EMG 504 LGL

February 2016

EMG 504 LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL LEARNING

  This unit draws from a range of philosophical and ideological ideas to explore concepts such as leadership, and organizational leadership and management specifically in the field of education. Concepts of leading and managing are investigated in the light of what is known about `western' and non-western knowledge practices and how they shape understandings and practice when applied to the field of education. Implications are explored for how leaders work with the day-to-day circumstances they face in organisations that promote a greater awareness of global learning. Students work towards developing a statement of professional learning about leadership to inform their ongoing professional practice.

1 March 2016
 One of the compulsory book in this course is in this unit EMG 504 (Leadership in Global Learning). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Languages of Evaluation. This book questions the search to define and measure quality in the early childhood field and its tendency to reduce philosophical issues of value to purely technical and managerial issues of expert knowledge and measurement.

7 March 2016
After the initial contact with the lecturer and other students involved in this unit, here is a summary of what the lecturer will expect from us: This unit sources a broad range of philosophical and ideological ideas, exploring and unpacking concepts such as leadership, its application within organizational spaces and its connects of management and administration, specifically in the field of education. As mentioned last week during my overview of the unit ready (this presentation was recorded and made available for our external students to access in the online classroom recordings) the unit decsription offers three layers of focus. These are:

1. Exploring and unpacking concepts of leadership, as situated in the socially-complex spaces of human relationships. The literature relating to this layer commonly discusses transactional and transformational leadership; distributive/invitational/devolved/democratic leadership, charismatic leadership and more. Within these discourses are conversations about power balances (hierarchical, position-based power vs relationship-based power) and how social actors engage in group/team social enterprise.

2. Exploring and unpacking leadership as applied in school organisational settings, which includes the domains of management and administration. At the core of such discussions are scientific organisational theories, which offer foundations and capacity to navigate the inanimate, physical spaces of schools, and postmodernist doctrine, which offer capacities in navigating the deeply complex spaces of human behaviour.

3.  Exploring and unpacking the research that underpins the technical elements of schools (empirical inquiry, positivism, interpretative inquiry).

As this unit also deals with the global dimensions of leadership within school organisational settings, it is important to recognise the societal influences because they are real and shape each of the spaces commented above. In Australia, capitalism produces class layering which structurally layers schools. As we progress through the unit I will upload (or send on request) the relevant literature. For now though, the focus is module 1.

Module 1

For the next 3 weeks the focus is on framing the issues. This module is about exploring the global dimensions of local issues in education. This where you are encouraged to look critically at your education system and consider the shape and texture of the various forces that influence what happens in that system. Nothing is by accident and everything is influenced by their global dimensions especially education, given its central role as a building institution of society!

April 2016

The lecturer's approach is to make sure that the learning journeys through this unit are well supported, so it is important to establish and maintain an ongoing communication to ensure the key road maps are aligned early on with unit expectations. So far, he has been very supportive and the concept is framing the issues has been well developed and understood.

As we engage with the issues, The link is now visible for students. This module focuses on engaging with the issues and their associated research and philosophic backdrops and encourages students' to engage and reflect on the links between local and international practice, policy and research. As identified in the learning materials, education more broadly, and schools as organisational structures, have been subjected to deeply structural forces, especially from the 1980s as the education system became increasingly contested. This is not surprising because schools are socially complex organisations caught within the layers of society and the brutal realities of an unequal social and economic landscape. These forces are pervasive as much as they are wide reaching and they have been with us all for a very long time. FW Taylor and his scientific organisational theories that came to characterise Fordism and the works of Karl Marx during the mid-period of industrialisation reveal insights into class struggles and how these flow into the large scale organisational settings, and Max Weber in detailing the 'iron case of bureaucracy' also offer insights into the way an otherwise 'pure' model of office layering is not only corrupted by political forces, but inherently 'self-deterministic'. These flows into schools as organisations in recent years from the period 2000 onwards have been directly into the very profession of teaching. In this latter period education reforms have intensified ariound the feet of school principals and teachers as key change agents to deliver high performing school organisations that promise to deliver students with a quality of education that transports them beyond their home situation. This has meant that more than ever, schools function consistently at the highest levels possible and sustain this momentum, breaking the sine wave of deepened troughs that characterise the dynamics of low SES environments. The literature that you will explore are fundamentally about how schools might work to achieve this outcome, while others point to the limitations that external (and internal) forces present to such viewpoints. In all of this it is about seeing the connections between the micro (student engagement with school) and the macro (societal). They are real and the work of strong education leaders is to navigate the negative forces while building opportunities that enable children to learn and achieve to the best of their abilities. That is, school principals thinking globally and acting locally.

End of April 2016

Message of the lecturer in order to help the student to focus their attention for a better research. Hi everyone, I thought I would share this feedback I gave yesterday, in response of what the question for assignment 1 was asking and where perhaps to start.

The question for assignment 1 is to critically analyse (with reference to the literature, policy and practice) perspectives on leadership and their application in school settings. Critical analysis is about the obvious that you can see, but also about the issues that sit often hidden that influence and shape their appearance and application and promises to deliver. In this respect I offered my comments below, which I think are important to share with the whole group.

There are essentially two domains that school leaders require strong knowledge and skills. These are the technical-rational and the social.

Technical-rational

Includes all of the inanimate properties, which are defined in two ways. The first are the technical knowledge and skills in the front end tool kits that teachers require, such as reflects in classroom teaching program's, curriculum (including layer supports, resources etc), assessment and reporting, and of course the AITSL standards. That is, all of the tools required in the assembly line of teaching and learning. The second are the technical knowledge and tool kits in management and administration. These cover the strategic planning (I.e, APIF, School Review process), people management (rules of engagement, I.e. Behaviour, PBS school) and those relating to the business and organisational spaces of schools, including the financial, legal and regulatory frames that guide the work of schools. This latter is particularly reflected in the Independent Public School policy evolution.

