Author: Sherene Noble, M.A.

Welcome to rootsandeduculture. It has been a long time since I have written for this forum. Thanks for your patience as I worked through the challenges that limited my work in this space.

This blog aims to explore issues in education and culture in Guyana in particular and the world in general, as well as how those issues diverge or intersect. In this article, I will pick up from where I left off, discussing professional learning communities (PLCs) and what needs to happen to foster a culture in Guyana that is accommodating of these practices. 

In my last post dated July 18, 2018, and titled, Social Capital, Resistance, and Reform, I discussed the attitudes of some teachers and education officials in Guyana toward professional learning and development. That post stemmed from a conversation with a former colleague who asked how I felt about teachers visiting other schools to observe best practices. Teachers from my former colleague’s school had been asked to observe their counterparts at another school and were vehemently opposed to the idea. When I told her that it would be beneficial, she disagreed, arguing that “there is nothing new I can learn from those teachers.” She added, “How much can you learn in two hours?”

 I suggested in that article that cultural factors such as an authoritarian model and/or the banking model of education might be responsible for the shaping of an attitude of resistance to this kind of professional learning and lead to a failure to tap into the collective intelligence and social capital of professional learning communities (PLCs). My recent visit to Guyana and interaction with a few educators led me to believe that there are some attitudinal shifts that need to occur if educators in Guyana are to benefit from these types of professional learning opportunities.

What Are Professional Learning Communities?

Professional learning communities are also referred to as communities of practice, professional communities of learners, and communities of continuous inquiry and improvement. They are by-products of the concept of social capital, which sees social relationships as a resource through which individuals and groups can work together to achieve goals. Used wisely, PLCs can foster professional growth by providing opportunities for teachers to observe and learn from the practices (and malpractices) of themselves and others. It helps educators to reflect, strengthens rapport among them, and provides a forum for them to have intellectual conversations around effective instructional methodologies, teaching, and learning. The idea is for teaching to be viewed as scholarship.

PLCs comprise groups of educators who collaborate to examine their instructional practices with the goal of achieving improved student outcomes. For example, it can look like groups of teachers from a particular school department, using a specified protocol to examine student work to determine what knowledge and skills students need to work on to meet/surpass benchmarks. It can look like groups of educators collaborating to research and implement new best practices. It can look like peer intervisitation, where teachers visit their colleagues’ classrooms/schools and observe in a teacher-facilitated, non-evaluative way to foster the collaborative development of teachers’ instructional knowledge and skills. 

Professional Learning Communities are characterized by a culture of “openness and collegiality”, within which educators collaborate to critically assess instructional practices, procedures, and systems. This means that teachers openly discuss the flaws in their work, and use their colleagues’ constructive criticism as lenses through which they can reflect and refine what they do in order to improve learning. Stoll (n.d.), refers to it as “a collective enterprise” that fosters professional learning and development which in turn results in high-quality instruction and improved learning outcomes.  

What is significant here is that there needs to be an institutional culture that promotes and sustains this type of collaborative inquiry. Education leaders must help to develop the appropriate culture by themselves having an openness to new ideas, continuous learning and development, and a belief that learning is an ongoing process from which they are not exempt. I do not limit my definition of continuous learning to that of the attainment of additional qualifications. My definition is much broader, informed by Shulman’s (1993) notion of teaching as “community property” in which teaching is “intellectual work” and the said work produces artifacts that are available for scrutiny, analysis, and review by peers, as well as the society at large (Teaching as a Scholarship, n.d.). 

Secondly, educators have to revisit their attitudes about learning from each other. If I were to judge from my Guyanese colleague’s distress at having to observe other teachers’ best practices, I would say that this would require a complete paradigm shift. Educators must start by relinquishing notions that constructive criticism of their work and having to refine that work means that their work is no good. Perhaps we should adopt a ‘good, better, best’ view of what we do and an understanding that for our work to be ‘best’ it requires a shift from solitary practice to collaborative practice.   

