Are you married to your PLC?
Are you just flirting or dating? Or maybe engaged? What is your level of
commitment to the PLC process? These
were the questions and conversations that surfaced repeatedly as I crisscrossed
North America this summer, working with schools and districts in their
Professional Learning Communities.
Almost all of the staffs had
already had some form of introduction to the PLC concepts. Some districts had
sent administrators to a big PLC Institute, others had sent teacher teams to a
one-day or two-day Pro-D Event. A few more had already had a whole-staff
introduction of some sort. Several had
already made some of the structural changes such as proving collaborative PLC
time which was built right into the timetable, or creating formal PLC teams
with guidelines and team norms. Everyone I spoke with liked the concept of PLC.
However, the level of commitment was hit and miss.
In his recent book, In Praise of American Educators, Rick
DuFour reminds us that the “primary challenge in the PLC process is changing,
and not merely tweaking, the existing culture” (p. 100). DuFour insists, it is
not so much about what PLC’s do, but
rather how the individuals and the organization think and act together.
PLC is not a checklist, it is a way of being.
Ken Williams and Tom Hierck go even further in their new book, Starting a Movement, when they push our
thinking about the “patterns, habits and actions” that demonstrate “the
commitment required for PLCs to be embedded into the culture” of the school
(p.96).
According to Williams and
Hierck, we are flirting when we have
just a surface level of exploration or implementation. We are dating when we demonstrate some of the
characteristics of a PLC, but we don’t have any personal commitment to it. When
we are engaged in the process, we
demonstrate a deep commitment to the purpose, process and our collaborative
team.
In my conversations with several
school staffs recently, we took it one step further. What will it look like if you are married to the PLC process? If you and your team are married to the PLC process, there will be a deep commitment to the
process. Communication will be clear;
everyone will know the mission, vision, values and goals of the school. They
will have a collective understanding of WHY
we are all here together. Collaboration will be meaningful; teams of
teachers will work interdependently to clarify the most essential learning in
each grade or subject, and will share best practice for both instruction and
assessment. PLC members will celebrate
each other’s strengths and support each other to work on areas of improvement. People
married to their Professional
Learning Community will know they can lean on each other. They will help each
other get better, and sustain each other through the inevitable tough times.
Many excellent resources are
available that outline the big ideas, key concepts, critical questions and
desirable attributes of a PLC. These books are very helpful, but they risk becoming
more checklists. Members of a PLC must be willing to work on the commitment and
relationships required of being married to
their Professional Learning Community.
