Personal Growth Initiative and ever growing need for change in the dynamics of teaching

(This article is an excerpt from a research paper titled "Personal growth initiative and teaching profession-A conceptual analysis" originally published in Indian Journal of Psychology and Education Jan. 2017, Vol.7, No.1 pp 193-211)

“Change” is an inevitable force and all living beings are in its clutch during their span of existence from birth to death. Initiator of a particular change might be internal or external. Usually a change emerges as an individual’s attempt to adapt to challenges. Change processes--biological, social, emotional, intellectual or spiritual whatever it may be, fundamentally adopts two pathways, conscious (intentional) change or unconscious (unintentional) change.

The change process initiated and motivated by the individual in which individual himself is the agent of change comes under the rubric of the construct “Personal Growth Initiative (PGI)” which is conceptualized as “active intentional involvement of individual in their personal growth process” (Robitscheck, 1998) in which affective, cognitive behavioral aspects of individual consciously and actively participate in the growth process. For the same reason for people in all walks of life PGI is a “personal resource” as people who carry a spark of it enjoy positive development in their respective domains of personal/social functioning.

Compared with unintentional change/growth usually brought about by environmental pressures, intentional change/growth take more or less predictable course beginning from motivation to change, knowledge of change process, efficacy related to change, awareness of goals, planning to attain these goals etc. In this sense, PGI is a skill set that person carries into every walks of life.

Change-mindset and profession

“Conscious change” in accordance with the demands of profession is a must in teaching as a contemporary teacher’s working environment is saturated with continuous change. To create a generation that will keep abreast to changing world, each teacher must keep pace with (or run if necessary) the world and consequent transformations occurring in educational systems worldwide. Teachers are expected to be agents of transforming educational systems in accordance with the changes in the society (Halil, 2015) owing to the global changes and innovations (Webb et al, 2004). For this to materialize each teacher has to cogitate over the query, “how the world and its ways percolate into students’ mind and consolidate into their persona?”

Moreover, “teaching profession is currently facing new kinds of pressure and undergoing profound changes regarding roles, competences, values, the basic knowledge of teacher training , training strategies, the assessment system and professional certification” (Potolea, 2003, p.217). The new role of teachers as facilitators and co-participants in the learning process and reanalyzing traditional roles (Mihaela & Toader, 2013) perceive teaching as something that transcend traditional professional norms.

The professional teacher, personally imbued with the quality of PGI possess cognitive, affective and behavioral disposition to meet the challenges described above. PGI’s four dimensions namely readiness to change, planfulness, using resources and intentional behavior were very much explicit in the personal characteristics noticed in effective/competent teachers. On perusing empirical studies it was very much evident that there existed significantly positive association between “PGI” and professionally relevant “personality characteristics salient in the description of effective/competent teachers” in an indirect manner. Sameness in the conceptual meaning perceived in both set of characteristics led to this conclusion.  See the link given below. It shows how characteristics which exhibited positive association with PGI are very much reflects the indicators used to asses the effectiveness or efficiency of teachers in various scientific studies.

( Visit the link

https://www.slideshare.net/JenyRapheal/effective-teacher-1-73874949 )

According to Phelps (2006) “excellence” must be deemed as critical criterion for judging actions and attitudes of professionals. Journey to excellence in teaching is not possible without a spark of PGI in teacher personalities.  In his attempt to realize the meaning of professional development of a teacher (PDT) Snezana (2010) recognizes that development in profession necessitates professional and personal growth of a teacher on a daily basis which commences from preparation for the profession and ought to continue till the end of life. According to studies, individuals having high PGI are concerned about their self-improvement and are deliberately involved in motivating and shifting themselves toward their desired directions consciously, on a regular basis than those having lower levels of PGI (Shorey, Little, Snyder, Kluck & Robitschek, 2007 as cited in Najma et al 2015). This might be the reason for intersecting areas in the characteristics of effective teacher and characteristics noticed in individuals with greater levels of PGI.

Personal Growth Initiative in teachers a social necessity

In this century, challenges faced by educational systems in developing and low income countries are global concern (editorial of Professional development in education, 2016, 42(2)). The hazards of ineffectiveness or stagnancy in teaching are not quite personal. In addition to ruining a child’s chances of succeeding in school (Holland 2003) the behavior of an unproductive teacher has a deleterious effect on the work of others and damages reputation of school (Jones, Jenkin & Lord, 2006).

