Challenges to New Professional Development Approaches

Educational reform and professional development reform must be implemented in concert with one another. . . . A vision of the future must be developed, . . . supported in the long-term at the highest level of the . . . system. Professional development [is] the "glue" that holds the reform together.

1990s legislation has provided educators with a meaningful starting point from which to reform education. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Amendments of 1998 (Perkins III) became law in October 1998. While it is still too early to assess its effect, Perkins III does emphasize many of the major ideas contained in two other major federal legislative initiatives that have impacted vocational education in the 1990s--The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 (Perkins II) and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA). Perkins II and STWOA support a number of educational innovations, including:

• tech prep;
• school-to-work transition;
• integrating academic and vocational education;
• linking school and work-based learning in meaningful ways; and
• building powerful alliances between schools, the workplace, and the
  community.

Thus, reflecting on Perkins II and STWOA offers insights into the ongoing changes in professional development, including those in store under Perkins III.

Resistance to Reform
How have educators in general, and teachers in particular, responded to these reforms? Results from the most recent National Assessment of Vocational Education reveal that four years after passage of the Perkins II legislation, there was still considerable resistance to implementing both tech prep and integration. Additionally, most secondary vocational education programs remain quite traditional in both focus and operation, and educators still try to fit reforms to their existing curricula.

These results come as no great surprise. Most teachers have received little, if any, preparation to work on educational reform except on an individual teacher basis. Perkins II and the STWOA both call for reform that actively engages teachers in working together and with others--both inside and outside the school. A number of schools and school districts have already begun experimenting with this collaborative approach.

It is evident that teachers must develop new capabilities if they intend to successfully implement educational reforms. Little (1993) noted that the dominant teacher development model, which focuses on broadening the individual teacher's expertise in teaching, is inadequate to meet teachers' needs in the current reform climate. The challenge faced when changing the model of teacher professional development is further confounded by traditional barriers that have separated teachers of academic and vocational subjects.

While, in recent years, the federal government has shifted to a new position that advocates integrating some academic and vocational systems, historically, the federal government has had a strong commitment to support vocational education and maintain it as a system that was largely separate from academic education.

However, this legislative philosophy continues to affect not only how education is provided at the local level, but also teachers' professional development experiences. In many localities, the current school climate is one where "subject remains an important frame of reference and source of professional identity and community for secondary teachers. A status gulf separates vocational and academic studies in most comprehensive high schools" (Little, 1992, pp. 2-3).

Thus, the difficulty faced by those who want to implement educational reform in their schools is that educational reform and professional development reform must be implemented in concert with one another. Further complicating the reform process are teachers' different backgrounds, education, and subject matter expertise. Reforms are more likely to succeed if consideration is given to individual differences among teachers.

A Vision for Reform
What then can schools do to overcome barriers and resistance to implementing educational reform?

• First, a vision of the future must be developed that describes how implementing the reform will transform the ways teaching and learning take place. It should be emphasized that the result of this transformation will be a meaningful educational improvement (for example, increased student learning, decreased student dropout rate). The vision should convince some teachers, and inform others who may not be convinced right away, that time spent with reform activities will be of practical benefit to both them and their students.
  
  
• Second, the vision and thus the reform must be supported in the long-term at the highest level of the school system or community college by administrators and governing bodies (for example, school boards, boards of visitors). This type of commitment communicates to teachers that the reform is a very important, long-term priority for the institution and the community.
  
  
• Third, administrator commitment must be reflected through actual support at the teacher level. For example: unwieldy policies and rules are revised, traditionally rigid time schedules are adjusted so all teachers have common planning periods, and fiscal resources are shifted so they support teachers' educational reform activities. This type of grass roots support can facilitate change and development and thus cause teachers to become cheerleaders for, rather than vocal critics of, change.

The Role of Professional Development
And what role does professional development play in this process? Professional development can be considered as the "glue" that both holds the reform together during the building process and keeps the reform together after it has been fully implemented. Many contemporary educational reforms emphasize major change across the entire institution. Such reforms may require that teachers work together, often in self-directed professional teams, to improve what is taught and how it is taught.

Meaningful professional development activities can assist these teachers in learning how to shift from their traditional roles to those that align more closely with the particular reform. For example, a high-school-wide school-to-work careers effort might include reassigning each teacher from a traditional department to one of several clusters in the school. Long-term professional development activities focusing on team building, team member responsibilities, and advanced skills for functioning teams can help the school-to-careers vision become a reality. Without these learning activities, faculty members who have never worked in teams would not have any idea about what they should do. The whole reform process then could end up with teachers being discouraged about their lack of progress and demanding to go back to the traditional organizational structure.

The professional development approaches described in this report can help both academic and vocational teachers to solve problems--especially during periods of major reform--and to work more effectively. In addition, the approaches discussed in this report can prepare teachers to collaborate with people in the workplace and the community so their students will receive more meaningful learning experiences.

And how will educators get ready for future change? A good place to begin is by recognizing that educational change and professional development can be very powerful partners. When planning for educational change includes a strong, ongoing commitment to professional development--one that helps teachers change their instructional approaches and work more collaboratively both inside and outside the school--the process of making changes in schools will become easier.