Touching the untouchable. Managing emotions and attitudes of teachers towards educational quality. Jan Vanhoof Jan.vanhoof(at)uantwerpen.be Twitter: @vanhf_J For references to the studies used in this ppt, see: https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/jan-vanhoof/publicaties/

Which adjectives can describe the array of emotional responses you experienced so far since your arrival in Antwerp?

Six Primary Categories of Emotions Love = Affection + care Surprise = Something sudden, never experienced before Joy = Event of Happiness + feel free Fear = Anxiety + alarm Anger = Dissatisfied + violation of rules Sadness = Heart is Broken + no interest

Which of these adjectives would (still) be applicable to you if I would tell you a group of external experts is coming in this evening on behalf of your employer and is going to evaluate: Your active contribution to this conference so far & 2. The amount of individual learning that took place so far?

'Nobody wants to be evaluated by anybody at anytime’ (House, 1973)

My (and your) interest School self-evaluation Data use / data informed decision making School inspection

Quality care is not only about Systems en structures Regulations Instruments it is also about Emotions Attitudes Professional identity

Leadership (by principals, middle management and teachers) = (How) to have an impact on the thinking and behavior of team members (regarding quality care)

Emotions, attitudes and behavior How the (evaluation) environment is perceived Attitude Feelings Beliefs Behavioral Intentions Cognitive process Emotional process Emotional episodes Figure adapted from: Jones, G.R. (2013). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change. Seventh (global) Edition. New Jersey Pearson Prentice Hall. Behavior

Emotions and attitudes in/about evaluation contexts Empirical findings in 3 Flemish contexts School self-evaluation Data use / data informed decision making School inspection

Teachers’ attitudes towards school self-evaluation (N= 2600 teachers) score 1 - tend towards the left-hand variant score 6 - tend towards the right-hand variant

Inspection effects on staff’s emotions before and during inspection (N=2624 teachers)

Teachers’ affective responses to inspection feedback (N=21 teachers)

Data use by Flemish school principals (n=451): impact of attitude and self-efficacy - I use data to to underpin school priorities. - I encourage my team members to use data as a basis for their decisions. Data use Cognitive attitude - I firmly believe that working with data constitutes a valuable element for the underpinning of my school policy. Affective attitude - I am enthusiastic about working with data at school level Self-efficacy - I currently regard myself as sufficiently competent to interpret data correctly

Data use by Flemish school principals (n=451): impact of attitude and self-efficacy

Data use by Flemish school principals (n=451): impact of attitude and self-efficacy

Touching the untouchable. Managing emotions and attitudes of teachers towards educational quality.

Provide the team with a common goal Evaluation is not a goal in itself, it is a means to strengthen the school (community) in: Making children eager to learn, equipping them with an explorative attitude. Enabling them in applying knowledge and skills to get a grip on their environment, equipping them with competent behavior, Making them feel good about themselves and making them socially emotionally strong!   Making them to treat others with respect, equipping them a basic attitude that strives for solidarity and being connected.

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche How strong are we in making explicit what is meaningful and worthwhile in quality care, individually and collectively?

Make the team (feel) competent From ‘professional development for evaluation use’ to ‘evaluation use for professional development’

Selecting evaluation data When teachers and principels talk about their evaluation literacy (N=24 teachers and principals) Competent Selecting evaluation data Not competent Interpreting and analyzing evaluation data Competent Not competent

Make the team (feel) competent Apply emotional intelligence, since irritations are an inevitable part of innovation Anticipate, observe (un)conscious signals, understand and react accordingly

Make the team (feel) competent Ellen Mandinach

Make the team (feel) competent Develop evaluation literacy skills Provide time and resources Immerse teachers in evaluation contexts Make existing knowledge and skills explicit, play a brokerage role Provide good, relevant and accessible information Enable feedback as a guiding and motivating strategy Bring the expertise and perspective of external people into your classes and school

Create a context of autonomy and development Set standards about the principles of quality care… …not about concrete strategies, methods, instruments and topics to be covered

(According to the perception of teachers in your educational context), is your quality care system characterised by autonomy for teachers? Autonomy refers to the need to experience freedom in choosing and deciding on one's own actions. Autonomy is characterized by the absence of experiencing pressure and the feeling that one must obey. Autonomy thus refers to the possibility of determining one's own behavior. For teachers, for example, it concerns experiencing freedom in the choice of own quality care activities and in the alignment of learning activities to one's own needs.

(According to the perception of teachers in your educational context), are our quality care systems characterised by a development orientation for teachers? Make school and classroom development the central goal, accountability is not the primary motivation

Self-determination theory: Three basic needs (Deci & Ryan) Autonomy Belonging Self-determination theory: Three basic needs (Deci & Ryan) Competence

'Nobody wants to be evaluated by anybody at anytime’ towards Touch the untouchable from 'Nobody wants to be evaluated by anybody at anytime’ towards To evaluate, and being evaluated are seen as a natural part of the professional identity of teachers and principals

Touching the untouchable. Managing emotions and attitudes of teachers towards educational quality. Jan Vanhoof