Every national commission, business association, blue ribbon panel, and professional association that has taken a position on 21st Century Public Education has called for enhanced collaboration in what we teach, how we teach, and how we develop and lead public education.
You recognize the language: School–Community collaboration, preK-20 collaboration, school/business/community alliances, strategic partnerships, 21st Century Skills, and more.
The 4th R
Relationship-Building/Relationship-Management - is the name we've given to the emerging science, study and teaching of collaboration and collaborative leadership (see H Rubin, Collaboration Skills for Educators and Nonprofit Leaders. Lyceum Books, 1998.) ICL believes that the 4thR is right up there with the other three as an essential element of what, how and
why we teach ... from preschool through doctoral studies.
At least it ought to be! And – if we’re going to teach it and practice it well – we’re going to need to understand it better than we do.
That's why you'll find:
- ICL publications in bookstores, college classrooms and school district offices; on teachers’ desks, in community leadership training programs and in the scholarly publications, professional associations, and editorial pages that influence public education policy-makers and professionals.
- ICL white papers that provoke deeper thought on the contributions of collaborative approaches to pressing education issues. And
- ICL proposals for instructional innovations that capture and promote the knowledge, skills and dispositions of collaborative leadership for preK-20 classrooms.