees’ observations in other guidance contexts. 28
Everyone agrees on the importance of being present among students in order to build up trusting relationships, but in practice, it is very easy to decide to sit among our colleagues during the lunch break. Either that, or we feel it’s OK to sneak off to finish a little task while the students are peeling potatoes for the common meal anyway. Thus, it is important that the manager matches expectations in relation to what it means to practice an outreaching guidance culture.gskultur.
Crucial questions • • •
How can you eliminate the physical distance between managers, employees and students? How can you increase opportunities for employees and students to obtain guidance when they are looking for it? How can you use the employees’ presence in the activities to promote a guidance culture?
“Everyone deserves a second chance. That is why we must be able to seize the opportunity, be present and engage with the participants with a consequential pedagogical view of human nature so that they themselves can take the next step on the path to a new life.” Mikael Andersson, Section Head, Krami. 29
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Chapter 5 A practice-oriented learning culture Consequential pedagogy is based on the view that people learn through the practical consequences of their actions. This also applies to professional teachers and counsellors. It is therefore crucial to create a structure and culture that makes it possible to combine competence development with concrete guidance practices. This can be achieved through the exchange of experiences, but also by combining external competence development with concrete guidance tasks. All the vocational teachers at a school are organised in circles, where every time they meet they have the opportunity to bring in an external educator, consultant or representative from the private sector to offer input on specific challenges. On the basis of these meetings, the vocational teachers set goals for which competences they should focus on developing further going forward, and how they will change their approach in relation to vocational guidance in practice. This ensures that the teachers become co-owners of the quality development of the educational/vocational programmes, but also that there is a constant re-alignment between the specific pedagogical challenges, the realities of working life and the plethora of external competence development courses offered in the VET market. 31
In the same way that it is important to build consistency between competence development and practical pedagogical challenges, it is also important for employees to always have the opportunity to learn from one another in situations where they have had genuine doubts about their guidance approach. At a guidance institution, the employees participate in a mandatory staff meeting every day where they are obliged to share any doubts they have and discuss them with the rest of the group. The crucial part is for each employee to leave the meeting with an idea of how he or she should follow up on their particular situa-tion and how to handle similar situations in the future. Turning staff meetings into something so action- and situation-oriented counters the risk of such meetings drowning in abstracted discussions about structure. Simply put, it ensures that the discussions revolve around how the employees interact with the students and that the staff meetings support professional learning that ultimately benefits the students.
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It is important to create a space in which teachers and counsellors can discuss specific doubts they have. The challenge therein lies in it not being at the expense of long-term planning and a structured, strategic development of the institution. Therefore, it is important that the management establishes a framework for where and how to discuss which topics.
Even though there may be great gains to be made by bringing practice-related challenges into staff meetings, it is not always the case that each individual has a specific idea of how his or her actions are perceived in the situation. Therefore, it is important that there is room for either the manager - as a supervisor - or the colleague - as a sounding board - to participate in those guidance situations so that they can subsequently share their interpretation of the situation. In connection with a long-term competence development course, the school’s staff have collectively agreed to work with a specific task where they must try something new in relation to guidance. The manager’s role is to be present at the different employees’ guidance situations with a view to subsequently providing a sec-ond perspective on how the situation went. What did the student do and say when you did and said soand-so? An associated procedure has been developed for how to 33
conduct this supervision so that there are standard guidelines in place before the process is initiated. This ensures that the manager supervises in direct relation to the employee’s pedagogical actions. The supervision becomes action-oriented and ensures that - in accordance with the view of human nature in con-sequential pedagogy - that the individual is not left to only rely on their own personal perception of the situation. This gives the employee the opportunity to see themselves from an external point of view, turning it into an element in the formative process that one is always in a professional counsellor role.
The precondition for a successful supervision process is that a clear agreement has been made regarding why and how it should be carried out and, not least, how it should be followed up on. If this is not the case, the employee will most often perceive the supervision or sparring as a form of monitoring, which impairs their learning as well as that of their students. Therefore, it is important that the employee is involved in the process of formulating what he or she would like to discuss and that a framework is agreed regarding how the manager’s feedback should be communicated.
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Crucial questions • • •
How will you ensure that competence development is directly linked to the handling of pedagogical tasks for counsellors and teachers? What will you do to ensure that employees will receive feedback and sparring on their current pedagogical challenges through meetings? What role do managers have in relation to supporting professional counsellors and teachers in carrying out their core pedagogical function?
