Module 2: Organisation theory

(Discussion response)

This reading made me think quite critically about my own school and experiences from working within a DoE K-6 primary school. Listening to the TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson took me back to my Undergrad days in Educational Psychology learning about “mass education” and how we are all machines in a cog, our creativity and decision-making ability stifled in a machine-like industrious organisation. My experience of this subject made me perceive education quite negatively and I felt almost pulled under a weight, that we could not possibly lift as educators.  Reading the Mintzberg Classification and comparing it to my school made me think about the negative bureaucratic issues that I suppose all public education organisations face. As such, I believe my school is a mixture of  the following:

• Machine – there is a visible hierarchy of leadership within the school, however without such there would no doubt be chaos and confusion. We would not keep the well-oiled machine running without.
• Divisional – like the Machine classification, there are clear leaders who oversee each area of the school, including wellbeing managers, Assistant Principals, Aboriginal Education Officers and other various leaders.
• Professional – all staff are specialised in what they do and receive many opportunities for professional learning to extend skill sets and knowledge. Many staff have extra skill sets, such as STEM, dance or curriculum areas;  which are quite often utilised. This also links to the Innovative classification.
• Innovative – staff are given the freedom (and encouraged) to pursue their talents and passions to drive staff and student learning and extra curricular activities.

After reading through each classification theory, I did begin to see the positives and not just the negatives in whole school organisation and classification. I began to see clear strengths and weaknesses within my own school organisation. For example, I believe there is a lack of clear communication within my school, which most likely stems from higher management and the importance of clear communication between staff not valued as highly as it should be. This greatly affects all staff members, which creates confusion, divide and low confidence in self and others. I also believe this happens when overall organisational goals replace the focus and importance of staff and student wellbeing.

 

A quote from Sir Ken Robinson also made me think critically about education and the expectations on the way in which we teach our students and expect them to learn ..

“If you are interested in the model of education, you don’t start from production line mentality.”

Lots of food for thought on this Friday afternoon.

[image retrieved from: https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/schools-as-factories-metaphors-that-stick/]