Creating a Learning Community: Social Responsibility at Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary School
by
Angelina Schafer Gauthier

March 2006

I am one of the fortunate ones. I work at a school that is a learning community. It feels, looks, acts and breathes like a community. My case study will examine how the social responsibility goal at my school, Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary has resulted in this feeling of community. I will use Bolman and Deal’s framework to examine the structural, human resource, political and symbolic frames of the social responsibility goal at my school and to show how massive this goal is and how it encompasses more than teaching children how to be responsible citizens. After using the frames, I will briefly use the SWOT assessment analysis to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the goals our school has set for itself.

New Kid on the Block

I am a new member of the Red Bluff-Lhtako staff. I was hired in September 2005 as a permanent, part-time grade 3 teacher, however, I have been familiar with the school’s feeling of community for the past five years, since I am also a parent to two daughters who attend this school. I am a member of the school’s Social Development team and I have been involved in leadership opportunities, most frequently, as the teacher-in-charge when the principal is absent. My examination and commentary of Red Bluff-Lhtako’s social responsibility goal is based on my observations as a teacher at this school for the past six months, and as a parent for the past five years.


Welcome to Red Bluff-Lhtako School!

Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary is a K-7 school with a population of 263 students located in the Central Interior of British Columbia, known as the Cariboo. We have eleven divisions from Kindergarten to grade 7. The school borders the Red Bluff First Nations reserve and there are 84 Aboriginal students attending our school. The Parent Advisory Council is an active, supportive group that compliments the high degree of parental involvement in our school. School community volunteers abound in our hallways, grandparents and parents listen to children read, help students in our computer lab, lead our Student Council, drive to and chaperone activities such as science fairs, gymnastics, skating or skiing, supervise the playground at lunch time and help coach a variety of athletic activities.
Our school improvement plan focuses on literacy, numeracy and social responsibility interfaced with goals from our Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement. This year we are including the community to a greater extent to better understand our belief system and to introduce all students to the many adults who help make our school a learning community. Social responsibility includes moral purpose, and moral purpose is the heart our community. The staff believes that as a healthy school, we need to have trust, respect, support, caring, and inclusion. Our social responsibility goal is to create this environment, which will, in turn, create a successful learning community.



View of the Elephant – Structural Frame

“Organizations allocate responsibilities to participants and create rules,
policies. . . to coordinate diverse activities.”(Bolman & Deal, 1995, p. 392)

Our student improvement goal for the 2005/2006 school year sets the structure for our social responsibility framework and is stated in the form of a question: How can we use the BC Performance Standard of Social Responsibility to create a values based culture in the classroom and the school where children feel loved, understood, respected, valued and safe? (Halbert & Kaser, 2005) Many strategies were planned, and several are on-going from previous years.
The strategies that have been continued from previous years include:
- a social responsibility classroom behavioral plan,
- social responsibility performance standard surveys administered electronically to students in grades 4-7 in October and May,
- staff use of resources and lessons related to each of our beliefs: respect, cooperation, acceptance and responsibility, over the course of the year,
- evaluation of strategies at monthly staff meetings,
- grade 7 students attendance at leadership and teaming sessions facilitated by EDUCO staff from 100 Mile House,
- participation of grade 4/5 students in the FRIENDS social responsibility program,
- ongoing communications with PAC group and School Planning Council regarding progress of the goal, via meetings, web site and newsletters.
These strategies provide continuity from year to year.

At Red Bluff-Lhtako, there is a framework in place that emphasizes organizational goals, roles and technology. The school is a member of The Network of Performance-Based Schools. The Network of Performance Based Schools is a voluntary action research community designed to improve student learning and to strengthen public education. This network is “dedicated to the young learners of British
Columbia . . . who are working together in a spirit of generosity to create a more learner and learning-centered school system” (Halbert & Kaser, 2005, p. i). Their motto states: “Schools learning through inquiry and teamwork” (Halbert & Kaser, 2006).

The social development committee and Network of Performance-Based Schools Leadership team at our school is composed of staff whom help design activities that will help us reach our social responsibility goals. The team consists of me, the principal, and two temporary teachers. A committee was the best organizational structure, and fit the “purpose and demands of the school”(Bolman & Deal, 1995, p. 390) because it wasn’t necessary for all members of the staff to plan events to bring the goals to fruition. The committee doesn’t have the final say in what we will do to promote social responsibility. We present our ideas to the staff at our monthly staff meetings. The leadership of the committee articulates “the values and norms that advance the learning of all members of the community” (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001, p. 6). The staff provides further input and is very accepting of ideas. They are quick to offer assistance and to volunteer and help in implementing the idea.

Shared leadership and shared power are a strength at Red Bluff-Lhtako. Together the principal and staff “share information and decision making, engage in discourse and dialogue and work in teams” (p. 7). The most recent example of shared leadership was viewed during the planning of our Red Bluff-Lhtako Winter Olympics. All the teachers took on responsibility for planning the events, organizing the equipment for their own stations, our secretary designed the medals, and an experienced teacher reminded me to post a rotation grid. We all worked together and the end result was a fantastic, team-building experience for teachers and students.

