Leadership for Learning

Leadership for Learning In a time of change, challenge and opportunity David Cameron

What changes are we responding to? • The changing world - technology, globalism, uncertainty • The changing context - policy, frameworks, expectations and priorities • Changing relationships • Inhabiting ambiguity

Eric Hoffer • In times of change, the learners shall inherit the earth while the learned will remain beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists

David Cameron • And the learners who can identify opportunity and manage risk, who can innovate and create, will shape that inheritance and define the future

Adding value is not enough for some of our young people, we need to challenge their destinies. We are not editing life stories, we are creating new narratives

Improvement will not be enough Effective Ineffective Traditional Forward Looking

What do learners need? • The capacity to think, learn and adapt • The ability to innovate and create • The skills to access knowledge including the skill of questioning • The commitment to sustained enquiry or task • The specific skills required by disciplines or vocational choices

What sort of learning? • It has to be active • It has to involve the quest for meaning • It has to be varied • It needs motivation • It should respect disciplines but not be dominated by them • It must be assessed in terms of breadth, depth and application

What makes learning successful? • ''My father would cry reading Dickens to us as kids. These are the passages I remember.'’ Malcolm Gladwell • ''One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers - but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material - but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.'’ Carl Jung

The “Mortimore” factors • Purposeful leadership of the staff by the head-teacher • The involvement of the deputy head-teacher • The involvement of teachers • Consistency among teachers • Structured lessons • Intellectually challenging teaching

Work-centered environment • Limited focus within sessions • Maximum communication between teachers and students • Record keeping • Parental involvement • Positive climate

"There can be no educational development without teacher development;....the best means of development is not by clarifying ends but by analysing practice.” • Lawrence Stenhouse • "The greatest problem in teaching is not how to get rid of the 'deadwood', but how to create, sustain and motivate good teachers throughout their careers.” • Fullan and Hargreaves 1992

"People learn what they need to learn, not what someone else thinks they need to learn.” Fullan (1994) • "In the end, it is the teacher in his or her classroom who has to interpret and bring about improvement.” Fullan and Hargreaves • "You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having these same characteristics.” Sarason (1990)

In short, it is the task of all educationalists outside the classroom to serve the teacher.. For only they are in a position to deliver effective learning • Adapted from Lawrence Stenhouse

Key principles • Where change is imposed or driven by others, we play at it, defuse it and subvert it • It affects interviews far more than practice • It makes no difference to pupil achievement • You work best when you are enthusiastic about what you are teaching

More Principles • Change should only be driven by self-evaluation, provided that self-evaluation is realistic and takes account of economic and social changes • If all learners were experiencing the best practice in our schools, we would not be talking about system change • Any change has to be rooted in current practice

And…………… • Focus on learning • Support and challenge learners • Whatever you do, do it right, consistently and persistently • Improvement comes through systems, priority for practice and looking at the needs of individual learners

What do we need from leaders? • Certainty (where possible), confidence at least • Early anticipation/creative response • Clarity - of purpose and of expectations • Cohesion • Engagement • Direction and support • Common purpose

What do leaders need? • Clarity • Commitment • Courage • Collegiality

Clarity of Purpose Purpose is not simply a target that an organisation chooses to aim for - it is an organisation’s reason for being. It needs to express what the organisation wants to accomplish in providing value to its stakeholders - and describe how these accomplishments can be measured.

Aims and ambitions • Schools must make it very clear what they stand for and must have a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve. The vision will always be there for them as a goal and will support and encourage when things go wrong or are difficult. Knowing what you want to achieve is crucial. Without that, there will be no progress

A real vision ..we believe that people are important, the children placed in our care, the adults who spend their working lives in the school, the parents and members of the wider community. We believe that education is about every aspect of human personality and achievement. This view requires that teachers give generously of their ideas and the community to welcome those ideas

What we teach must work for all the children and tap all their potential talents, not just some of them. The curriculum that we offer must be broad, balanced and progressive. It must reach out and touch all children in a way that makes sense to each individual child. It must motivate each child, involve each child, inspire and enlighten each child. It must be a curriculum that recognises that there are many kinds of knowing, feeling and expressing truth.

So……………? • We need to create a culture where we all believe we can make a difference and have a common view about what that difference is • We need to create the conditions where we can make that difference • We need to listen, to learn and to act • We need to build on the work done

In this context…. • Leadership has to be collegiate • It concerns leading people not managing institutions • It has to be founded on belief, knowledge and understanding • It requires skill • It needs purpose • It has to be informed by evidence • It must be judged by outcomes

But let’s think…… • Targets need to reflect ambitions and not just requirements • We need to get beyond set standards and qualifications • There are many ways of assembling the vital elements • We need to think about learning AND leadership

Leadership lessons • Consistency • Persistence • Generosity • Getting beyond self • Getting the best people and enabling them to be the best -create the team

…. And more • See things clearly – tell them simply • Keep the focus • Get rid of the clutter • Everything fit for purpose • Leadership and management = 2 wings/1 bird • Leadership without legacy = pan+ flash

The Lacuna Their white dresses swirled like froth, with skirts so wide they could take the hems in their fingertips and raise them up to make sudden wings, like butterflies, fluttering as they turned….. “Indian girls,” she spat……”A corn eater will never be more than she is”

The dancers were butterflies. From a hundred paces Salome could see the dirt under their fingernails, but not their wings

Leadership for Learning