Transcript Learning for Leadership

Learning for leadership
AIS Executive Conference
Tuesday 15 May 2007
Michelle Anderson
[email protected]
‘No-one ever taught you how to coach in
those days, you had to find out for
yourself.’
(Kevin Sheedy reflecting on his 27 years as the
coach of Essendon Football Club)
Interest in leadership learning
1800
1600
1400
1200
Leadership
Books
Source:
Libraries
Australia
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1991 1996 2001 2005 2006
OECD’s Improving School
Leadership Activity (2006)
• Two strands: analytical and case study
• 20 countries participating (17 OECD and 3 nonOECD)
• Australia is participating in the analytical strand:
Country Background Report
• Based on current evidence within each country
Structure of the
Country Background Report
Chapters:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The national context of schooling
Features of the school system
School governance and leadership
Enhancing learning and school leadership
The attractiveness of school leaders’ roles
Professional learning of school leaders
Conclusion
Learning for leadership in context:
features of the Australian system
•
•
•
•
•
Diverse forms of school governance
A large number of small schools
Overall, high degree of decentralisation of
decision making within an increasingly strong
accountability framework
Increasing emphasis on educational leadership,
not just management
Concerns about lack of clarity of leaders’ roles
and inadequate support
Pathways to becoming a
school leader in Australia
Generally, requires:
1.a four-year undergraduate qualification*
2.registration as a teacher with a
regulatory authority
3.evidence of good teaching and schoolwide leadership and management
*In some sectors there are specific requirements for becoming a
school leader.
Framing learning along some form
of career phase continuum
Aspiring Beginning Consolidation
and growth
High
achieving
Transitions
(Career pathways, Queensland, government school leadership strategy)
Challenges the assumption –
‘once a leader, especially a principal, always a leader’
(Mulford, 2005)
International examples of
school leader career pathways
England:
1. Emergent
2. Established
3. Entry to
headship
4. Advanced
5. Consultant
Scotland:
1. Project leadership
2. Team leadership
3. School leadership
4. Strategic
leadership
Staff in Australia’s Schools
survey
Australia-wide survey of school teachers and
leaders in 2006 and 2007 about their:
•
•
•
•
Background and qualifications
Work
Career intentions
Factors that impact on the appeal of the
profession
(ACER & ACE)
Staff in Australia’s Schools survey:
leader learning and preparation
E.g. Question 20: Which of the following did you undertake to prepare
or help you early in your career as a school leader, and how
helpful was it?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Leadership development program organised by your employer
Structured mentoring by an experienced colleague
Regional/District program with other new leaders
Leadership orientation program with colleagues at your school
Leadership program organised by a professional association
Post-graduate study in education
Other assistance (please specify)……
I have not undertaken any preparatory training
Critical features of professional
learning for leadership
Does it do
what it says
on the tin?
Critical features of professional
learning for leadership
content focus, recognising the importance
of what is to be learned
(Ingvarson et al, 2005)
Developers of professional learning need
first to have guiding conceptions of
school leadership
Standards for school leadership
Every state and territory in Australia now
has some form of standards framework for
school leadership
Standards for school leadership are one
way to identify what is ‘valued’
Questions for writers of standards:
What’s in? What’s out? How come?
It's been very important throughout my
career that I've met all the guys I've
copied, because at each stage they've
said, ''Don't play like me, play like you.''
(Eric Clapton, musician)
Critical features of professional
learning for leadership
In addition to content clarity and focus researchers have
identified the critical features of:
•
•
•
active learning engagement and reflection on
learning;
effective and timely feedback from a coach or
supporting peers; and
follow up support during the implementation phase of
a professional learning program.
Example: Networked Learning
Communities (NLCs)
• Launched in 2002 from National College for School
Leadership (NCSL)
• 132 school-to-school networks = over 1500 schools
• 11 = average size of a network (smallest 6 schools –
largest 37 schools)
• Of the 132 NLCs, most are a combination of primary
and secondary schools
(December 2005)
Three Portraits of NLC Learning
• Adult learning:
Boston Schools Improvement Partnership
• School-to-school learning:
East Manchester EAZ
• Leadership learning:
Winsford
Shifts in leadership learning
From:
To:
• Episodic
• Long-term or continuous
• Over emphasis on training
for a role
• Greater emphasis on knowing and
understanding self and others
• Detached, off-site coursebased programs
• Job-embedded with increased
practicum work-place learning,
learning by doing and reflecting
• Individual learning
• Collaborative problem-solving and
mentoring / coaching / peer support
learning
• Face-to-face
• A mixture of e-learning and face-toface
Challenges
1. Research is small-scale and localised
2. Focus has mainly been on the
principalship and formal leadership
roles
3. Little attention to cost and impact of
different leadership policies and
strategies – especially in regard to
student outcomes
…How incredibly stuck things get, in the worst
modes of fluffball, individualistic, jargonridden babble that unfortunately marks the
worst of certain staff development
approaches in Australia and internationally
(Deputy Vice Chancellor)