The next day, numerous parents
called to complain. Apparently, the
teacher had told her students of the
principal’s decision, and students had
complained to their parents and other
teachers. The issue became a schoolwide controversy. Denying extra
resources seemed practical and fair to
the principal.
In truth, the problem of lack of funds
for cookie baking was only the tip of the
iceberg. To minimize confusion and to
make collaborative decisions about
budgets, the principal had to get to the
bottom of the deeper problem and
communicate about it openly. She gathered the team leaders and department
chairs. To facilitate the conversation,
teachers used a tool called the iceberg
(Goodman, 2002), which is designed to
reveal the underlying behavior patterns,
structures, and even mental assumptions beneath the immediately visible
aspects of a problem—the three layers
underneath the surface. (See www.ascd
.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead
/el200910_kohm_iceberg.pdf for an
illustration.)
The “tip of the iceberg” was the backlash created when the principal denied
the consumer sciences teacher additional money. To get to the first layer
beneath the surface, the group looked
for patterns and trends related to this
surface problem. Had other teachers in
the past overspent their budgets? What
had happened when they did? Did
previous administrators make budget
decisions without faculty input?
Unearthing the second layer involved
examining structures that allowed these
patterns to recur. Structures can be
Reform should be
something done
with teachers,
not to them.
visible items, such as published school
protocols, or less visible things, such as
attitudes and informal procedures. In
this case, the principal needed to probe
for such information as whether every
department chair had a sound budget,
who was involved in developing
FIGURE 1. Collaborative vs. Top-Down Cultures
In collaborative cultures…
In top-down cultures…
Teachers support one another’s
efforts to improve instruction.
Teachers discourage challenges to the
status quo.
budgets, and what processes existed to
monitor them.
At the deepest level, the group
explored the underlying assumptions
teachers held regarding monetary
resources. Did most teachers believe
their budget was flexible? Did they
think creating and adhering to a budget
was someone else’s responsibility?
The dialogue was enlightening. As the
group looked frankly at how different
departments handled their budgets,
they realized that budget decisions affect
everyone in the building. Any money
added to one person’s budget decreases
money available for other departments
or whole-school projects like
purchasing library books. And, most
important, they learned the necessity of
sharing information. As a result of the
meeting, each department contributed
funds to the consumer science budget,
making possible a positive learning
experience for students through the end
of the semester.
Sharing decisions with teachers on
such key issues as resource allocation
changes the culture of a school—and
often leads to sounder decisions. Schedules and budgets rule teachers’ everyday
lives. When teachers decide together
what they want to accomplish with a
budget (for example, building up the
library) or a schedule (devoting blocks
of time to literacy) and then work
together to create budgets or schedules
that accomplish these goals, their on-the-ground experience informs their
planning.
Teachers take responsibility for
solving problems and accept the
consequences of their decisions.
Teachers share ideas. As one person
builds on another’s ideas, a new
synergy develops.
Educators evaluate new ideas in light
of shared goals that focus on student
learning.
Teachers depend on principals to solve
problems, blame others for their difficulties, and complain about the consequences of decisions.
Ideas and pet projects belong to individual teachers; as a result, development is limited.
Ideas are limited to the “tried and
true”—what has been done in the
past.
Developing Skills
for Collaboration
Engaging teachers in collaborative
problem solving requires in-depth
thinking and sophisticated communication skills. A variety of tools and practices help teachers and principals
develop such skills. Principals in collaborative schools help teachers gain these
skills and learn to use tools that enable
them to gather a variety of perspectives
and to recognize the complexity
