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| I purchased this C Blair linocut a couple of years ago during a trip to New Zealand: I was motivated by the focus on an individual being prepared to stand out from the crowd. |
I asked them to think about what sort of learning culture they had in their schools - were signs of learning visible and everywhere? Was everyone seen as a learner? Did their leadership team model learning and risk taking? Was the view of failure refashioned?
How was change received and perceived?
And, how were tall poppies and those advocating innovation and change viewed by others?
Were they encouraged and nurtured or crushed into silence because they challenged the status quo of complacency and comfort? (See image below showing the brainstorming of the characteristics of a learning organisation developed with this group.)
Then I came across David Gurr's article A Model of Successful School Leadership from the International Successful School Principalship Report**.
Gurr's article highlights some salient research about leadership that is relevant to those questions above that I posed to my colleagues. Part of his research draws on 15 stories of principal leadership success from 13 countries and identifies 11 key themes. These include:
1. High expectations that are contextualised and reasonable;
2. Pragmatic leadership styles that enable them to be instructional and transformational leaders and, as and when it is needed, with a strong focus on ensuring improvements in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment;
3. Distributed leadership through which the input and effort of teachers, parents and students is valued;
4. Core, consistent leadership practices which include setting direction, developing people, leading change and improving teaching and learning. Additionally, other practices encompass strategic problem solving, articulating a set of core ethical values (moral purpose), building of trust, being visible across the school, building a safe and secure environment, building coalitions, ensuring equity, care of others and encouraging achievement;
5. Leadership that is heroic by challenging the status quo, fighting for the best outcomes for their students, having and sharing a positive view of their school community, fostering collaboration, leading with others and not leading alone;
6. Building capacity - by being people-centred, these leaders enjoy seeing both tens students and adults in their school community develop - personal, professional, organisational and community
capacity building;
7. Leaders who are trusted and respected act with integrity, are transparent about their values, model good practice, deal with people fairly, build ownership and involvement in decision making and consult;
8. Continually learning means that these leaders develop their leadership skills over time through a blend of on-the-job training, formal and informal professional learning, mentoring and sponsorship. These leaders are hungry for new ideas, open to new thinking, seeking new ways of doing things, exploring new opportunities for them and their schools and consistently developing their professional repertoire;
9. The personal resources of these school leaders include "acumen, optimism, persistence, trust...tolerance, empathy, alertness...curiosity, resilience, benevolence, honesty, openness, respectful and humbleness" (p. 140)
The standout paragraph for me was:
The standout paragraph for me was:
They have a strong ethic of care, empathy for others, value individuality and display the transformational leadership quality of individual consideration, believe in freedom and democracy, are good at balancing individual versus collective care, and so forth. Above all they are driven by the desire to provide the best educational environment they can for all students. Even in the most challenging contexts, they view challenges as obstacles to overcome rather than problems that are insurmountable, and so they are always looking to improve the learning environment. Perhaps using a spiritual, moral or social justice base, or more simply from an understanding of what is possible in education, they have the courage to what is right to help their students be the best they can. (p.140)
10. They are context sensitive - they understand the context in which they work, but are not necessarily driven or controlled by it. They "fine tune" their responses so as to achieve optimal success in the context of their own school;
11. They sustain success by involving others across the school community in deciding what is best to do, being resilient and committed, utilising a range of instructional practices as needed, continuing their own professional learning and have a positive attitude towards change.
And so, these leaders are insightful, empathic, change savvy and heroic because they are informed by their strong moral purpose and have a clear view of how to involve others, build capacity, nurture guiding coalitions and move their schools forward.
They stand out from the crowd, while standing within it and moving along as part of it.
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| Brainstorming the characteristics of a learning organisation with the #BastowLSDA crew from Mildura. To what extent is your school a learning organisation? |
