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THE SCHOOL MANAGER AS AN ANDRAGOGIST
0. F. Kungurova,
1. V. Wolf
Deep transformations in society have led to an increase in the diversity of pedagogical activity. The recognized necessity of the development of the innovation economy, modernization of Russian education, and the introduction of a new wage system require new professional and personal traits from a teacher, namely: competence, mobility, and effectiveness. In order to meet the requirements of the times, an educational establishment has to employ certain staff.
At the same time these new processes have evoked some confusion and anxiety among teachers and among some of the school managers. The Grammar School № 74 of Barnaul was one of the schools to encounter problems. This school is one of the large innovation educational establishments of the city, with a rather stable and professional teaching staff. However, of much concern is the indicator of the average age of the teachers - 42. This is the age of professional and personal crisis. On the one hand, a teacher has already achieved proficiency by the time her or she is forty; on the other hand, a person often starts feeling that he or she is "finished”, without seeing any prospects for future professional and personal growth. The attitude towards teachers from the society, and the low social status of a well-educated person with good professional performance enhance this crisis.
Renovation of the quality of education as the key position in the modernization program is impossible without developing the teachers’ professional and personal competence. The managing team of the school came to the conclusion that new ways of staff policy and teachers’ potential development should be found. The teacher’s self-actualization in a subject-to-subject educational sphere is not less important for improvement of educational conditions than that of a pupil. The idea of self-actualization became the key idea in managing activity and methodic work.
Applying various educational resources, the school’s management set up the conditions for teachers’ professional growth. In 2007 all the teachers of the school were involved in development. In order to find some conceptual ideas for the program of the school’s development, the following methodic seminars were organized: "Problems and prerequisites of the school’s development”, "Model of a teacher”, "Model of a pupil”, "Model of a school graduate”, "Person-oriented approach in teaching”. These topics
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matched the main directions of the school’s development and were strongly practical.
In contemporary education, the idea of a person-oriented approach turns out to be the main principle for choosing the educational technology. However, usage of modern educational technologies by teachers has long ago been insignificant against the background of traditional knowledge-oriented education. Familiarization with modern educational technologies is available on refresher courses. Provision of refresher courses for teachers allowed 66.6% of the teaching staff to participate in innovation activity. The number of teachers taking part in different scientific conferences significantly increased: from 12 (2006) to 23 (2009).
On the basis of the school, pedagogical laboratories were established and used till now, on the base of which open district and city seminars are held, and methodic materials are published. Annually the school’s teachers participate in professional competitions on the district, city and regional levels ("Teacher of the year”, "I give my heart to children”, "Best social sphere worker”, "Recognition”, etc.). Creation of the conditions for the teachers’ self-actualization had an effect on the indicators of quality and pupils’ performance, dissemination of innovation teaching experience, and teachers’ positive assessment.
Nowadays the grammar school employs absolutely new forms of implementing the educational process and professional retraining of teachers, associated with self-analysis and self-reflection of teaching activity. Orientation on the achievement of brand-new educational results made the management realize the necessity of scientific study of constant education for teachers. In this respect, together with professors of the Department of Pedagogical Education of the Altai State University, a project of an experimental site was developed - "Andragogical education of managing staff of secondary education establishments of Barnaul in the process of refresher training.”
The purpose of the experiment is development and approbation of a model and a program of andragogical education for the managing staff of secondary education establishments. Modern processes in education make it topical for the managers to take upon themselves the mission of leading an "adult teacher” in a process of his or her acquisition of new knowledge, skills, personal traits and values in the system of constant education. As stated by P. Senge, the times when somebody on the top could think of everything, while the others would obey the orders of a "great strategist”, are over, and that is why the most successful corporation nowadays should be called the "learning corporation”. Learning organization can be defined
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as a self-organized, self-regulated, self-improving system, which also indicates a gradual transition to collective self-reflection, and a collective mind. For educational establishments these ideas transform into a task of transition from two modes of existence into three - functioning, development, and learning. The essence of the project is a practical extrapolation of the andragogical principles and approaches to the activity of managers of Barnaul’s secondary education establishments, and development of informative and methodic support of refresher training.
The project is planned to be implemented in three stages: 1) theoretical (study of laws and regulations as well as the details of the examined problem in specialized literature, identifying the andragogical range of problems in the activity of teaching staff of secondary education establishments); 2) experimental (development and approbation of a program and scientific and methodic materials for the andragogical education of the managing staff); 3) final (results analysis, preparation of the program and the methodic textbook for publishing). Implementation of the andragogical model of refresher training for the school managing staff will help to reorganize the system of retraining (active dedication of a learning person, his or her high motivation and, subsequently, high effectiveness of educational process and further application of knowledge, obtained during studies according to an andragogical model); to create conditions for self-organized and self-improving activity of the teaching staff.
The program consists of three units:
An adult as a subject of education (an adult, being taught in a system of constant education; actualization and development of motivation for study among adults; communicative interaction in the process of study; the teacher and the taught person in the context of constant education);
Modern methods of adult education (method of development of critical thinking; coaching; method of analysis of particular situations; project technologies);
Designing a program of constant refresher training for teachers (basics of designing an educational program; planning content and scientific and methodic materials for the program of constant education; monitoring educational results).
The final lesson is devoted to presentations of the programs of constant education for retraining of the teaching staff.
So, as we see, development and provision of the informative and methodic support for the process of andragogical competence formation among the managers of secondary educational establishments is ultimately aimed at improvement of professional and creative potential of the teaching group, moving forward to the regime of a "learning organization”.
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