CORE VALUES FOR SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING

1
CORE VALUES FOR SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND
LEARNING

• Professor Karen Starr
• Director, Centre for Educational Leadership
• Deakin University

2
Format of the Workshop

• What we know about improving student learning
• What factors hinder optimum school achievement?
• Teacher leadership and productive school cultures
• Implicit core (underpinning) values

3
Student learning

• There are some common factors in schools that
  achieve high performance in learning. Some of
  the most salient are
• Learning is the central focus of the school
• High expectations are set for students and staff
• Professional learning for teachers is
  developmental and ongoing

4
Student learning cont

• Teachers discuss and share information about
  student achievement so as to assist each
  individual
• Every learner is valued, feels safe, comfortable
  and happy at school
• Happiness at school is not underestimated for
  learners or for workers
• Learners have good relationships with teachers
  and peers

5
Student learning cont

• Learners are actively engaged and instrumental in
  their learning
• Learners understand the purpose of their learning
  and its use in various life contexts
• The school environment is supportive and
  conducive to learning
• The learning environment displays a hive of
  constructive activity

6
Student learning cont

• The learning environment is free from harassment,
  bullying and exclusive practices
• The monitoring of student learning and diagnostic
  feedback is ongoing formative as well as
  summative
• Leadership for learning comes from all sectors in
  the school

7
What factors hinder optimum school achievement?

• The dominant view of what it means to be a
  teacher
• The concomitant view of curriculum
• Classrooms that position students as passive
  consumers of knowledge rather than as active
  knowledge creators
• Traditional forms of assessment and reporting

8
What factors hinder optimum school achievement?
Cont

• Assumptions about learners
• Immutable school structures
• Staff retention
• Problems in the profession
• Inadequate Induction
• teacher quality

9
Teacher Leadership and Productive School Cultures

• A story of 400 teachers
• Negatives
• Lack of budget or resources
• Lack of time
• Increased workloads
• Rurality / remoteness
• Principal disinterested / too busy

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Principal Leadership Implications

• Sharing and Distributing Leadership
• Having regular meetings with the teacher leaders
• Placing the change initiative on the School
  Development Plan - ensuring the program is
  aligned with school goals, needs, priorities and
  budget

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Sharing and Distributing Leadership cont

• Enabling school-based research and data
  collection
• Giving teachers ownership of the program, its
  budget and its processes
• Putting professional learning high on the
  schools agenda

12
Sharing and Distributing Leadership cont

• Providing sensible timelines for developments and
  improvements
• Putting accountability processes in place
• Providing resources - time and money
• Encouraging change initiatives
• Deflecting administrative burdens from the ambit
  of teachers

13
Sharing and Distributing Leadership cont

• Encouraging student collaborations, suggestions
  and public demonstrations of their learning as an
  important part of the program
• Promoting the idea that shared leadership is
  shared learning
• Being realistic about how much time is actually
  required for school change to occur.

14
Principal Leadership Implications cont

• Promotion Praise
• Publicise and endorse the program Personal thanks
• Encouraging teachers to take small steps and to
  have a go
• Publishing positive results and outcomes widely
• Providing regular formal updates about how the
  program is going

15
Promotion Praise

• Commitment to Professional Learning for ALL
• Taking a learning community approach
• Providing regular time for teachers
• Providing opportunities for mentors and coaching

16
Commitment to Professional Learning for ALL cont

• Encouraging interschool visits
• Setting time aside for teacher team
  collaborations
• Professional development occurs in school time
• Providing teachers with professional readings and
  relevant information

17
Commitment to Professional Learning for ALL cont

• Seeking financial assistance to support teacher
  professional development
• Being futures-oriented.

18
Values
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Implicit Core Values modellingwhat we stand for

• Learning focus honesty, integrity, doing your
  best
• Distributed leadership - democracy,
  responsibility
• A flattening of hierarchy equality
• Teacher autonomy freedom, trustworthiness,
  professional satisfaction

20
Implicit Core Values Programmatic cont

• Respect for teachers knowledge and skills in the
  carriage of curriculum and other improvement
  initiatives leadership capacity building
• Appreciation / collegiality a fair go a sense
  of community understanding, tolerance,
  inclusion care and compassion