“We only become more knowledgeable when we talk together about our practice. It’s so easy to agree on an overall plan, but that only results in pseudo-learning. A well-functioning learning culture demands that we work together to create a learning environment where we can speak openly and honestly about our challenges.” Eiliv Fougner Jassen, Principal, Bergeland VGS.
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Exercises for chapter 2 Doing away with bad marks A higher education institution has abolished grades in orderliness and behaviour as well as bad marks. In the past, the teacher would issue the student a disciplinary note if he or she had forgotten their equipment, arrived late for class or failed to comply with the rules. The problem with bad marks is that it is up to the individual teacher to issue them, and hence, the students most often consider them a form of punishment. Instead of using bad marks and grades in orderliness and behaviour, the teachers hold guidance meetings with the students on their challenges, which strengthens the relationship and respect between the student and teacher. When the management changes a school’s organisation, however, it may at times result in frustration among the employees: Teacher: “There was no way to get Per to do his school work today. After I told the class to start writing, Per just kept on talking loudly and disturbing the rest of the class. I asked him to be quiet, but it didn’t help. Nothing works. We don’t have the option to give them grades on their behaviour.” Department head: “It’s indeed a bit of a problem that Per’s being disruptive. What did you do when Per continued disrupting the class?” Teacher: “I just told him in an angry tone that ‘You better quiet down and start on your assignment!’” Department head: “Did you yell it out to the entire class?” 37
Teacher: “Well, yes. That wasn’t the cleverest thing to do, but I was just so irritated.” Department head: “I understand why that would irritate you, but we have to try to remain professional and deal with things One-on-one. What would you have done if you could get a second chance?” Teacher: “I’d probably ask Per to come out into the hallway with me for a one-to-one talk, but I doubt he would have agreed.” Department head: “If Per had followed you into the hallway, what would you have said to him?” Teacher: “I would have talked to him about how he was disturbing the rest of the class.” Department head: “What questions could you have asked to make him reflect on his actions?” Teacher: “In the past, I would’ve just issued him a disciplinary note, but that’s off the table now. I just think it’s difficult now that we can’t issue bad marks.” Department head: “Could you maybe have asked him what he wanted to achieve by talking loudly?” Teacher: “He obviously just wanted attention and to have some fun instead of doing something. Anyway, I’ve had similar talks with him several times before. We just talk, but there’s no change in his behaviour.” Department head: “Have you discussed the issue within the team?” Teacher: “Well, no, not really. I just don’t think it’s something the team needs to deal with.” Department head: “I think it would be good to take up issues like that in the team. It’s likely that there are other teachers who face the same challenges. It’s important that 38
you agree on how to deal with disruptive students. For example, you could use the want-can-must triangle and make a strategy for how to interact with the students. Per is in a learning process in relation to the social competences, and it is accordingly important that all the teachers take a uniform approach. If you’re unable to make progress on the issue in the team, we’ll put a department head on it and keep working on it.” Teacher: “I’ve actually been told by several of the other teachers that they also face challenges with Per, so I think I’ll bring it up at the next team meeting.”
Reflection questions • • • •
How should the manager deal with the employee’s irritation in relation to being denied the option of giving bad marks? How can the manager help ensure that the employees interact with the students with the same attitude? How can the school enforce norms, rules and conditions in relation to the students without being able to use bad marks? How should the manager support the teacher before, during and after the team meeting?
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Fragmented management group Over the past year, a school has had a near-complete turnover of the management group. Several of the new department heads have no experience with consequential pedagogy, which forms the basis of the school’s pedagogical approach. During the job interview, consequential pedagogy was introduced as the school’s pedagogical foundation, and it was made clear that all department heads are supposed to carry out their duties in accordance with that approach. After several years of putting it into practice, the school’s employees have built up a nuanced and shared understanding of consequential pedagogy. The school’s employees expect that the new department head will also supervise the pedagogical work within the department, resolve conflicts and guide the employees in instilling change in the students’ behaviour.
Reflection questions • How should new department heads be introduced to consequential pedagogy so that they are able to support this pedagogical approach within the department? • How can the management group and the school’s employees support the new department head in leading on the basis of consequential pedagogical attitudes? • How should the guidance environment be organised so that a shared understanding and common practice is achieved across all the departments?
