Mobilisation and Optimisation of Financial Resources: Enhancing Entrepreneurial Leadership in Schools

1. MOBILISATION AND OPTIMISATION OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES • Module 4

2. Partners • School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK • University of Primorska, Slovenia • edEUcation, UK • University of Jyväskylä, Finland • Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania • European School Heads Association, Netherlands

3. The Focus EC4SLT invites school leadership teams to join the project to: • design an enquiry-based programme for entrepreneurial educational leadership development • improve the quality and efficiency of leadership through application of entrepreneurial competences from the business world

4. The Entrepreneurial competences In relation to mobilising and optimising financial resources, cultural entrepreneurial competences include: • knowing how to attract capital and staff • being able to think beyond resource constraints • being able to use resources, including staffing, creatively • understanding and analysing the cost/benefit to the school • being aware of external funding opportunities • having a basic knowledge about financial regulations

5. Stimulus • Schools in Finland conducted an enquiry into the mobilization and optimization of financial resources in their contexts • They are aware that they will need to focus on cultural entrepreneurial competences in order to enable change • They need to explore exactly what this means in practice

6. Create the need to know • Source a copy of your school improvement plan • Work as a leadership team to identify one key improvement objective which requires mobilizing and optimizing financial resources • Why is the objective important? • How easy will it be to achieve? • Do you foresee any sticking points? Cycle 1: explore

7. Ask questions • Using the 8Qs template, record all of the questions you have as a leadership team in relation to achieving the objective you identified on the previous slide Cycle 1: explore

8. Use evidence and expertise • Read and review the additional information in Handout 3 • Watch the video clip of the staff from Parkinson Lane Primary School and consider the advantages and disadvantages of the approach taken by the senior leaders in relation to your context • Arrange to visit a school in your area and find out whether they have resolved an objective like the one you have chosen for the focus of your enquiry • Select two or three texts from the module reading list and engage with them, making notes and asking further questions Cycle 1: explore

9. Make sense of your findings • What have you found? • Revisit your 8Qs sheet and consider whether you have obtained appropriate approaches to achieving your objective Cycle 1: explore

10. Reflect on your learning • How does the experience of the Finnish schools compare to the process and outcomes of your exploratory enquiry cycle? • What were the key learning points of your exploratory enquiry cycle? • How/where/when/why did they occur? • Were there any blockers? • Will you need to plan to avoid them next time? • How will you do this? Cycle 1: explore

11. Making links To what extent did the cultural entrepreneurial competences feature in your exploratory enquiry cycle: • knowing how to attract capital and staff? • being able to think beyond resource constraints? • being able to use resources, including staffing, creatively? • understanding and analysing the cost/benefit to the school? • being aware of external funding opportunities? • having a basic knowledge about financial regulations?

12. Create the need to know • The first stage of your second, negotiated, enquiry cycle requires you to record the impact of developing your cultural entrepreneurial competences • Use Handout 4 to prepare an action plan in order to record: • the stages of your enquiry • delegated roles and responsibilities • deadlines • anticipated outcomes • Remember to include evidence of your learning from enquiry cycle one Cycle 2: develop

13. Ask questions • Undertake a small scale trial of your action plan with a particular stakeholder • Which cultural entrepreneurial skills do you want to practice? • Who/what will enable you to practise these skills and offer constructive feedback for improvement? • How will you approach them/it? • When will you conduct your trial? • Take action and collect evidence Cycle 2: develop

14. Ask questions • To what extent will you have to consider and plan for: • Attracting capital and staff? • Resource constraints? • Using resources creatively? • Understanding and analyzing the cost/benefit to the school? • External funding opportunities? • Financial regulations? • Revisit Handout 3 if you need to review these aspects of cultural entrepreneurship Cycle 2: develop

15. Use evidence and expertise • Review the evidence of your small scale trial • What did you find in relation to: • The anticipated outcomes in your action plan? • The cultural entrepreneurial competences? • Revisit the video clip of the staff from Parkinson Lane Primary School • Compare and contrast their leadership approaches and your own approach in your small scale trial Cycle 2: develop

16. Make sense of your findings • It is now time to up-scale your work • Review the points of your action plan in relation to your findings from the previous slide • Do you need to change anything/anyone? • Do you need to add anything/anyone? • Do you need to remove anything/anyone? • Take action and collect evidence Cycle 2: develop

17. Reflect on your learning • So, what were the actual outcomes of your action plan? • How did they compare to your intended outcomes? • What did you achieve in relation to your original improvement objective? Cycle 2: develop

18. Making links To what extent did the cultural entrepreneurial competences feature in your developmental enquiry cycle: • knowing how to attract capital and staff? • being able to think beyond resource constraints? • being able to use resources, including staffing, creatively? • understanding and analysing the cost/benefit to the school? • being aware of external funding opportunities? • having a basic knowledge about financial regulations?

19. Next steps • To what extent are you convinced by the need to develop cultural entrepreneurial competences? • How will you communicate this to others? • What small changes will you make to your leadership practice as a result of this enquiry? • Give your reasons for this • What will you keep the same? • Give your reasons for this • Write your responses on a sticky note and post it by your desk as a practical reminder for future work.

20. Contact Authors The content of this module was researched and prepared by: Mika Risku, Institute of Educational Leadership, Jyvaskyla University Suvi Kahelin, Petri Palve, Seppo Pulkkinen, Aki Puustinen, Tarja Tuomainen, Kari Pirinen Organisations: Tammirinne Day Care Centre, Jyväskylä; Kuokkala Comprehensive School, Jyväskylä; Muurame Upper Secondary School, Muurame; City of Jyväskylä; Regional Council of Central Finland Ulrike Thomas, Alison Whelan, Anna Reid Organisation: School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK Key contact: Sue Robson, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, UK(sue.robson@ncl.ac.uk)