Thira Schmidl and Dr. Russell T. Osguthorpe, Journalism and Education
The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future recommended “that schools be restructured to become genuine learning organizations for both students and teachers -organizations that respect learning, honor teaching, and teach for understanding”.1 A lot of change is necessary to accomplish this restructuring asked for by this commission.
Change is a process that most people value as long as they are not required to engage in it themselves. “Giving up a habit, a belief, or even an idea to which one has become attached, can be an act of pain, and object of fear. Changing educational practice is not a task for the faint of heart.2
I taught journalism and dance from January through April 1997 at a school in Kwe Kwe, a small town in Zimbabwe, Africa. The principal started this private school, because she didn’t agree with many of the teaching styles and methods of this country, which were established by the British settlers before independence. She wanted to have a different kind of school for her children. Her unconventional ideas required not only willingness from herself to engage in the process of change, but also from all the people involved: teachers/faculty, parents, students.
In my research I worked with three focus groups (teachers/faculty, parents, students) with eight people in each group. The participants of the focus groups also filled in questionnaires answering questions based on the eight basic lessons of change as outlined by Michael Fullan in his book Change Forces.3
The results of the focus groups, the questionnaires and my personal observations showed the immense influence the central department of education has in this country. The majority of exams are standardized for the whole country, and regulations are outlined for a great number of areas. Thus the principal faced the special challenge to use the limited freedom she had to implement her ideas and philosophies and still help the students achieve the specific goals set by the government at the times determined by the government.
Since the principal did not know many people in the community who had studied and researched other methods of teaching and her desire to uphold principles of her beliefs (she is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), she often made basic decisions on school policy alone, without consulting with faculty, students or parents. With these basic policies and methods, the principal hoped to eventually give the people involved with the school more opportunities in decision making, than most other schools in Zimbabwe.
Another reason for some central decisions from the principal were the fast growth of the school, which had not be anticipated by anyone involved with the school. Many students, teachers and parents said that they rather accepted the decisions of the principal without much discussion instead of waiting for everything to be planned out thoroughly beforehand. Because of the teaching methods of the school, most interviewees said they believe in more decentralized decisions as soon as some basic requirements have been established.
Paddy Pacey, a mother of three children at this school and fourth trade teacher moved to Kwe Kwe only because she wanted her children to attend this school. She said: “The school is developing very fast, obviously, but is developing in response to a demand that clearly exists in this community—in other words, if the [principal was] offering a ‘product’ that was not required in the community, then no amount of pre-planning would bring about a school. On the other hand I do tend to feel that the school suffers, on a day to day basis, from lack of pre-planning partly because the vision that has brought the school into existence is so large, so grand and so wonderful, that a number of practical details have been overlooked and have to be scrambled into position after the fact.”
Pacey continued to say, that mostly administrative details needed to be delegated better. Several other people expressed concerns, that the reasons for some of the problems at the school stemmed from wrong philosophies and methods rather than administrative processes. Problems caused them to advocate a going back to traditional methods. (Right before I left the results of this and other research caused the consultation of a specialist in organizational behavior, to improve the relationship of the vision of the school and the use of the human resources.)
My job as a journalism and dance teacher was a good example for the school policy at the time: Making journalism and dance a compulsory subject at the school was decided by the principal alone. Besides ‘making’ the students come to class, I and my students had a lot of room for making our own decisions.
With the editors of the newspaper we set deadlines, made decisions on advertising, sales, moral guidelines, content, etc. The reporters had a chance to submit any article of their choice. The content was thus determined by the interests of the students. The parents could give ideas about topics they would like to be researched, and as their teacher I tried to support the students in their efforts and interests to increase the quality of their work.
Dance was also mandatory for some age groups, and an elective for others. In class the students had a lot of opportunities to participate in the process of choreographing for a dance concert. The principal mainly just helped the students with the advertising for the concert. Parents provided costumes.
The school also participated in the performance of the musical ‘Oliver’ at the local theater. Many of the actors were students, their parents, and teachers of the school, but actors also came from town and other parts of the country — each actor had to audition. The producer was from the local theater, the musical director was the principal, and I assisted in the directing and choreographed and taught the dancing. It was a good example for cooperation with the community.
References
- J. B. Hunt, What matters most: Teaching for America’s Future. New York: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996) 101.
- R. T. Osguthorpe and R. T. Osguthorpe, Changing Educational Practice Through Partnerships: A Comparison of Partnership Schools in France and the U.S., in Apprentissage and Socialization (in press).
- M. Fullan, Change Forces: Probing the depths of educational reform, New York: Teachers College Press (1993)