Diane Reed

Why do standards and restructuring play such an important role in educational reform?

Bolman & Deal (1997) Four lenses people rely on to frame, assess, and respond to situations.

 Created a model to analyze the components of organizations  Theoretical model which has been tested with research  Can be helpful in seeing the organization as a whole  Four frames of the whole

 Vision, mission, beliefs and goals  Rules, roles, and responsibilities  Policies, procedures  Physical environment and place  Technology  Work environment

Organizations achieve efficiency through established goals and appropriate division of labor

 Organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal agenda and extraneous pressures and units mesh  Structures must be designed to fit a system’s current circumstances  When structural deficiencies arise they can be corrected through analysis and restructuring.

 Human capital  Intellectual capital  Skill sets  Rights, responsibilities, rewards  Financial capital

 What people do for and to each other  People and School are interdependent  Views the frame with reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Power Congruence, conflict, competition Communication patterns Formal and informal power RCSD politics Community building

Members have differences in values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of reality Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining and negotiations Most important decisions involve allocating resources Scarce resources and differences put conflict in the center of interpersonal dynamics and make power the most important asset or lack of power the most important need

 School culture  Symbols  Ceremony and celebration  Stories and storytelling  Heroes and heroines

 What is important is not what occurs, but what it means. What is expressed is more important than what is produced.  Events and actions have multiple interpretations.

 Facing uncertainty, people create symbols to resolve confusion, find direction, and give hope and faith.  Culture forms the mesh that bonds the school together and unites people. Symbols are the building blocks of culture.

 Structural  Confusion, chaos, loss of clarity  Human Resource  Anxiety, vagueness, uncertainty, feeling of inadequacy  Political  Lack of power and independence, perception of winners and losers  Symbolic  Loss of meaning and purpose—retreat to comfort of the past

How can it be approached from each of the 4 frames?  Structural  Human Political  Symbolic

The key to being a highly effective leader is the ability to use multiple perspectives to view common challenges and solve difficult problems.

 The structural frame—clear organizational standards and goals lead to greater productivity  The human resource frame—sharing individual needs and motives nurtures a sense of ownership  The political frame—conflict and compromise are a constant source of renewal  The symbolic frame—culture, rituals, and beliefs cultivate shared values and meanings

“To find an extraordinary photograph, I need the right lens on my camera. In other words, if I don’t view the challenge from the right perspective, I won’t have a chance of finding a creative solution… The wrong lens—the wrong perspective— keeps me from capturing the extraordinary view. When I corrected my perspective, I found the real photograph ” DeWitt Jones – National Geographic “Seeing the Ordinary as Extraordinary