View of the Elephant – Human resource frame

This frame “tailors organizations to people . . . to find an organizational form that will enable people to get the job done while feeling good about what they are doing” (Bolman & Deal, p. 392-393) and also “focuses on ways to develop a better fit between people’s needs, skills and values required to accomplish collective goals and purposes” (Bolman & Deal, p. 390). According to Mitchell and Sackney, “in an educational community, leadership is all about making teaching and learning happen. It provides a sense of direction, energy, coherence and coordination to the actions and activities going on in the school” (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001, p. 12).
Red Bluff-Lhtako is a school of committed, involved, experienced teachers. Many of the teachers have been teaching for over 20 years and have a great deal of knowledge. They know what works and use experience to help them make educated decisions about new ideas and change. I am very impressed with how efficiently the school operates. Some examples of annual activities that represent the human resources frame are the school Christmas concert, in which all the primary teachers and classes collaborate and present a musical performance, and the September Meet-the-Teacher barbeque, where the teachers plan, buy, cook and serve parents and students at a hot dog/hamburger barbeque after school. Both of these activities provide an opportunity to extend friendship and build a sense of community.
A new event was initiated this year: the Red Bluff-Lhtako Winter Olympics. This event coincided with the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. The focus of the events was on teamwork, sportsmanship and fun.

We also held a “Meet Your School Community” day in December 2005. This was an afternoon where teachers and support staff formed teams, visited each class, shared with students who they are and their role with the school. We wanted all students to understand that our school is filled with a community of teachers, counselors, support workers, parents, grandparents, noon hour supervisors and so forth, all of whom we should greet kindly and treat with respect.
The inclusion of this moral component is so important. As Michael Fullan states, “moral purpose of the highest order is having a system where all students learn, the gap between high and low performance becomes greatly reduced, and what people learn enables them to be successful citizens and workers in a morally based knowledge society” (Fullan, 2003, p. 29).

View of the Elephant – Political Frame

The political frame occurs “where power and influence are constantly affecting the allocation of resources among individuals or groups” (Bolman & Deal, 1995, p. 393) and “[principals] understand and manage power, coalitions and conflict” (p. 390).
I am fortunate to work at a school where the principal has the “courage and capacity to build new cultures based on trusting relationships and a culture of disciplined inquiry and action” (Fullan, 2003, p. 45). She is excited to share ‘leading edge’ curriculum, assessment and instruction with the staff. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she shares the ‘power’. Our principal is the best advocate for life-long learning, as she is completing a distance-education leadership course and is a part of the team for the Network of Performance-Based Schools in the northern interior of B.C.
As a member of the Network of Performance Based Schools for the past three years, Red Bluff-Lhtako has received numerous grants and awards to pursue their goal of social responsibility. It is a school that places a lot of value in being a learning community. This year one of the key goals of the BC networked learning community is to actively share the quality criteria educators have developed in key learning areas with parents. (Halbert & Kaser, 2006, p. 4) It is our school’s belief that active participation in the BC Network of schools will deepen and sustain learning for understanding.
We also unveiled our new school name and sign this year. As part of the Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement, the school wanted to add a First Nations name to our existing name in order to be more encompassing in its relationship with the neighbouring Red Bluff First Nations band. After consultation with elders, the chief, and other First Nations leaders, Red Bluff Elementary added the name “Lhtako” to represent the large population of First Nations students that attend our school, many of which are from the Red Bluff Band.

View of the Elephant – Symbolic frame

“Organizations are held together by shared values and culture, and are propelled by rituals, ceremonies, stories” (Bolman and Deal, 1995, p. 393). The addition of the name “Lhtako” also falls into the symbolic frame, since the name symbolizes the geography of Quesnel and means “a place where rivers meet”. It is a name that was chosen after a long process, and many Aboriginal community leaders were involved in the process, from selecting the right word to ensuring the spelling was correct. Their involvement showed that our school wants to be a learning community that shares the value and culture of the First Nations population that borders our school.
Red Bluff-Lhtako is a community of leaders. Five members of the staff are on the Quesnel and District Teacher’s Association Executive, Early Literacy team, or Professional Development committee; and all take advantage of workshops, professional development opportunities and webcasts. I feel that the school community at Red Bluff is filled with knowledge and leadership. This community of leaders has deepened and enriched the leadership base at our school (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001, p. 13).

My Contribution to the Elephant – Building Community

At Red Bluff-Lhtako, community is cultivated in the classroom. Each teacher is encouraged to create this feeling of community from the first day of school in September. This is practicing instructional leadership (Gabriel, 2005, p. 141). Teachers give students a voice and make them accountable by having them construct and create a class constitution: expectations for everyone in the class to follow. They create these beliefs and expectations, and sign a poster stating that we all will follow the expectations. We also have class meetings to discuss our belief systems, encourage discussions, address concerns, and “create a caring, supportive environment where students can feel a sense of belonging” (p. 142).
Teachers also contribute to a feeling of community and motivation by displaying student work, celebrating student achievement and take an interest in their personal interests and hobbies. Students are greeted at the door every morning and many shake their hands and say good-bye to them every afternoon. According to Gabriel, “many student ultimately want to please their teachers, and once they see that we care more about them than about grades and test scores, they will respect us more and be more willing to achieve” (Gabriel, 2005, p. 142). Teachers, also display work, assignments and projects in classrooms and on bulletin boards in the hallway. These illustrate “evidence of positive activity and growth” (Gabriel, 2005, p.142).

