Andy Hargreaves got me thinking!
PC = f (HC, SC, DC)
I recently participated in a workshop facilitated by Andy Hargreaves where he shared some of his and Michael Fullan’s work on developing professional capital in our schools. Having read their 2012 book “Professional Capital. Transforming Teaching in every School” I was keen to explore their ideas further.
Key messages for me from that workshop and my reading:
- Focusing on building the Human, Social & Decisional Capital in a school is essential if we are serious about investing in our schools.
- Human Capital (HC) is about ensuring staff knows their subject and how to teach it, knowing their students and understanding how they learn.
- Social Capital (SC) is about how the interactions and social relationships among people affect their access to knowledge and information.
- Decisional Capital (DC) is about making discretionary judgements. It is acquired through experience, practice and reflection.
- However concentrating on building all 3 is the key to building the professional capital of our school and ensuring our staff is well placed to support the learning of all of our students.
So it got me thinking….how do we actually do this?
I reflected on the learning culture of the ASMS, specifically the processes in place to support professional learning.