Two Ways to Engage with Resistant Teachers
How we interact with faculty about schoolwide literacy improvement is dependent on the openness of each teacher
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It’s the beginning of the school year, and your literacy initiative is prepared and ready to roll out.
Previous years’ data and current research shows that this is the direction to go.
Professional development has been scheduled.
Your instructional coach or literacy specialist has helped organize materials and will lead some of the learning sessions, including in-class demonstrations.
What could go wrong?
One word: resistance.
More specifically, a few teachers who are satisfied with the status quo. They felt they have benefited from keeping things the way they are, even though student data shows otherwise. These individuals become vanguards for outdated practices and resources.
What does resistance look like?
Openly questioning the new initiative in non-productive ways, e.g. “Why are we doing this?”
Putting on a respectful appearance during professional learning but later closing their classroom doors and engaging in business as usual.
Attempting to bring colleagues to their way of thinking.
As a leader, how do you engage with resistant faculty as you seek to disrupt the status quo and, subsequently, student inequities?
I see one of two pathways.
Which pathway is dependent on one question:
Is this person open and receptive to growth?
For the resistant yet open-minded, make a point of engaging in several positive and personal interactions with this person. These can be as simple as regular classroom visits without any agenda or note taking tools; just bring yourself and experience instruction. For instance, notice any personal artifacts, such as pictures of their family by their desk, and ask about them.
Get to know them on a personal level before engaging in professional conversations.
Once trust has been established and a relationship is cultivated, see their instruction through a strength-based lens. When you have a conversation with this person, it can be as relaxed as if you were talking about the weather.
"Tell me more about your writing center. It really caught my attention when I walked in and saw the kids interacting here."
This one invitation to talk about their practice can become a touchstone for several future conversations. It can lead to other aspects of their instruction where change is needed, and the schoolwide initiative is the pathway to improvement.
Teachers love to talk about their practice. If trust has been established, their confidence in you as someone with good intentions is high. When it feels right, or even when you are unsure, you can share your thinking about where you would like to them to focus on as a next step.
What is the difference between someone who is open to new ideas and someone who is not?
This person always has their guard up.
They are reluctant to engage in any type of conversation beyond greetings and exchanging basic information.
They may become openly defiant when you push a bit on where they could grow.
In these situations, I have reminded myself that I cannot be a thought partner if the other person chooses to not engage.
This is where our positions of authority become important. I don’t like compliance-based initiatives. And yet if we are confident in the direction we need to go, it is not a choice they get to make. They can choose how to engage with the initiative, but they cannot choose whether to engage at all. It’s not fair to the kids or the school culture.
In these situations, I have strived (and not always succeeded) to be both honest and compassionate with the other person.
This conversation always takes place in person and behind closed doors. I start with an appreciation for their time, then make it clear what is expected of them in their classrooms, and close by asking for any questions or concerns they might have.
For example, if including students in organizing and managing the classroom library is the priority, I might share the following:
“I appreciate the enthusiasm you bring to your literacy instruction. It makes a difference with students. I have also noticed that the classroom environment is largely controlled by you. As you know from our previous meeting, co-organizing classroom libraries with students is our schoolwide priority. We need you to embrace this priority. That includes letting students decide how to categorize the texts and creating some of the labels for the bins. It's a priority because if students never experience choice and authority in what to read or how to manage a reading life, they are less likely to become lifelong readers. Please let me know if what I am sharing is unclear or if you have any questions.”
I emphasized the “why” in this message. It often gets forgotten when we communicate expectations.
If we have a strong “why”, there is less debate around the “what” or the “how”.
In summary:
A schoolwide literacy initiative that is data-informed and supported by the most current literature gives leaders the confidence to move forward with it.
Resistance becomes visible when the expectations for change create a gap for faculty who are satisfied with the status quo and currently lack the skills for improvement.
Before attempting to engage in professional conversations, make many attempts to build relationships and personal trust with teachers.
Look first for teachers’ strengths as eventual entry points to conversations around areas for growth. Lean on what they do well as leverage points for improvement.
It takes two to tango; if a teacher is not open to any type of change, positional authority may be the only option.
In all conversations, balance compassion with clarity. Always keep the door open to a change in beliefs that can lead to a change in behaviors.
What strategies have you found effective when engaging with reluctant faculty?
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