Some Social and Cultural Aspects of Multigrade Education : Teacher’s possible innovative leadership roles in small rur

2. Some Social and Cultural Aspects of Multigrade Education:Teacher’s possible innovative leadership roles in small rural schools (The example of Greece) Pavlos Koulouris, pkoulouris@ea.gr Ellinogermaniki Agogi Athens, Greece NEMED Conference “MULTIGRADE EDUCATION: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE?” University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania 18 September 2007

3. Remote multigrade schools in Greece: valuable service to the nation • Abundance of remote and less accessible mountainous and insular areas • Small rural schools fulfilling a crucial function: • Providing the children of these areas with the access to education which all children of Greece are entitled to. • Thus keeping small remote and aging communities ‘alive’.

4. Facing problems and dangers • Consequences of a widening rural-urban divide: • urbanisation tendencies • abandonment of the countryside by younger generations (brain drain) • digital divide, disadvantage in the access to services and opportunities of the contemporary Information Society 

5. Multigrade schools: more challenges… • Significant challenges of the multigrade classroom • Insufficient initial professional training • Inexperienced, newly-appointed teachers (typically) 

6. Teachers’ need for professional development • To acquire knowledge and skills • To develop personal competences falling beyond the established teacher training curricula. 

7. Teachers’ need for professional development • Not easy to offer conventional professional development provision (in-service training seminars): • Distance • Costs • Lack of substitute teachers • … 

8. Our background • Projects addressing the needs of the small rural schools, tackling their isolation and bridging the digital divide

9. Our response to the challenges • Efforts to alleviate the isolation of teachers • Our main tool: • Provision of distance training, support and networking through ICT  

10. Our focus here • New leadership roles teachers can take in such schools, as investigated in the projects NEMED and RURAL WINGS

11.               Inviting the teacher to work with, and for, the local community  

12. Linkages between the community and the school • Miller (1995): • We should build and sustain strong linkages between the community and the school • Rural communities may have a head start in developing these linkages: • schools have traditionally played a central role in the life of the communities 

13. Rural schools promoting personal and community development • Diverse roles that the remote rural school can play • recorded in the literature

14. Diverse school roles Salant & Waller (1998): • non-educational impact of schools on rural communities • multi-faceted school-community relationship • positive economic and social impacts • a resource for community development • offering a delivery point for social services.

15. Links between education and rural development • Educational attainment is seen as a rural development strategy through which a better educated rural population leads to greater economic growth Barkley, Henry, & Haizhen, 2005; Beaulieu & Gibbs, 2005

16. Links between education and rural development • Recent studies in the USA: • more rapid earnings and income growth in rural counties with high educational levels • improving local schools can reverse the tendency of loss of young adults through outmigration (‘rural brain drain’)  

17. Community Development    Community development: not only economic • Economic well-being • Social well-being • Environmental well-being

18. Social capital: a crucial concept • ‘Social capital’: • social organization and resources embedded in the social structure of the rural communities, which can facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit, and thus community development. 

19. Social capital: a crucial concept • Woodhouse (2006): • Social capital exerts a positive causal influence on economic development.  

20. Social capital: a crucial concept • Miller (1995): • The school is an important element in the creation of community’s social capital.  

21. This remains a challenge • A strong school-community partnership remains a major challenge: • this is not generally viewed as a traditional element of schooling • Approaches are needed that cross the boundaries traditionally separating the community as a place of learning from the school

22. Community-based learning • Miller (1995): • Teachers working in partnership with local leaders and residents • Giving students meaningful opportunities to engage in community-based learning that serves the needs of both the community and the students.

23. Three approaches (Miller, 1995) • The school as a community centre • The community as curriculum • School-based enterprise

24. Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 1) The school as a community centre • a resource for lifelong learning • a vehicle for the delivery of a wide range of services • school resources (facilities, technology, well-educated staff) can provide educational and retraining opportunities for the community.

25. Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 2) The community as curriculum • Study of the community in its various dimensions. • Students generate information for community development: • conducting needs assessments • studying and monitoring environmental and land-use patterns • documenting local history through interviews and photo essays.

26. Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 3) School-based enterprise • Developing entrepreneurial skills • Students not only identify potential service needs in their rural communities, but actually establish a business to address those needs.

27. Inviting the teacher to become a change agent in the community • He/she will catalyse innovation and development in the school and the local community • He/she will turn the declining school into a lively node supporting lifelong learning for everyone • The rural school will become more responsive to the growth and survival needs of its community • Education will develop responsible citizens and create opportunities for tomorrow's rural leaders to emerge

28. Being inspiredConvincing and leading the others      

29. The change agent: • Challenges the status quo by comparing it to an ideal or a vision of change • Accepts, communicates and defends the need for change • Defines and initiates change • Translates the vision into the context of a specific change initiative • Causes crisis in order to support dramatic actions and change efforts • Leads and manages change • Understands the cultural dynamics

30. The case of satellite broadband internet • Satellite broadband connectivity is made available to the school • The teacher is encouraged to: • turn it into advantage and opportunity for all • promote the development of a new culture among local citizens

32. Teacher’s multiple roles • Typically, the teacher is already: • acting as the head of the small school • considered a prominent member of the isolated community

33. Additional leadership roles • Manager of change in an informal local ‘reform’

34. Additional leadership roles • Instructional leader exploring new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning

35. Additional leadership roles • Developer of links and synergies between the school, the community and other schools in the area

36. Additional leadership roles • Facilitator of communities of learning in, around, and outside, the school

37. Additional leadership roles • Former and implementer of innovation matching local needs

38. Questions arising • Obvious need for corresponding professional development: • Which form? • What content precisely? • Which competences?

39. Possible professional development content • Pedagogies specifically adaptable to the ‘unusual’ settings of the small rural school • Solutions and opportunities of the Information Society • Innovation • Change management • Local and rural community development, etc.

40. Questions arising • Possible conflicts within a highly centralized educational system

41. Possible conflicts • The teacher in this context is encouraged to initiate and implement an informal local ‘educational reform’ • Little decentralisation and autonomy of school units is encouraged by the system • This discrepancy may be a source of interpersonal and interinstitutional tension • Even in the intrapersonal level: • internal conflicts between the teacher’s formal/recognised and informal/self-initiated leadership roles.

42. Possible conflicts • Even in the intrapersonal level: • internal conflicts between: • the teacher’s formal/recognised roles and • informal/self-initiated leadership roles.

43. Barkley, D, Henry, M, & L Haizhen (2005). “Does Human Capital Affect Rural Growth? Evidence from the South”. In Beaulieu, L J, & R Gibbs (eds), The Role of Education: Promoting the Economic and Social Vitality of Rural America. Southern Rural Development Center and USDA, Economic Research Service. • Beaulieu, L J, & R Gibbs (eds) (2005). The Role of Education: Promoting the Economic and Social Vitality of Rural America. Southern Rural Development Center and USDA, Economic Research Service. • Miller, B (1995). “The role of rural schools in community development: Policy issues and implications”. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 11, 3, 163-172. • Salant, P, & A Waller (1998). What Difference Do Local Schools Make? A Literature Review and Bibliography. Annenberg Rural Challenge Policy Program, The Rural School and Community Trust. • Woodhouse, A (2006). “Social capital and economic development in regional Australia: A case study”. Journal of Rural Studies, 22, 83–94.