Professional Documents
Culture Documents
During my Graduate Diploma in Teaching, we were placed in one of Auckland University’s
partnership schools for our first practicum. We were organised into randomly assigned
groups of six students per practicum school for the rest of the year. As with all team
environments, it is inevitable that there will be those who do not share your opinions. In our
case there was one member who was always late who showed little initiative, relying heavily
on others’ contributions; another who was highly opinionated on all matters and brought a
pessimistic attitude to the group culture. They were negatively impacting the whole team
and affecting how we were viewed by the Principal, Deputy Principal and the staff.
This was incredibly frustrating for myself and the others because we were trying our best to
make a good impression on the school. We were actively getting involved by offering to take
groups in Reading and Mathematics; helping our associate teachers with their planning;
taking full control of classes; offering support whenever possible and going above and
beyond practicum requirements. However despite these efforts, we were seen and judged
as a cohort, and it meant that we all had to work together, communicate and collaborate to
achieve positive outcomes for all.
Things were not improving and I decided that I would try to mediate the situation using a
strategic and well-thought-out plan. When the next tense situation arose during a team
meeting, I casually suggested that perhaps it was worth recognising that we all had differing
opinions and that this was completely natural. In fact, it did not make any one opinion
correct or wrong, since everyone had the right to be heard. I then took it offline and privately
communicated to each member of the group in a respectful manner, suggesting that we
take some time to think about our views and perhaps rethink our previous positions before
regrouping at the next meeting.
Being someone who doesn’t deal with confrontation well, this was a challenge. Over the
next couple of meetings however, I discovered that everyone seemed happier, feeling a
greater sense of ownership in taking the issues forward in a constructive and consensual
way. I offered to take on a liaison role between our cohort and the school in an attempt to
improve communication and enable the process of sharing knowledge and information. I
sent out regular, friendly reminders about meeting times, important events and reiterated the
expectations of the school in order to develop better relationships with each other. By
making a concerted effort to build these relationships, there was a feeling of mutual trust
between us, and little to no feelings of being targeted in the case of a disagreement
between the parties.
I learnt that while it can often be daunting and confronting, it is almost always worth the time
to invest in relationships and to help players gain ownership of shared objectives. I
discovered that when people feel like they can communicate and have ownership over the
process, there is a lot more willingness to compromise.