In this paper we will analyze San Juan Evangelista School which is a private school located in Las Condes. In this diagnosis, we used the SWOT analysis method which analyzes Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. We were also able to label these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats under the categories mentioned in the Marco para
The second part of this report will contain all the strategies needed to improve these aspects according to the appropriateness of each of them and the possibilities given by the school and its environment. It will include all the improvement strategies taken from the theory and also our own experience from being part of this school community. The final aim of this paper is to visualize the aspects that need improvement and research about the best ways to accomplish it.
Leadership
Missing Principal (W)
After being a year in this school, we can bluntly say that we never met the principal of the school. His absence can be a great weakness because he is the one in the school to be leading its members to success and progress. His absence is at the same time providing the community members a sense of freedom which can be negative when other individuals take more power and their practices may deviate from the clear objectives the school has.
Department Meetings (S)
While the principal may not be very present, we have other members of the direction team making themselves present and leading their people to success and progress. This is the case of the very strong department meetings which were held once a week and where the discussion among professionals took place. This is where the main decisions were taken related to all the subjects and teaching practices. We could also see that each department had a chief that led the meetings and the teachers in their practices. What is important for us to highlight is that the time for the department meetings was established and all the departments had access to them. The UTP chief also had meetings with the department chiefs where they would discuss the different department problems and achievements.
Over present department chief (W)
Another weakness that we identified in this school was the over presence of the department chief. This means that teachers cannot be autonomous and make decisions of their own because the head of the department did not allow it. Teachers were not allowed to do what they wanted, in other words, there was no possibility for suggestion or new ideas. The department chief was the only one who was allowed to give his opinion about tests, teacher’s performance or new ideas. The rest of the English department had to follow the department chief’s ideas; after all, he was the only one who would approve or disapprove what an English teacher wanted to do in the school.
Curricular Management
High quality teachers (S)
As we all very well know, in a school we have different components. An important component is the students. As important as the students we have the teachers. As far as we could see, teachers in the school are effective in their teaching practices. For instance, in the English department all teachers do know their disciplines very well and have methodology to teach it. Without having observed all teachers in other disciplines, we can observe this because San Juan graduates do get good PSU results and later on attend university. In high school, teachers also help students develop their critical thinking skills by discussing society issues in all subjects such as History, Language and English. Therefore, teachers do care about students’ integral development rather than mere content.
Extracurricular Activities (S)
Another relevant strength in San Juan Evangelista was the promotion of extracurricular activities. Members of the direction, principal, teachers, students and parents were able to participate in several external activities of the school. For instance, pastoral for students, retirements for teachers and parents, many sports practice, workshops of art, field trips for teachers and students, reflective meetings during the weekend for all the school. These activities are extremely helpful and meaningful when building a comfortable and close community in which the instances of knowing others, sharing different experiences, points of view, ideas, projects, etc, could be constantly given.
Resources Management
Library or facilities in general (W)
If parents pay almost $200.000 pesos per student every month, they will expect some standard materials for students or at least accessibility and availability of the present resources. Due to the fact that we know the school, we can say that the amount of money the school receives is not shown, for example in the technological aspects, facilities or infrastructure. The amount of computers is definitely not enough for the amount of students. To have the opportunity to use a projector you need to have patience since you have to confirm availability or wait until some other teacher is done. (There is only one laptop to move around with the projector).
In terms of technological aspects, we believe that the school must have an improvement in the number of computers students have to work with. It is true that computers can be a multifunctional tool that can provide several facilities, but it is not the unique resource to improve language learning.
Another aspect in which the school facility is deficient is in the library. Those books that are the base of knowledge to consult are not enough for subjects and students' needs. A final aspect is the accessibility of the materials. Recently an order came from the head of the school: teachers could not print in the teachers’ room printer anymore. Instead they had to ask the head of the department for permission which limits the possibilities of having access to material from the internet. The accessibility and availability of material resources is definitely affecting the school progress.
Internship and ELAB(O)
One of the biggest opportunities we could observe is the acceptance of internships and ELAB students. The school greatly values the incorporation of pedagogy students in many disciplines such as Physical Education, English, History and Elementary into the school community. Teachers really benefit from having university students because they can have a change on their methodologies. We bring several new and fresh ideas to the school and are able to develop new projects for the school. Apart from helping teachers, we are an aid in giving feedback especially with the more receptive educators. In this constant exchange of methodology, new ideas and information related to teaching, we value the inclusion of internship and ELAB in the school. Moreover, both sides will be fully enriched with new experiences and thoughts that will help teachers and internships to develop their jobs in a better way. That is to say, they will be consciously aware that, for example, peer observation is positively needed in order to improve teacher or future teachers’ performance or methodology inside the classroom.
Organizational Climate and Environment Management
Parents (T)
One of the threats that we could see is the parents' demand about their children's learning. This is a school with high quality education and very professional teachers that need to maintain a standard level of education in comparison to the schools in Chile. Parents' demands can influence the school environment if it is not well administrated. Parents can be very influential in the way they want teachers to do their jobs or the educational aspects they want their children to receive. In fact, parents can affect the school climate positively or negatively according to their expectations and the answers they receive from the school leaders.
Lack of collaborative work (W)
One of the weaknesses that we saw in this school was the lack of collaborative work. The problem was that teachers work independently focusing only on their work, in other words, they never share experiences or ask for suggestions from other teachers. The problem in this case is that there is no connection between what one teacher does in one class and what the other does in another class. If there is no collaborative work, there is no feedback; therefore, teachers do not have opportunity to improve their teaching practice.
