MAKING A DIFFERENCE

1. MAKING A DIFFERENCE EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND STUDENT LEARNING WHAT CAN SCHOOL LEADERS DO? DR KEVIN LAWS

2. Something for us to think about • It is clear that the ‘one size fits all’ approach to controlling every school in the country will not move a nation’s educational performance forward. • The history, teacher profile, culture, demographics, and size of a school demands that local solutions should be developed to address identified problems of practice and performance. • Enabling school leaders to innovate and provide flexible strategic directions for their schools, within a national policy framework, is essential to improvement of schools at the local level.

3. Contextual differences in national educational systems • Educational systems and structures Australia • State and National influences • Public and Private schools Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos • ???? • Government educational policies Australia • Standards for Principals and Teachers • National Curriculum • Student assessment Thailand , Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos • ????

4. Similarities among countries • Increasing rates of change • Increasing (but variable) levels of self-management • Increased marketisation of education • Increased accountability of education • Higher expectations of improved student performance

5. What can be done? • Think of schools as Professional Learning Communities • Encourage organisational learning through the facilitation of the establishment of Communities of Practice • Leadership is the key to the improvement of student learning

6. SCHOOLS A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

7. Creating a professional learning culture in schools • The importance of leadership • Balance all stakeholder interests • Focus on teachers and students rather than systems • Help teachers know that they can make a difference • Set aside a time for learning for everyone (not only the students) • Establish open communication channels • Support teamwork • Encourage distributed leadership

8. Factors associated with the creation and development of Professional Learning Communities • Support from local and national educational authorities • Specific school context • Individual teachers’ orientations to change • Group dynamics within the school • Size • Location • Level • Mix of students • History • External influences • Local community • Policy decisions

9. Dimensions of a school’s capacity for the support of teacher professional learning • School structure • Participative decision making in a framework of teacher empowerment • Shared commitment and collaborative activity • Knowledge and skills • Leadership • Feedback and accountability • Establishing a trusting and collaborative school culture • Taking initiatives and risks • Supporting a shared school vision and mission • Relevant, challenging and ongoing professional development • (Marks et al., 2000, Silens et al., 2000)

10. The content of professional learning • Content may be technical • about how to do a particular task • Content may be social, cultural and political • about how people relate to each other in a particular situation; or • about what their actual core values are; or • about who has power and how they use it • Comment: As people live and work they continually learn. Most of this learning is unplanned, and it is often tacit; but it is very powerful

11. The new organisational learning Learning and Knowing for professional capacity building • ‘Knowledge’ is viewed in a different way to in the past • ‘Knowing’ is part of individual and group action • ‘Knowing’ is the capacity to perform a task that emerges during the actual performance • Each time a task is performed, new knowing occurs and new knowledge is created • Knowing is participation in the performance of everyday tasks. It is a collective process of meaning-making

12. Organisational learning • The collective (i.e. the school or group of schools and all those in them) is the learning entity • Organisational learning describes a type of activity that can only be done by a group • Organisational learning refers to the capacity of an organisation to learn how to do what it does better • What is learned is ‘owned’ by the organisation itself, not only by individual members • Individuals learn to function in a community. They acquire that particular community’s subjective viewpoint and learn to speak its language • All learning is context-dependent (also known as situated learning)

13. Organisational learning is associated with • Identifying and correcting problems • Learning from past experience • Acquiring new knowledge • Processing issues on an organisational level • Changing the organisation • (Marks et al., 2000, p.241)

14. The limits of training and learning (OECD, 2011)

15. LEADERSHIP AND STUDENT LEARNING

16. Who is a school leader? • Although leadership is often invested in – or expected of – persons in formal positions of authority, leadership encompasses a set of functions that may be performed by many different persons in different roles throughout a school • Leadership functions can be carried out in many different ways, depending on the individual leader, the context, and the nature of the goals being pursued

17. Successful school leadership • Two main functions of leadership • Providing direction • Creating a shared sense of purpose • Increased attention to student learning of knowledge and skills and important values and dispositions • Exercising influence • Leaders work through and with other people

18. Approaches to leader influence (after Lord, 2008) • Transactional leadership • Emphasises rule following, extrinsic incentives, close monitoring of outcomes, rewarding subordinates for outcomes valued by the school • ‘Command and control’ • Transformational leadership • Inspires followers so that they contribute willingly to the school’s goals, and may even come to include their organisational identity as a central part of their self-concept • ‘Self-regulatory’ approach • Complexity leadership • Considers how leadership activities can shape the individual and interpersonal structures in schools • Many structures and processes emerge spontaneously from the interaction of individuals (or sub-groups)

19. Appropriate practices of effective school leaders (especially principals) • Work towards staff consensus on goals and priorities • Promotion of a culture of respect, caring and trust among staff and students • Establishment of a school structure that promotes participative decision making, delegation and distributed leadership, and encourages teacher autonomy for making decisions • Facilitation of opportunities for staff to learn from each other • Modelling continual learning • Provision of support and appreciation for individual teachers • High expectations for teachers and students • Encourages staff to be effective and innovative

20. Factors giving rise to successful school leadership • Internal factors • Key characteristics, including passion and enthusiasm for the education of their students • An ethic of care • A set of values about social justice • Belief in an equitable education for all students • Communication skills, including a willingness to listen carefully to others ideas, openmindedness, and lateral thinking in problem solving • External factors • Holding schools publicly accountable • Using ‘imposed’ accountability to their own school priorities • Using greater accountability demands to bring about organisational change • Depends upon the level of schooling, school size, location, status of the school, type of school

21. Core leadership practices • Setting directions • Identifying and articulating a vision • Creating shared meanings • Creating high performance expectations • Fostering the acceptance of group goals • Monitoring organisational performance • Communicating effectively • Developing people • Providing intellectual stimulation • Providing individualised support • Providing an appropriate role-model • Developing the organisation • Strengthening school culture • Modifying organisational structure • Building collaborative processes • Managing the environment • Creating strong communities

22. Australian National Professional Standard for School Principals (AITSL, 2011)

23. Key elements in an effective school • Views of ‘experts’ • Educational leadership • Focus on appropriate teaching methodologies • Strong focus on learning • Positive school culture • Engagement of students across the school • Safe and supportive environment for all • High and appropriate expectations for all • Regular monitoring of student progress • Development of staff skills • Parental and community connection • Views of students • Academic focus and curriculum choice • Caring and supportive teachers • Educational leadership • Extra-curricular opportunities and engagement • Good and appropriate teaching • High and appropriate expectation for all • Parent and community involvement • Professional development of staff • Regular monitoring and feedback of student achievement • Safe and well-resourced environment

24. Conceptual foundations for school transformation • Governance – the way in which Educational Authorities use power, authority and influence to enact policies and make decisions about educational matters • Decentralisation – transfer of authority and responsibility to the district or school level where decisions related to the allocation of resources within a centrally-determined framework of goals, policies, curriculum, standards and accountabilities is made (Caldwell & Spinks, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2008) • Networking – an association among individuals and schools, through which participants share knowledge, address issues of common concern, pool resources or achieve other purposes of mutual benefit (Caldwell, 2008). Networks can be formal or informal, temporary or permanent, mandatory or voluntary.

25. How might this framework impact upon the future of your school? • What would you like your school to be like in the future? • How can it get to be like that?