THOUGHTstream Blog

What is Community Engagement?

Posted by jamie on May 19, 2012 Engagement, School Leadership No Responses »

May 192012

We talk a lot about engagement. The Brian Solis book Engage! has sold millions of copies effectively stealing the meme from Star Trek’s Captain Picard. But what do we really mean by “engage” at the community level? What is community engagement?

We’ve looked at this before. A few months ago Dave blogged about the difference between Engagement and Involvement and more recently about High Definition Engagement to which I added a post about Differentiated Engagement . We also have a great solution paper that explores the unique challenges of Parent Engagement. All of these offer perspectives and help us look at and understand engagement in different ways. Here are a few more perspectives.

Defining community engagement

The National School Boards Association defines community engagement as

an ongoing, collaborative process during which the school district works with the public to build understanding, guidance, and active support for the education of the children in its community

The Annenberg Institute (1998) has identified five shared characteristics of community engagement. (see also Engaging the Public in its Schools ASCD). The characteristics are:

An inclusive and dialogue driven process
A dedication to making meaningful and long-term improvement in schools
A commitment to creating dynamic, two-way partnerships
Sincere efforts to find common ground
An atmosphere of candor and mutual trust

Persuasion is not engagement

An engaged community is very different from a persuaded community. David Mathews defines an engaged public as a committed, interrelated citizenry rather than a persuaded populace.

Public [or community] engagement presupposes a much more collaborative process in which individuals and groups think through issues together in a struggle to arrive at solutions they can all live with. (Wadsworth 1997)

Communication is not engagement

One of best ways I’ve seen to define community engagement overall if from Kathy Gardner Chadwick’s book Improving Schools Through Community Engagement - A Practical Guide for Educators. In it she cites Annenberg’s research team with a clear comparison of the difference between communication and enagagement.

Who are we engaging?

Another BIG consideration is the “who”. When we talk about engaging community we need to know what engagement is and we need to know who our community is. Who do we need to engage? Who are are not engaging well enough? Once we can answer these kinds of questions (questions that would work great in a Ts btw), then we can start trying to find our where they are and how we need to change what we do, so that we can engage with our community.

In the school system, government sector, public health and for many non-profit organizations, the “who” is everybody. This is where business has an advantage. If you have a product or specific service you can often target of at least segment your customers so that your community engagement is a bit more manageable. Not so in the public fold. Community engagement can mean you need to engage everyone.

In education for example this means genuinely engaging students, teachers, administrators, school boards, local government, business owners, non-profits in you area, other publicly funded organizations, people who live in your area who don’t have children, the media… Everybody.

Despite the challenges, school districts and individual schools are succeeding in engaging community. I suspect this may have something to do with the people driving engagement process. Educators are innovators and they have picked up the challenge of community engagement and run with it for the past decade.

Many school districts, schools and individual teachers have been quick to find ways to use new technologies to increase community engagement. Check out Richard Byrne’s amazing Free Technology For Teachers Blog if you’re new to the idea of using tech to teach or to engage. Or stop by one of the many Twitter chats that focus on education and online community engagement.

If you are feeling like you need some motivation, check out these community engagement success stories from the Tamarack Community Resource site. They lists some great examples of how effectively community engagement can be done in the education system and how impressive the outcomes of those initiatives have been. Annenberg also has a full listing of case studies of community engagement projects.

So… Let’s engage!

Ohhh… You’re waiting to be invited? Not sure where to start? Feel it’s not your place?

We can all do something to engage community or become engaged in community. To quote Seth Godin, “Everyone is now also a leader.” We don’t need to wait for permission or an invitation. We just need to make it something we value and then reach out and start something.

What can you do to engage your community?

Do you have examples of community engagement events or processes? We’d love to hear about them.

Teach Kids To Ask Great Questions

Posted by jamie on May 16, 2012 Innovation, School Leadership No Responses »

May 162012

How do we teach kids to ask great questions? More importantly why is it important that we teach kids to learn how to ask great questions? Wait a minute! Kids are born curious. Kids begin asking great questions pretty much as soon as they learn to talk. If they (we) are born that way, what’s the problem? Could it be that we have been teaching the wrong things?

I recently read this Daily Riff Classic post, Would You Hire Your Own Kids? 7 Skills Schools Should Be Teaching Them by Tony Wagner . Wagner you may know from one of his many books on leadership, education or more recently from his newest release Creating Innovators – The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. Several things popped out from both the article and reviews of his new book.

Ask the right questions

What employers value has changed. It used to be that a skill set directly related to your profession ensured you of a job or at least got you in the door. Not so much any more. Here’s what Clay Parker said about what he looks for in a prospective employee.

