Teachers either feel at-risk for sharing their ideas or feel dismissed when presenting their opinions. Some school administrators are either unwilling or unable to listen to feedback from teachers. Many schools simply do not operate that way. And they benefit from a cultural element that they, very likely, take for granted. They do so in an appropriate and useful manner. In some schools, staff members feel a strong sense of empowerment and entitlement to speak their mind. And, even with a proper structure of committees, school and district leaders must be ready to listen and hear what is said.ģ. It should draw from a wider range of individuals and topics. Upward communication should be much broader. The task of committees are limited both by the scope of their charter and the individuals who are assigned. These are great opportunities for teachers to be heard and to exercise their own leadership skills. Oftentimes permanent or ad hoc committees of teachers will work on key issues like discipline, text book adoption, or school improvement. Committees are a great way to create formal or in-formal groups to deal with a variety of issues. This takes work and requires being intentional about your upward feedback goals.Ģ. They need to set up structures for staff to be heard. They need to communicate that willingness to listen to staff. Leaders have to be ready to listen and to hear.
Yet communication and feedback that moves UP the chain of command does not always happen naturally. It may take some effort but information tends to get dispersed through a variety of means. Downstream communication seems to happen naturally in most schools and school districts. But with respect to two-way communication, I will attempt to summarize what I’ve seen in a few paragraphs. Yet at the best schools and the best school districts, communication also flows “uphill” nearly as well.īest practices in communication would fill a book. (In fact, it is prevalent at all levels in many types of organizations not just schools and school districts.) Communication, like water, tends to flow most easily downhill. The lack of two-way communication is prevalent at all levels of education. I assumed at the time that he was speaking about district administrators in general. “We do a pretty good job of talking to teachers but I don’t think we always do a great job of listening,” he said. As we discussed the need for and importance of conducting nationally normed school culture studies, he said something rather simple but profound. He is very familiar with the work we do in this area and has used our services in prior districts. The conversation turned towards my current research project on School Climate and Culture. He was updating me on developments in his districts and we were sharing thoughts on all manner of tangentially related topics. He is an old friend and we had not had a chance to connect in some time. I was speaking with the superintendent of a mid-sized district in the Midwest this week.
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