Toward Collaboration in District/Association Relationships: ABC School District.
Thirdly, they maintain confidentiality. It’s very important that whatever they say they don’t speak outside those walls. Without this confidentiality these meetings would not be so frank and so productive.
Fourth, the teachers association has transformed the building reps into learning reps, and that’s a very important mental switchover. They stress this change because they have to see themselves as representing the learning that is occurring between students and teachers, not merely representatives of the “union”. This is truly transformative.
Fifth, the district has instituted teacher evaluations of all principals. While this raises some rancor among the principals, it’s very important that the teachers feel some avenue for displaying their opinions about the principals and the administration. For most parts, principals have taken the feedback well. They know what needs to be done.
Sixth, there is a great deal of training done. Ongoing training is key to this collaboration. The association president went to the Harvard school of management to be trained. In addition all members of the superintendents’ cabinet and the teachers’ association cabinet are trained in issues of conflict resolution and collaboration.
It is in these six ways of meeting that the district and the association have turned around from adversarial to collaborative relationships.
Conflict Resolution Principles
What is remarkable about this relationship? It is not that they have broken ground with new principles of conflict resolution. Rather they are tried and true principles. It is just that they have put them into practice. What follows is an exploration of four principles that have gone into this collaborative relationship.
Principle 1