Page 17 - Leadership Basics 3

Conversation 1

Little India Secondary School
Context

Little India Secondary School serves an urban area with a large percentage of high‐needs students from poor
backgrounds. There are 760 students. The school results in national assessments are very low and the latest school
review suggests that it is in need of much improvement.
The Problem (or one of them, at least)
A teacher’s description of her team:

“I’m in a dysfunctional team (English, Math, Social Studies, Science and Reading specialists, 7th grade). Nobody sees the
need to discuss kids; no one wants to meet regularly after school because we aren’t given a prep period to meet
together. I have a strong connection with my Social Studies’ team‐mate because I like him and his classroom is very near
to mine; I don’t care for the other two and the feeling is mutual. The principal yells at us once in a while, but without a
shared prep period and with a culture of "do the minimum and get by; principals are full of crap" that is maintained by
the team leader, who is very young, there’s not much that can be accomplished.
I guess since schools are made up of all types of individuals there will be functional and dysfunctional teams; however,
until periods of time are available for dysfunctional teams to be given the support and stimulation to work out their
issues, they will continue to be dysfunctional. In my opinion, the real problem lies in the principal’s attitude: if he
continues to see parents as clients, kids as factory‐fodder and teachers as airline stewardesses, sorry, flight attendants,
he’s not going to encourage team work. The overall school culture needs apt leadership to attain a degree of
collaborative professionalism that supports the work needed for dysfunctional teams to heal themselves. And even then,
the ‘dead’ teachers (like our HOD) will have to end up somewhere in some sort of "morgue team". That’s my opinion
after two years of teaching here.”
Conversation

1. Try to summarise what is wrong with this team. What do you think are the real issues underlying the teacher’s
cynicism?
2. How are the issues of this team affecting or reflecting the school’s overall performance?
3. What would need to happen for this team to be made productive? Consider the Team Pyramid Framework.

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