Yet there are many interferences which prevent the potential emerging. Amongst the many interferences, I believe our current education system is one of the greatest.
Graeme Bloch’s recent book “The Toxic Mix” is a dispassionate (and yet passionate!) exposition of the dysfunctionality of the SA education system. And it is a complex system, with many stakeholders, driven by many different agendas.
Can coaching make a difference? Can it make a small contribution to creating a functional system, which enables every citizen to achieve their potential?
Strangely enough, I believe it can!
With some colleagues, I have been exploring the system. We have identified three main groups of stakeholders and designed a number of coaching interventions which could make a difference to those who have critical leverage to change and improve education.
Stakeholder Group 1 consists of the various education departments: 2 national departments (Higher and Basic), as well as 9 provincial departments. Within these, critical decisions are taken with regard to strategy and policy. And there have been some interesting (code word for stupid!) decisions: to retrench a large number of experienced teachers; to close down teacher training institutions; to introduce Outcomes Based Education and not to implement it effectively…..
It seems to me that if better decisions could be taken (and thought through!) this would have a major impact on the system. What would it be like if the decision makers had coaches who provided the space to think, to test their thinking and think through the consequences? So I would propose that all directors and senior managers had coaches to enable them to think better.
And imagine if each manager was able to coach their people towards improved performance and service delivery; towards removing the stifling bureaucracy that kills teacher motivation…… (and maybe towards becoming CIVIL servants!)
One of the critical connections between between departments and schools are the Curriculum Advisors. They are between the proverbial rock and hard place: overwhelmed, stressed and having difficulty managing relationships. Many have requested coaching.
Stakeholder Group 2 consists of schools – and in this incredibly varied group (public & private schools, high performing and under performing, well resourced, poorly resourced) there are multiple stakeholders: parents, governing bodies, principals, management teams, teachers and learners. It seems to me that the leadership seems to be a critical factor. What if principals worked with coaches to help them deal with these multiple stakeholders and their leadership competence?
What if teachers used coaching in helping learners to think for themselves and to leverage the diversity in the classroom?
There have been two projects coaching teachers in the Cape Town area and the results are very promising. It seems the critical issue when coaching teachers is dealing with their feelings of being overwhelmed by their low perceived status, lack of power, endless bureaucracy and large classes….
There is a school, based in Noordhoek, in which all the teachers have trained as coaches…… and coaching is the philosophy of the school.
We have had many teachers participate in our Diploma programme who use coaching as their preferred style, and are coaching adolescents ( EG career decisions) in what is becoming a powerful emerging process.
Stakeholder Group 3 are the institutions of teacher training. They can use coaching and mentoring as a powerful way of developing student teachers, who can then enter the profession competent and motivated. We were also part of a national plan to develop mentorship for first year students at universities. While the mentorship would have dealt with their studies, it was more focused on helping students cope with the huge change in their lives… the sudden freedom, the easy availability of alcohol and drugs, the change from a rural school environment to a campus in which teaching was done in a very different way. These are often the factors that derail university students and lead to the high drop out rate. (And there are many others!)
WHATS TO BE DONE?
Rose Maphai (Akofa), Nomfuzo Ntolosi and I have designed a number of interventions which could be applied in each of the stakeholder groups: external coaching interventions for Department Directors, Curriculum Advisors and principals, coaching competency development programmes for managers and teachers and mentoring programmes for teacher training insitutions and teachers.
Now we need three things: energy, money and coaches.
If you have an interest in making a contribution as a coach or facilitator, let me know. I would love to establish a community network of coaches in all provinces who would like to make a contribution that could make a real difference to South Africa.
Step up and put your hand up! |