EQUIP

The Multiple Roles of Staff Developers

By Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison

Journal of Staff Development, Summer 1997 (Vol. 18, No. 3)


Everybody has his own theatre in which he is manager, actor, prompter, playwright, sceneshifter, boxkeeper, doorkeeper, all in one, and audience in the bargain.-- Augustus William Hare


Serving in multiple roles is common for most staff developers. During the last several decades, the transformation in the roles of staff developers has paralleled the shift from inservice education focused primarily on individual teacher change to a more comprehensive, systemic focus on the entire organization and the individuals who comprise it (Henkelman, 1991; Killion & Harrison, 1991, 1992; Phillips & Shaw, 1989). Throughout the history of staff development, the journey of staff developers has had eight major stops, each one adding a new role.

Staff developers began their work primarily as trainers and coordinators of training in the 1970s. Throughout the 1970s, staff development focused largely on the delivery of workshops and training. Staff developers also assumed responsibilities for managing training departments, training others to be staff developers, coordinating on-site follow-up, and evaluating program effectiveness.

In the mid-1980s, the focus of staff developers’ work reflected the movement toward organization development, school improvement, and systemic change. With the spread of school improvement processes, staff developers added to their repertoire the roles of facilitation for the school improvement process and other projects.

Today, staff developers emphasize developing learning organizations and learning communities. This newest role involves all stakeholders in the educational process and capitalizes on the strengths of all for improving the entire school community.

Adding new roles for staff developers seems to parallel changes from a centralized decision-making system to a decentralized system. The shift from bureaucratic organizations to more organic organizations that fostered school-based decision making, school improvement planning, teacher leadership, and individual school communities has created the need for different forms of support from staff developers. As staff developers’ roles expand and change, their work broadens and incorporates more responsibility and accountability to respond to continuous changes in educational programs.

The need for each role continues to be strong within most school organizations. The roles described in this article are necessary for effective staff development. In some districts and schools, a variety of people assume responsibility for these roles.

At the district level, a curriculum coordinator, school improvement coordinator, or assistant superintendent may share the role with a staff developer. At the school, teacher leaders, the principal, or others may share roles which are not filled at the district level, or they may assume those roles most necessary to advance their school improvement plans.

Eight Roles

There are eight distinct roles of staff developers (see Figure 1). Each role differs in its key responsibilities; however, the roles often overlap in real life situations. For example, staff developers acting as trainers or training designers also commonly assume the role of coach.

The scenarios provide examples of specific contexts in which a staff developer performs each role. In each role, the staff developer depends on skills that are particular to that role. However, as roles overlap, so do skills. Staff developers face challenges that often are unique to each individual role.


Trainer/Designer

The director of materials management asked the staff developer to train his office staff on how to deal with difficult people. He said his staff was experiencing stress and frustration because they didn’t feel very successful in meeting client demands.

The staff developer met with the director and several department members to learn more before designing a training program. Before the training, the staff developer met again with the director and the staff to review the training plan and assess whether the design addressed the group’s needs. As part of this discussion, the staff developer helped the group develop a plan to evaluate the training.

The training was delivered in several sessions. Between each session, the staff developer met again with the planning team to make necessary revisions. He also visited the work site to provide coaching on skills and techniques as participants transferred the new learnings to their practice. During these visits, he learned how to further customize the training. The staff developer was also available by phone to help individuals with questions and problems.

The early training role of staff developers continues to be important. The staff developer helps others acquire new skills, knowledge, and attitudes through designing and delivering training. Staff developer’s current role in training is more comprehensive than in the past. Rather than delivering a predesigned program, today’s staff developer often custom designs training, plans on-site implementation assistance, focuses on measuring the training’s impact, and influences the necessary systemic changes.

The training role is highly visible and places the staff developer "on the stage." But, the staff developer who conducts successful training spends as much or more time behind the scenes preparing learning experiences. The trainer/designer assesses participants’ needs, designs learning experiences which meet identified needs, creates a plan that honors adult learning, focuses on implementing the learning, and adjusts the instruction and learning environment to ensure success.

