> Can a school be a learning organisation? I am not being facetious! Is
> anyone out there working on this?
>
> I am interested in K-12 schools as institutiions rather than the
> 'mini-institution' of a classroom. My experience has been that schools
> are complex institutions that on the whole don't recognise their own
> complexity. Hence individual classrooms operate as if they are
> autonomous.
>
> In fact they are part of a system. However, speaking systems language to
> many people in schools results in blank stares and incredulity. Are there
> schools out there who have deliberately moved towards building shared
> vision, team learning, personal mastery, etc.?
ASQC sponsors an Koalaty Kid intiative that seeks to implement the theory,
process and tools of TQM in elementary schools. The Technology Council of
Northeastern Pennsylvania expands the initiative to include K-12.
Essentially, the heart of the initiative requires school-business
partnerships. A team consisting of the school principal, four teachers and
two business representatives undergo training in TQM and apply their new
skills in their school. The NEPA technology council proposes moving the
effort so that schools embrace learning organization concepts. We are just
in the early stages of the TQM effort at present.
K-12 schools face the same difficulties that colleges and universities
face in attempting to implment quality initiatives: teachers (professors)
see themselves as "islands of excellence" and view their classrooms as
their "empires" among other things.
Information on the Koalaty Kid project is available from ASQC. The Koalaty
Kid National Conference is scheduled for April at the University of
Oklahoma at Norman.
Best regards,
__ ___
| | / / Dr. John Kachurick
| | / / Associate Professor
| |/ / College Misericordia
__ | |\ \ Dallas, PA 18612
| |___| | \ \ kachuric@alpha.acast.nova.edu
|_________| \__\ (717) 674-6301 or 675-1769