36 | COSERE The role of the school leadership in the successful implementation of the form of professional development is crucial. Any initiative introduced at the school level requires the support of the school leader. For the success of the ‘Critical Friend’ approach, the principal, as an educational leader, must ensure: • Creating an emotionally safe environment. • Correctly understanding the essence of this form of professional development. • Avoiding interference in the recruitment of pairs or groups of critical friends and refraining from involvement in the content side of their work. The principal should not require teachers to violate the confidentiality of agreements or decisions between members of critical friends. • Publicising and recognising the importance of the effort and process. Studying the factors affecting the motivation of individual teachers involved in the critical friend approach and choosing appropriate forms of recognition and encouragement for the teachers. Providing support by allocating and organising suitable physical space for meetings, where professional dialogues can take place in a less formal environment. The school may also consider periodically inviting experts in the field to conduct workshops tailored to the interests and needs of teachers involved in the critical friend groups. Working with a “critical friend” comes with certain challenges that can be avoided or minimized by identifying them in advance. Here are some challenges and possible ways to manage them. Selection of a critical friend/friends - especially in schools with a large contingent, in which colleagues do not know each other’s professional characteristics and personal qualities well- it is not so easy to select a critical friend. When selecting a critical friend, think about what we expect from the process and the colleague who should be our critical friend. Formal implementation of the process - it should be considered that, with rare exceptions, the people involved in the “critical friend” at the initial stage cannot grasp the essence of this form of professional development, and the relations have a mostly formal form. he formality of the processes becomes especially evident when the critical friend is not selected by the teacher personally, and instead, the chair, directorate, and others are involved in the selection process.
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