A Good Collaboration Process - Essay Example

Importance of the Safe School Collaborative Process Considering the Social Cognition of School-age Children Collaboration is simply the characteristic of an effective team. A good collaboration process is a well-defined and mutual beneficial relationship entered into by two or more organizations, groups, or individuals with the purpose of achieving results they are more likely to achieve as a team than alone. A Safe School is a school whose layout, physical feature, procedures and policies are designed to minimize the impact of intrusions and disruptions that might interfere with the efforts of the school to achieve its educational mission according to the Centre for the Study and Prevention of Violence (2000). School, society and organizations should form collaboration for this purpose because the lives of school-age children revolve around the school and the society. Collaboration According to Winer and Ray (1994), partners who are coming into collaboration usually have in mind services they want to integrate so as to achieve some long-term goals together. Therefore, they must overcome various layers of resistance to policies, attitudes and relationships within and across institutions, throughout the community and among consumers. This means they have to develop a process of change that will enable them overcome any resistance. These partners have to device a process of working together and this process should be flexible enough to accommodate or allow adjustments to new circumstances. After agreeing to collaborate, the first and most important thing that has to be done by the collaborative is the creation of the process itself. This involves the development of important guidelines that will serve as the framework on how the parties involved will work together throughout the project. For collaboration to succeed, there needs to be a full support of the management. At times, collaborative can find themselves repeating milestones and stages because new people have become involved or because the group has clarified its intent and purpose another level (Winer and Ray, 1994). The use/purpose of strategic planning and tactical planning For successful collaboration, tactical planning and strategic planning are very crucial. Strategic planning entails visualizing something and then coming up with a way of making it actualize. Therefore, strategic planning is a tool that gives direction of actions and builds systems that will lead to the achievement of the desired outcome or goals (Kono, 1994).On the other hand, the purpose of tactical planning is to link the strategic plan or the long-term business plan of the collaboration to operations. It provides a motivational and intellectual framework for opportunistic initiative, vision, problem solving and creativity. Therefore, tactical planning is an engine of both short and long-term planning. Team dynamics Team dynamics refers to the constant movement and sharing of power and information in a team so as to achieve a common goal (Housel, 2001). It relates to the process in which things get to be done by and through people and how the members of a team relate to their responsibilities and to each other. Team dynamics is concerned with the on-going interaction between and among the members of a team and it is built on high levels of dependency, trust and respect. Safe Schools and Safe Schools Program The stakeholders in a Safe Schools project include teachers, organization the school administration, the community and the students. One of the formal Safe Schools program is the New Jersey Safe Schools program. The mission of this program is to help schools reduce risk to health hazards and occupational safety in secondary schools and work microenvironments in which adolescents in New Jersey spend their time. Missouri Safe Schools program is another example of a Safe Schools program. This project is a coalition composed of a team of organizations across Missouri whose aim is to end bullying in public schools in Missouri. It was created to bring together organizations in Missouri to push for Safe Schools legislation. Protective and risk factors Risk factors in relation to school violence refer to those situations or conditions that serve as a motivation or a trigger to school violence. McMurtry and Curling (2008) explain that risk factors related to school violence are found in the home, neighborhood and school environment and the individual child. Internalized risk factors in the individual child include depression related to drug abuse, anxiety, withdrawal among others. Externalized risk factors in the child include those that are directly linked to violence like aggression, hyperactivity and delinquent activities (Hanks, 2004). Home environment risk factors include long term exposure to various types of abuses and violence ad criminal activities. The school neighborhood provides context for school violence for example