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Exercises for chapter 3 Student retention The management of an education institution concludes on the basis of statistics from the student database that the institution is struggling to retain students that enrol in the programme. Therefore, the management calls a management meeting with a view to discussing as a group which initiatives to implement and how to evaluate them. Head of education: “We can conclude from the student database that we have a problem with students dropping out. We need to do something about that; we are letting these students down. In the past, we’ve had mentorship schemes to address this issue, but what was your impression of their effect?” Department head 1: “My impression was that the mentor-students struggled to take responsibility for the new students.” Head of education: “That’s an impression, of course, but what was happening in a practical sense?” Department head 1: “I had a number of meetings with new students who dropped out of the programme. They told me that they weren’t being helped very much and that they also didn’t know the norms and rules that they had to follow at the school.” Head of education: “I think you’re right that we need to be better at training the mentor-students. Does anyone else have any suggestions?” Department head 2: “In the past, I had positive results by 42
making individual agreements, such as allowing a student to show up for class late.” Department head 3: “I also think that there’s a need for us to look at how we welcome students out in the workshops. Perhaps we could get someone to conduct a few qualitative interviews with the students?” Head of education: “These are all some relevant initiatives that we should implement, but it’s important that we set up a work group for each suggestion so that we agree on what each initiative entails, why it’s being implemented and how to evaluate it. It’s important to ensure that oth-ers can also learn from these initiatives.” Department head 1: “I know that my team is very occupied with how we welcome new students, so I’d like to lead the work group on welcoming students.”
Reflection questions • • •
How should the management ensure that the discussion becomes about concrete actions rather than feelings and guesswork? How should the management launch, implement and evaluate the pedagogical initiatives? How can the management ensure that the department heads take ownership of their tasks?
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Taking a round at the workshop A department head is taking a round at the education site. As he steps into the metalworking shop, he can see that the new teacher is instructing a student on welding. The teacher looks uncertainly and with a hint of confusion at the department head as he continues to instruct the student. The department head walks around the workshop until he ends up by a student drilling holes in small metal plates. Department head: “So, what are you working on?” Student: “I’m drilling holes.” Department head: “I can see that, but what for?” Student: “I don’t know, actually. It’s probably something for Siemens.” Department head: “Siemens?” Student: “Yup. We have a big order from them that we need to complete by the end of the week. But I don’t really know what these metal pieces are going to be used for.” Department head: “Do you know what you’re supposed to learn from this assignment?” Student: “No. I only know I have to make 100 error-free ones within two hours.” Department head: “I see. Carry on then!”
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Refleksionsspørgsmål • How can the department head ensure that the teacher doesn’t feel as though he is being monitored? • How can the department head use his/her experiences with the student to support the teacher? • How can the department head and teacher make a plan for future workshop visits?
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Exercises for chapter 4 The mobile phone Two school students walk out of their maths class into the open common area, where teachers and students take their breaks together. The students have a short break before their next class. They talk about the class they were just at, where their maths teacher took one of the two students’ mobile phone. They walk right by the department head’s office, which is strategically located on the perimeter of the common area. The door is open, so they walk in. Department head: “Hi there. What brings you by my office?” Student 1: We - well, I’ve come to see you because my maths teacher just took my phone from me during class. Are our teachers even allowed to confiscate our phones?” Department head: “As a general school policy, you’re not supposed to have your phone out in class, as it distracts you and your fellow students.” Student 2: “It wasn’t distracting anyone at all. He was just using it as a calculator because he’d forgotten his real calculator at home.” Department head: “Oh, I see. That was a good idea. Can you tell me what you believe happened?” Student 1: “We had to solve some maths problems, and I’d forgotten my calculator. So I just used the calculator app on my phone instead.” Department head: “On the surface, I can’t see anything wrong with that. Did you explain why you were using 47
your phone to the teacher?” Student 1: “Yes, and he said it was perfectly fine.” Department head: “Well, why did he confiscate it then?” Student 1: “Because it suddenly began to ring. I’d forgotten to put it on silent mode, but it only rang a single time.” Student 2: “Yeah, and it wasn’t even that loud.” Department head: “I can understand why you’re puzzled about what happened. In any case, I can see that your next class is starting now. How about we meet later in the day so that I’ll have time to catch up with your teacher and hear his take on what happened?” Student 1: “Sure, but when do I get my phone back?” Department head: “I just need to find out what happened first, then we’ll take it from there. We’ll speak again later today.”
Reflection questions • How should the department head follow up on the situation? • How can you create opportunities for students to ask the employees for help/advice? • How can you ensure that the physical layout of your institution increases opportunities for guidance?
