by Roma B. Angel and Robert L. Sanders

Introduction

The focus of this paper is on building solution communities of practicing school leaders who together are committed to building systems where the pressing multidimensional problems facing public schools are tackled with commitment. For this work to positively affect public schools and have a lasting effect upon school culture, graduate students must experience the practice of shared decision-making and develop the voice of leadership committed to the work of involving all stakeholders in solution processes. The paper begins with an idea and follows its progression from birth through the process of designing a 3D working environment.

Methodology

It is important to note that Roma Angel and Rob Sanders wrote separately on each of the agreed upon sections of this paper. Afterwards the separately written statements were merged. Each author then read the paper in its entirety. The individual stories of our work was complementary and led to the short summaries at the end of each section titled “Finding Our Way Together” where we point out the intersection of our work together on this project.

Statement of the Problem From Our Perspectives

Roma—

As a former school administrator, I observed a lack of authentic communication among professionals from differing content disciplines and across grade levels. I witnessed conversation after conversation where employees and parents talked at one another or at cross purposes even though all agreed that the issue at hand was important. It’s possible that at times I was witnessing a lack of comfort with talking with others about really important issues. For the most part graduate students in school administration appeared to be primarily interested in acquiring check lists for doing the work correctly and for learning the latest procedures produced by governing authorities. They seem on the surface to have less interest in the important issues of their work—the ones that call for making one’s own road map for doing the work. If I bring up important issues; they become silent. If I discuss their silence with them; they discuss their fears of being wrong, or offending others. “These fears keep us from really talking around others. There is a type of vulnerability in these deeper conversations. We might make a mistake and be misunderstood,” they say.

A similar culture exists on the university campus and also in life. The condition is not indicative of teaching and learning institutions only. It’s a condition of our current culture where there are tremendous problems that need our attention.

As a fan of James B. Macdonald, curriculum theorist of the reconceptualist movement, I became more and more concerned about the communication gulf that I witnessed. James B. McDonald (1973) wrote that schools are microcosms of the larger macrocosm. In other words, schools represent in almost exact proportion the issues of the larger cultural and social condition. Cultural factors and problems of the larger society are also found in nearly the same proportion in schools. I often wondered how we were to solve the larger societal—macrocosmic—issues if we could not even solve together the microcosmic issues of one school. Equally of concern was the fact that our public school students were certainly not witnessing adults solving problems in community nor were students themselves being engaged together in problem solving. If we could not solve the issues in microcosm, how could we begin to solve the even more complex issues of the macrocosm? Where should one learn to communicate with those who are educated differently, who live differently, who are of a different socioeconomic background, who are of a different color or gender or nationality or ethnicity? If not in school, then where would we learn to communicate for real solutions to real issues?

I have been intrigued by the research conducted by Bellah and others (1985/1996) who in Habits of the Heart write that Americans are not very forthcoming in talking about those issues and relationships that are of most importance to them. We tend to bury those important aspects of our lives deeply within us, they say, and fail at times even to speak about them with those whom we most trust. I believe that we can lose the words to have these conversations if we don’t deliberately participate in the conversations.
Dewey’s Pedagogic Creed (1897) provides a great vision for the purpose of schools. I agree with Dewey when he writes: “I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to pursue his[her] own powers for social ends.” I further agree with Dewey that “education…is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” and that “education that does not occur through forms of life…that are worth living for their own sake…tends to cramp and to deaden.” This belief that schools are places representing life in its microcosmic state, that important issues are difficult to communicate even to those with whom we are the closest, and believing that schools are places where we should teach the importance of and skills associated with good dialogue heightens my awareness of the importance of contributing to a solution for communication and problem-solving in schools.

It seems that learning how to communicate with those who teach a different grade level or content discipline is one of the most important purposes for schools. Living and working in positive microcosmic and macrocosmic environments could depend upon the ability to communicate about essential issues and relationships in life. What is the vocabulary for this? What is the procedure? How do we encourage engaging discourse? How do we teach problem-solving in community? How do we engage others in the belief that this is an essential process? What pedagogical strategies have potential? Are there technological frameworks that could contribute to a solution?

I looked at several possible teaching strategies and came upon the research of Kathryn Merseth (1997) who completed some of the first work using case studies to understand educational leadership. Her writing and her collection of cases confirmed my resolve to research the use of case studies for this work. I began by developing a rubric for looking at case studies from the standpoint of school leadership (Angel, 2003).
The case study analysis rubric required careful case study reading, identification of missing information, analysis of the perspectives of the case’s characters, identification of the primary problem (one that if solved would prevent the reoccurrence of this issue) and of the secondary problem(s), an outline and analysis of possible solutions and an decisive action plan.