Countries like UK deems the act of committing oneself to professional standards as ‘maintaining and updating knowledge of educational research to develop evidence based practice and apply theoretical understanding of effective practices in teaching, learning and assessment drawing on research and other evidence’ (Atkins, Liz & Tummons 2015, p.6) .In this scenario broader development of themselves becomes one of the major demands of being a professional teacher (Mare 2012) and more efficient social responsibility is expected from a teacher. Equipping the conscience of growing generation so that they remain sensitive to the meaning of myriad situations of life is an additional responsibility and teaching can not confine itself to mere transferring of knowledge (Frankl, 2001, p.22). Finally, upgrading teacher skills in teaching .assumes an additional dimension in which teacher has to address the issues related to cultural intermixing due to globalization (Foster, 2012). 

  According to Ramsden (2003) “to teach well implies learning about student’s learning” United Nations four Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 1996; 85-89) has put forward for pillars to be followed by education practitioners and teachers 1) Learning to know : in addition to knowledge about the content of lesson teachers should have the ability to deliver it 2) Learning to do : teachers should equip students to face all kinds of situations by building up creativity and productivity in them. 3) Learning to be: teachers should dig up wisdom of students so that they can be good persons 4) Learning to live together: teachers should upheld co-operative learning. (as cited in Ahmad & , Setyaningsih, 2012).  Tilaar (1999) recognizes the importance of continuous development of teacher professional by stating three major professional responsibilities as 1) teachers as agents of changing 2) teachers as developer of attitudes 3) teachers as professional educator (as cited in Ahmad & Setyaningsih , 2012).

As stated before conscious, continuous growth must be an integral part of personality of teacher as professional identity is in a process of continuous evolution owing to the continuous adaptation to demands and requirements of contemporary society (Mihaela & Toader, 2013) “how do teachers perceive themselves as professionals in a world of ever changing values remains an open ended one. Teachers have to see themselves as public intellectuals, who design and implement, think and act according to the political constraints, in favour of a culture of righteousness and freedom” . (Aronowitz, Giroux, 1997, p.209). Reconciling post modern values to student needs is a responsibility a teacher can never evade or overlook

The construct of PGI with its four qualities namely ‘readiness for change, planfulness, using resources and involving in intentional behavior’ will equip a teacher for continuous development in professional line. The crux of upholding the need for continuous learning and personal growth lies in the trajectory leading to the accomplishment of professional goals of a teacher. These goals as listed above may remain same in their form even after decades. But the criteria for accomplishment and the roadways leading to the same are in a constant flux. As no education system can be viewed as separated from the pulses of society for which it has been designed for. Being alert to the newer professional demands and planning the professional work space accordingly will be possible only for a personality that is committed to conscious self-growth. Stagnancy predisposes a teacher personality to be impervious to both explicit as well as implicit professional demands. It blunts teacher’s instinct for (professional) identity exploration. A complacency that hurls teacher into a routine, mechanical ways of teaching (or involving with his/her profession) ends up in mocking the expectations of the society and unsettle the trust society has invested in teaching community.

What should be done? 

Any sort of inadequacy which cripples an educational system to keep abreast with the needs and demands of a growing generation will have one of its roots in teaching population’s insensitivity or failure to keep in tune with those needs and demands. One of the remedies to save educationists from relapsing into complacency and losing their professional standards is inculcate in them a commitment for personal growth and life long learning. This mission should begin from the training period of future teacher candidates. Curriculum designed for teacher education should find enough space for it. Robitschek (1997) has come up with intervention strategies for increasing levels of PGI in people which has yielded positive outcomes. This means that PGI is a quality or a resource that can be deliberately inculcated in individuals.

There must come up means for assessing teacher contribution towards contemporary society. Degree of novelty introduced in teaching should be one of the criteria for measuring excellence in teaching. Teachers in service should be continuously evaluated for their commitment to personal growth by their contribution to the educational reforms also by the quality and degree of innovation they practiced in teaching.  A teacher should be a good researcher. Fact finding and sharing the same with large community of teachers should be an integral part of profession. All these will reinforce or motivate a teacher to commit herself/himself for personal growth.

Future researches aiming for quality education should formulate research questions to explore PGI in teacher personalities and implement programmes to build up this quality in teachers as well as in future teacher candidates. PGI should be one of the main indices used to estimate effectiveness or competence of teaching faculties.

According to Haworth (2008) teacher identity and professionalism must break the boundaries of individual practitioners’ thinking and reflection. As Hargreaves (2000) opined, teaching in modern century has entered into a phase of post-professionalism where teachers are expected to transcend the previously set boundaries for defining professionalism and reach out to wider community and both teacher and teaching is supposed to respond to the demands parents as well as society(Webb et al, 2004). A teacher centered approach for realizing systemic changes in education “places a teacher at a situation to examine own beliefs and practices in the light of role expectations and historical and cultural values that shape current education and schooling principles and practices” (Blerim, Tuula & Eira, 2014, p.642) is the need of the hour. This will never actualize without teachers’ committing themselves to intermittent professional/personal growth and development.