Occasionally, the staff developer only designs the training while another person conducts the actual training. But, in most situations, staff developers assume the roles of both designer and trainer. A client may initiate the request for training, but it is not unusual for a staff developer to initiate the service in response to a district- or building-identified need for knowledge or skill development.

To be successful as designers of training, staff developers must know and be able to apply theories on adult learning, instructional design, diagnosis, evaluation, group process, and individual and organization change. In addition, the staff developer needs the skills of delivering content in an engaging and effective manner to optimize learning, build rapport with learners, monitor participants’ responses and adjust the design or delivery, and evaluate the training’s impact.

Designers of learning are challenged to ensure clarity and variety in their instructional design while incorporating the latest research and practice on teaching adults. Designers must constantly update their understanding of the specific content and explore effective ways of delivering the desired learning to participants.

This includes becoming competent in using instructional technology, various models of staff development (Sparks & Loucks-Horsley, 1990), and the National Staff Development Council’s Standards for Staff Development (NSDC, 1994, 1995a, 1995b).

As a trainer, the staff developer faces the challenge of simultaneously being an expert and being a learner. As an expert, the staff developer must provide thorough, in-depth information related to the content.

As a learner, the staff developer must be open to new knowledge gained from participants about the multiple ways to implement the new learning. Trainers are also challenged to be responsive to their participants’ learning needs and to constantly adjust and fine-tune their work for their audience.

Coach

As they developed a multi-year staff development program in developmentally appropriate practices, the staff developers in Thompson School District recruited teachers who were successful in implementing developmentally appropriate practices as coaches for other teachers who completed the training. These coaches and the staff developers met several times to clarify what appropriate usage of the new strategies might look like.

They developed checklists and guidelines that delineated the difference between novice and sophisticated users. The coaches prepared several interventions to match the stages of concern outlined in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall & Hord, 1984) so they would have some quick references to use as they worked with individual teachers. For example, teachers who struggled with management concerns might be given time to observe a teacher who was doing well in this area.

After the training was over, coaches visited each participant and helped each reflect on how they were implementing the new learning and practices from the training. Coaches gave specific attention to the teacher’s behaviors, students’ responses, classroom situation, and curriculum. Coaches helped teachers reflect on their decisions and consider possible alternatives. With help from their coaches, teachers felt more comfortable taking risks and using new strategies.

At some schools where several teachers received the training, the staff developer formed support groups to encourage participants to help each other with difficult implementation problems. Teachers shared ideas, encouraged one another, and commiserated about the complexities of changing well developed practices and habits.

The coach also met with the teachers in support groups, offered constructive feedback, helped them share resources and ideas among themselves, and established a peer observation schedule that allowed teachers to observe each other.

Coaching is essential to increase the transfer of learning. As a coach, a staff developer’s key responsibility is helping participants transfer structured or unstructured learning experiences into practice. Coaches support their clients as they adjust new learning to fit their work setting or personal style.

Staff developers go to the work site, observe clients at work, gather information about participants’ behaviors, and offer feedback and support. The feedback should strengthen new learning and increase its use. Staff developers also encourage clients to become self-analytic by asking questions to promote reflection and metacognition. Sometimes, coaches might work indirectly by arranging for peer coaching.

Successful coaches have expertise in questioning, listening, giving feedback, coaching, and problem solving along with a thorough understanding of the change processes and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall & Hord, 1984). In this role, the staff developer understands expectations of the staff development program and the range of acceptable practice, and designs interventions to assist both reluctant and eager users.

The greatest challenge for the coach is to encourage adaptions of the new learning. Often staff developers find themselves struggling with the expectation of replication rather than encouraging variations and adaptations as part of learning and internalizing new skills and applying them in daily practice.


Resource Provider

When the high school’s improvement team needed assistance identifying instructional strategies to meet the needs of at-risk students, they went first to the staff development office. After collecting resources from the professional development library, the staff developer posted a message on an electronic bulletin board seeking suggestions from teachers, university personnel, administrators, and other staff developers across the country.

