School as a team, thinking about team leadership
The best activity protocol for teachers!!

The most difficult challenge facing schools is the urgent and urgent need to find answers to educational questions together.
While discourses about the future are abstract, complex, and difficult to answer clearly, changes in daily life, culture, and society are occurring even now, and students have already arrived in today's classrooms.
There is no time to slow down, but at the same time, we must come up with answers through deep reflection and deliberation.
Tatsuro Uchida metaphorically described this as "the difficulty of having to repair a broken car while driving it."
How can schools become communities for good education?
How can teachers become the main actors of education and achieve the desirable form of education we envision?
We call this community, where all teachers become leaders and proactively seek answers, a "school as a team."
And I would like to propose a new strategy called 'team leadership' that creates organizational dynamics that make everyone a leader.

Education begins at school and ends at school.
All educational policies are created through the process of teachers' experience, learning, and reflection, but the moment they are incorporated into the system, they can become distorted from their original intentions.
The process of changing education is an unpredictable wave, one that must continue and never stop.
Education is about finding answers in the process.
Within this framework, teacher leadership as a team must be ongoing rather than complete, constantly expanding, and seeking sustainable development.
--- p.13

How can schools become communities for good education?
How can teachers become the main actors of education and achieve the desirable form of education we envision?
We call this community, where all teachers become leaders and proactively seek answers, a "school as a team."
And I would like to propose a new strategy called 'team leadership', which is an organizational dynamic that makes everyone a leader.

--- p.20

The most difficult challenge facing schools is the urgent and urgent need to find answers to these educational questions together.
While discourses about the future are abstract, complex, and difficult to answer clearly, changes in daily life, culture, and society are occurring even now, and students have already arrived in today's classrooms.
There is no time to slow down, but at the same time, we must come up with answers through deep reflection and deliberation.
Tatsuro Uchida metaphorically described this as "the difficulty of having to repair a broken car while driving it."

--- p.26

The school system can give teachers educational wings, but it can also tie a heavy stone to their ankles, forcing them to fall to the ground as they try to fly.
After experiencing the hamstrings of educational imagination within a school community, one begins to ask:
“Is it okay for a school community to look like this?”
--- p.27

Attempts to view schools and businesses as the same group and simply apply organizational theory are likely to result in errors or distortions.
While sufficiently referencing organizational theory and leadership theories, we must clearly recognize the specificity and uniqueness of 'education' and 'school' and approach it in a way that appropriately transforms and accepts some useful perspectives for educational purposes.

--- p.29

If schools, instead of serving as educational institutions, become more bureaucratic organizations, operating under guidelines and regulations rather than collaboration and reflection, and even meaningful educational reforms quickly become mere formalities, leaving behind nothing more than empty shells, this will become a stumbling block, holding back teachers rather than empowering them.
If that's not the case, it's time to seriously consider turning your school into a "team."
How can a school become a 'team'?
This book explores the concept of 'team leadership', which has been discussed within the context of organizational culture, by applying it to school organizations, and presents methods and examples of its implementation.

--- p.31

Teachers meet anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred people throughout the day, including students, colleagues, and parents.
There is bound to be vibration in the encounter between people.
That vibration can sometimes bring joy to both of us, but at other times it can cause deep internal trauma.
The job of a teacher carries with it the weighty responsibility of intervening in the lives of others.
Moreover, this is especially true for teachers because the people they meet are children who are in the process of forming themselves.
Teachers meet countless children, each with their own universe, with their whole bodies and hearts.
When you meet the universe called children like that, you sometimes suffer deep wounds that you cannot tell anyone.
The wound is deeper and older than we think.
They swallow their pain inside, afraid that if they reveal their wounds, they will not be able to become competent or good teachers, and they pretend to be okay in front of the children.

--- p.58

Meeting children in this day and age is never easy.
Because children carry the contradictions of the times with them.
And children do not come to class alone.
Although it is invisible, it comes with the desires of the child's parents and countless others related to the child.
Teachers are solely responsible for dealing with this twisted era, where the distorted desires of adults are condensed into children.
Teachers who have suffered deep internal trauma without anyone knowing may close their true hearts and choose the path of a soulless teacher.
But teachers who make that choice are not necessarily happy.
The discomfort of not being able to fulfill one's duties can cause teachers to fall into a deep abyss.