Next, I chose a pressing issue for the public schools and wrote a case study involving a middle school principal, a social studies teacher, a media specialist, a secretary, parents and some precocious students. I tried this case study with my students. They found that individually they loved solving the cases and writing the briefs. What I discovered most, though, was that students loved talking with one another about case issues, about the perspectives of the characters, about their own solutions and those of others. I began to think that I had a possible answer to my larger concern of solving real school issues, and teaching about solving issues present in the larger world. Presenting issues to students within a real context helped to facilitate their conversations and seemed less shocking than bringing the issues themselves forward for discussion without a plausible school context.

I expanded this assignment into a framework where students engage in solving cases in “solution communities.” They discuss issues, come to consensus, and write briefs in groups. They upload these briefs to a threaded discussion board and read the briefs of other classmates. They discuss the briefs of others using the discussion board, and later they engage in full-class dialog about the case and their various group solutions and actions. They are given an opportunity to rewrite their own group’s brief using ideas they have gained from other groups. This worked in various school administration and educational leadership classes. Students gave high ratings to this activity.

I still remembered schools, though. The question for me remained: How can I influence administrators to talk with teachers in all grade levels and in all disciplines about school problems and lasting solutions? I decided that perhaps I might find a faculty member from another discipline who was interested in this initiative and who would be willing to enter into this activity. This could be a rich experience for students of both professors, or it could produce chaos. Many of our graduate classes meet at great distances from one another. How could we facilitate distance?

I decide to try using discussion boards in the same manner that I used with my own class. Students in all cohorts, at any distance, could use these. I discussed this possibility with my own students. They expressed reservation about sharing their thoughts and case briefs with students from other content areas. I talk to them about face-to-face meetings with students from other disciplines. If they are going to be asked to talk with others about case study issues, they say that they wish to remain together in course-alike groups. They ask, “Do we have to divide up when we’re with them?’ I know immediately that this is the right thing to do. If they can learn to talk with teachers from other disciplines on the discussion boards and in person, and if they can develop confidence in doing this, then this particular manner of practicing school leadership just might continue in the schools. Everyone could win from this. I explain to them that this is a “safe place” to learn to solve school issues. There are no real or long-lasting consequences. This could also lead to a prevention of administrator isolation in the school setting.

Perhaps my concerns about preserving existing and developing new language for shared decision making, about the development of voice and agency, about experiencing the power of shared decision making, about finding a safe place for building this capacity in administrators and other leaders in the school community can give way to hope and possibility with his new initiative.

I find several colleagues who express an interest in the program and I find Rob Sanders who has a special reason for thinking this project can be helpful to his students.

Rob—

From the media perspective, there is a belief held by many school media coordinators that their principals in particular, along with other district administrators, do not fully understand or appreciate the role and responsibilities of the media center coordinator. As such, they often feel undervalued, unappreciated, marginalized, and in extreme cases, alienated. These beliefs are often confirmed when I have my pre-service library science students conduct interviews with practicing media coordinators and the respective principals on issues pertaining to the media program and its function within the instructional school setting. My students often discover that, in fact, neither of the above educators completely understands the other nor does either understand the driving forces that guide what each does and the decisions that are made. My students also discover something else; they realize that there is a lack of communication between the principals and media coordinators, which appears to be a reason, if not the reason, for this breakdown in positive relations between the two.

While these observations have been discussed in the master’s level School Media Program course, it has been my belief that this problem deserves more attention in our library science program and should be addressed through activities that are designed to directly address the problems indicated. As such, I joined a small group of colleagues who were using case studies to examine and offer solutions to real school problems such as the issue my students discussed. I suggested that I would like to write a case study that forced library science students and school administration students to begin a positive, solution focused dialogue that might possibly continue when these students moved on to become practitioners in the field. The case was written and thus the stage was set to begin the conversation.

Building Teaching and Learning Solutions Together—

We together envision a way to improve the use of shared decision-making within schools by working with our own students through the case study initiative. We decide to use a case study written by Rob focusing on the conflict between a media center coordinator, technology specialist and a principal who has hired well but who, because she does not understand the true job functions of either of her new employees, does not review the job descriptions with these new staff members. Thus, each new employee is left to fend for him/herself.