Transfer of Responsibilities (T)
One of the changes that the last decades have brought to schools is the transfer of responsibilities from parents to teachers. Most of parents look for a quality school because they are considering what their children will receive from it, in terms of content, strategies and even values. This situation can enormously affect the school climate because teachers can be overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities they need to achieve inside and outside the classroom which can be influenced directly by the relationship among them and the school administrators.
Parents' Participation (O)
One important characteristic that we saw at the moment of being at San Juan Evangelista's school, it is the participation of parents as active characters of it. In fact, they were very present in the school environment as well as in external activities the school has. In several occasions we observed that, at the moment students entered to the school, parents were able to leave them inside of it and even in their own classrooms. All parents knew all teachers and were able to speak to them at any moment. Moreover, parents showed a lot of interest in students' learning processes as well as the kind of education their children receive. These situations have huge impact in the development of the school as a learning community in which all the participants are included.
Improvements
In this section we will offer some solutions as of how to improve the weaknesses and threats present in this school diagnosis.
Missing Principal (W)
The principal of a school is one of the main characters and administrators of the institution. That is why, we believe it is very important that he or she can understand his or her role and accomplish it in all sense. The principal must be present in every activity of the school, for instance in financial operations, students' problems, students' discipline, school management, promotion of the school program, teachers' performances and other school matters. Moreover, it is essential that the school leader can be an active part of the teaching and learning process in the school. They have to monitor and guide teachers in their performances and identify, beforehand, weaknesses so that they can help to improve teachers’ practices.
The duties and responsibilities of the principal should also be clear. For example, considering and engaging all the members in the decisions, projects or programs of the school. This way, he or she will be promoting collaborative work, resulting in a more committed community. Furthermore, principals are also in charge of including parents in the community of the school. They have to inform parents when behavioral problems arise, when students are having problems with their performances, and also be willing to listen to parents when they have concerns about some teachers or their own child. We strongly believe that, the active participation of the principal can support the environment of the school, the success of its characters and the progress of the whole learning community.
Over present department chief (W)
One of the solutions for this weakness is to stop having a hierarchy with the relations between the department head and the teachers. Thus, the relationships should be open and direct between all teachers. Without having a hierarchy, teachers can become more autonomous and more interested in the aspect of leading their department to better practices. Otherwise, teachers disconnect from the responsibility of learning together and building a learning community and give that responsibility to the head of the department.
Library or facilities in general (W)
The solution is to change the focus of the importance of the material resources for the school. With the amount of money parents pay to have their children in the school, the management should provide the required amount of money to update their resources and to buy more books, computers and projectors. However, owning more books or more computers is not the only solution because the problem of accessibility is also present. Therefore, a plan should be created so that every resource is available for students and teachers. This plan can be a schedule or different rooms for the library and computer laboratory among others.
Parents (T)
One of the ideas that can be applied to face this situation is to promote parents meetings more often and also, inviting subject teachers to promote a community learning more than just giving a description of the students' learning processes. These meetings could be once a month but including parents' work at home. For instance, the head teacher could invite some subject teachers to create and develop certain topics to talk about which promote learning in more aspects than just school content. Having these ideas in mind, a journal can be created in which parents and students could work at home, reflecting about this and considering their children's likes and opinions. Then, once a month parents will come to parents meetings with more processed reflections and information in order to give opinions and suggestions about how to improve their children's learning, and not just waiting for a report from the head teacher about what is happening with their children. First of all, the idea is to promote learning inside and outside the school, make parents realize that learning is a complex process that involves everybody around students, and finally, consider parents meetings as a place to start building a community of learning where everybody learns from the rest of people involved in the school.
Lack of collaborative work (W)
In order to improve this situation our proposal is to have meetings during the week apart from the one that they have once a week as the English department. In this school, there are two English teachers per class; therefore, there is a necessity of communication between them that does not exist. With one meeting per week, teachers could inform about problems inside their classroom that need a timely solution, they can also discuss certain issues that can be happening inside the classroom and ask for feedback from their colleagues. Finally, teachers can also propose activities related to their subject in order to improve students' learning and teacher's performance. If there is no communication or feedback among teachers, nobody tells you when you are doing a good job or when you need to improve certain aspects. Collaborative work helps teachers to know whether they are going on a good track or if they need to apply certain changes in their teaching practice. Teaching is a process that involves every person inside a school.
Transfer of Responsibilities (T)
First of all, the school curriculum has to include the parents' role expected to promote students learning. This means that parents know that this school will be different than others because there is an involvement required from parents more profound that in other institutions. This involvement means: being informed about their children's performance; becoming a continuous support at home for their children; and being aware of their responsibility in their children's learning so, giving proposals to improve the learning environment at school. All these elements can work if the head teacher is continuously promoting and listening to parents, but at the same time, informing parents that there are some aspects such as methodology, tasks aims and processes that need to be decided based on the teachers' knowledge.
The inclusion of parents in certain decisions is fundamental in order to let them know which are the responsibilities of teachers and the ones of parents. Schools are the place where learning occurs but not the only one. For instance, parents need to be informed that what their children do at home influences directly their disposition, motivations and performance at school. Therefore, parents need to take the responsibility of educating their children, while the school gives them (parents and students) the appropriate tools to accomplish it.
With “The Framework for Good Management” as a reference we were able to diagnose the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that can be observed in the San Juan Evangelista School. We later on took the weaknesses and threats and propose several solutions, mainly taken out of the several texts we read as a requirement for this course, as of how to improve them. We believe that these improvement can be easily done because it mainly requires plenty organization and will.
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