--- p.59

Why is welcoming teachers important? Because it creates positive inertia.
And because those who are accustomed to such inertia have a positive influence on each other.
Loving the path of a teacher is also a skill that needs to be honed.
We call this ability teacher expertise.
This expertise is an ability that can be acquired by those who have practiced good inertia.
Those who belong to a community that can create good inertia have a positive influence on each other and help each other grow.
The solidarity of those who have grown up leads to rewards.
People who find fulfillment in what they do do not stop and invite others along the way.
This is also why we need to work together as a team.

--- p.61

Teachers who experience hospitality and empathy return the hospitality and empathy they have received to their children.
The way you treat students and the way you speak to them in the classroom changes.
It is a truly childlike walk of life that only those who have been treated as beings can do.
Because teachers send signals to children with their whole heart and body, children instinctively sense their teacher's sincerity.
Hospitality and empathy are not just events, they are everyday practices.

--- p.62

Prerequisites for a vision.
First, the vision must be specific and clear.
This is because it helps members easily understand and empathize.
Second, the vision must be challenging.
A challenging vision motivates members to strive for higher goals and gives them a sense of accomplishment.
Third, the vision must be realistic.
This gives members the confidence that the vision is achievable and empowers them to actually take action.

--- p.77

How to create a vision for 'us'.
Our vision also comes from our individual vision.
Just because it is a personal vision doesn't mean it always remains solely for personal benefit.
A person's vision sometimes includes the success and happiness of his or her family or friends, the well-being and fulfillment of his or her community, or even global peace and security.
Therefore, it is very important to cherish and expand one's personal vision so that it meets our own vision.
If you encourage and listen to 'personal vision,' you will find that that vision is soon pouring its energy into the vision of others, the team, and the school. The way to create 'our' vision is to 'encourage personal vision.'

--- p.95

The power to change schools and individuals, 'meeting power': pushing forward with school events regardless of the meeting results, passing all responsibility to the proposer, repeating the same thing over and over again, monopolizing the microphone, and not speaking.
These are some of the 'meeting-ruining methods' we encounter in countless meetings.
How many meetings have we experienced failure in and how many meetings are still filled with skepticism?
Do we really need to have such a difficult and unwelcome meeting?
--- p.103

Andy Hargreaves says that effective teachers develop their judgment, insight, and inspiration through collaboration with colleagues, and they take responsibility and initiative for decisions made in meetings with colleagues, thereby developing their personal capabilities.
Schools with 'meeting power' develop their members and bring about change in the school.
So how do we conduct meetings in a meaningful and effective way?
--- p.104

The following horizontal meeting procedures cover the entire process from the time an agenda item is raised, through meeting preparation, meeting conduct, and implementation of the meeting results.
In particular, the 5-step facilitation process, which is part of the plenary session, pursues the core values ​​of full participation of members, mutual understanding, comprehensive solutions, and shared responsibility.
This can be applied from small meetings within the school to large-scale meetings involving the entire faculty and staff council or the three educational stakeholders.

--- p.111

Learning communities are a key way to implement team leadership in schools, where all teachers participate in school work as leaders.
While team leadership focuses on enabling each teacher to develop their capabilities according to their respective roles, a learning community serves as a learning space where teachers discover and grow their roles through concrete practice.

--- p.137

A Elementary School's support for activating the learning community is as follows.
First, we returned the authority to teachers so they could operate the curriculum autonomously and established a culture of democratic consultation.
In order for teachers to focus on educational activities, the school was reorganized into a grade (group) unit so that grade (group) heads could actually operate the curriculum, and the role of the curriculum operation director was clarified so that they could focus on operating the grade level curriculum.

--- p.156

Disconnection, frequent changes, and everyday competition create an every-for-nothing relationship where each person must solve their own problems.
So, it is difficult to focus on other people's problems, difficult to recognize our own problems as our own, and unfamiliar with cooperation.
I always feel uneasy in a school where each person lives for himself/herself is the default.
In this state of uncertainty, teachers must compete for their own interests.
This competition hinders the resolution of conflicts, and when faced with difficult-to-resolve everyday conflicts, teachers choose avoidance and isolate themselves.

--- p.165

There is also a study that divides conflicts that occur at school into six types: conflicts of interest, values, and needs, and based on their causes, they are classified into factual, reciprocal, and structural conflicts.1) However, as we live in school, we come to realize that these types are not separate but rather intermingle and interact with each other.
Desires can change values, and values ​​can change desires.
Even if you are very close, the moment you realize that you have different values, your relationship can change.
Sometimes desires are adjusted to structures, and sometimes desires adjust structures.
Depending on one's values, one may give up selfish desires, and facts or information may be interpreted differently depending on one's desires.
Although we have divided the phenomenon into six types, if we look at the relationships again, we can see that they are not separate problems, but rather all connected problems.

