Re-imagining novice teachers as leaders and the role they can play in building a community of educational leaders/resear

1. Re-imagining novice teachers as leaders and the role they can play in building a community of educational leaders/researchers. Presentation by S.Mthiyane & C.Grant EMASA Conference 2011, Cape Town- Western Cape

2. Introduction Within every school there is a sleeping giant of teacher leadership, which can be a strong catalyst for making change. By using the energy of teacher leaders as agents of school change, the reform of public education will stand a better chance of building momentum. Katzenmeyer & Moller (2001,p.2) 2

3. Introduction (cont.) • Aims: to ascertain what potential student teachers’ reflective journals offer for teacher leadership development as well as determine whether they hold any promise for extending, enriching and deepening leadership development programmes for serving educators. 3

4. Key questions: • How, and in what ways, do university student teachers engage in the formal process of reflective journaling during their teaching practice experience? • What do these levels of engagement in the process of reflective journaling signal about these student teachers’ preparedness to lead when they join the teaching profession? • How can the process of critical reflective journaling be utilised to extend, enrich and deepen leadership development programmes for novice and serving educators?

5. The case for leadership development • There is worldwide recognition that schools need effective leaders and managers to provide the best possible education for learners (Bush, 2009; Reppa & Lazaridou, 2008; Day, 2005). • Such leaders and managers do not arise by accident, they have to be developed and hence the need for leadership development. • Leadership development is defined as expanding the collective capacity of organizational members to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes (McCauley, Moxley and Van Velsor, 1998). • Literature on the importance of reflection for professional practice and leadership development is well established (Fetherston, 2007; Patterson and West-Burnham, 2005).

6. Aims of reflective journals • When our university students visit schools for teaching practice, they are required to keep a weekly reflective journal. Critical reflection on the following key issues constitutes the minimum requirements for the reflective journal: • A critical personal account of whether the goals that were identified for different lesson practices/ activities in the school have been accomplished, outlining what led to success or not; • A critical outline of what new activities, actions, and plans are being developed: how, when, where, with whom, why? • A critical commentary on professional practice as seen when observing peers in the classroom, mentor teachers, other professional teachers; • A critical reflection of the emerging concept of the role of a professional teacher in a transforming South African context.

7. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development • Literature on the importance of reflection for professional practice is well established (Fetherston, 2007; Patterson and West-Burnham, 2005; Brubacher, 1994). • Gomez (2000) posits that since Schon (1983, 1987) pointed out the importance of reflective thinking for teaching professionals faced with complexities of teaching in a rapidly changing society, no one has doubted that to teach reflective thinking requires much more than the sterile contents of an academic syllabus.

8. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • In the last decade there has been a recognition that effective principals are those who encourage collaborative cultures and emphasise people management (and leadership) which is dispersed across a broader range of teacher leaders who have responsibilities for managing departments, particularly subject disciplines, and student achievement at key stages in their development (Pavlou, 2004). • This represents a recognition by principals that they cannot do it all themselves (Day and Harris, 2002).

9. Reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • Briefly, when reflecting, an opportunity is provided for thinking, contemplation, to talk about, to critique, to assess, to write in a reflective learning journal and for silent reading of texts. • Featherstone (2007) defines reflection as the process where the cycle of thinking, doing and reflecting is often repeated many times and results in a new response to a particular problem. Featherstone (ibid.) further maintains that learning which involves reflection is very useful to teachers, especially beginning teachers. It leads to an effective teacher who is able to reflect critically upon the theory-in-action. • Reflection is an essential element of learning. Given the overwhelming demands of new headship, it is unsurprising that the space, time and opportunity are provided for reflection which is considered the main benefit to professional development (Bush, et al. 2003, cited in Cole and Southworth, 2005).

10. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • “…leadership, like energy, is not finite, not restricted by formal authority and power; it permeates a healthy school culture and is undertaken by whoever sees a need or an opportunity” (Lambert, 1995, p.43). • Understood in this way, it can be seen that all people have the potential to lead and the practice of leadership must therefore be conceptualised as “a shared process which involves working with all stakeholders in a collegial and creative ways to seek out the untapped leadership potential of people and develop this potential in a supportive environment for the betterment of the school” (Grant, 2008, p. 85). • Theorising leadership in this manner creates the space for the emergence of teacher leadership in an educational organisation such as a school.

11. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • Crowther, Ferguson and Hann (2009) convincingly argue that a new paradigm of the teaching profession is needed, one that recognises both the capacity of the profession to provide desperately needed school revitalization and the striking potential of teachers to provide new forms of leadership in schools and communities. • Teacher leadership has emerged as a rapidly growing focus of research activity over the past few decades (Wasley, 1991; Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001; Muijs and Harris, 2003; Gunter, 2005; Crowther, 2009). 11

12. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • In its simplest form, teacher leadership can be described as “the capacity for teachers to exercise leadership for teaching and learning within and beyond the classroom” (Harris and Muijs, 2005, p. 9). It has also been referred to as a “form of agency where teachers are empowered to lead development work that impacts directly on the quality of teaching and learning” (Harris and Lambert, 2003, p.43). • This notion of the change agency role of teacher leaders, either in the classroom or beyond, is central to many of the definitions of teacher leadership (Grant, 2010) and as Crowther, Ferguson & Hann (2009) argue, teacher leadership is not solely about pedagogical expertise, professionalism, enthusiasm, passion, commitment and enthusiasm.

13. Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.) • Viewing one’s practice through the lens of reflection is important for leadership development. The value of reflection on learning is incisively pointed out by Dewey (cited in Johnson, Mims-Cox and Doyle-Nichols, 2006 p.37) when he states: ‘we don’t learn from experience - we learn from reflecting on experience’. • Densten and Gray (2001) assert that in leadership learning deep reflection requires aspirant leaders to consider the underlying dynamics of power and to question basic assumptions and practices. They caution that when reflection is absent there is the constant risk of making poor decisions and bad judgements. • Without reflection, leaders may be convinced by past successes of their invincibility and fail to consider other viewpoints with the possibility of disastrous consequences.

14. Method • Qualitative study. • Documents review (reflective journals) • Sampling: • 1 university (Faculty of Education students) • 20 students (2nd, 3rd, 4th years and PGCE students) • Purposive • This selection offered us heterogeneity in terms of gender, race and practice teaching experience.

15. Method (cont.) • In analysing the students’ reflective journals, we employed a multi-layered approach, commencing from a manifest to a more in-depth or latent interrogation of the evidence in the journal. The first layer of analysis thus involved a perusal of the sampled reflective journals in order to ascertain exactly what they contained. Most reflective journals simply involved a description of what had happened at school.

16. Method (cont.) • In trying to delve deeper into the journals, the second layer of analysis involved linking the evidence of the journals to the minimum requirements for the reflective journal in order to determine the extent to which the evidence reflects competence in critical reflection. • In noting that students had to compile a reflective journal, the final layer of analysis involved an assessment of the quality of reflection on lesson presentation and other classroom and school management and leadership tasks.

17. Method (cont.) • Hatton and Smith’s (1994) framework on the different types of reflective writing was used as an analytical tool. They identified four levels of reflective writing. • The first level is descriptive writing comprising a description of events which in essence is not reflection at all. • The second level is descriptive reflection which entails providing reasons based on personal judgement. • The third level comprises dialogic reflection. Dialogic reflection is a form of discourse with the self. It involves asking questions, making judgments, advancing alternative explanations and hypotheses. • The fourth level comprises critical reflection which involves furnishing reasons for decisions or events which take into account the broader historical and socio-political contexts.

18. Ethical issues • Informed consent • Confidentiality • Anonymity

19. Findings • Journals sampled were voluminous and contained a wealth of information about the students’ teaching and classroom tasks. • Further, using Hatton and Smith’s (1994) framework on the four different types of reflective writing, we determined that of the 20 student journals we interrogated, 15 operated across the first two levels of descriptive writing and descriptive reflection.

20. Findings (cont.) • An example of the first level of descriptive writing is as follows: “Today I taught all my lessons and spent my free period observing other student teachers”. Another first level entry from a journal was: “The teachers had to go to a Teacher Union meeting at 11 o’clock which lasted the whole day. Teachers were not in a spirit to teach because they knew they would leave early.” This, to us, is first level reflection because it merely describesevents which occurred without explaining or giving her/his insights or reasons why they occurred or their impact. In essence this is not reflection at all. 20

21. Findings (cont.) • An example of the second level of descriptive reflection is as follows: “This lesson taught me that students hold grudges against you. A pupil whom I had previously reprimanded refused to give her input in this class”. • Another example of a descriptive entry is: Being at a high school for the first time was a totally new experience for me. I learnt that from the beginning I need to be firm otherwise I will never gain their respect and confidence and it would be very hard to keep control and discipline in the classroom. I feel that this is something I will have to work hard on. This is descriptive writing which entails providing reasons based on personal judgement why an event/s occurred.

22. Findings (cont.) • Only three students operated at the level of dialogic reflection, as the following extract illustrates: “Here you have learners whose everyday life is a struggle yet they persevere and come to school so that their future will be better and that of their children”. Another example of dialogical reflection is the following entry: “I want to apply my knowledge of teaching and learning… I can also share my knowledge with my peers”. Dialogic reflection is a form of discourse with the self. It involves asking questions, making judgments, advancing alternative explanations and hypotheses.

23. Findings (cont.) • The final level of critical reflection was only evident in two student journals:“Learners are future leaders and doctors therefore, as a teacher- in- the- making, I must make sure that I am punctual all the time … even when I enter the field of the teaching profession, I can make a difference”. • Another example of the critical level of reflection is as follows: I want to be a teacher to inspire our youth in achieving their dreams. I want to be a person that can change a student from being unmotivated into discovering the wonderful challenges yet rewarding experience of learning. I want to be remembered for evoking passion and fun among my students. I also want to learn from my students. I remember three teachers in my schooling who continue to inspire me because they could personalize every lesson.

24. Findings (cont.) • This quote clearly indicates that these student teachers are reflecting critically on their practice and are acutely aware of their change agency role, even though they are novice teachers. Critical reflection involves furnishing reasons for decisions or events which take into account the broader historical and socio-political contexts. • The data revealed that students were strong at describing what had happened in the classrooms and schools but were less able to reflect on and provide reasons why some things may have happened. Very few students engaged in a discourse with themselves or grappled with a possibility of alternative explanations. Neither did many locate their reflections within the broader socio-political context.

25. Findings • However, from the trends that have emerged from the data, reflective journals have an important role to play in leadership learning especially for novice teacher leaders. • They allow potential leaders to reflect on their teaching and other classroom and school leadership tasks which have a bearing on leadership learning over a period of time.

26. Conclusion • Conceptualised within a distributed teacher leadership framework, this paper has argued that novice teachers are often an untapped leadership source as they are not viewed as potential agents of change. • We contend that, in order to build a community of educational leaders/researchers, these novice teachers need to be re-imagined as teacher leaders and educated about their valuable change agency role in the schooling context. • Furthermore, it is imperative that the degree for which they are registered engages with what it means for novice teachers to enact leadership and support them in theorising and developing critical reflective practice skills. In this way, there is likelihood that novice teachers will be able to take-up their leadership roles as they embark on a process of action research in their first teaching posts.