TOP-DOWN SCHOOL REFORM: trashing teacher morale

One of the most troubling aspects of school reform is that the would-be reformers never bother to ask teachers what they think. They imagine there is no need to ask. They think they can just ram change, however unrealistic, down gagging teacher's throats. After all, they're mere peones.

The chief problem with this approach is that it simply doesn't work. Way back in the 1970's a Rand Corporation study clearly demonstrated that successful introduction of innovations in any organization requires willing, highly motivated participants. And this is particularly true of teachers because the vast bulk of their work is accomplished outside of immediate administrative oversight. When teachers close their classroom door they generally achieve the latitude to do what works.

Why do those in charge ignore this need for teacher willingness and positive motivation? It's because would be reformers have long treated teachers with an insufferably arrogant style of management. This style dates all the way back to the era when classroom teachers were long-suffering females and the power holders were smug, self-satisfied males. Nowadays it's not just posing and preening  posing and preening politicians of every stripe trying not to actually improve education, but merely to widen their market appeal.

Some say that teachers stand in the way of needed reforms. That reality requires the imposition of non-consultative change. But resistance to change is hardly restricted to teachers. In fact, resistance is an inevitable response to major change in any organization. And when those changes are being pushed by the very same people who look down on you, ignore your hard-won knowledge and can't tell their pedagogical ass from third base, resistance is sensible.

Nevertheless, posing politicians and the state and federal officials who must do their will, show a complete disregard for the negative impact their imperial actions have on teacher morale and the recruitment of anything but docile, dimwitted sheep into the profession. In other words, these would-be reformers have long-ago lost all concern for the effect their "reforms" have on those who must carry them out  if they have any chance of being successful. And that lack of concern on the part of the reformers guarantees the long-term futility of their reforms.

For more on this subject go to http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Domination.html