--- p.166

In a small school, people may get along well, but sometimes the small number of members can cause each person's voice to be louder, and sometimes opinions can become divided, making conflicts more intense.
Although some teachers and principals try to drive change in schools, there are many cases where they are frustrated.
Just because something is small doesn't mean it's easy.
In a large school, one person's share is small, so one person's voice may be light, but in a small school, one person's share is large, so the power of more than one person is used.

--- p.174

Even in schools that have made changes, they often face opposition from existing members and newly transferred teachers.
When someone raises their voice in opposition, even members who had been hiding for a while respond, bringing the school discussion back to the beginning.
As hidden conflicts intensify, sarcasm and criticism such as “Is this what school innovation looks like?” are poured out.
'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' does not apply.
Soon, the school's culture and identity were not established.
The following case is the story of C Elementary School, which overcame the sharp conflict that arose in a situation where the school's culture was not yet established, using it as an opportunity to solidify its identity, and moved forward with rapid growth.

--- p.176

We need to bridge the gap between the principal and the members and invite the principal to be a part of everyday communication.
The principal's office should be a place where good stories as well as bad stories are told.
A good story energizes and builds trust in the members.
Everyday communication fosters respect for people as well as respect for authority.
Mutually respectful relationships are an important foundation for forming a democratic meeting culture and a school culture of community.
The principal should also be welcomed at school.
On the basis of that hospitality, the team of democracy is further strengthened.

--- p.183

The first reason we are moving toward team leadership is that the era of schools being run solely by a small number of exceptional leaders is coming to an end.
Team leadership based on cooperation and horizontal solidarity among all members is necessary.
We are well aware that the school curriculum cannot be fully implemented or implemented solely through the changes or demands of a single leader.
This is because each teacher standing at the front line of the classroom is the one who implements and realizes the curriculum.

--- p.232

It was a meeting rule that was set with a smile, but it had a strong effect.
Keeping meetings on time reduces frustration and increases efficiency.
Sometimes, when emotions are running high, someone steps forward and reminds everyone, saying, “There is Rule 3 of the meeting rules: ‘Use respectful language.’”
That brief reminder changed my attitude.
Arguments were definitely reduced and mediation was also simpler.
The reaction made the meeting more enjoyable.
“Ah! That’s cool!”, “Wow! I had that thought too!” Words like these made our brains flutter.
I was able to listen to and enjoy other people's opinions.

--- p.293

Above all, the members of Gyobang Elementary School have a strong interest in philosophy.
There is pride in the school's philosophy and an exploration of one's own philosophy.
A man of philosophy is not ruled.
Practice with philosophy always progresses because it has a clear goal.
Kyobang Elementary School shares each other's philosophies and strives for a better world.
Education is learning, philosophy, and politics that change the world.
The teachers at Gyobang Elementary School realize that teachers are learners, philosophers, and politicians.

--- p.306

In many cases, a community led by a single, competent leader is unlikely to last long.
Perhaps it is because it is difficult for others to share his abilities.
If other members fail to demonstrate their leadership skills in his absence, it is difficult to expect vibrant dynamics within the community as a whole.
And the moment he disappears from the community, the power of the community he exerted often disappears as well.
Therefore, it is more important to establish a ‘systematic structure where leadership can be exercised’ rather than ‘one competent person.’
A strong person who can become a focal point can exert great power right away, but if that is not the case, 'I' who harbors such feelings and 'one or two other people' who have similar feelings can become a great focal point.

--- p.311

Being a 'team' doesn't mean existing together with others in a mature way.
True team leadership can emerge from a solidarity of mature individuals who respect and welcome the individuality and uniqueness of others as much as their own autonomy.
In such a community, wouldn't the autonomy of teachers actually flourish based on the support of the community?
--- p.313

When an external typhoon rages, the strength of the ship called school can feel weak.
But that's why it's so important to build up the inner strength to cope with it, to build a strong community and cultivate our own strength so that we can sometimes ride the wind, sometimes set sail and stay in one place, but when we meet a favorable wind, we can cut through the waves and move forward as if flying.
In difficult times, the more urgently we need to think, "Therefore, let's do what we can here, now."

--- p.317