Shared Vision

Leadership and Organization

"On the same page"

"Why aren't our administrators on the same page?" was a question put to me by one of my Unit Coordinators.  A Unit Coordinator is a teacher who manages the daily issues in the school surrounding staff personnel, safety of the environment and the students, and the basic every day running of the school.  But he had one issue that affected not just his responsibility, but the school's as well.  The leadership and organization of the school did not necessarily have a shared vision.  It was written on paper and documented in the school's mission statement, but it was not implemented correctly.

A "shared vision" creates continuity in a school environment.  One that keeps a cohesive and collaborative path for students, teachers, administrators, families and community to follow and have a part in its construction.

An example of this is "Oranga Primary School" in New Zealand.  Oranga Primary School realized that "cultural change" was very important for the school and community and this became their shared vision.  Students who start the primary school at age 5 come speaking different languages, other than English.  They also belong to different ingenious tribes and have different values and beliefs.

The staff and administration realized that this would be an issue in creating a "shared vision" for the school and so they decided that one of the "mission statements" Lincoln High School administrators and staff have realized in order to create an effective change in a shared vision, they needed to find out what is the "silver bullet" that would do this.  They discovered that their "silver bullet" was their teachers.  Change had to come from their teachers and this is where they concentrated on developing.

The teachers with the help of the families and communities went to the Islands where the students and families culture originated.  There, they learned all about the culture of their students and then took this knowledge back with them to their school to incorporate into their school environment.

They found that incorporating the culture into their lesson plans, into their classroom environments, into the curriculum itself created more successful students and made connection to students and content.  Since a lot of this was prior knowledge for the students, they were able to relate to the information and apply to their own experiences.

http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Leading-cultural-change/Oranga-School

Oranga School - New Zealand