Fighting the forces against change at my school

Sociocultural Homeostasis, dynamic conservatism, institutional isomorphism oh my! How can we effect change in our own schools?

I think that the best way for me at my school (if i were back there again) would be to proceed into the brave new world of ICT by finding like minded souls who are interested in pursuing connectedness, ICT and other related issues and quietly collaborate with them on various projects. This way we will have results that we can share with others.

If I were the teacher librarian at the school I think what I would start by doing this by carving out for myself time to staff meetings to present various topics in ICT. I would also think about setting up a series lunch time proD workshops maybe offer ‘workshop Wednesdays’ and invite staff members to come into the library and collaborate and share around ICT. I know that there are some teachers who would be interested in any of these topics right off the bat. Getting them onside and getting ideas from them would be a piece of cake. But those really aren’t the people that I would be looking for. I would be looking for the people who say “this is the way I do things I’ve always done them this way” or for the people who think “look at my website, I already am doing digital technology”. I would be looking for the people who need a push to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.
The topic that we covered today that struck me the most was our discussion of linguistic cognitive domain. The idea that the way that you frame a new idea the words that you use and the way you introduce it will affect other people’s perception of the concept, will Influence their willingness to adopt new techniques used new resources step out of their comfort zone and try new things.
As the librarian you’re in the ideal position to introduce new ideas for several reasons:

• In your role as a teacher librarian you are creating a website and virtual library so you’re more likely to be familiar with a lot of these things
• You’re the person that works with all the members of the staff and all the members of the student population
• You are the one (in the minds of other teachers at least) who has time to invest in learning about ICT because you don’t have lesson planning and marking to do. (some of them think this I know)

So time and care must be put into planning how you can introduce new ideas and how you’re going to change the culture of your school to try to counteract some of the forces like institutional isomorphism that make change more difficult.