Strengths at Red Bluff-Lhtako

The staff is committed to one of Fullan’s domains of commitment and knowledge: moral purpose, “a front-and-center commitment to making a difference in the lives of all students, especially the disadvantaged, must be integral to the conceptualization of teacher leadership” (Fullan, 1994, p. 249). This commitment to moral purpose is evident in our role with the Network of Performance Based Schools, whose developers, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser, created because “we strongly believed that teams of teachers and principals working together with powerful forms of classroom assessment could have a positive impact on learner confidence” (Halbert & Kaser, 2006, p. 1). This paraphrases Red Bluff-Lhtako’s commitment to being a learning community.
Another strength is the communication of the school’s Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct (discipline policy) is implemented by the school wide community and encapsulates the social responsibility beliefs practiced at Red Bluff-Lhtako School. A copy of the Code of Conduct in found in the first eight pages of day planner, and is referred to frequently by classroom teachers, so students are aware of school expectations. I find the code is always in practice, and the students know the expectations at school.

Areas needing improvement

In a school where many staff members have 20+ years of teaching experience behind them, there is a lot of expertise and knowledge to draw from. This can also hinder progress. Sometimes new initiatives can be halted because of individuals who may like it "the way it is". Some social responsibililty programs initiated this year haven't been embraced by all, so a small number of the staff take on the role of implementing.
Another weakness lies in the evaluation of social responsibility. The measures for the effectiveness of social responsibility occur partially through satisfaction surveys. Students, teachers and parents respond to the Social Responsibility surveys based on Social Responsibility Performance Standards, however, there is no guarantee as to how many people will complete the survey. As a result, the data could be skewed.

Opportunities for growth

This social responsibility goal has the opportunity to be an amazingly positive community success. Last year I worked at a school which met in multi-age groups weekly in a Random Acts of Kindness program. The sense and feeling of community in that school was amazing. Red Bluff-Lhtako has the opportunity to create an even stronger community. We hope to improve by planning and implementing more special events, with a target of a multi-age special event once a month.
Our parents are also a very involved group. We have the opportunity to use their involvement to help them understand the B.C. Performance Standards and our School Growth Plan.

Threats

If we try to increase the amount of time spent on social responsibility goals, some teachers may perceive that as a threat to time spent on the curriculum. Other threats are outside of the school’s realm. We had planned to hold a Non-Instructional day at the local aboriginal band office, to share our school growth plan with them and focus on developing positive relationships, but this event was postponed until band elections were completed.

Conclusion

One of the greatest strengths of Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary’s learning community is the fact that as an individual teacher, I feel “a deep sense of empowerment and autonomy and a deep personal commitment to the work of the school” (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001, p. 13). I am pleased to be a part of a learning community where “Power is not consolidated in the offices of administrators or in the hands of the key opinion leaders. Instead, it is shared across the community, and different individuals are empowered to offer leadership in their own ways, in their own world of work, and from their own knowledge bases.” (p. 14)
My principal is effective, for she shows the value of lifelong learning and values all staff members as leaders. She is a leader of leaders and is successful because she relies “intuitively on the different frames, blending them into a coherent, pragmatic, personal theory of organizations” (Bolman & Deal, p. 393). Our school’s culture and core values provide the “vital social glue that infuses an organization with passion and purpose” (Bolman & Deal in Fullan, 2001, p. 28).
It is certainly evident to me that the social responsibility component of the school growth plan is ebbed into the values and commitment of Red Bluff-Lhtako. I look forward to the opportunities for teaching social responsibility, I am proud it is my workplace and, more than anything, I am pleased that my children attend Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary School, a school community that values and teaches social responsibility.


REFERENCES
Bolman, Lee G. & Deal, Terrence. (1995). Common Views of Organizations. In Wren, J. (Ed.), The Leader's Companion (pp. 389-394). New York: The Free Press.
Fullan, Michael. (2003). The moral imperative of school leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Fullan, Michael. (2001). Leading in a culture of change (First ed). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Fullan, Michael. (1994). Teacher Leadership: A Failure to Conceptualize. In D. Walling (Ed.), Teachers as Leaders: Perspectives on the Professional Development of Teachers (pp. 241-253). Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Foundation.
Gabriel, John G. (2005). How to thrive as a teacher leader. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Halbert, Judy & Kaser, Linda. (2005). Case Studies from the Network of Performance Based Schools. Unpublished manuscript.
Halbert, Judy & Kaser, Linda. (2006). Teamwork that Matters: Improvement Ideas from BC Network Learning Communities. Unpublished manuscript.
Mitchell, Coral & Sackney, Larry. (2001, April). Communities of Leaders: Developing Leadership Capacity for a Learning Community. Paper presented at annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, Washington.
Red Bluff-Lhtako Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement