Head collaborative cultures and organizational competence

Head Collaborative Cultures and Organizational Competence
In “ Collaborative Cultures and Organizational Competence” the author underlines that successful learning and teaching, administration and management is possible only if all stakeholders (including teachers, administrators, students, etc.) cooperate and collaborate to achieve their purpose. Schooling is the formal part of a larger process of education, or it might be called socialization, which teaches young people ” how we do it here.” American children–well, this is true of children in any culture-need to learn what it means to be ” one of us”: what it means to be an individual here and what it means to be a part of the whole here.
At the beginning of the chapter 6, the author explains the main problems affected modern education and lack of competency-based approach. Lack of collective intelligence is the main problem for modern education. The next part of the chapter is devoted to cooperation and collaboration processes at Stevenson High School. The author uses an interview method to gather materials and facts about effective collaboration practices. The main element of strong culture is cooperation between administrators, teachers and students. The informal coming allows teachers to improve teaching and learning. The author concludes that collaborative culture is based on close cooperation between all members of the group and team. Also, Sergiovanni underlines the importance of leadership and management in teaching practice. Teachers and administrators need to recognize where they fit in and what it takes to get along in this culture and the society (institutions, roles, relationships, structures) which has arisen from and in turn affects this culture. A special role in played by division directors who control and manage all resources and teaching process.
The main principles of successful organizing are the principle of cooperation, the principles of empowerment, the principle of accountability and the principle of responsibility. From this perspective, schooling is at heart a cultural-social event and only makes sense if the cultural circumstance, over time, including projections into the future, is taken into account. All this is to say that often what is going on in education is school people talking to one another with inadequate attention to what America is about or where America has come from. It is important to stress this commitment to freedom because we have grown up in a time in which there has been both political and social concern for issues of social justice and equity of treatment and outcome. Also important is the ability to take powerful action alone and in collaboration with others. Without efficacy, without the ability to make things happen, an individual is not free. Opportunity and capacity are importance ingredients of successful performance. These factors are supported and related to such issues as trust among group members, group identity and group efficiency. The author sums up that team approach is successful because it helps to maintain trust and cooperation atmosphere among all members. Individualism, in sum, encourages one to be the one-of-a-kind person he or she is. But important to remember, in this culture individualism is more a matter of extending an invitation and granting of an opportunity than providing assurance that one will actually live out one’s uniqueness. At best, education in this country is of a kind that encourages and contributes to the development of individual persons, not walking cliches or interchangeable cogs in a social/cultural machine.
Personally, I agree with ideas and concepts developed by Sergiovanni and his approach to learning and teaching. It takes effective schools and effective teachers and effective students–all three–in order to get the work done. Schools operate much better if students are collaborative, supportive, and effective at holding up their end of things. As educators we set up training programs, workshops, in-service days, read books and journals, and ponder our success and failures. And indeed we should be proud of our dedication to our work. Teachers and students essentially do the same things in response to the same things, and deal with others in the same ways, year after year. To adopt this tactic educators and administrators in different schools must be very clear about what achieving students have going for them. Team approach and collaboration among all members should be the core of effective education system.
References
1. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2004). Strengthening the Heartbeat. Jossey-Bass. Chapter 6. Collaborative Cultures and Organizational Competence, pp. 117-127.