The role of parents & the community in km
Parent/Community Goal:
To apply knowledge management principles to our role as school leaders in order to glean information from parents/community members who support the vision of a thriving public school. It is imperative that we gain as much explicit and tacit data as possible to make informed decisions regarding the children of our district in relation to their education.
Challenge/Opportunity:
The proposed implementation of the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards into our District’s curriculum will be investigated.
Factors from which to frame the challenge/opportunity (Sallis and Jones, 2002):
Methods to gather meaningful knowledge from parents the community stakeholders:
How inquiring leaders can use this knowledge to lead a school district:
To apply knowledge management principles to our role as school leaders in order to glean information from parents/community members who support the vision of a thriving public school. It is imperative that we gain as much explicit and tacit data as possible to make informed decisions regarding the children of our district in relation to their education.
Challenge/Opportunity:
The proposed implementation of the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards into our District’s curriculum will be investigated.
Factors from which to frame the challenge/opportunity (Sallis and Jones, 2002):
Methods to gather meaningful knowledge from parents the community stakeholders:
- Informal conversations that contribute to the overall informal knowledge base are important. Speaking to parents and other community members can provide valuable information about how things really work and what really keeps things going. Leaders who are visible in the community can help determine the difference between the way things are and the way they should be from the community’s point of view (p. 8).
- Listening to people talk about their personal knowledge is an important activity. This feedback of tacit knowledge shows that you care about their opinions while also adding to the leadership team’s perception information (p. 85).
- Action Learning Projects, as part of learning about the effects of the Common Core curriculum, can help to frame the issue. Investigating, with a team of community stakeholders, and reporting its findings back to a wider group can increase the collective wisdom of the leadership team. This is Project can be particularly beneficial if the group is made of people of all ages and from all walks of life (p. 86).
- Learning Conversations that involve invested community members recalling past educational initiatives (Outcome Based Education for example) and how they were perceived from their perspective. This could include current or past School Board members and parents who have a history with the school (child who graduated recently, etc.). The session would focus on what went right and what went wrong during the implementation these past initiatives (p. 20).
- Invest in the time and energy needed to tap into the resources of a local or state-wide knowledge community. Groups favoring or opposing the implementation of the Common Core standards are important to keep close tabs on so that we can harvest tacit knowledge. A sense of joint enterprise around the Common Core initiative reflects the local, state, or national community’s understanding and gives valuable insight (p. 31).
- A focus group that gathers meaningful information can provide for the collective memory of the community that is grounded in their existing values and belief system. We need to create the initial conditions for this learning environment to communicate successfully followed by educating the team(s) to make the most of their opportunities together (p. 95).
How inquiring leaders can use this knowledge to lead a school district:
- Successfully managing knowledge for the academic growth of our students rests upon our ability to exploit all forms of knowledge, both formal and informal. We must develop open, knowledge-sharing cultures and process, linked to appropriate technologies. The knowledge gained through this process can help school leaders to both understand the perspective of the community and gain insight to creatively implement the Common Core standards. The productive use of this formal and informal knowledge is what can change the culture of an organization and thus impact teaching and learning (p. 6-8)
- After engaging in the data-gathering phase, organizations need to put a framework in place, to assist them in moving towards the development of a knowledge-management strategy. The starting point as we transition data to information is to classify and audit existing knowledge. This would be followed by the action phase where leaders provide the organization with options or scenarios moving forward. Scenario planning is a powerful tool for us to reflect upon as we plan for long-term success of our students. Practically laying out the vision in reference to a scenario helps the organization to adapt to change in reference to its vision. Planning with an eye to the future can harnesses creativity and provides for maximum impact when it answers genuine concerns like how to implement the Common Core standards (p. 63-68).
- Use what we learn from knowledge community involvement through the development and leveraging of tacit knowledge. This model for productive knowledge-sharing in education will benefit us as we become networking leaders. This will enable us to share resources and increase collaboration opportunities (p. 27-31).
- Apply data and information to come up with creative solutions that can reflected up in small and large group settings. This development of new ideas or different perspectives to old ideas is innovative and can transform existing structures. Solving problems through the application of this information needs also to be done on a consistent basis in order to achieve the greatest results (p. 88).
- The leaders of the organization, influenced by the community stakeholders, can lead change efforts based on what they’ve learned. Reporting out and developing an action plan that solves problems and improves the organization is the foundation to build upon. Taking the learning forward is the important next step as planning takes place for the future. Enacting these change efforts and collectively reflecting on tacit and explicit data results is the follow-up