The staff developer showed the team how to do an ERIC search to gather references for relevant articles or papers. The school had gained access to information in multiple databases from subject area associations, regional educational laboratories, university partnerships with public schools, and the U.S. Department of Education’s resources. Within 48 hours, the staff developer was able to link the school improvement team with six other high schools working on the same problem.

As resource provider, the staff developer is asked to provide information regarding speakers, research about best practices, consultants, or teaching resources. Staff developers might be asked to recommend the best video on multicultural education to show at a staff inservice, recommend a book for a study group, or help a principal create a slide presentation for his parent organization.

The staff developer’s goal as resource provider is to provide or link clients with resources that will help them reach their desired outcomes. The resource provider also can disseminate current trends and research through a newsletter, research update, or other means.

Staff developers need a variety of skills for this role. They must:

• Know how to research a variety of areas including school improvement, instructional strategies, leadership, program evaluation, and student assessment

• Know how to locate, access, and search on-line databases, libraries, journals, and catalogs.

• Network with colleagues to locate information or people to assist in particular areas.

• Critically analyze information and resources to verify their accuracy, assess their quality and relevance, and determine their appropriateness for the given audience.

As a resource provider, the staff developer faces several challenges. First, they must keep abreast of the rapidly changing field of education and share with others how to research their questions. By teaching others how to do the research, the staff developer not only meets the request, but also increases others’ capacity to gather the information for themselves in the future.

Second, the staff developer must be careful not to bias the information presented by selecting only that which agrees with his or her professional or personal philosophy or practice. Ensuring that clients have as much information as possible, including conflicting information on a topic, will build a clients’ ability to analyze information and critique its validity, reliability, and value. Staff developers might help clients develop and use questions to guide their review of information.

Third, staff developers must consider the audience for a particular resource. The resource provider must have more than one idea, book, video, or presenter for any given topic. An effective video that describes active learning strategies in a succinct fashion could be a disaster at a high school faculty meeting if none of the examples in the video relate to the high school level.


Program Manager

The state legislature recently passed a law requiring school districts to provide an induction program for new teachers. The staff developer called the director of personnel to discuss how the two departments might work together to provide this service. The staff developer held focus groups for new teachers, principals, and experienced teachers to gather specific data to help design the program. She researched district, state, and university induction programs. She also collected additional data with a districtwide needs assessment.

The staff developer examined ways to involve all the necessary stakeholders in developing and implementing the program. With the collective input from all the stakeholders, a committee of volunteers, facilitated by the staff developer, developed a clear vision for the program, wrote a proposal for the program, presented the proposal to the school board, and received the requested funding.

The staff developer, as program manager for induction, assumed responsibility for selecting, training and supporting mentors, and coordinating orientation and training sessions for new teachers. The staff developer also supervised the program’s support staff.

During the program’s second year, the staff developer worked with the teachers’ association to develop language for the teachers’ contract regarding induction. She also coordinated the training of new mentors and beginning teachers, matched mentors and new teachers, set up the induction teams, met with new employees to explain the program requirements, managed the program budget, conducted an annual program evaluation, and made the necessary revisions in the program based on an annual program evaluation.

As program manager, a staff developer may be responsible for an entire department or just a project. Program managers are accountable for program development and management. Staff developers may manage different types of programs. Examples might include an induction program for beginning teachers, a professional development program for administrators, a partnership project with a university, a diversity initiative, or a staff development department.

But the responsibilities and skills for each of these situations are much the same. In the program manager role, staff developers provide leadership and carry out necessary managerial functions such as managing budgets, coordinating services, delegation of responsibilities, or personnel management. Functions will vary depending on the project and its magnitude.

A program manager’s key responsibility is to ensure effective and efficient program operation. A program manager ensures that necessary supports for program success are in place. For example, if the program is a district-level staff development program for teachers, the necessary follow-up support, classroom resources, and ongoing opportunities to extend learning must be addressed.

Another responsibility is creating programs that respond to client needs. An additional responsibility for the program manager is to establish clear and measurable outcomes, assess the progress toward those outcomes, and make necessary modifications to reach the identified outcomes.

