Empirical Research Understanding the Teacher Professional Development Facilitators and Barriers to Serve a Diverse Student Population
By David Bell, Earl Thomas
Aug 14, 2008 - 9:00:27 AM
Introduction
In recent years there has been a
growing interest in serving the needs of diverse learners. Many school
districts in response to this growing interest have launched special in-service
programs to educate and train teachers on culturally sensitive teaching
approaches for serving diverse learners. Many of these professional development
programs have implemented one-shot workshops that attempt to transform the
school-environment and teacher practices. Although, such efforts have
consistently yielded little to no impact on transformation of the school
environment and teacher practices they continue to be the preferred teacher
professional development model. Nothing has been so frustrating and wasteful as
the thousand of conducted one-shot workshops that have led to no significant
change in teacher practices (Fullan, 1991). Consequently, on the Southside of
Chicago 10 Catholic elementary school principals formed the Council 10-A
consortium. The council was established to address and share ideas that would
add to the quality of Catholic school education in the 21st
century. The council identified
diversity as one major issue confronting the delivery of high quality catholic
education. The council reported that the one-shot teacher in-service workshops
were not enough to create long-term change in the school-environment and/or
teacher practices. Therefore, the Catholic
Schools 10-A Council enlisted the assistance of a partnership with the School of Education
at
SaintXavierUniversity to develop a diversity
project that would address systems and teacher change over a three-year period.
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the
teacher professional development facilitators and barriers effecting ten
private schools with respect to serving a diverse student population.
Diversity in Private
Institutions
Diversity
wasn't even on the radar of most private school communities until the 1990's. In 1996, the Board of Directors of
the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) approved guidelines
entitled "Principles of Good Practice for Equity and Justice in
Schools." The guidelines addressed the importance of understanding and
respecting the diversity of the school community and the need for establishing
a "bias-free environment by addressing issues of equity and justice"
(NAIS, 1996). Nationally, shifting demographics has challenged school districts
to prepare teachers, counselors, and administrators to serve a rapidly
expanding diverse student body (Klauke, 1989). Further embedded in this
challenge, is the understanding of how to better address the needs of the
diverse experiences children bring daily to the classroom (Klauke, 1989).
Therefore, the consistent shifts in racial and ethnic demographics have
profound implications for schools. Consequently, schools must ensure teachers
possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to understand and
teach an ethically and culturally diverse student population.
Nationally to address the concerns independent
schools have assigned a staff member to serve formally or informally as a
"diversity coordinator." In most schools, the role of diversity
coordinator is conceptualized as, at most, a half-time role (Hall &
Stevenson, 2007). Many diversity coordinators are not clear on how to proceed
with their new roles, and responsibilities (Hall
& Stevenson, 2007) This vagueness is also evident in the
lack
of professional preparation in culturally responsive pedagogy. Thus, many schools are unable to adequately
address their changing diverse student population (White-Clark, 2005).
Teacher Professional Development
A diversity professional development model
must ensure that all participants have a vested interest in the process and
outcomes (Fullan, 2000). In essence, participants should engage in activities
that build on their strengths but also identify areas needing improvement.
Often professional development experiences are not based on expressed need but
remediation and quick fix approaches (Fiszer, 2004). However, ongoing
professional development experiences that involve teachers in diagnosing their
learning needs,
designing and implementing the change effort, ultimately yield better outcomes
for students with diverse backgrounds (Futrell, Gomez, & Bedden, 2003).
Danielson and McGreal suggested that
the sharing of teacher expertise through dialoguing should be embedded in a
professional development model. Teachers
need to be provided with regular “opportunities to explore, question, and
debate in order to integrate new ideas into their repertoires and classroom
practices” (as cited in Fiszer, 2004, p.16).
Fiszer (2004) found that the lack of time for reflection and dialogue
could negatively impact on-going teacher professional development. Further
professional development efforts are more likely to produce a non-threatening
climate when reflective dialogue and feedback are offered in a non-judgmental
way.
The First Year Experience
In September 2005 we launched a three-year action
research project on diversity professional development with 10 Catholic
elementary schools on the Southside of Chicago. The purpose of the program was
to document the impact of professional development activities aimed at changing
the school environment and teacher practices towards diversity and
inclusiveness.
The 10-A Catholic school principals were primarily
concerned that within the past 10 years each school had witnessed a major shift
in student racial and ethnic characteristics. In addition they were concerned
that diversity teacher training efforts implemented in the past were
unsuccessful. The 250 teachers who made up the ten private schools had
previously participated in a one-day cultural diversity workshop. Principals
were concerned that after the one-day workshop experience, teachers did not
demonstrate observable changes in knowledge, teaching practices, or attitudes
related to issues of diversity. Also, principals felt that the training
approach did not account for the rich experiences and wealth of resources that
teachers brought to the training environment.
Taking the principals'
dissatisfaction into account, we designed an action research
"strengths-based" approach for client services, as described in the
social work literature. A
strengths-based approach to client services in social work assumes that all
people bring experiences and resources that should be respected and considered
in developing personal change plans (Saleebey, 2001). Also, after reviewing literature written by
Fullan (1991) on school-wide change, it became
obvious that at least three years would be needed to achieve the sustainable
change. Principals were hoping to see changes in the school environment, teaching
practices, and levels of school involvement in the community. Therefore, a three-year professional
development project documenting the impact of activities (interventions) on the
changing school environment
and teacher practices was developed.
The action research literature
suggest that in any educational change initiative teachers are more likely to
be naturally resistant to the change effort when they perceive their
participation as external to the diagnosis and planning of the change strategies (Mills, 2007).