In order to create this accommodating culture and derive benefits from PLCs, there can be no room for egos or arrogance. Neither one’s status nor qualifications should determine the extent of one’s openness and willingness to have one’s work scrutinized and constructively criticized. Education leaders (not bosses) must then provide the ‘space and atmosphere’  for the successful transmission of these values to the educators they lead. Education Officers must see their roles as being to guide, support, and inspire, not to hound, disrespect, and beleaguer educators in their charge. Insisting that teachers engage in intervisitation on the precept of the inferiority of one and superiority of the other, serves only to demean and demoralize, and would not allow teachers to reap the benefits of these collaborative inquiries. For PLCs to be successful, there must be the right ‘atmosphere’, one of collegiality. Furthermore, PLCs are not haphazard enterprises. They are conducted in structured ways, according to established norms and protocols. Time is afforded to teachers to engage in these communities as part of professional development. This is what I mean when I say education leaders need to provide space. 

Our education system will remain stagnated in pre-colonial and colonial intents and demands if we do not revisit our attitudes toward professional learning and lean into each other as valuable resources. 

References:

Stoll, L. (n.d.). Developing professional learning communities: Messages for learning networks. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/.

Shulman, L. S. (1993, November). Teaching as community property; putting an end to pedagogical solitude. Depts.Washington.Edu.

Teaching as a Scholarship. (n.d.). Focus on Inquiry. Retrieved October 06, 2022, from https://inquiry.galileo.org/ch5/teaching-as-a-scholarship/

This month I struggled to decide what to write about; not because I am bereft of ideas, but because there are so many topical issues, I could not decide which should take precedence. This changed after a former colleague messaged me on Facebook to ask my opinion on the issue of teachers visiting other schools to observe best practices. Staff at my colleague’s school had been asked to observe teachers at another school. They were vehemently opposed to the idea.

My views were at variance with hers. To my astonishment, she justified her opposition to the idea with the argument that “there is nothing new I can learn from those teachers.” She added, “How much can you learn in two hours?”

I will let you pause for a moment to digest that!

Now, let us examine the two major issues at stake.

To the best of my knowledge, peer intervisitation or collaborative inquiry is not a staple of professional learning and development amongst the community of educators in Guyana. In fact, my colleague’s objection to the idea may have stemmed from a human tendency to reject newness, compounded by an approach by education officials that reeked of arrogance and condescension. To provide a little background, officials visited the school in question and found that the teachers (apparently through no fault of theirs) were not fully prepared for the new school year. They were compared in uncomplimentary terms with teachers of another school and ordered to visit that school for cues on putting their house in order. This ruffled feathers and fueled resistance to what might otherwise have been fruitful intervisitation. Because of the manner in which education officials handled the matter, they squandered an opportunity to implement a practice that is highly useful for developing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills.

Peer Intervisitation is a teacher-facilitated, non-evaluative tool that uses observations from classroom visits to foster the collaborative development of teachers’ instructional knowledge and skills. It happens across subject areas, levels, and schools. This tool is a by-product of the concept of social capital, which sees social relationships as a resource through which individuals and groups can work together to achieve goals. Used or implemented wisely, it can foster professional growth by providing opportunities for teachers to observe and learn from the practices (and malpractices) of others. It helps educators to reflect on their own practices, strengthens rapport among them, and provides a forum for them to have conversations around effective instructional methodologies. In my estimation, it is an amazing professional development tool. It has served me well as a public school teacher here in the United States.

When I visited Guyana in 2016, I observed an early childhood classroom. In the short time that I was there, my knowledge of a concept was refreshed, I noticed some strategies that I felt I could take away and use in my classroom, and I also noticed some things I thought the teacher could have done differently. Because of time constraints, the teacher and I did not debrief, but I did manage to say to her, “I don’t know why we don’t do more of this in Guyana.” Peer intervisitation must become part of professional development practices in Guyana.