Staff developers acting as program managers need a comprehensive set of skills. One set of skills relates to the program and includes action planning, creating a vision, program evaluation, budget management, delineation of responsibilities and tasks, shared decision making, advocacy and influencing, and communication.

When the program involves employees, such as managing a staff development department, then the program manager depends on another set of skills. These skills include coaching and evaluating personnel, motivating people, and delegating responsibility.

This role challenges staff developers to place outcomes of the program and the needs of its clients above his or her own needs. The staff developer must recognize that the program serves others’ needs. There must be constant evaluation and revision so the program remains vibrant and responsive to the identified needs.

Program managers also must use appropriate decision-making processes when issues arise. The program manager often selects the stakeholders who will be involved in decision making, and determines when and by what means to involve them. The staff developer must make decisions which are in the best interest of the client.

This concept of "stewardship" as defined by Peter Block (1993) requires that the program manager and clients have a partnership built on the foundation of a shared vision, common beliefs, and absolute honesty which emphasizes service over self-interests. The program manager practices stewardship in all aspects of program management.


Consultant

The assistant principal at Pinkerton Elementary School recognized that the school’s vision and goals were not helping teachers make difficult decisions about classroom practice. The assistant principal called the staff developer and asked for her help. After some conversation, the staff developer discovered that neither the teachers nor the principal referred to the vision and goals which they had written a number of years ago.

The staff developer helped the assistant principal define the problem and design a plan for on-site assistance. The assistant principal wanted to facilitate the process of identifying common beliefs, revising the vision, and aligning school goals with the vision. To assist the assistant principal, the staff developer assumed the role of consultant.

The staff developer met jointly with the principal and assistant principal to review various models of school improvement and strategic planning, and discussed the appropriateness of each model for the task at hand. The staff developer helped the school leaders examine the potential value and use of a shared vision, and the need to explore the beliefs of all members of the school community before revising the current vision and goal statements.

The staff developer helped the clients design the agenda for the first meeting with the faculty. Following this faculty meeting, the staff developer debriefed the principal and assistant principal.

Since the staff developer did not attend, she could ask questions that encouraged the administrators to reflect on the meeting from various perspectives. The staff developer and principals jointly developed the next steps in the process including agendas and strategies for accomplishing the tasks.

This cycle continued for several months. Throughout the process, the interval between visits, debriefing sessions, and joint planning sessions became increasingly longer. Never once did the staff developer work directly with the staff. After several months invested in the school and the leadership development of the administrators, the staff developer realized that her guidance, coaching, and assistance were no longer needed.

By then, the school staff had revised their vision and aligned the school goals so they would guide critical instructional and management decisions and promote professional development and systemic change. The staff developer celebrated the accomplishments of the administrators and recognized that they both acquired skills, strategies, knowledge, and the confidence to engage in this process again without the same level of assistance.

Staff developers often serve as consultants. "A consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization, but who has no direct power to make changes or implement programs" (Block, 1981, p. 1). Consultants help, guide, assist, and support. As a consultant, a staff developer provides assistance to a single client, small group, or team and views each client as a microcosm of the entire organization (Phillips & Shaw, 1989).

Consultants rely on sets of skills for each of the four phases of their work (Block, 1981; Friedman & Yarbrough, 1985; Phillips & Shaw, 1989). The first phase establishes a relationship with the client. The next phase clarifies expectations for the consultant’s work and negotiating the specifics of the working contract between the consultant and the client. Third, the consultant diagnoses the situation by selecting and using appropriate means for data collection, analysis, and presentation to the client. Fourth, the consultant guides the client in determining the best intervention to accomplish the goal.

In the consultant role, staff developers assist clients in thinking through situations, provide guidance and resources, design interventions, and lend expertise and a fresh perspective. What distinguishes consultation for other roles is that the goals or outcomes are unknown as the staff developer enters the situation. The goals must be determined through a careful organizational diagnosis which guides the consultant’s intervention.

