At my school, I believe that everyone has power in their own area of the school. The custodians have the power and responsibility of keeping the school clean. The cafeteria workers have the power and responsibility of making sure the kitchen is clean, breakfast and lunch are ready on time, an making sure that every student gets a nutritious meal. Teachers and students have power and responsibility in their classrooms. The secretaries have power and responsibility in the office and administrative aspects of the school. The principal and assistant principal have power and responsibility over the entire school. Part of their responsibility is making sure that all of the other individuals are preforming their duties (aka what their power is).
This information is very useful if you want to influence change. When you want to change something, you first have to look at what is being changed and who has the power over this change. /you would to talk to these individuals out the change and try to get to get them on your side or if hey have reasons why the change would not be good. After you ha gotten the okay from all of the individuals whose range of powers fall under the change, you can then bring the change to your principal and/or assistant principal. This way you can let the principal and/or assistant principal know that you have already taken these steps and adjusted the change's proposal based on these individuals' input. By seeing that you have already done your research with all of those who will be effected, the principal and/or assistant principal will be more likely to back up your plan for change and allow it to occur.
For example, if you wanted to change what time your students came to receive their breakfast or lunch for a special day, you would want to involve the cafeteria staff as this is where their power is. You also would want to talk to the other teachers who either normally have the same meal time as you or that your time change will put at the same meal time as you. Once you have discussed with the cafeteria staff this change and together have come up with a plan, you can take the plan to your principal and/or assistant principal for approval. Seeing that you have already gotten a solid plan form the cafeteria staff, the principal and/or assistant principal will be able to either approve the change or give you reasons why change is not possible at this time.
My school site is much like yours. I think that everyone has some power and it is spread out across many different groups of employees. There are those who are leaders and followers but overall it is similar to a hierarchy.
ReplyDeleteGood point about everyone having some type of power clear down to the students and especially the support faculty. Also, knowing who has what power is helpful when trying to make change.
ReplyDeleteIt is an excellent way to look at things: that everyone has power and that power can be used to influence change. It is also a huge responsibility to have that power and we always hope that folks use it for good reasons. I bet we have all worked with someone who abused their power. As the kids might say, "Not cool."
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