When staff turnover is high, how can a capacity for change be cultivated?
by Hilary Stern I don’t want to sound defensive. It’s not that I think everything is perfect the way it is now, but we have to look critically at the student suggestions. We can’t implement them all.” I couldn’t believe those words were coming from me. But actually, I was feeling defensive. As far as the staff was concerned, the whole program was up for negotiation. We were discussing the results of a series of student focus groups. Thinking about what the learners had said, one person suggested that we change our classroom arrangement to rows of desks facing the teacher so that students could hear the teacher better and not be distracted by their neighbors. I dismissed this idea as contrary to our philosophical approach to popular education. Another staff member suggested that we add a conversation program. We had tried that four years ago and, besides, the public library located a few blocks from us now has a conversation program. Why not just send our students to them? I had an argu