As a consultant, the staff developer has several key responsibilities. The first is facilitating organizational change and development by working with individuals who comprise the organization (Phillips & Shaw, 1989; Schein, 1988). A consultant’s second key responsibility is sharing skills and knowledge to build the capacity of others. The third is helping the client be successful in his or her work by coaching, advising, considering consequences, and suggesting alternatives.

The consultant promotes client learning and development by working collaboratively with the client rather than being the expert who prescribes solutions, strategies, or specific approaches. The consultant works at the client’s invitation, provides another perspective, asks questions, and offers a variety of possibilities, but refrains from directing or having a single right answer.

As consultants, staff developers depend on many skills. One key skill is deep listening, not only to the content but to the implicit messages underlying the words. The consultant listens for the client’s understanding and consideration of the various perspectives, openness to change, and sense of efficacy or futility.

Other skills include data gathering, questioning, and analyzing information about the organization and its members to be used when designing appropriate interventions. Since much of the interaction between the consultant and the client centers around identifying problems and designing interventions, the staff developer needs these skills.

Staff developers also need skills in contracting, the process of reaching agreement between the client and the consultant about the scope of the work, the relationship between the consultant and client, the expectations each has of one another and for the work, and the logistics related to the work such as the time frame or financial resources available.

The greatest challenge the consultant faces is having the patience to allow the client to learn "in process." Since one of the consultant’s goals is to build the capacity of others, the consultant must "think aloud" concerning the steps of the process, the rationale for his or her decisions, the process for making decisions, and the information used in each decision.

In addition, the need to fix, heal, solve, or correct the situation by identifying the right solution often traps the consultant. Consultants must strive to let go of that need and instead find multiple solutions and assist the client in deciding which solution is best in the particular situation. The final choice must always rest with the client.

Another challenge for the staff developer-as-consultant is letting go of the ego needs for recognition. When moving into a less public or visible role, the loss of accolades, acknowledgement, and public recognition requires a strong sense of self.

Instead, the reward is found in valuing the success and new skills of others and sharing knowledge, skills, and practices so they might use them in new situations. There is never enough support within an organization. By building the capacity of others through consulting, however, the staff developer increases the chances of accelerating change.


Task Facilitator

The middle school principal asked a staff developer to facilitate the school’s budget committee as it developed the next year’s budget which required an 8% budget reduction. At the first meeting with the principal and the school’s steering committee which would oversee the budget committee’s work, the staff developer clarified what was expected of budget committee members and the staff developer.

The first several budget committee meetings were devoted to helping the group of parents, community members, students, and staff form a sense of community by establishing norms, building an information base about past budgets, and understanding the committee’s charge. It was particularly important for the committee to understand that it would be making a recommendation, not a final decision.

The staff developer established agendas for the first two meetings and helped the group prepare "press releases" to communicate their work to the school community, clarify the problems, generate solutions, make decisions about the best solutions, and assess its progress toward the outcome.

After several meetings, the facilitator gradually became less active, allowing members to co-facilitate and, eventually, to facilitate themselves. When the task was accomplished, the staff developer ensured that there was a celebration to honor the committee members.

An increasingly common role for staff developers is that of facilitator, one who makes things happen with ease. The role of facilitator differs from a consultant in that the consultant is responsible for conducting a diagnosis to determine a course of action. That consultant role is broader than that of facilitator, usually occurs before facilitation, and may result in the need for a facilitator.

Facilitators have defined goals to achieve, such as designing a parental involvement program or strengthening the working relationship among teams of teachers. Consultants must seek to define their goals based on an intensive analysis of the context and situation.

There are two roles of facilitators. A task facilitator orchestrates a project or assists a group complete its task; a process facilitator focuses on the interactions among group members. Commonly, the facilitator assumes both task and process responsibilities.

A task facilitator works directly with the group, unlike the consultant who is more invisible to the group. Task facilitation is typically initiated by a client who needs assistance with a project or task. The goal of the staff developer as task facilitator is to ensure that the group achieves its desired outcomes (Schwarz, 1994). Unlike a committee chair, a task facilitator has no vested interest or necessarily any expertise in the task area.