The other key domain, being social, is in many ways the hardest work because the social contest is unpredictable, uncertain and constantly changing. Power and politics flow through every corner of schools, allegiances are formed and broken, behaviours reflect the inner as much of the outer journeys of individuals and groups and these are impacted by the expectations, accountabilities, roles and challenges encountered every second of every school day. The 'people' challenge is the work of leaders seeking to guide, assist, inspire, coach and lead organisational improvement, and sustain it over time! Depending where the school is, what type of school it is, what the level of expertise across he school is determines how much leaders lead from the front or lead from behind. This essentially by the 1970s resulted in the formation of contingency theories.

Leadership is often talked about in nebulous ways, but essentially it embraces both key domains of technical and social. The school is about the technical, but organisational growth is achieved through the social frames.

In this regard the leadership discourses cover the following.

Technical

Instructional leadership (leaders being strong in the education system to know how to help others and how to spot problems etc)

Coaching- assisting staff move from a point of challenge to one of overcoming.

Social

Democratic, distributive, invitational leadership is about devolving power and responsibility to educators . This construct is based on the group genius, as opposed to the one mind pretending the opinions of others don't matter. These leadership approaches reflect the democratic layers that an Australian society is framed.

Charismatic leadership is about inspiring and connected with staff and community, leaders cannot connect if nobody likes them.

Transactional vs transformational leadership are discussed in respect to the organisational growth modelling of schools. 

Transactional leaders attend to the daily transactions that occur across the school in areas relating to the teaching and learning spaces, but equally the business and management and administration elements that schools function upon. 

Transformational leadership is about every action, every behaviour and every step taken by staff and community is about transforming the school toward one if clear and defined improvements. In order to understand the health of the organisation, leaders look to the achievement outcomes of students and the other raft of measurable expressions, particularly in the tangible data sets that commonly get discussed and by which teachers and leaders are held accountable. Transformational shifts also include the intangibles. Such as the warmth and level of social and emotional connectivity across the school, commonly viewed as organisational culture.

In exploring the literature, you will see these various discourses about school leadership. My view is that you should think about all of this in relation to society, such as the capitalist layering across the nation. The inequality produced has increased in the past 40 years, so leaders draw upon different combinations of leadership approaches, depending on where they are located. Most NT schools are in remote and very remote locations, 40 percent of students are Indigenous, special needs students are often not well understood, schools struggle in meeting the resource needs (Gonski) and the list goes on.

My view is that assignment one is asking that you engage in these discussions, discuss their strengths and limitations (ie, distributive leadership results in lots and lots of conversations which are exhausting and leave leaders with less time to address other parts of their jobs). You are asked to discuss these issues and consider the global forces that influence the approaches discussed. Ontario, Canada is a great starting place, the McKinsey Report (education) also is cited as a defining piece of work guiding our Australian reform context.

After 7 intense weeks, the time has come to submit the first assignment: Core concepts of educational leadership: a critical analysis. This task asks students to explore with reference to literature, policy and practice perspectives on leadership and to critically analyse some of the perspectives and approaches to leadership and their application in school settings.

 

 

May 2016

 Welcome to Module 3, which is designed to direct your thinking around the future- both in respect to the challenges schools experience in building progressive outcomes, and what this means for leadership. As pointed out in the module section comments, real change is easily talked about, but difficult to achievable in organisational contexts. Up until this point you have been directed to think about the various forms and expressions of leadership in education, including their global and international dimensions. This module asks you now to think critically about the reality of schools and where they are projecting and the ways in which various forms of leadership are applied. While much expectation and accountability for the performance of schools is said to rest with the principal and their senior management teams, the pressures produced internally within and across the organisation are unrelenting, taxing the energy levels of its workers, as well as students. The school is a high stakes entity that is fraught with funding and resource pressures, economic, cultural and political forces flowing through their porous boundaries into the laps of principals and the social actors that engage with this system. Depending on where the school is located, the combination of leadership approaches and domains (technical and social)differing presents variations in how such approaches are prioritised. Contingency theories essentially originated from this recognition and in so doing revealed the challenges that deep undercurrents of social and economic forces play in how schools are challenged. The task for this module and which flows into your second assignment is to consider what some of the key challenges are (i.e. schools are constantly under changes, so how does an effective leaders motivate more change, on what basis of evidence, how might these changes be geared around compenation, as more and more adds to the mountain which causes staff sick days to go up, etc, etc, etc, etc). One way to think about this is to consider your own behavioural drivers and how you would navigate these in constructing sustainable growth patterns in school outcomes.

At the end of week 12, It is time to submit the 2nd assignment which is a Personal framework for leadership development. This task asks students to reflect and document a personal framework of leadership that incorporates the full range of domains of leadership. The personal framework should be supported by research, theory, and policy.

 

 

 

 

June 2016

The general feedback given by the lecturer to all the students: Please note all assignments were marked down on the basis of a number of key areas. These included:

(1) The attention and adherence of the protocols and conventions of formal academic essay writing; (2) The level of critical analysis at AQF L9 provided by the writer; (3) The level of referencing of the literature, both in respect to the research evidence and philosophic discourses to back your claims as the writer; and (4) The level of established linkages to the national and international contexts, since the internal conversations (and ways of doing) are always influenced and shaped by the macro discourses.