Below is an email that I sent to Ira Chaleff recently. I have found that the concept of courageous followership is very relevent to my work with school leaders.

 

Marty Krovetz

 

Hello,

 

In 1995 I read your book the Courageous Follower. I found it in an

independent bookstore, read it, loved it, and made it a core reading in my

classes. All of my university students, and most of those in our

Educational Leadership Program, read your book and complete a "Chaleff"

assignment. Our students are either beginning and aspiring school

administrators or teachers wanting to be more effective school leaders

without leaving the classroom. The latter in particular fit the description

of potential courageous followers. The assignment asks them to identify an

issue they have with their principal and/or supervisor, use the content of

your book to outline a specific plan for working with that person on that

issue, gather input regarding the plan from peers in class and the

instructor, carry out the plan, and write a reflective paper on how it went

and what they learned. Since many of the principals are graduates of our

program, when our current students approaches them, they often ask, "Is the

"Chaleff" assignment?"

 

I just finished reading The Art of Followership and decided it is time to

contact you. From 1991-2005 I was a professor of Educational Leadership at

San Jose State University. Prior to that I had been a high school principal

for 14 years. Now I am the Director of the LEAD Center, www.lead-ces.com, a

regional center of the Coalition of Essential Schools,

www.essentialschools.org. Much of my writing has been about fostering

resilience within the school culture and collaborative leadership. Both

relate directly to courageous followership; both cite you book. In my book

Collaborative Teacher Leadership (2005, Corwin Press) we included several

writings by teacher leaders about completing the "Chaleff" assignment.

 

I am writing because I would like to be part of future conversations like

the ones that led to The Art of Followership.

 

Marty Krovetz

I am currently the Director of the LEAD Center, a regional center of the Coalition of Essential Schools, www.lead-ces.com, www.essentialschools.org

 

This is entry #2 from Marty Krovetz

 

I have been asked by Ira and Elisabeth to write more about how the teacher leaders in our MA program use the courageous leadership principles in practice. When Gilberto Arriaza and I wrote Collaborative Teacher Leadership: How Teachers Can Foster Equitable Schools (Corwin Press, 2006) we wanted to write a book the was half teacher writing about their experiences and learnings as leaders and half our narratives placing the teachers' writing in context. We knew that this would make a unique contribution to the field of teacher leadership. The book is full of case studies written by our students. Much of the text can be found at: books.google.com/books?id=hswK7ktPnZAC&pg=PA94&lpg= PA94&dq=krovetz+and+arriaza&source=web&ots=DXU9P6cQw3&sig=S7jDg8jsvnTjOZduW6wYrNUyvQk&hl=en#PPP1,M1

 

The case studies that begin on Pages 30, 36, 39, and 89 are excellent examples. Chapter Seven is entitled "Courageous Followers and Leaders." This chapter is full of excellent examples. The following is a specific example, a teacher's narrative from Collaborative Teacher Leadership, that demonstrates just what it means to be a courageous follower. Sharon Piazza’s writing clearly exemplifies how she led as a courageous follower, challenging people to live up to their words and helping them to see the elephant.  This clearly challenged her to plan carefully and to rely on the relationships she had developed over time.  This narrative is long, but the reflection is very rich, and it is the last one in the book!

 

Sharon Piazza:

 

 

 

I am a courageous follower, I said to myself.  I can do this!  These were thoughts that ran through my head as I entered Educational Services for our Houghton-Mifflin Leadership planning meeting.   Everyone was there, our Assistant Superintendent, Director of Assessment, Director of Categorical Services, and our Closing the Achievement Gap (CTAG) Specialist.  In the middle of the table sat a big elephant that no one was seeing or wanting to deal with but me. 

 

As a district we were in the process of changing our Language Arts textbooks.  The adoption committee adopted Houghton Mifflin with the understanding that our primary teachers, especially kindergarten and first grade, could still follow our Literacy Plan. In August however, the words “full implementation” and  “fidelity” in relation to the use of the Houghton Mifflin program was the message our Assistant Superintendent stated to all teachers and administrators.  Many teachers were concerned with the new program’s limitations, and felt it was a contradiction to what had been agreed upon by the textbook committee.