Phase I: Experimenting with Case Studies
From Our Perspectives

Roma—
My first attempt at forming a solution community involved students from three different master’s degree programs offered at three different locations within the state. The school administration, curriculum specialist, and middle grades students read my first case study and used the case study analysis rubric I authored. Working with program-alike groups students wrote case briefs and uploaded these to a joint discussion board. Then, individuals spent two weeks reading all case briefs and discussing those briefs with students from the other graduate programs on a threaded discussion board. With the exception of their own classmates, students did not know one another.

After two weeks the three classes met face-to-face at a predetermined off-campus location. Forming groups composed of students from each participating program, students examined each case again and jointly (1) identified positive, negative, and unclear aspects of each case brief, (2) identified possible and viable actions, and (3) developed an action plan together. Several groups commented on the language differences among programs. These factors were reported out by each group with time for response from other groups. At the end of the class students met in their original program-alike groups for discussion and possible revision of the original case brief. This experience was positive in that students were enthusiastic, their observations were sharp and their discussions around possible solutions were rich. They asked that the faculty members repeat this experience with other groups and commented on course evaluations that this was one of the richest experiences that they had encountered during their graduate programs.

The second time I used this method was during a summer session with Rob Sanders and his students in the master of library science program. This time we encountered interesting discourse among the students in the school administration and library science programs. One group of media specialists described the administrator in the case study as “clueless” when she neglected to define the jobs of the new media coordinator and technology specialist. I waited for my group to read this brief and enjoyed hearing their surprise that the students in library science had been so “blatantly disrespectful.” The class discussed what they would do as principals should they encounter this type of comment in the workplace. I encouraged a response. After all, I told them, this is why we are engaged in this particular assignment.

One of my students encouraged the library science group to take responsibility for their own actions by responding for the school administration class in a very pointed but non-inciting manner. This response was met by a series of discussion threads from the media specialist’s class describing their own responsibilities within a school setting and asking questions about the role of school administrators in solving school issues. This encounter led to a more positive understanding of shared leadership in schools, the development of voice about shared leadership and about the power afforded by technology through programs that facilitate the building of relationships through dialogue that focuses on finding solutions in school communities. My students report that they are pleased to have played a part in developing this bridge of communication with students who plan to become media coordinators.

Rob—

My first attempt at using our newly written case study involving a media coordinator, an instructional technologist, and a building principal was surprisingly successful considering the fact that it was summer and as a result, the students needed to write their case briefs, post them, and respond to the MSA briefs within the timeframe of a week. Fortunately, they rose to the occasion and completed the work on time. However, one interesting and unexpected thing occurred during the experience. One of my student groups wrote a response to the case that was viewed by some as unprofessional and even somewhat inflammatory. These students were not used to working with students in another discipline and neglected to consider their audience when writing the brief, using language that was not appropriate for the circumstances. Subsequently, the brief initiated a lively dialogue between several students from both programs, first about the statements made, and later about the issues that prompted the library science students to make such statements. What started as a response to offensive statements resulted in a very real and
lively dialogue that addressed the very issue I described above, that media coordinators and principals do not communicate effectively and that the comments made were simply made from frustration. In the end, the students discovered the power of the technology in opening up the lines of communication, the power of their own voices, and the power of cross-disciplinary dialogue focused on addressing real school problems and issues.

In subsequent semesters, the case study project has worked equally as well but has never stimulated the controversy that we experienced that first summer. I make great efforts to impart to my students the importance of the assignment and the need to take it seriously. I talk to them about using their professional voices and considering their audiences. When disagreements or conflicts in perspectives occur, both groups of students address the issues professionally, politely, and with the goal of shared decision making and solution building in mind. It is no longer an adversarial relationship that we briefly saw that first summer. My students, in particular, comment on the experience as being worthwhile and empowering. They appreciate the opportunity to talk with other students, especially the school administration students, to learn about other perspectives, expectations, and areas of interest. They learn how other students make decisions and what they have been taught to help them make those decisions. Finally, my students tell me how they now have a voice and the courage to share that voice.

Building Teaching and Learning Solutions Together—

We found this first experience to be exciting. The dialogue among students was rich and promising. We present on this experience by providing an analysis of the discourse at the North Carolina Library Media Specialist Conference and receive good reviews. Later, Roma approaches Rob with the concept of creating a website to house several case studies like these. Roma has a concept in mind; Rob has the technology skills. This proves to be a good match. We elicit the help of John Tashner who works with case studies in his ApEdTech work.

