Part 8 - The Importance of Trust
November 10th, 2008 by admin in Dr. Karen Seashore Louis
Karen Seashore Louis presents the final component related to school improvement: trust. To illustrate trust, she describes work she did in evaluating an art program. Teachers were very willing to share their problems of infusing the arts into their curriculum because nobody expected that they were able to do so; they were all novices. The teachers discovered each other’s strengths and interests that they never realized they shared. Seashore Louis contrasts this with the situation of elementary teachers who are supposed to already know how to teach reading and the challenge of creating trust in this context.
Think about:
- Reflect on the following quote: “If you think about what it means to accept other teachers’ expertise and be willing to exhibit problems in your classroom, we need to take this trust feature very seriously. We can’t create the kind of professional community and the problem-based learning environments that we really need if you don’t have this. If you don’t believe your colleagues have any special expertise, why would you trust them to provide you with a solution to a problem you are having in your class?” How can you create trust in a situation where it doesn’t exist? What steps do you think need to be taken?
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