 

By late November, our kindergarten-first grade teachers were very angry about the “fidelity” word.  At the last two meetings, many of the teacher leaders, including those completing the Master’s program, were giving specific feedback on the weaknesses of the program and its implementation. They didn’t feel they were being heard.  During the last in-service given, some teachers were so vocal that the presenters were unable to complete their presentation.  Some of our district leaders saw the feedback as an attack on them. 

 

I knew that the leaders of our district had thought carefully about how to implement the Language Arts textbook.  Our superintendent, at the annual district-wide Fall meeting, announced the problem and the basic purpose for the change.  We all knew that we still had 52% of our district students below the proficient level.  The purpose of the new Language Arts adoption was to help teachers teach to the standards more rigorously, with the hoped-for outcome that all of our students would be proficient.  

 

So what was missing?  Our teachers of kindergarten and first grade students had not been given a part to play, especially in the transition process itself. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Houghton Mifflin program?  Teachers had been given sanctioned opportunities to say what is working.  They had taken it upon themselves to give feedback on the weaknesses of the program (and what program doesn’t).  This was the elephant no one wanted to acknowledge. 

 

How can I effectively give input and respectively challenge the leadership’s “group think”? How can I use my own expertise to help them examine the elephant and all the options carefully before any action is taken?  These were the next thoughts that raced through my mind as I sat in the November planning meeting. I began by summarizing for the group our District Houghton-Mifflin history, beginning with our previous commitments to teachers that the Kindergarten/First grade teachers could continue to follow the Literacy Plan. Next, I reminded them that the Houghton-Mifflin representatives stated that the kindergarten Houghton Mifflin program was based on half-day kindergarten, therefore it was not as powerful as what we have had in place in our District, since we had implemented full-day kindergartens for the past two years. Lastly, I referred to feedback given by both the textbook committee and the kindergarten teacher leaders, including my input, concerning the weaknesses of the program. The action I suggested was to have a separate release day for Kindergarten and First Grade teachers to give input and make specific recommendations for a comprehensive language arts curriculum for these specific grades. I volunteered to chair this ad-hoc group and suggested our CTAG specialist be the co-chair. Our Director of Categorical Services offered funds for substitutes and the names of a few teacher leaders who were most vocal. The next task was inviting teachers to attend while keeping in mind we wanted representation, if possible, from every school either on the kindergarten or first grade committee.  We also wanted to have a diverse group; that meant considering years of service, race, and gender.

 

Keeping all this in mind, we made up a list, I created a flyer, and the CTAG Specialist sent them out. We were worried about the dates.  Because we needed at least 10 substitutes for each group, we could only get dates during the last week before Winter Break.  In order to get vocal teacher leaders to the meetings, I personally went to their classrooms to pre-invite them to the meeting, letting them know their presence and feedback was important to me and the District. 

 

As I began to plan for the two meetings, I used my newly acquired learning from Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (1998) in their book, Understanding by Design.  I identified the desired outcomes for the day: 

•    Data would be studied and analyzed to determine what is working and for whom.

•    Teachers would feel they had a safe environment to air their concerns.

•    Teachers would leave the meeting feeling they had been heard.

•    Ideas would be gathered from which four to five recommendations would be made.

 

After each of the meetings, a plus/delta evaluation was completed.  Both kindergarten and first grade teachers indicated that they felt heard and safe.  The teachers developed five recommendations – one of the recommendations from each grade level was directly tied to data.

 

Reflecting back, I realized how important it was for me to have a plan when I entered the November District Office Planning meeting. The plan made my input an option to consider rather than an emotional outburst in defense of teachers.  The plan gave our team a viable and focused way to gather legitimate input from reflective teachers concerning the weaknesses of the program and to make constructive suggestions to improve implementation.

 

By acting as a courageous follower, I learned that I could help our leadership team move beyond “group think” and effectively deal with the elephant.  I also learned that providing a legitimate forum for teachers to vent concerns helps them to participate in the change process, turn negativity into productivity, and provide much needed feedback to our leadership team.

 

 

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