Therefore, each building principal was asked to identify two teachers from
their school who would serve as teacher leaders for the diversity change
project. In this action research
program teacher leaders were trained to serve as diagnosticians, planners, and
motivators of other teachers to embrace the diversity professional development
experience. Later that fall a diversity awareness-training day was held for all
250 teachers representing the 10 participating schools. At this training event
the issue of diversity was explored concerning the school environment in which
teachers worked. Teachers completed a
survey documenting perceptions about their school's environment and culture. Teachers reported that their school had no
formal system or structure to address diversity issues. As a result of that
finding we recommended that schools design an action plan inclusive of
strategies for implementing a system or structure that would address
school-wide issues related to diversity. All ten schools agreed to accept our
recommendation. Each school created an action plan with strategies to develop a
diversity committee.
In early
spring of 2006 we conducted on-site technical assistance and monitoring visits
to each school. We found the schools implementing
a variety of action related approaches to create structures for diversity. For example, one school decided that the
diversity committee should not be an internal but an external school committee.
They felt that the majority of the committee members should represent the
parents of the enrolled children and community stakeholders. Another school
developed and implemented a committee that was inclusive of only teachers
working in the school. However, that school chose not to include parents or outside
community members.
We found
that because these were newly formed committees, participants were not always
clear about the direction of the committee's work. Many had not established
short or long-term goals. Another insight gained was that teachers and
administrators in general agreed about the importance of such a committee.
However, many had not begun to think of strategies that would ensure the
long-term survival of such committees. During our technical assistance and
monitoring visits, teacher leaders and principals were asked how they intended
to sustain the committees and integrate them into the ongoing practices of the
school. Many were not clear about how
they would institutionalize the diversity committee. We encouraged teachers and principals to
reflect on their diversity committee’s successful practices and create future
plans for full adoption of such a structure. Most importantly such committees must be
institutionalized within the current school’s system in order to ensure that
diversity is continuously addressed. The lack of such institutionalization of
committees can result in short-term results that yield little to no long-term
sustainable change in the school environment.
Understanding the Facilitators
In retrospect, to reduce teacher
resistance to change we found the following facilitators must be present: 1)
The experience must support teachers in the identification of the diversity
needs within their school. Because each school is unique with diverse issues
and concerns, assessing the school environment are critical so each teacher can
begin to understand the facilitators and barriers to supporting a diverse
student population; 2) The experience should be non-threatening and non
–judgmental. It is imperative that any diversity professional development
experience should value participants’ contribution to the initiative. The
participants have specific knowledge and skills that serve as valuable
resources to be built upon as they engage in intellectual conversations
regarding diversity transformation within their school community; 3) The experience must ensure
administrators buy-in and support the diversity change initiative. Without the buy-in of administrators the
diversity initiative will not move beyond surface change. In essence, transformation
of teacher personal perceptions and beliefs about diversity will not happen if
administrators do not understand or value their role in the change process; 4)
The experience must support teachers in redefining their world view of
diversity. Teachers need to engage in activities that allow them to challenge
personal beliefs and attitudes about diversity. Through this exploration there
should be a conscious effort to redefine diversity that will allow teachers to
go beyond race as the sole indicator of student diversity.
Understanding
the Barriers
However, teachers and administrators
cannot successfully embrace diversity until they arrive at an agreed upon
definition of diversity. We found that
teachers often misinterpreted cultural diversity as belonging to a specific
racial group. Investigation of the literature suggested that cultural diversity
encompasses an array of elements such as religion, social class, ethnicity,
gender, learning styles, etc (Tileston,
2004,). Identifying ourselves by race limits our
understanding of how collectively these descriptors guide our behaviors and
beliefs. In schools in which race is
predominantly homogenous it is critical that attention be paid to the
heterogeneous characteristics of the student body such as learning styles,
gender, etc which encompasses diversity. Therefore, changing teacher belief
systems and definitions regarding cultural diversity appeared to be a major
barrier.
We found the primary barrier to any
diversity professional development experience is teacher disposition regarding
diversity. That is teachers who
struggled with the complexities of race, power, gender, learning styles, and
social class etc found it difficult to understand how these issues impacted
student learning. Also, they experienced difficulty in understanding how their
dispositions toward diversity negatively or positively impacted their ability
to serve a diverse student population. These teachers often perceived that no
diversity issue existed at their school and exhibited oppositional dispositions
i.e. lack of attention, creating excuses and not meaningfully engaging in
professional development workshops, activities, and meetings.
In summary, the first year reflections of this three-year action research
study revealed there are specific teacher professional development facilitators
and barriers associated with preparing teachers to serve a diverse student
population. Teacher professional development experiences must support teachers
in the identification of the diversity needs within their school. It is
critical that the diversity experience be delivered in a non- threatening and
non- judgmental environment, so that teachers see their contributions as
valuable to the outcome of the professional development program. Also, barriers
such as teacher’s personal definitions, beliefs, and attitudes toward diversity
should be confronted early in the professional development program. Exploring these barriers early open up
opportunities for teacher understanding and dispositional change that leads to
the empowerment of teachers being able to positively and negatively impact
their ability to serve a diverse student population.
References
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teachers learn best: An ongoing professional development
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Fullan, M. (1991).
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College Press.
Fullan, M. (2000). The tree stories of education
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581-4.
Futrell, M.H., Gomez, J., &
Bedden, D. (2003).
Teaching the children of a new America: The challenge of
diversity.
Phi Delta Kappan,
84(5), 381-5.
Hall,
D.M. & Stevenson H.C. (2007). Double
jeopardy: Being African-American and
"Doing
Diversity" in independent schools.
Teachers College Record 109 (1), 1-23.
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