A task facilitator is responsible for designing the process the group will use to accomplish its task. In task facilitation, the staff developer is responsible for initiating the group, working with the group to accomplish its task or charge, and reaching closure with the group and its work.

Each phase of facilitation involves specific tasks. For example, in initiating the group, the staff developer must establish a sense of team or community through team-building activities; identify explicit norms or agreements about how the group will work together; contract with the group about the roles and responsibilities of both the facilitator and group members; and clarify the group’s purpose and non-purpose (McNellis, 1992).

The facilitator must draw from a wide repertoire of strategies to help the team gather data, organize information, evaluate information, determine a course of action, communicate with the larger community, and make decisions. The facilitator must be ready to assist the group in making decisions and handling conflicts that may occur during the work.

In addition, the facilitator must help the group periodically assess its progress. Finally, the facilitator must help the group bring closure to its work and celebrate its accomplishments. One goal of all task facilitations should be developing team members’ skills to assume future group facilitation themselves (Schwarz, 1994).

Facilitators undertake a wide range of tasks such as planning for change as in school improvement teams, revising or designing curriculum, creating a process for implementing a districtwide program in shared decision making, or exploring ways to involve more parents of at-risk students in school activities. Regardless of the nature of the task or its breadth, the role of the staff developer remains the same–to assist the group in achieving its goals.

Groups with a specific task to accomplish by a certain time succeed better with trained facilitators than groups that have no facilitator (Schwarz, 1994). The facilitator who is not directly invested in the project’s outcome or task is a better facilitator because he or she is able to remain more neutral and ensure that all perspectives are incorporated into the best possible outcome.

Task facilitators rely heavily on skills for organizing, listening, planning, anticipating, observing, making decisions, and intervening appropriately. The facilitator must be careful to attend to what is happening in the group in the present, focus on the many dimensions of task completion, and make a constant stream of decisions about how to help the group with the next logical step. Understanding the task thoroughly is prerequisite to successful facilitation.

In addition to a wide array of skills, the facilitator needs a broad repertoire of strategies to help groups accomplish their work. The staff developer-as-facilitator needs group strategies for identifying problems, setting the purpose, gathering, organizing, and assessing data, generating and evaluating solutions, and decision making.

Maintaining neutrality is a facilitator’s greatest challenge in working with task groups. As a facilitator of either task, process, or both, the facilitator’s chief responsibility and goal is to help the group reach its outcome. The facilitator must be especially careful to keep his or her focus on facilitating the group rather than becoming involved with the task. Sometimes, it is particularly difficult to facilitate a group when the group’s topic or work is something about which the facilitator has strong feelings.

Process Facilitator

The elementary school principal asked the staff developer for assistance. She said her staff had difficulty getting along professionally and agreeing on any issue. Acknowledging that the staff had some animosity toward her, Ms. Fredericks recognized that she might also need to change her own behavior.

At their first meeting, the staff developer contracted with the principal to address roles, expectations, and outcomes. The staff developer asked the principal for permission to collect more data to identify issues. Both agreed that information would only be shared with the staff, not with the principal’s supervisor or parents at the school. The staff developer designed questions for discussions with staff members. After the discussions, the staff developer analyzed the responses and identified patterns.

In a meeting with the principal, the staff developer shared the data, including information that directly related to the principal’s leadership. The meeting was difficult for both the principal and staff developer since sensitive and hurtful information had to be shared. The staff developer had to be careful to maintain the data’s integrity, her relationship with the principal, and a problem-solving orientation. During the meeting, the staff developer helped the principal prepare for the full-staff meeting at which the data would be shared.

Emotions and tension were high at the staff meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, the staff developer helped the group establish norms. Next, the staff developer identified the patterns of responses gathered from the data collection. After a question-and-answer period, the staff developer helped the staff design several interventions.

