Organizational change is often challenging to manage and sustain because the established systems resist new practices. Only a systemic approach, where one can impact the norms, values, and power relationships within an organization, can help initiate a successful change. The recommendation for the BMHS’ principal is to alter his approach to decision-making and implement practices, such as an open-door policy, which will make him more approachable and allow engaging the teachers into the decision-making process. This change initiative has to target the school’s decision-making system as a whole. This paper will outline the recommendations for the BMHS’ principle using the Michael Fullan theory and other change theories.
The staff’s evaluation has shown that the principal, Brad Vogel, has a reputation for being unapproachable, which may create an issue within the school’s internal culture. Moreover, there is no interdisciplinary interaction between the staff members because each department and teacher has the autonomy to decide how their courses should be taught, however, they cannot impact the school-wide decision-making. To change this, establish meetings and communication that will allow for bottom-up decision making, it is necessary to examine some change theories. According to Michael Fullan’s theory, there are three stages for any change: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization (Fullan, n.d.). The reason why the recommendation requires to target the school’s decision-making system is that currently, BMHS has an established practice for developing curriculums or changing some policies that do not allow teachers from other departments to interfere with the process, which means that these policies are at the institutionalization stage and they are deeply rooted into the school’s culture.
Capacity building allows one to focus on how this change is implemented within the system and how it responds to the change (“Capacity building,” n.d.). It is vital to use capacity building in this case since the school faces difficulties with helping learners get a well-rounded education. A system-wide change is necessary to address this. Moreover, the proposed strategy allows leveraging leadership or developing leadership capabilities among the staff because they will be encouraged to provide their input into the school’s matters. This is an example of teacher advocacy since teachers are the ones shaping the school’s day to day life and helping the students learn. Hence, it is essential to ensure that they have a voice and can easily offer changes to the existing system, knowing that their offer will be considered.
From the perspective of Fullan’s Deep Learning, developed by Michael Fullan, the role of a teacher has to change, and they should be able to design the learning experiences. Next, according to Fullan’s approach, the principal should participate in learning as a lead learner (Graham, 2017). Currently, the staff has a feeling that the principal makes decisions even before they were discussed with the team, which means that he misses out on the opportunity of learning about the teacher’s experiences with the students. The change in the decision making policy may involve holding meetings and accepting change proposals from the community members since for BMHS community has always played an essential role in supporting the school’s operations. Community members have the power to pressure the administration and advocate for a change in communication and decision-making policies.
Finally, technology allows transitioning to a change quickly, since online meetings and votings can enable easy group decision making. For example, to decide on the curriculum of the Language Arts, an online appointment with this department can be held, and teachers from other departments, as well as community members and the principal, should be encouraged to join. Online tools, such as Survey Monkey, can be used to vote on the new curriculum and discuss the changes. Overall, this paper offers a change initiative that will help improve the design-making culture at BMHS based on change theories.
References
Capacity building for curriculum development.(n.d.) Web.
Fullan, M. (n.d.). The six secrets to change. Web.
Graham, J. (2017). Michael Fullan – Public school improvement and the role of school leadership in that process. Web.