Phase II: Developing the School District Website
From Our Perspectives

Roma—

Because of the success of these initial attempts at forming solution communities where students analyze case studies and write case briefs, I am sure that this a worthwhile initiative. I approached Rob and John Tashner (from the graduate programs in instructional technology) about writing a Reich College of Education Successful Applications of Solution Technologies (SALT) grant to support the development of a website to house several of these cross-program case studies. My vision is to form a website where the various areas of a school district are formed and where the case briefs involving a particular place are housed. For example, there will be a district office with case briefs involving the superintendent and other central office personnel. In addition, there will be an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. We write the grant proposal and are funded.

We meet to develop a rubric for faculty from various programs to use in writing cases for the website. We agree that the cases must include three to five scenes that reveal the
facts of the case from varying perspectives, that there are no “bad” characters in the cases, that the cases focus on the issues on real school problems from various disciplinary areas where shared leadership skills can promote a richer solution to the problems revealed in the cases.

We begin work on the website, invite other faculty to write cases involving their disciplines, and continue using and perfecting the case study teaching method outlined above. Most of the case studies that Rob and I write involve school administrators and media center coordinators. Several other faculty from varying programs join us by writing case studies. We begin to wonder, however, if there is a more effective way to have our students interact initially than the threaded discussion board where their interactions are genuine but somewhat more stilted and less spontaneous than we would like. Even as we work on the website, we are wondering about a more authentic means of communication among our student groups. Would a 3D environment help? This is a question for consideration.

Rob—

Supported by a SALT grant awarded by the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University, we were able to write many more case studies and organize them in a way in which each would be available to other faculty for use in their respective courses. Given that all the cases were written with a school administrator as a primary character in the action and that subsequently, this action invariably took place in some type of school setting, it was decided that the website housing the cases should be designed to resemble a small school district that included a central office, a high school, middle school, and an elementary school (Figure 1). Each case was then located in the most appropriate school setting for easier and more logical access and retrieval (Figure 2).

Figure 1
Figure 2

The site included all the cases, supporting resources for each case, and links to the Learning Praxis with Case Studies document written by Roma Angel and to the discussion board we had been using to manage the interactions between students. It was during the work on this grant project that the faculty involved began to question to effectiveness of the discussion board tool that we had been using as an appropriate vehicle to support student dialogue. We didn’t feel that the threaded nature of a discussion board resembled or promoted the type of authentic dialogue that we wanted to occur between and among our students. We therefore set out to identify other tools to better replicate a real school environment in which our students could come together, albeit still at a distance, to interact and solve problems. It was with this goal in mind that we identified and committed to using ActiveWorlds, an immersive 3D virtual world that would support the creation of spaces that would hopefully support and stimulate a more engaged and authentic dialogue than what we had previously observed.

Building Teaching and Learning Solutions Together

The website is a very good beginning. Rob captured my initial concept in his website presentation. However, we quickly find the website to be somewhat flat and traditional. We would like to have a site that provides for a greater variety of communication modes. Since we are working with John Tashner, we wonder about using the Active Worlds environments. We write another proposal for a SALT grant. This one is for developing a 3D site for housing and working with the case studies. We want to build a case study hotel in AET Zone. This could be exciting work. We receive this grant, too.

Phase III: Developing the 3D World
From Our Perspectives

Roma—

I am thoroughly convinced that the 3D environment is the best place to house the case studies. We have a real opportunity here to strengthen the communication among our students as we move from the traditional threaded discussion board during the initial conversations to one where there can be on-going discussion among students about the cases and also about their written case briefs. I love the opportunity to raise the level of communication particularly during the beginning aspect of this process. Students will then be able to come together for the face-to-face meeting having engaged in even richer dialogue.

Each of our meetings is focused on teaching and learning environments that are rich in conversation. We discuss the place for the case studies in the virtual world that we are creating. We talk about an entry area to the worlds named The Commons and about what will be housed there. We decide that the case studies will go here because they offer opportunity for communication about real school issues to students in a variety of graduate programs.