The staff developer worked with the staff for about nine months by building skills, facilitating meetings where some conflict mediation occurred, and providing feedback to the staff on observed behaviors as they worked with one another. At the end of the nine months, the follow-up assessment indicated that the situation had improved but that the staff still had more work to do. The staff designed a second year’s plan to continue their work. The new plan involved only periodic assistance from the staff developer.

As a process facilitator, the staff developer helps groups of individuals when they request help with group interactions or when they struggle with their work. "Process relates to the underlying feelings and motivations people bring to the task and to each other" (Phillips & Shaw, 1989, p. 46).

Process is less visible and accessible than the task or work a group has to do, but the success of the task depends on the process. When groups request help with their interactions, the process facilitator becomes a mirror for the group by describing behaviors which promote and which hinder the group’s productivity and relationships.

The group’s productivity is reduced when there are strained relationships and conflict among group members or when the group is struggling with its task. The process facilitator works to create productive and healthy interaction among participants so they can achieve their goals. The group invites the staff developer to assist by facilitating the group as an outside, neutral facilitator. Process facilitation occurs in large groups, small groups, and, occasionally, between two individuals.

Process facilitators have three responsibilities:

1. Help group members or individuals recognize their behaviors and the impact of their behaviors on others (Schwarz, 1994);

2. Help individuals change unproductive behaviors; and

3. Help the group agree upon and implement expectations or norms for interactions to maintain the safe environment in which to accomplish their work (Schwarz, 1994). Process facilitators give group members feedback about the way they communicate with each other so they can improve their group interaction in order to accomplish their task.

In addition to the skills needed by the task facilitator, the process facilitator needs strong expertise in conflict resolution. The staff developer must be comfortable addressing difficult issues and intervening appropriately (Schwarz, 1994). Collecting and analyzing data are critical for process facilitators since they must diagnose the situation thoroughly before recommending appropriate interventions.

Process facilitators must be able to give nonjudgmental feedback and use nonjudgmental, descriptive language. They must be aware that they model salient communication skills to group members. They need fluency with a wide range of interventions that improve group members’ relationships and productivity.

Most of all, the process facilitator must remain neutral. It is far too easy to be swept into the emotions of those involved or the issues with which the group is struggling. The staff developer must be cautious about withholding judgment about anyone’s behavior while focusing the group on necessary changes to increase the group’s productivity and improve relationships among its members.

Walking the delicate balance between enabling the group by intervening too quickly or allowing the group to solve its own problems is a particularly difficult challenge for process facilitators.


Catalyst for Change

The staff developer has a unique role in the school district. She has been involved in designing many major district and school-based innovations in the past 10 years. In her work with staff members, she has been perceived as someone who is honest, willing to help others, unafraid to ask hard questions, and comfortable challenging the status quo.

The large numbers of students who returned to summer school year after year frustrated the staff developer. Summer school was designed to help students who failed to earn the credits they needed and be successful students the following school year.

Yet, judging from the number of students who repeated summer school each year, summer school seemed to do nothing to provide these students with the skills they needed to be successful when they returned to their regular schools in the fall.

What needed to change, both in the summer school program and within the regular school program, to prevent a high rate of student failure? If the summer school program engaged students, emphasized learning how to learn, and provided support for at-risk students, would the failure rate decrease?

When the staff developer asked these questions at principal meetings, they sparked both excitement and frustration. The staff developer wondered if summer school could be an exciting place for all students who wanted to extend their learning rather than exclusively a place for students who needed remediation. The staff developer proposed creating a summer school that incorporated a professional development school for researching and sharing ideas on teaching at-risk students.

The staff developer gathered information about other nationally recognized innovative programs, collected information from neighboring school districts about their summer school programs, and scheduled a meeting with the summer school administrator.

Being a catalyst for change is a demanding and new role for staff developers. In this role, the staff developer suggests new ideas and questions existing practices. By examining ways to be more effective, to move beyond the status quo, and to question underlying mental models and personal theories (Schön, 1987; Senge, 1990), the staff developer promotes learning and continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Learning organizations are built on the premise that learning in organizations means continuously testing the way people think, act, and interact (Senge, 1990; Senge et al., 1994).

