Meet Our Leaders: Instructional Leadership Community of Practice (ILCoP) Facilitator Michael O’Connor
We are halfway through our inaugural nine-month Instructional Leadership Community of Practice (ILCoP), and our educators are making significant progress toward their goals. Participants are deepening their understanding of “instructional leadership,” “instructional coaching,” and the “learning cycle,” as well as the models that drive educational improvement. This progress is a testament to both their collaboration and the guidance of our facilitator.
Meet Michael O’Connor, Ph.D., a former middle school teacher and instructional coach now supporting educators through teacher education and professional development facilitation and support. O’Connor explains, “This Instructional Leadership Community of Practice (ILCoP) provides a facilitated structure so that educators can feel confident that they are using their time meaningfully to further their own learning and to contribute to the broader collective learning of all those participating.”
Why is it important for educators to participate in these types of programs? What is the need? What challenges are educators facing?
Participating in a community of practice is valuable because it creates meaningful opportunities for collaboration to allow knowledge, skills, and resources to move about the room (in-person or virtual) to advance the learning of educators and school leaders. Focusing on instructional leadership, improvement cycles, and coaching provides a structured, yet flexible framework to better support collegial - and ultimately, student - learning. Just as we want students to maintain a stance of constant learning and openness to growth, we also want educators and leaders to have a similar stance. As educational professionals, ongoing learning and professional development are essential to ensure that we can best meet the needs of our students to support their holistic learning.
Educators face a wide range of challenges, but in a particular way the feeling that there are too many asks being made of them and not enough time to address everything. This Instructional Leadership Community of Practice (ILCoP) provides a facilitated structure so that educators can feel confident that they are using their time meaningfully to further their own learning and to contribute to the broader collective learning of all those participating.
Why should schools and school leaders prioritize instructional leadership and coaching in their communities?
Schools and school leaders need to have an established instructional leadership vision and academic priorities that meet the needs of their students to best support their learning and development. Without an instructional vision, there is no direction to guide teaching and learning. Educators are professionals and are always learning to improve their teaching. Having a clear vision and improvement process provides the guidance and focus needed to support actionable learning for educators. If you say everything needs to be fixed, the reality is nothing is fixed. Having a vision and process sets the priority and supports learning and change in a manageable way that helps educators learn and improve their classroom instructional practice. Coaching is a critical vehicle for this work to happen — having a knowledgeable and trusted colleague observe and provide targeted feedback that allows for real growth and change in teaching practice. But you can't just send a coach into a classroom and expect teaching and learning to improve. Research, theory, and experience inform different coaching models that should be considered and aligned with the school's instructional leadership vision so that there is coherence from the vision all the way to the classroom coaching, teaching, and learning. When educators see coherence in a school, they know that an improvement practice like coaching isn't just the policy moment of that school year, but is part of a sustained, professional effort to provide support to educators as they improve their own teaching practice.
What are your hopes for school leaders who engage in this ILCOP?
My hope is that school leaders find a committed, engaged community of fellow educators and leaders in Rhode Island who want to collaborate to advance their learning. As they learn more about instructional leadership and coaching, they also reflect upon and modify (if and as needed) the structures and practices for improvement in their respective schools. As school leaders learn from one another, they take real, relevant learnings and then apply them to their own school contexts. Everything we do in the ILCoP is meant to inform the real work that happens in schools to improve teaching and learning. And the school leaders participating are the ones with the experience, expertise, and drive to continuously learn to show up for each other to work towards their goals.
How did you get involved in this work?
As a former teacher and instructional coach, I know the value of instructional coaching firsthand. Drawing from my experience as a practitioner and researcher, I feel so fortunate that I can learn with and from these excellent educators and school leaders, to help facilitate sessions and learning, and to help to create the conditions for meaningful collaboration to happen. I believe deeply in the power of collaboration to support educators and leaders as they improve teaching and learning. To help support that collaboration in the ILCoP so that the participants can then support each other's learning is a gift and an honor. There is much to celebrate in Rhode Island schools and much potential for continued excellence — as a Rhode Islander committed to working in education, I am thrilled to partner with the Rhode Island Education Collective to help advance their mission and the learning of those participating in the ILCoP.