Developing a Storytelling Culture in Our Programs

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I'm continually trying to name the components of effective staff development as I see them at work in programs. Some of these are obvious, but there are also more illusive elements I want to better understand and explain to others. In this process, I've been considering the organizational climate of two centers I regularly visit. They offer a contrasting picture worth analyzing.

In the first center, I see teachers who know the basics of their job and go through typical daily routines with children, week after week as if on an automatic pilot system. When the director visits classrooms, it is to remind them to get paper work done - attendance records, curriculum plans, and parent newsletter articles. Periodically a staff meeting is scheduled where the director makes a series of announcements and the teachers raise concerns about schedules, supplies needed, and sometimes a difficult child or parent.

Though they meet the ...