VISTA Unit B2: How to embed the Whole School Approach (WSA) 1 Module B: The Whole School Approach Unit B2: How to Embed the Whole School Approach (WSA): The Challenge of Implementation Anne Sofie Samuelsen and Sigrun K. Ertesvåg Norway Objectives of Unit B2 • To consider strategies for implementing the WSA • To be able to develop the process of change and support staff involved in it • To be familiar with possible (and most likely) resistance and barriers met in an implementation process Facilitation skills to be developed through this Unit Knowledge and understanding of: • the context of change • how to respond to challenges during the implementation of change • possible barriers to the process of change • resistance to the process of change Personal qualities and attributes include: • being able to act as a leader • being able to motivate co-workers • being an effective communicator • having empathy for co-workers, even when they disagree with you Pre-unit reading Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teacher College Press. Kelly, L. K., & Lezotte, L. W. (2003). Developing leadership through the school improvement process. Journal of School Improvement, 4(1). Retrieved July 22, 2006, from http://www.ncacasi.org/jsi/2003v4il/develop_leadership Summary of current thinking and knowledge about how to embed the WSA Implementing the WSA to school violence involves a learning process which cannot be taken out of context. Today, we live in a complex knowledge society that requires educated citizens who can learn continuously, and who can work with diversity. Complexity means change and specifically it means rapidly occurring, unpredictable, non-linear change in our organizations and our world. Such changes are not easy to control. Different ways of thinking about change are required – ways that our conventional approaches to planned change have not allowed. As a consequence schools must become learning organisations or they will fail to survive as an organization creating knowledge (Fullan, 2001). These changes in society raise the question of how to cultivate and sustain learning under conditions of complex, rapid change. Schools are beginning to