Which brings me to one of those two comments I paused at to let you ponder: “How much can you learn in two hours?” I’m going to discuss the ridiculousness of it only to demonstrate how ingrained and dangerous resistance to new ideas, and new ways of doing things is. I resist the notion that my colleague truly believes that two hours is NOT sufficient time to learn anything. If she does, then we might have to discredit any and every learning experience that she has completed at university that was under two hours, or any and all periods that she has taught that were fewer than two hours. I think you get the drift. This I see as a case of finding every possible objection, regardless of how deficient it might be, in support of the cause de resistance au changement. Sometimes we need to take a step outside of our emotional selves to examine an issue objectively. Education officials may have mishandled the situation but the greater considerations should be the extent to which the policy is beneficial to us in the professional learning community, and the extent to which it ultimately helps the learners in our charge.

I am still stupefied by her assertion that she cannot learn anything new from those teachers. We can learn from everyone, even the dull and the ignorant. We can learn from a person’s successes as well as from a person’s failures. Lifelong learning should be the goal of every person. It should be an aspiration of educators. If we as educators are to attain improved outcomes for our students then we must engage in reflective practices. Providing and receiving peer feedback aids this process. We must experiment with shared ideas. We must assess and reflect on the effectiveness of the different strategies/methodologies that we use in the instructional process. Collaborative approaches such as Intervisitation provide opportunities to do this and have been proven effective in improving teacher practice.

I would dare suggest that my colleague’s closed-mindedness is typical of the authoritarian educator. This type of educator believes that not only is he/she the authoritarian but also the authority. There is no need for an authority to consult with minions. As a result of this mindset, teachers and students alike are deprived of the opportunity to benefit from collaborative learning practices and communities; to learn from each other, and to build off each others’ ideas. Social capital is being squandered.

This demonstrates that education reformists in Guyana need to act urgently to correct the ingrained attitudes that are so destructive to our educational practices and the development of our human resources.

I was at a function in Brooklyn when the guest of honor, a visiting government functionary, announced that the Guyana government would be providing numerous scholarships in the fields of technology and engineering to students. He then added that the government would not be providing similar support in the areas of Literature and the arts. To say that I was astounded would be an understatement. The government’s efforts at preparing its citizenry for success in a technologically advanced world and in an oil economy must be commended. However, I struggle with the idea that any government would be so singularly shortsighted that they do not see a role for or the importance of the arts in said economy.

Cultural Pillars Re-visited

Let us return to a concept I briefly discussed in one of my earlier posts: that of the pillars of society. These pillars exist in an interrelationship with each other but each is equally responsible for influencing and sustaining our culture. When one is weakened, pressure is placed on the others. If all are weakened, society crumbles. One of these very important pillars is that of the Arts and Sciences. The arts refer to the various forms including literature, music, dance, painting, sculpture, etc, through which our creativity and imagination are expressed. In Guyana, this sector is disregarded: an inference that can be made by the fact that it is severely underfunded and under-promoted, or the fact that many people in the arts are not afforded the level of esteem that they deserve. Any proposed disinvestment is as frightening as it is foolhardy, as it further de-emphasizes the arts component of this pillar leaving a disabled pillar to bear its weight.

In The Arts and Academic Achievement, Ellen Winner, et al, argue thus in favor of the arts being taken as seriously as other disciplines, “Cultures are judged on the basis of their arts; and most cultures and most historical eras have not doubted the importance of studying the arts. . . the arts should be a part of every child’s education … given serious treatment as is the case with mathematics, or history, or biology. Let’s remember why societies have always included the arts in every child’s education. The reason is simple. The arts are a fundamentally important part of culture, and an education without them is an impoverished education, leading to an impoverished society. Studying the arts should not have to be justified. The arts are as important as the sciences: they are time-honoured ways of learning, knowing, and expressing.”

Some Benefits of the Arts

Investment in the arts can have multiple benefits which will obviously diffuse into every sector of society.