We are now faced with what to name each world and also the case study site. This is truly exciting, collaborative work. I’m beginning to see how my vision of learning to solve macrocosmic issues through our work in a microcosm can be potentially powerful. I now believe that we can be tremendously and permanently influenced by what we do here in this virtual microcosm. I can see how students can develop voice for shared leadership in a richer environment that affords more opportunity for discussion. This is the social construction of knowledge at its optimum. Our work has the potential to save and to create the language of community and communication and of shared leadership. This is what I call good work.

Rob—

We are currently in the process of developing our 3D virtual world and I have found the experience thus far to be extremely rewarding as a teacher and as a researcher. I have spend time in the last year examining the role of metaphors in the development of virtual worlds (Sanders & Tashner, 2004) and have found my own experience to confirm what I have learned from others regarding the effective use of complementary metaphors in the design of virtual spaces and artifacts.

This process has also provided answers to several philosophical questions I posed in a paper I wrote earlier titled, In the Beginning…The Genesis of a Virtual World (Sanders, 2005) in which I asked “What should teaching and learning look like in this world? How is teaching and learning different in this new environment similar to and different from other online environments I’ve used in the past?” and finally, “How can our college’s social constructivist conceptual framework inform and guide my design of this new virtual teaching and learning environment?” while I don’t yet have complete answers to these important questions, I am well on my way to gaining a better understanding of how this new tool might support my ongoing utilization of case studies.

The virtual world development group now made up of members of the library science, school administration, and instructional technology programs, as well as a member from the distance learning team at our university library, has decided to begin our development with a shared, common space that we have dubbed, The Information Commons. The commons is being designed as a plaza consisting of open spaces, fountains, benches, and signage, while surrounded by buildings such as an alumni center, a library, a coffee shop,
a hotel, and various other structures leading to other spaces to be developed later (Figure 3). Each of these artifacts and structures is a representation or metaphor for some needed function in this world. Fountains may provide access to journals for reflection; benches may offer one-on-one interaction with another; a library contains resources and reference services; and, the hotel houses the cases that we plan to move into this virtual world when it is complete.

Figure 3

Early discussions about ways to provide access to the cases resulted in our deciding on the hotel representation. We believed that all students, regardless of program should have immediate and unimpeded access to the cases. Since the Information Commons is being designed as a shared space where all students pass prior to entering other program specific worlds, the commons was a logical location to build the hotel. Each floor of the hotel would house a separate case, providing ample space to create the unique environment that the case might require. For example, a case might include a classroom, a media center, and a principal’s office as settings for the action to take place. The floor of the hotel could be modified to include these three room settings. Another case on another floor may include these same three rooms, but include a student’s home and the board of education boardroom as additional settings. Modifications can be made to the layout to accommodate these additional spaces. As cases are added, additional floors to the hotel can be added, with access to each floor provided by an elevator. This organization of the cases will provide the access we desire and more importantly, provide an immersive environment in which our students will more realistically interact with their colleagues in a safe, authentic, solution community.

Building Teaching and Learning Solutions Together—

Working with this expanded group to design the space in The Commons for the case studies is exciting work. Each floor will represent one case study and will include the resources needed for each. In addition, we will include a variety of opportunities for dialogue about each case study and through the case study analysis rubric.

Conclusions: Continuing the Work

Roma –
I have no doubt that Katherine Merseth, who paved the way for case study work in school administration, would be pleased by our virtual application for case study analysis. And, John Dewey would agree that these representations would force better and richer conversation. Perhaps, even Bellah and his researcher friends would be pleased that we just might preserve the language to facilitate deeper and more meaningful conversation. This pleases me. I’m ready for the continuation of the adventure and I’m looking forward to using the virtual world with my students. This work gives me hope for the future of shared leadership and the solving of the real issues that present themselves in schools and that perpetuate themselves in like kind in the larger society.

Rob—

I have been documenting the process by which we are developing this new virtual world and continued my examination of the literature addressing the use of metaphors in its design. Since it may be several months before the commons and the hotel are ready for use, we continue to use the website and discussion board described in Phase II to continue our case study activity. We are currently in the process of developing a survey instrument to collect additional data about the types and nature of interactions that occur between and among the students participating in the case study project, and intend to use this data to further guide our development of future cases and in refining the process by which our students compose their case analyses.

Building Teaching and Learning Solutions Together—The Work Continues

We agree that this is good work. We have been strengthened in our ability to communicate with one another and with other faculty members who have joined our efforts to use case studies as instruments for shared leadership and positive change in real school environments. As we continue to develop the 3D environment, we are refining our research agenda to determine the actual impact on work in schools, universities, and the larger world.

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