Professional Capital

My first teaching experience was as a long-term substitute, teaching fifth grade in Richmond, California. The total population was 100% free lunch, with many students well below grade level academically. Soon after I began as a long-term sub, the school adopted a "scripted" curriculum that told me what to say and how to say it. At first, as a new, inexperienced, untrained teacher, I liked the curriculum. But as I received professional development and university training, I began to change my mind. I was not allowed to go beyond the script and use my professional training. I felt frustrated. I saw my students and I as robots, going through the motions. We were physically present, but emotionally and intellectually uninspired.

After three years, I changed schools, At my new school, I was allowed to experiment and use my training. I began dialoguing and discussing what worked and what didn't work with other teachers. We discussed data and teaching practices. We read articles and went to training to learn the latest and best teaching practices and assessments. It was a great environment to learn the art of teaching.

As a teacher, I became a facilitator of learning. I placed my students in groups, and allowed them to collaborate and discuss their ideas, just like I was allowed to learn. I had them write, think, present, give and get feedback, and revise their thinking and writing. From this practice, I saw students on all academic levels learning.

In the book The Principal: Three Keys to Maximizing Impact, Michael Fullan writes about "Professional Capital." Professional Capital is made of three forms of capital: Human Capital, Social Capital, and Decisional Capital. For the sake of this article, I want to focus on the idea of Social Capital.

Social Capital is about the quality and quantity of relationships and interactions between colleagues in the workplace. The concept is that groups and the focus on improving the group interactions through collaboration, discussions, and dialogue, the school as a whole will improve. Through this Social Capital the school develops a "shared depth" that allows the teachers and teaching practices to improve through problem solving and developing expertise.

To me, it makes sense intuitively, to create an atmosphere where Social Capital can thrive. As a leader, I try to educate myself and then my staff. I try to get them to learn new information, new ideas, best teaching practices, and then discuss and see how it applies to their practice. I want them to learn as much from each other as they would from anyone else. This, of course, is a work in progress, but something to strive for.