There are numerous studies which link the arts to improvement in the affective domain. Whether persons are participants through creation, performance or observation, their wellbeing, according to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, is influenced via the “senses, imagination and thought”. The arts empower the individual to pause and reflect on realities; help shape and embolden dreams. Think of the numerous ways we would have a better society if its citizens experience that sense of well-being associated with participation in the arts.

If that were not argument sufficient for any administration to invest solidly in the arts, let us consider its benefits on cognitive development.

Neuroscience research connects the physical and mental activities required for the arts to brain development. Specific forms help stimulate and develop specific areas of the brain, leading to improved cognition. David A. Spusa, author of How the Brain Works notes, “During the brain’s early years, neural connections are being made at a rapid rate. Much of what young children do as play — singing, drawing, dancing — are natural forms of art. These activities engage all the senses and wire the brain for successful learning. When children enter school, these art activities need to be continued and enhanced”.

Our educational system, partly because of budgetary constraints, has failed to provide this type of support to its learners, missing out on the opportunity to hone and maximise cognitive processes. It has also done a major disservice to the nation by perpetuating a logic of education that has produced educationally lopsided or one-dimensional graduates. This is costly to the extent that while individuals may have expertise in particular areas they may lack a wider appreciation of life and the imaginativeness of thought. As an example, the society may produce excellent economists and technicians, but they may lack appreciation for aesthetics, for the environment, etc. Or you may have builders who could construct technically sound structures, but fail to produce one that is functional or appealing. In this age of globalization, intense knowledge, competitiveness, and innovation, survival and success require graduates who are increasingly multidisciplinary and sophisticated in thought. A balanced educational system which includes an emphasis on the arts best serves this purpose. A well thought out government policy would not fail to acknowledge this.

It also needs to be realized that the arts have economic value. Culture and the arts are important tourism products that can be effectively marketed for economic gain. Activities in the arts create demand and supply relationships which affect a country’s GDP. What is needed is continual investment and innovation in the arts to expand and consolidate economic opportunities. In other words, we need to develop the cultural industry so that we can stimulate commerce and attract international interest. We need to develop our cultural industry so that people involved in the arts, as well as the country as a whole, could earn meaningful income.

Are we so short-sighted that we cannot recognize that scholarships need not be limited to the field of medicine and agriculture, technology, engineering? Charles ‘Chuck’ Palahniuk, American Novelist and Journalist posited that “The first step – especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money – … is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.”  For this to happen we have to be provided with the tools that will parlay our efforts into achievements of international quality and significance. Give the arts the requisite support. Rather than taking action that will ultimately weaken this critical pillar of society, we must make it a matter of policy to strengthen it if we are ever to forge a national identity and a well-functioning society.

via Culture, Pillars and Song.

I grew up thinking that culture was the expression of creative abilities through music, dance, literature, art, etc. This is a misconception that many exponents of culture in Guyana subscribe to, as is evidenced by the way they speak of and treat it. When I became an educator, I began to think more critically about the interrelationships among culture and the various pillars of society: family, education, government, religion, commerce, the arts/sciences, and the media, and my role in helping to foster a deeper understanding of the concept. I started to view culture in its much broader sense. I was enthralled by the interconnectedness of culture and the various pillars and how those interactions shape our society. Societies are built upon these pillars. Society weakens and/or crumbles when these pillars weaken or crumble. A failure to understand that these pillars are part of a broader cultural dynamic can lead to an inability to recognize how the degradation of one pillar affects all others, thus resulting in a breakdown in society. Culture, therefore, cannot and must not be envisaged as mere expressions of our creativity, but rather as the integral thread in the tapestry that determines societal traits, norms, and development. As an educator, I’m interested in being part of conversations about these interactions, particularly as they relate to the interrelationship and interactions between culture and education. I invite you to join me as I analyze cultural and educational issues in Guyana, the Caribbean, and further afield. Any opinions I offer will be grounded in research and theory. However, you are free to challenge or extend my ideas where necessary.

Happy reading!

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