Reflective Entry 1 - Siloed Teaching Teams in Education - why would they need to change?

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Why wouldn't we want a siloed team?

When I think of effective teaching teams working in an educational setting I think of those teams that are collegial, cohesive and collaborative in working towards achieving best outcomes for learners. I think of schools where the structures, protocols and practices focus on professional learning and collaborative practice designed to improve teaching and learning (ERO, 2016). What then happens when these teaching teams are:

  • Working in silos, pursuing their own agendas and interpreting school expectations in their own way? Why and how does this concept of siloed teams occur? 

  • What impact does School / Senior Leadership have on this situation? And, what communication and collaborative strategies may be missing from Senior Leadership?

  • What digital strategies can we engage with to bring alignment and collaboration across the school?

This is a key area of research that I would like to explore to identify how schools can eliminate the silo effect and create collaborative and digital practice that aligns teaching and learning throughout the school.



How do we get siloed teams?

When teams are working in silos it is important to look at the reasons why. 

Firstly, I would identify a siloed team as a teaching team that works within its own limits, sets their own expectations for teaching, learning and curriculum, and generally does their own thing in their own way within a school setting. There would be little to no connection / collaboration with the other teams within the school. When educational contexts have inconsistent protocols and procedures across all levels of the school this can leave ambiguity for Team Leaders and teams in understanding the expectations for teaching and learning. In effect, this creates the silos. Without school-wide collaboration, engaging in meaningful digital practice, consistency will be lacking and we will be perpetuating the silo effect.

I believe that siloed teams are not the intention of teaching teams but perhaps come from a lack of consistency, communication and collaboration from within the School Senior Leadership Team (SLT). And, if I take this point of view, then what digital and collaborative practices could be engaged to address this issue?



Can we disestablish silos and create cohesion / alignment?

I believe an effective leadership team ensures that senior leaders work together as a cohesive team, with clearly defined roles, clear and concise communication streams, and a collaborative approach to decision making and subsequent action. In another ERO (2019) publication, that focuses on collaborative practice within Kāhui Ako, there is a focus on the ability of leaders to motivate, energise and progress collaboration by having a strong clarity of purpose and direction. This is key to the disestablishment of silos and for the establishment of alignment, consistency and cohesion throughout a school.

This, therefore begs the question, what digital and collaborative practices can be used to create cohesion and alignment across the school, starting from Senior Leadership and evidenced right through to the teacher in the classroom?



What impact can agile and lean practices have on cohesion? 

I want to research the impact of using agile and lean practices, particularly the use of Scrum and Kanban processes, to develop cohesion and alignment within a school, and the impact this can have on teaching and learning within classrooms.

Agile and lean practices in education have come from the digital software development industry. They focus on the learner and the following values:

“...of agency, outcomes and (continuous) improvement, processes for reflection and iteration at a pace managed by the learner, and techniques for collaboration, communication and (real world) problem-solving.” (Johnson, 2020, p.20).

I want to explore the flexibility, accountability, speed and collaboration that can come from the use of SCRUM / KANBAN. This is a process that breaks tasks into sprints - sprints are ways to break down tasks / learning into smaller more immediate ‘jobs’ that can be actioned quickly to get to the end goal more efficiently. With sprints integrated into a KANBAN (task management board) that is used by all team members - can cohesion and alignment be created? Can cohesion and alignment be created firstly by the Senior Leadership Team and then through to Team Leaders, Teachers and Classrooms?

What might this look like?


References:


Education Review Office. (2016). School Leadership that Works. Wellington: ERO. Retrieved from https://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/school-leadership-that-works/

Education Review Office. (2019). Collaboration in practice: insights into implementation. Wellington: ERO. Retrieved from: https://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/collaboration-in- practice-insights-into-implementation/

Johnson, C. (2020). Agile and lean concepts for teaching and learning: bringing methodologies from industry to the classroom: edited by David Parsons and Kathryn MacCallum, Singapore, Springer, 1st ed. 2019 edition, 2018, 441 pp., £107.19 (hbk), ISBN-10: 9811327505/ISBN-13: 978-9-81132-750-6. Action Learning: Research & Practice, 17(3), 339–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2020.1820673

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