Established leaders as learners and changeagents: a model for leadership and professional developmen

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Established leaders as learners and
change-agents a model for leadership and
professional development in schools
David James and Signe Neimane brille Bristol
Centre for Research in Education and Lifelong
Learning, and Department of Education, Youth and
Sports, Riga City Council
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The project in outline (1)

• Context
• continuous educational reform since Independence
• EU membership and participation in various
  international comparative studies are strong
  drivers of policy
• a perception that many schools still embody a
  culture of responding to external regulation in a
  style that was appropriate in Soviet times
• a general wish for greater creativity, democracy
  and self-determination at school level
• relatively low pay for teachers (now improving)

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The project in outline (2)

• Who was involved?
• The project was organised and funded through a
  consortium comprising the British Council, Riga
  City Council and the Latvian Ministry of
  Education
• Designed by The University of West of England,
  Bristol in conjunction with representatives of
  these bodies
• Participants 24 school heads, deputies and
  subject leaders from across Latvia

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The project in outline (3)

• What were its aims?
• to provide a structure for the professional
  development of school leaders as leaders
• to assist school leaders in collective
  exploration of their changing situation
• to assist them in recognition and articulation of
  actual and desirable changes in their role and
  actions
• to establish a national network of school leaders
  with the capacity to instigate further change in
  their own work and that of other people

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The process (1)

• Main activities were
• A series of five modules, run as residential
  workshops between November 2006 and January 2008,
  with additional tasks between
• Individual action research projects in
  participants workplaces
• Visits to UK in three groups
• (note a decision not to make participation into
  academic credit-bearing activity)

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The core residential workshops
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Subsequent activity
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The workshops included

• Lots of sharing of experiences of leading and
  being led
• An introduction to action research
• Reviewing progress and refining individual action
  research projects with peers
• Problem-solving from case-study materials
• Use of reading material to help engagement with
  concepts such as creativity, distributed
  leadership, democracy, interpersonal relations
• Co-authorship to set down a group view
• Presentations to each other and to a mixed
  audience of European educators
• Planning activities and materials to assist other
  leaders in the development of their capacities

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The UK visits included

• Visits to a range of schools with a strong
  emphasis on seeing how they were led
• Some lectures and seminars
• Visits to the university library
• Eating and drinking
• Sightseeing, including a trip to London
• Sampling cultural life of young people
  especially through song

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The action research included

• Identifying a problem or issue in the school or a
  part of it for which the leader had
  responsibility
• Articulating and exploring the problem or issue
  in small groups
• Considering a range of options and actions
• Deciding on an action plan with clear steps
• Carrying out the plan
• Monitoring what happened and recording this in a
  personal journal or similar
• Sharing progress in small and large groups i.e.
  a safe forum for critical reflection

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Main items on a stimulus sheet School Leadership
Project Action Research for improving leadership
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The projects outcomes include

• A network of educational leaders who have some
  joint understanding of their situation and some
  knowledge of each others research and
  development processes
• Capacity - a significant group of educational
  professionals, some of whom feel more able to
  initiate and guide other leaders to develop their
  skills and capacities
• Principles - Fifteen Principles for the
  development of leaders and leadership in
  education in Latvia
• Personal/professional growth-Many individual
  trajectories that are seen as positive
• Some examples of school-level change which are
  attributed to participation (but it is really the
  long game that is of most interest)
• A model or way of working?

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Participant perceptions

• Questionnaire given to all participants in August
  2008
• 19 (of 22) responded
• Some results are as follows

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Leadership skills developed by project
participants
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Concepts, definitions or approaches changed as a
result of participating

• Capacity to use action research steps and
  approach
• More distributed leadership and more staff
  involvement
• I now understand the difference between
  management and leadership
• Better knowledge about problem solving

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Areas identified for further development
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The impact of the project in the workplace

• Colleagues are willing to learn about new
  concepts
• Organization of curriculum and school day
• Leadership skills help to manage change in school
• Planning and action research is introduced
• In some cases, impact is small the present
  environment is too authoritative and subordinate

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Changes made in workplace

• I have tried to delegate responsibilities to my
  colleagues (3 answers)
• I use action research plan in solving problems
  (2 answers)
• I have introduced distributed leadership it
  works!
• I have introduced teachers self-evaluation
• I have changed the organization of lessons and
  breaks (experience from English schools)
• Together with my team we have managed to create
  an atmosphere for open discussion

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Helping other leaders to develop their practice

• I can work and help new leaders, especially
  regarding planning and setting goals for longer
  period
• I would like to continue to help. When I help
  others, I help myself.

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A model and a way of working?

• Participants evaluated all stages of the project
  and have also completed some questionnaire
  returns about their own development
• We would argue that the model is close to the
  early collective models of action research (e.g.
  Kurt Lewin). There is also an interesting
  affinity between method and substance, in that
  leadership capacities are developed in parallel
  individual and collective processes, reflecting
  that leadership is always situated and positioned
  as well as being to do with qualities and
  characteristics of individuals

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brille Bristol Centre for Research in Education
and Lifelong Learning, and Department of
Education, Youth and Sports, Riga City Council