Big Mountain High School (BMHS) has an issue with the school’s decision-making culture, as was demonstrated by the Language Art’s department struggle to change the curriculum in a way that would allow the students to get a well-rounded education. Fullan’s theory explains why the proposal of having a core program for Language Arts instead of elective subjects faced resistance from the teaching staff, as they feared that they would lose their autonomy — this is because the stage of change implementation or phase 2 requires two years or more to be accepted and than it moves to the “institutionalization” phase. Most teachers at BMHS have become accustomed to the existing system, and they want to continue being in charge of their curriculums.
Apart from this, the school’s culture separates the decision-making responsibility at the school, department, and teacher levels, not allowing the staff to have an input in the general decision-making practices. Based on the four frames developed by Bolman and Deal, the structural perspective implies a need to set measurable goals and strategies with clearly outlined tasks to successfully manage a change initiative (Scouller & Chapman, 2020). It appears that there is a confusion regarding the school’s priorities in terms of student education and staff responsibilities, and the structural frame helps address this issue but allowing a clear structure to the decision-making activities. Other reasons for the problems that BMHS encounters may include that principle’s practice of making decisions without discussing them with the staff and being unapproachable, which is a top-down approach to leadership. Overall, the main issue at this school is that the teachers of the Language Arts department are accustomed to making all the decisions regarding their courses themselves.
Reference
Scouller, J. & Chapman, A. (2020). Four-frame model – Bolman and Deal. Web.