“First and foremost, I look for someone who asks good questions. Our business is changing, and so the skills our engineers need change rapidly, as well. We can teach them the technical stuff. But for employees to solve problems or to learn new things, they have to know what questions to ask. And we can’t teach them how to ask good questions – how to think. The ability to ask the right questions is the single most important skill.” Clay Parker

Parker goes on to say that the ability to take part in a discussion was the second thing he looked for. The ability to work effectively on a team that may be at least partly virtual and diverse requires a different skill set. Are we teaching kids the right skills, in the right way? In my day the teachers asked the questions and we the learners attempted to answer. So the modeling was there. Did we collectively just not get it? Or where they asking the wrong questions and modeling the wrong way to ask questions? Or, was it that back in the day what they were doing worked. That educational system produced a society of people primed for the work environment that existed, then.

What kids need to know now

In the Global Achievement Gap Wagner identified the core competencies that kids need to learn in school to take their place in today’s work environment.

Critical thinking and problem solving – the ability to ask the right questions
Collaboration across networks and leading by influence – not command and control tactics
Agility and adaptability
Initiative and entrepreneurialism
Accessing and analyzing information
Effective written and oral communication – not just grammar and punctuation but finding your own voice
Curiosity and imagination

In his latest offering he focuses in on innovation. Check out this short video about the book.

The book, by the way, is not just about innovation, it seeks to be innovative. The book includes over 60 original video produced by Bob Compton. The videos include interviews, footage of innovative schools and companies like IDEO. The goal of the videos is to expand on key ideas and offer a way to experience a book in a new way. The videos will be embedded right in the e-book format and via QR codes in the print version. The book website will feature new videos each month. This is a great move into a transmedia experience by a major author and book publisher.

The flipped classroom

The education system is not detached from this emerging need for new literacies. One of the most interesting discussions right now is about the flipped classroom. The initial idea of the flipped classroom was that the lecture or didactic information sharing would occur as homework, usually in the form of video or podcast leaving in-class time for “doing”. That definition, courtesy of The Daily Riff, has expanded to include:

A means to INCREASE interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers.
An environment where students take responsibility for their own learning.
A classroom where the teacher is not the “sage on the stage”, but the “guide on the side”.
A blending of direct instruction with constructivist learning.
A classroom where students who are absent due to illness or extra-curricular activities such as athletics or field-trips, don’t get left behind.
A class where content is permanently archived for review or remediation.
A class where all students are engaged in their learning.
A place where all students can get a personalized education.

I’m going to end this with another great example of transmedia, a recent Twitter #PTchat about the flipped classroom Storified by Joe Mazza. It’s long, a testament to the level of engagement in the topic, so will add a question here – How do you encourage great questions?

5 Reasons School Leaders Should Build Rapport with Staff

Posted by Natalie from Thoughtstream on May 11, 2012 Engagement, Innovation, Leadership, School Leadership, Teams 2 Responses »

May 112012

"Thought Cloud" generated from tweets from #satchat

Every Saturday, a group of innovative school leaders gather together in a little place on the internet to exchange big ideas. This little place is the #satchat Twitter chat and this past Saturday the topic at hand was about building rapport with staff as well as strategies to engage and inspire school communities.

Here at Thoughtstream, a lot of the people we work with are school leaders trying to do just those things, so I thought it would be helpful to share some of the smart ideas I picked up from the school leaders at #satchat on why it is so important to build rapport with staff and teachers.

Promote Team Concept

The team you build is the engine that will propel the school and district forward, and the more cohesive it is the more efficient it will be. Building a rapport with staff makes them feel included and also keeps them in the loop. This means that staff will not only have a much clearer idea of the direction the school should be moving, but will also be more incentivized to work together to get there.

Accurately Assess Staff and School

The easiest way to know what will inspire and energize your staff is to know your staff. “Know more to help more” as Don Miller said. Knowing more will also help you lead more effectively and determine the best approach to mobilizing staff in achieving different goals. This includes knowing where different teachers’ comfort zones lie and understanding when to push and when to give extra support. Knowing your staff will also add a dimension to school data, so that you will better understand the human element behind it.

Build Trust and Show Trust

A number of school leaders agreed that trust and open lines of communication are needed to lead and be followed. Building rapport with staff helps build trust, but it can also help you show trust when you go beyond just listening to what your staff have to say and thoughtfully respond to and act on it. This interaction encourages mutual respect and continuously strengthens trust over time.

Keep School Happy

…and for more than just the nice climate. As Roberto Camean said, “it’s a people business. The more you develop a relationship the stronger you are together. Happier school = more productive school.” Good rapport and positive recognition of student and teacher efforts sets a positive tone for the school which keeps everyone motivated, fosters a healthy school culture, and builds morale, trust and all that other good stuff.

Encourage Healthy Risk-Taking and Innovation

What do you get when you add a team spirit, a positive and supportive school environment, and a trusting relationship between school leaders and staff? Innovation. In order to take risks needed to continuously improve the school and move it forward, teachers need to feel that they are trusted and supported in efforts to innovate. Ned Kirsch said it well, “Creating a climate where risk taking is appreciated, respected and expected leads to lots of great things happening for students”.

The chat had so many great ideas this post can’t do justice to all of them, so I encourage everyone to check out the transcript of the chat here. If you’re strapped for time or just want a summary of the ideas, feel free to check out the Thoughtstream report generated for it.