The process of change begins with exploring the "truths" or assumptions upon which people base their actions. The staff developer, acting as a catalyst for change, reveals truths and identifies what is often unspoken as a way of initiating discussion about alternative ways of behaving and thinking.

The staff developer has two key responsibilities as a catalyst for change. One responsibility is promoting and guiding continuous analysis and reflection among members of the organization. To improve, members of the organization must examine the effectiveness of their current practices, policies, and procedures.

The staff developer-as-catalyst for change is also responsible for initiating alternatives to current practices. The staff developer is committed to bringing members of the organization new perspectives, ideas, and suggestions for consideration. The staff developer must be courageous and comfortable being perceived by others as "on the edge." Success in this role depends on the staff developer’s status within the organization as a respected and trusted leader.

Staff developers who are catalysts for change have their "ears to the ground" and research new practices and programs. To be credible as catalysts for change, staff developers model continuous improvement in their own work by searching for ways to improve, inviting critical friends to work with them, listening to suggestions for change, and viewing their work through the perspectives of their clients.

They read avidly and widely within and outside the field of education, always searching for applicable ideas and new perspectives. They network with colleagues to inquire about others’ approaches and perceptions regarding similar tasks or projects. They use a variety of strategies, including sharing readings, arranging visits, creating newsletters to share information, and suggesting innovative practices.

Another powerful strategy catalysts use is asking a few key questions: How did it come to be this way? Whose needs are being served here? What do these actions convey to our community?

To be successful in the role of catalyst for change, the staff developer needs to be comfortable challenging current practices in a positive and constructive manner. The staff developer depends on questioning skills to encourage others to explore possible changes. The catalyst for change must be gentle, yet persistent and provocative.

Since the staff developer’s key responsibility is encouraging others to examine their own practice and propose possible changes, the catalyst for change depends on both task and process facilitation skills to lead teams through the process of creating and implementing plans for change. The staff developer needs skills in needs assessment, planning, evaluation, resource acquisition, forecasting, and action planning.

It is particularly important to analyze data and look for significant trends that may need attention. Most importantly, the staff developer must have a firm foundation in research about organizational development and processes for initiating, implementing, and institutionalizing change.

The staff developer walks a delicate line between initiating the needed change she wants and planting seeds which allow others to craft the change they want. The staff developer must give the group, team, or initiator ownership of the change without directing the outcome.

It is critical for the staff developer to realize that others will be responsible for implementing the change. As a catalyst for change, the staff developer typically works behind the scenes and often gets no recognition. When the group says, "We did it," the staff developer knows she has been successful.

As catalysts for change, staff developers must realize that not every new idea comes to fruition through their efforts. Staff developers must be willing to question, challenge, probe, and initiate change many more times than they expect to see change take place.

While this may be frustrating, the catalyst for change knows change is a long-term process and occurs most successfully when those who are responsible for implementing change are ready for the change and have had a significant role in shaping the change.


Conclusion

The staff developer’s work is multifaceted, challenging, and demanding. Staff developers are responsible for juggling numerous roles simultaneously. Staff developers must depend on their flexibility, creativity, and adaptability to respond to the disparate responsibilities and requests which shape their daily work.

Despite these demands, staff developers have assumed additional roles while striving to balance the new ones with those already in place and while making a meaningful contribution to the overall improvement of student success.

As they assume new roles and accompanying responsibilities, staff developers must assess their own skills, seek opportunities to develop those that are associated with their new roles, and monitor how they respond to many challenges.

References

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Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday.

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Sparks, D. & Loucks-Horsley, S. (1990). Models of staff development. In R. Houston (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 251-263). New York: Macmillan.

About the Authors

Joellen Killion is a staff development trainer and a past president of the National Staff Development Council, and Cindy Harrison is director of staff development, Adams Twelve Five Star Schools, Staff Development Training Center, 11080 Grant Drive, Northglenn, CO 80233-3312, (303) 450-3772, fax (303) 450-3777, (e-mail: killionj@aol.com and cindy_harrison@together.cudenver.edu).


http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/killion183.cfm

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