if the neighborhood has high levels of crimes and drug abuse. School factors that motivate school violence include high numbers of male students or those receiving free or subsidized meals. Free or subsidized meals are an indication of poverty, which is also a risk factor (McMurtry and Curling, 2008). Protective factors are those factors that reduce the chances of the occurrence of school violence by discouraging or reducing the chances of its occurrence. Good school security or surveillance is one risk factor because it reduces the chances of groups meeting unnoticed to plan for violence. A bond or commitment to school is makes students spend more passionate time in matter related to their educational goals and les receptive to activities that can disrupt this bond. Wearing of school uniform eliminates the use of gang symbols. Programs and/or projects for mitigation of school violence Whenever school violence occurs, the administration should be able to come up with processes and/or projects that will reduce its severity and painfulness. The first step is to reduce the aggressiveness of the students at that time so as to stop the any further or occurrence of injury according to Hanks (2004). Law enforcement agencies should therefore be involved especially for purposes of containing the situation and for stopping the progression of the violence. The help of crime investigators needs to be integrated in order to unveil any bigger plans of school violence that are underway and any hidden weapons. A thorough investigation should be carried out both on the schools and the school compound to unveil such weapons. The administration should restructure their threats assessment processes to ensure that it quickly captures any threats to violence (United States Secret Services and US Department of Education, 2002). This will enable them to identify any factors that can increase the severity of the prevailing situation. The school should also collaborate with the nearest hospital for the provision of emergency medical response for students or teachers. This is especially important if there are any casualties that have occurred. The culprits and their victims should be separated immediately to avoid any actions of revenge and the spread of the vice to larger groups of students for example between one class and another (Hanks, 2004). The school should also remain under surveillance until the situation is fully under control. The school administration must conduct psychological evaluation on their students so as to identify risk factors that are associated with the violence. These include coping with stress, depression, aggression, alienation and egocentrism. This will give the administration a clue on what needs to be done to address the trigger/risk factors that could cause a continuation of the vice. Conclusion The feature of collaboration that distinguishes it is the well-defined relationship. A Safe School collaboration process is important in the achievement of superior results that schools alone could not have achieved. This is because a full realization of educational goals can only occur if there are few disruptions to the process. Whenever there is school violence, the administration should balance between implementation of individualized interventions and the need for appropriate discipline. References Centre for the Study and Prevention of Violence (2000) What is a Safe School? Institute of Behavioural Science: University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved 23rd April, 2010 http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEEQxQEwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fviewer%3Fa%3Dv%26q%3Dcache%3AIyJrIwPVkGoJ%3Awww.colorado.edu%2Fcspv%2Fpublications%2Ffactsheets%2Fsafeschools%2FFS-SC04.pdf%2BSafe%2BSchool%26hl%3Den%26gl%3Dke%26pid%3Dbl%26srcid%3DADGEESgRadPjzqq14YM0-2dFGolorixUZHOOxbW7cZGrSjJJIO_Ty6up7EPOLOWc5yDHlA3l8e6hg118ELQ-r2PESWS1hrYSnus2tuBKZiR9YYc9lUNdViASYnvxzifEBRo8eF75RcMJ%26sig%3DAHIEtbQxAI43GD0EeXmwMnfgi9381AXN5w&rct=j&q=Safe%20School%20&ei=2CazTefFNcWUOvPE9f4I&usg=AFQjCNE28_yXlptbHycHZNklQBeQEpPZgg&cad=rjaHanks J. (2004). School violence: from discipline to due process. American Bar Association. Section of State and Local Government Law. American Bar Association, Housel, D. (2001). Team dynamics Professional development series. South-Western. Kono, T. (1994) "Changing a Companys Strategy and Culture", Long Range Planning, (27):5 pp85-97. McMurtry, R. and Curling, A. (2008). Review of the Roots of Youth Violence. Toronto. Ontario Ministry of Education. United States Secret Services and US Department of Education (2002). Threat Assessment in Schools: A guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates. Online. Retrieved 23rd April, 2010 http://pdm.medicine.wisc.edu/Volume_25/issue_5/callaway.pdf. Winer, M. and Ray, K.(1994). The Collaboration Handbook: Creating, Sustaining and Enjoying the Journey. St. Paul, MN. Fieldstone Alliance. Read More