Norms and Agreements

Foundational to Your Learning Culture

Focusing on how we treat each other provides a powerful doorway to developing shared norms grounded in social-ethical values and to the coconstruction of mutual agreements on which they are based. Such norms are now commonplace in most schools and educational workplaces that we know. However, constructing shared norms is one thing, but bringing them to life in your school is quite another. Norms work only when they are lived in action, rather than simply posted visually on school walls.

A new school year offers the perfect opportunity to revisit, reflect on and review your school’s current norms and values. This is particularly important when you have new team members since their thinking for common understandings and shared commitment must be unconvered. If your purpose is to bring norms back into people’s consciousness at the start of the year, the following excerpt offers a practical and meaningful way to involve all staff in this.

1. Structure for meaningful conversation

Structure partnerships or small teams of 3-4 for meaningful conversation.

You might select a topic or issue already on your meeting or professional learning agenda; alternatively, you might choose a relevant strategy from Increase relational trust: learn what is important to each other as the focus for conversation.

2. Explain the additional purpose

“As you work together, my intent is to observe and record what you appear to value - what seems important to you in terms of how you treat each other. We’ll use this as a scaffold to revisit our existing norms and values.”

3. Observe interactions during conversations

Unobtrusively record values you observe in action as conversations proceed, with examples of specific evidence or behaviours that reflect those values.

Values in action

• Respect - listening, waiting for a turn

• Equity - using people’s names, using quiet voices taking turns, sharing time fairly

• Responsibility - each person contributing, focused on task

4. Share observations: invite input

As you share key values observed, offer examples of evidence that supports them and invite input:

• How do my observations fit with what you saw and heard happening?

• What else can we add that you saw and I missed?

5. Make connections to existing values

Make visible on poster or slide your school or organisation’s existing documentation of value/norms. Use one or more of these questions to scaffold conversation:

• How do these compare with the observations on the chart here?

• What connections do you see between them?

• What might we want to add or alter in our existing values/norms to make them more effective?

6. Make desired changes

Organise a small group of volunteers to make any desired changes and present them back to your whole team.

Strategy One:

Observe and enhance existing norms, achieving the purpose of bringing whole team norms back to the front of mind in a personalised and relevant way. If your purpose is to have team members more intensively reflect on, analyse and review existing norms, then consider using the questions in Strategy Two to engage staff in dialogue and discussion.

Strategy Two:

Revisit, reflect and review norms. Use the following questions to guide the discussion:

• As you reflect on our current norms (on display), which of these do you believe worked well last year, and how do you know?

• As you reflect further on our norms, which ones did you find challenging or hard, and how do you know?

• Which of our norms (if any) no longer serve our needs? Say why.

• What norms aren’t on our list that might be important to include this year? In what ways might these assist us?

• What benefits do you see in having our norms: How do they help us?

Whilst there are many ways to uncover thinking and record ideas in partnerships or small teams, a Gallery Poster Walk is one that works particularly well in partnerships because it’s relatively self-paced, raises energy by requiring physical movement from large poster-to-poster and gathers quite a lot of data in a relatively short time.

How to Run a Gallery Poster Walk

• Prepare ahead of time.

• Have a large visual of school norms on display and have five large pre-prepared posters set out around the room, on walls or windows.

• Have coloured dots, post-its and coloured markers ready, either at a central collection point or near each poster.

• Be sure to include a list of school/workplace norms under the tasks on each poster.

Introduce the Purpose

How we treat each other and work together is at the core of our relationships and team effectiveness, so our intention now is to review our school norms to see what worked for us last year and what changes (if any) we might need to make as we undertake a whole new year together. Taking this time will bring our norms back to front of mind again and offer our new members of staff the chance to become familiar with them and contribute their valuable insights.

Explain the Process

- Take your group through each of the five questions and the related tasks on posters; Clarify as needed, and explain the Gallery Poster Walk:

- It is self-paced, partnerships can start at any poster and undertake them in any order they wish.

- Key to success is the dialogue between partners around each poster before they agree and record their partnership thinking.

- There is an overall time limit of ___ minutes. (It may take between 15 and 30 minutes. You know your team best regarding this.)

Form Partnerships: Undertake the Gallery Walk

To form partnerships, match any new team member with someone who is already familiar with school norms so they can help with any questions and clarifications a new member may have. Encourage partnerships to manage their time so they can complete each poster. Monitor group progress in case you need to alter or extend the time a little.

Debrief the Learning & Consider Next Steps

Time permitting, review the results on each poster, encouraging questions, comments and clarifications between and from partnerships. If time is short or the data seems complex, invite all team members to review these during the week and bring their thinking to the next meeting, indicating that this is when you will look at themes, any changes needed and next steps. Consider organising a small voluntary group to take away and analyse data on the posters, bringing back to the whole group what they have identified and present recommended next steps.

This article has been reprinted with permission.

Joan Dalton

Internationally respected Australian teacher and educator, Joan Dalton, is acknowledged for her expertise in learning and teaching, leadership, and facilitation. She has worked by invitation with schools and educational organisations in more than 10 different countries. Joan has authored several internationally successful books. Her current passion and writing are focused on the kinds of skilful language and powerful conversations that move learning forward.

For more, visit www.leadingadultlearners.com