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Seize the learning situations A guidance body’s employee job description explicitly states that employees must work to keep participants in a learning process. Everyone is accordingly obliged to seize the opportunities that can facilitate and increase a participant’s learning. However, this expectation is not always met in practice. One afternoon, the employees and participants gather for a planned activity with cooking and a shared meal. The activity ends with a guidance session on how the participants are getting on with their traineeships. Three out of the team’s five employees plan the cooking, shopping, recipes, etc. They engage in spontaneous guidance talks over the course of the entire afternoon and get actively involved in the cooking of the meal. A fourth employee only participates in the meal, as he has a lot of managerial paperwork to get through. The fifth employee participates in the cooking, but then leaves with a participant for an individual guidance session which lasts over an hour. A staff meeting is held the next day, where one of the employees talks about all the conversations she had the day before, while another chooses not to share anything at all.
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Reflection questions • How can the management communicate that engaging with students/participants is important? And what should the management do if this expectation is not met? • How can you maintain focus on the purpose of out-reaching efforts in relation to more informal settings/activities? • How do you create an effective meeting culture so that all employees have the necessary knowledge to work professionally with the participants?
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Exercises for chapter 5 Evaluation of group guidance At a guidance institution, a group guidance session is about to start, but only three participants have shown up, as the rest have called to say they won’t be coming. Therefore, the counsellors decide just prior to the group guidance session to try an approach that is a little less structured than initially planned. The task of the day is for each participant to discuss their goals and find strategies to overcome their own obstacles. This theme was selected because it is a relevant issue for all the participants, even though their circumstances are very different. After the session, the two counsellors discuss how it went: Counsellor 1: “I think it went rather well today. It was very clear what the participants had to do, and they understood the purpose behind it.” Counsellor 2: “I completely agree. They were also good at sharing their experiences.” Counsellor 1: “You know, you’re good at identifying similarities between the different participants. Even though Sandra and Anne described their social problems in extremely different ways, you summarised it and created a common thread in the discussion. And it turned out that they had similar concerns about entering the labour market.” Counsellor 2: “I also thought it was good how you avoided dwelling too much on their past, but instead got them to come up with some possible actions for how what they can do to conquer their fear of entering the labour mar52
ket. I think what works is that we’re constantly mindful of ask-ing what they can do about it and how.” Counsellor 1: “You can tell that they think we’re asking them tough questions, but I think it’s good that we’re comfortable with silence, since it gives them time to reflect.” Counsellor 2: “I wonder if we were a bit too open when we discussed Jenny’s trouble making appointments?” Counsellor 1: “I don’t think so. After all, everyone can see that she’s tardy. She also mentioned herself that it’s her biggest challenge.” Counsellor 2: “True. And she did also get a clear answer from the others. Sandra said that she’d been that way too once. She was also good at explaining how the only began to change when she herself realised that everyone else saw her as someone who couldn’t be counted on. She also gave Jenny some tips such as sticking to the schedule you’ve made and adding time slots to your calendar.”
Reflection questions • • •
How can the employees structure the sparring dialogue so that feedback becomes concise, useable and specific? What should sparring between employees result in? How can counsellors bring guidance-related issues up with the management?
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Emotional involvement An experienced vocational teacher at a college has repeatedly noticed a student having trouble staying on track with her studies because she has to take care of her parents, who have a drinking problem. As an experienced vocational teacher, she feels that she ought to be able to handle the situation, but she also becomes increasingly emotionally involved with the student. The school also has a mantra that teachers should not allow their emotions to govern their professional work. Over the course of several weeks, the teacher feels that she is failing at her job because the student continues to prioritise helping her parents at the expense of her studies. One day, the teacher finally decides that enough is enough. She meets with her line manager in spite of the fact that she is ashamed that she was not able to solve the issue herself. The manager is also very uncertain about how she ought to handle the situation. The employee is not emotionally capable of handling the situation on her own, but the manager also does not want to revoke responsibilities from the vocational teacher, who already feels her professional pride has been damaged by opening up about her doubts. The manager ends up taking on the issue herself, and the employee returns to the team.
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Reflection questions • • •
How can the manager ensure that the employee comes out of the situation stronger so that in the future, she feels she has courses of action available to her vis-à-vis students in similar situations? How can the manager prevent the employee from avoiding seeking out her advice in the future out of fear of giving the impression that she is not capable enough to handle things on her own? How can the manager use the situation to encourage other employees to share their doubts and uncertainties in relation to pedagogical practice?
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This pamphlet Consequential mangement is a supplement to the book Consequential Guidance and provides an indication of how opportunities for consequential guidance can be promoted through managerial and organizational initiatives. The pamphlet has been created through a strategic collaboration between four different education and guidance institutions from Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It provides managers in educational environments with a practical perspective on how consequential pedagogical attitudes can be translated into a concrete and useful management practice. This pamphlet is the result of close cooperation between Bergeland VGS, Haugaland VGS, Krami Malmรถ and TAMU.
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