I.Description of community setting, including a description of the 3-4 communication inhibitors that occur in that setting.

The setting for this research is a public elementary school that serves mainly the sons and daughters of active duty military soldiers, grades Pre-K to 5th. The communication errors occur mainly among the staff. The teachers who are more experience seem to have come together against the younger, newer teachers, and seem to use their knowledge to patronize and chastise them. A lot of arguments surface throughout the day, and it is clear that there are personal issues attached to the high level of criticism from one group to the other. The clear instigators are the older teachers, who do not like it when the newer employees bring new ideas or propose activities that have not been done before. The angry faction summons the teachers’ union, or files for grievances against the administration if the other group gets their ideas approved. They cite that administration sides with the younger teachers to “overwork” the older group.

Administrators had to acknowledge the complains of the group and get to the root cause of what they felt were communication inhibitors. The results were:

a)Forced collaboration

b)Experiential barriers

c)Perceptual barriers

The fact that these two groups of teachers have to do mandatory collaborations every morning makes the communication among staff members all the more resentful and animated. This only aggravates the problem even more, fostering an atmosphere where everyone’s opinions or ideas are purposefully shut down. The experience barrier separates teachers into two factions: the less than 10 years of experience versus the teachers over 20 years of experience. Instead of working together, they are arguing due to perceptual barriers. The latter barriers are more about the attitude and mindset of the speakers.

II. Definitions of the 3-4 inhibitors

a)Forced collaboration- Definition: Collaboration is a culture of support, sharing, and brainstorming of ideas; all experience levels of teaching come together to create opportunities for student achievement. Forced collaboration is when teachers are told that they have to collaborate on specific times, or for a specific number of times.

b)Experiential barriers

Definition: These are communication barriers that occur when the individuals involved lack the same level of knowledge on a topic, based on the amount of exposure to such topic.

c) Perceptual barriers

Definition: These communication barriers happen because the listener filters the message of the speaker through personal perception, assuming that the speaker is meaning something that may or may not be the original message intended.

III. Table

Definition / Example / Justification
a)Collaboration is a culture of support, sharing, and brainstorming of ideas; all experience levels of teaching come together to create opportunities for student achievement. Forced collaboration is when teachers are told that they have to collaborate on specific times, or for a specific number of times. / Example: In the school, forced collaboration used to happen every morning, from Monday through Friday, for 45 minutes, 8:15-9:00. The teachers meet by grade level teams and they are supposed to plan units together. The evidence of the collaboration is writing minutes that they must submit, complete with outcomes, and goals. / Justification: Forced collaboration impedes communication because there is already tension between the teachers; forcing them to collaborate makes some completely shut down, and gives many of them opportunities to taunt one another and start arguments.
b)Experiential barriers
Definition: These are communication barriers that occur when the individuals involved lack the same level of knowledge on a topic, based on the amount of exposure to such topic. / Example: In the school, the teachers with over 20 years of experience are the minority, comprising 31% of the total faculty. There are 65 teachers, and 20 of them have been in the school over 20 years. The other ones, by mere coincidence, are teachers with less than 10 years in the field. / Justification: Experiential barriers impede communication because the seasoned teachers take advantage of their added knowledge to chastise and somewhat patronize the less knowledgeable teachers. This creates dissention and anger. Teachers do not listen to one another and either shut down, or argue.
c)Perceptual barriers
Definition: These communication barriers happen because the listener filters the message of the speaker through personal perception, assuming that the speaker is meaning something that may or may not be the original message intended. / Example: The younger teachers perceive that the older teachers are patronizing them. The older teachers perceive that the new ones want to come and change everything, and that their ideas are nuisances. Both sides end up arguing and not understanding one another. / Justification: Perceptual barriers impede communication because when both sides are unwilling to listen without personal filters, the message gets lost completely and nothing will ever be achieved. At the school there are arguments every single day and nothing gets accomplished.

IV- Ranking the communication system in the school

Based on the situations explained above, the school communication system would rate at a very low 2 out of 10. The reason for this are the following:

  1. There is not a mediator or mentorship program in place to enable or enhance communications among teachers.
  2. To bring the two groups together, the veteran teachers should be empowered and encouraged to become the mentors and helpers of the newer ones, instead of their challengers.
  3. The Principals are aware of a situation but nothing has been put in place to make it stop.
  4. An entire school year has come and gone and the problems are already piling up with who gets what classrooms, and whether the principals are giving enough attention to both sides.

Therefore, the best solution is to implement a mentorship program where the elder teachers are trained to become mentors to the younger ones. Some third party will have to come in between to re-establish the communication links among the teachers and ease the animosity that has already built up. Perhaps the principals can look for neutral parties within the two who are willing to serve as midway channels. The important thing is to insource as much help as can be gathered and use the same teachers as their own helpers. The action needs to come from within.