MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
Education: Management of Change
Preparing very young children for school has been shown to be a prediction of future success as the child continues their education through elementary and secondary schools. Countries prioritize the need for early age or preschool education by creating programs to meet the needs of the young children. A framework for U.K. children up to five years old called Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was established in 2007 by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The core curriculum initiative I used was to include observations of how the children reacted to change in daily scheduling or if promised activities had to be changed. I felt this was important to include during the assessment because the record of the children’s attainment might reflect negative or positive effects on the children. The record of their skills might be impacted in a way that their true skills and accomplishments may be diminished. (See appendix A)
Not only are the children changing everyday because they are growing and developing; the organization of the QCDA also went through a big change last year. In order to meet the criteria of government education reforms the QCDA was closed in 2012 and the responsibilities of the department were divided between the Teaching Agency and the Standards and Testing Agency. This government organizational change coupled with daily changes created a double whammy for some projects. Leaders trained to assist in the transitions and transformations change brings are highly valued in such intense situations.
The theories on leadership change discuss the necessity of leaders to be aware of all the change that are happening daily. Even adults are changing intellectually, psychologically and professionally. Newton and Tarrant (2002) use the examples of thinking of schools and teachers as the Child (as understood in Transactional Analysis) student by respecting and acknowledging the child in them. Transactional Analysis (TA) allows a leader to learn by observing the interaction in each person of their unique Parent, Child and Adult. This can be very helpful when dealing with the stress of change especially for some people who do not like change and have difficulty accepting it.
When leaders or managers plan for change they need to reflect on the Child that will be present in every member of staff and themselves, and at the same time need to consider how they can nurture this child but also ensure that successful development takes place. . . Leaders and managers must also keep a very close eye o their own Child. . . (because this) may be found to (be) an extremely useful tool for improving understanding of yourself and your relationships with others. (Newton & Tarrant, 56)
There was so much change happening around me I decided to work on myself and learn about my own reaction to change and how to communicate better with the people around me during a stressful time. Working with the children is wonderful and a lot easier compared to trying to identify and understand the Parent, Child, Adult dynamic in adults. I agree that it is very important for a change leader to use this strategy, mainly because there is no room for passing judgement. Therefore using the strategy is a good way to remain profession.
Whitaker (1993) discussed the difference between management and leadership which helped me understand the difference between the two. (See table 1) Although both management
and leadership want to reach similar goals in an educational institution or organisation their approaches are very different. For example, when routines and methods are well defined and orderly the job of a manager is considered successful. On the other hand for a Change Leader, change and development cannot be well defined because it is difficult to predict what exactly will happen after a change is initiated. Plans are made by change leaders so they will be ready to handle a variety of situations but people’s reactions do not follow rules and unplanned challenges occur. The behaviour of people can change in surprising ways when they are faced with change. As children develop we want them to change; but even they can exhibit mysterious behaviour that change leaders need to translate.
Newton and Tarrant (2002) suggest that when thinking of your preschool as a child (in the TA paradigm) then you have new way to apply what you have already learned. I discovered that from their list listening, encouraging the students and the teachers, and helping the children “develop independent active learning, making sure that input is relevant and meaningful, and maintaining a sense of humour at all costs” helped me more than any other tools. (Newton & Tarrant, 54). Also the figure form Fullan about how to maintain leadership during change helped
Figure 1. Maintaining Leadership during Change
Source: Fullan, Change Forces with a Vengeance, p. 94 (Fullan 2001b)
me, especially remembering what Fullan wrote about results. (See fig. 1) Fullan (2001b) wrote “more good things happen, fewer bad things happen.” (94) And I learned that that is true about results so feeling good when more good things than bad things happen is perfectly fine; results will never turn out to be 100 percent good.
Child A was the type of person that touched everything and even wanted to lick everything it it would have been allowed. I realized that she was a very tactile person and she learned about the world through touch. She became upset when routines and plans changed. When the order of daily activities changed she would be loud and even shove her friends. I found that trying to reason with words did not help but giving her something to do with her hands helped a lot. Eventually it was found that the best way for her to learn to deal with change was to build a building which she could name (school or house for example). Then she learned to respectfully ask her mates to help her plan and design the house. This stopped the yelling and the very inappropriate shoving at instances of change. On the Dispositions and attitudes scale her scale point was raised from a 3 to a 5.
Child B always looked very sweet and calm. I learned that the child liked to be alone working in parallel with other children. If the child was asked to change their solitary activity to play a different game with other children he would become stubborn and unhappy. I was asked to help him deal with the change of playing alone to join in a group game at least once a week. I found this to be a big challenge. Child B has a rich imagination and the other children did not appreciate his ‘wild’ ideas. I tried to work with the child to change his strategy. We worked on having him listen carefully when he was in group play so he could understand the game and then join in the game being played appropriately. Child B would finally accept joining group activities but he would not always participate, often only observing. I was unable to advance him to number 9 on the scale for social development. On the other hand he did improve from a 1 to a 2 rating. It may be that moving from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3 will be very slow but after that I would expect him to move to 9 very quickly.
Bibliography
Collarbone, P. and West-Burnham, J., 2008. Understanding systems leadership: securing excellence and equity in education. London: Network Continuum.
Day, C., Harris, A., and Hadfield, M. 1999. Leading schools in times of change (1). Paper presented at the European Conference on Education Research, Lahti, Finland 22-25 Sept. 1999. Buckingham: Open University Press. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001242.htm
Fullan, M. 2003. Change forces with a vengeance. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Morrison, K., 1998. Management theories for educational change. London: Paul Chapman Publ. Inc.
Newton, C. and Tarrant, T., 2002. Managing change in schools: A practical handbook. New York: Routledge.
Whitaker, P., 1993. Managing change in schools. Buckingham: Open University Press.
EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage), 2008. “Early years foundation stage profile handbook and assessment scales reference sheet.” Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), London, qca.org.uk, ISBN 978-1-184721-643-4
Appendix
Appendix A. “Early years foundation stage profile – assessment scales reference sheet”
Source: Early years foundation stage (EYFS): Profile handbook, 2008, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, London, qca.org.uk, Section 1 page 89.
