New Zealand principals operate within one of the most devolved education systems in the world. Because of this, our roles are complex, made more so by a challenging political landscape, the diversity of contexts in which we work and because of the diversity of leadership learning opportunities we access, as we move through our careers. Just as no two schools are the same in New Zealand, no two principals will have had the same career pathway coming through the system. Through our own personal, practice-based, professional knowledge building, we come to the role of principal in different ways. We define our roles in different ways, based on all we have learned, to suit the context in which we lead. As a New Zealand principal, I appreciate many aspects of autonomy our system affords us, but, because of the ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ reorganization of education in 1989, a gap was created in the system. For thirty years, we have had no consistent, centralized, systemic, built in, on-going professional development for school leaders, to support us to build capacity and capabilities at different stages of our careers. When reviewing the New Zealand education system in 2019, the ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ Taskforce found inequities at all levels of the system including “slow and uneven transfers of professional knowledge and skills, and wide variability in learner/ākonga performance across schools/kura, including within the same decile.” (Reform of Tomorrow’s Schools, Pg. 10) In 2020, our current Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, announced that there would be a focus on providing more support for principals and school boards. This would include a new centre of leadership being established, through the Teaching Council. The Minister also announced that a redesigned Education Ministry would be given additional functions to build the status and capability of leaders and principals, through the establishment of local leadership advisor roles. The government’s commitment to developing leadership capacity was further emphasised by the announcement of the National Education Learning Priorities. Objective 3 in the new ‘National Education Learning Priorities’ aims to develop high quality leaders and teachers in our education system. While the recognition of the need for leadership professional development was welcomed by school leaders, the suggested solutions were less so. Indeed, they led to more questions. Would a Principal Centre meet the needs of principals across New Zealand? Would the development of a leadership strategy rather than a centre better serve our diverse sector? ■■ How would principals get to have a voice in the development of a leadership strategy, or centre and ■■
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If our education system is about personalizing learning and developing learner agency, should a leadership professional development strategy be developed by principals, for principals, with principals?
The development of a national leadership strategy for principals’ professional development is long overdue. We have arrived in 2021 with the Minister of Education, the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Council and the sector aligned and committed to achieving a common goal. The challenge before us is how this is to be achieved. When we look back over the last thirty years, there is a trail of professional development programmes and initiatives that have come and gone, delivered by a range of different providers. They have served some principals well, but not all, so have become another dimension of the equity issues embedded in our education system. If we are to get into the education leadership waka, as a sector, what comes next needs to be informed by what has happened to leadership professional development in New Zealand, over the last three decades. The context for change: In the 90’s, the decentralization of our schooling system saw principals’ roles change dramatically. In every school, principals were charged with the tasks of producing school charters, vision statements, mission statements, core values and goals, along with a flurry of policies and procedures. There was a lot of ‘just in time’ learning in the areas of finance, human resource management, property and health and safety, which saw many principals delegate the implementation of new curriculum documents to deputy principals. Borrowed from the business sector, the concept of ‘Total Quality Management’ influenced principals’ interpretation of their leadership roles, as they focused on becoming quality managers of schools. In 1997, the ‘New Zealand Principalship and Leadership Centre’ was established by the New Zealand Principals Federation (NZPF), corporate partners and Massey University. Reflective principal courses were developed and delivered by Dr David Stewart, principals and educators. This and a series of School Development initiatives, brought principals together to explore puzzles of practice. By the early 2000’s, new leadership research saw a series of ‘Best Evidence Syntheses’ influence our education landscape. Largely based on overseas research, the BES series on Leadership, Professional Development and Quality Teaching and Learning challenged principals to shift their focus away from managing schools, to becoming quality leaders of learning. The national ‘First Time Principals’ programme was established in 2002.
aroa – 2021: The waka, the
In this era, we had a National Leadership Team in the Ministry of Education, led by Darren Gammie, who developed the ‘Kiwi Leadership Model’, as well as a National Curriculum Team led by Mary Chamberlain, that developed and launched the New Zealand Curriculum in 2007. In 2007, an ‘Extending High Standards Across Schools’ initiative invited groups of principals to create innovative projects, some of which focused on developing principal leadership. An attempt to develop a coherent, national strategy for principal professional development delivery saw four different projects trialled in different parts of the country in 2008, with a view to upscaling one or more nationally. In 2009, however, funding for principal professional development was cut, as it did not fit the policies of the newly elected National government. Leadership and curriculum advisory services were disestablished and over the next decade, professional development for leadership was outsourced. In the National Government years, Peter Hughes, the Secretary of Education, described the Ministry of Education as the stewards of the education system and principals as the leaders. But, with no mandate to affect the development of a national leadership vision, strategy, plan or implementation of professional development, principals did what they could, with the resources they had access to, to develop capabilities and capacity, as school leaders. The introduction of ‘Communities of Learning / Kahui Ako’ in 2014 was, in part, seen as an opportunity for lead principals, to lift our system’s performance as cluster leaders. In 2015, the sector-led ‘Māori Achievement Collaborative’ was established, through NZPF, to support networks of school leaders to develop culturally responsive leadership practices needed to create positive change for Māori learners. Initially two Principal advisor positions were re-established in 2015, to support principals in challenging contexts and currently, there are around thirty advisors that serve 2,500 principals across ten regions in New Zealand. The Education Council (now the Teaching Council) led an Education Leadership strategy around 2015, working with academics, peak body leaders, some sector representatives and Māori leaders, that was paused in 2017. By 2017, the type, quality and delivery of professional development leadership was diverse and fragmented, lacking coherence with and connection to, national priorities in education and then, there was a change in government. Being a Coalition Government, it took time to reverse changes to the Education Act, to negotiate a coherent way forward with Coalition partners and to review the education system as a whole. Because the Teaching Council (formerly the Education Council) had undertaken work with the education sector to develop their Leadership Strategy and Educational Leadership
Capability Framework, from the Government’s view, they were best placed to support principal development. At this time, through the imminent restructure of the system into ‘Education Service Agencies’ (ESAs), the Ministry of Education also have planned to have a role in building the status and capabilities of principals. Through the decades, consistent issues have been present. They include Lack of centrally funded, on-going, professional development opportunities for principals, due to political priorities and the ‘political churn’ of ideologies ■■ Lack of infrastructure to deliver quality professional development, at different stages of a principal’s career, relevant for their context, in every region of New Zealand ■■ Lack of opportunity for the sector to co-construct a professional development system that will work for all, that is enduring ■■
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As we begin 2021, we have a waka, trying to be paddled by the Government, the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Council and private providers of leadership professional development. In their efforts to define the direction, the delivery and the destination of leadership professional development, the education leadership waka is not going anywhere fast. So where to from here? A way forward Early in 2020, the New Zealand Principals Federation invited leaders of key principal associations to a meeting in Wellington. At the initial meeting, discussion centred around the ‘Tomorrow’s School Review’, the recommendations from the Taskforce around leadership development and what, we, leaders and practitioners in our profession, wanted by way of change in the professional development learning space. This was followed by a second meeting to consider a draft proposal, that would see principals from the sector lead the development of a national leadership professional development strategy, for principals. The broad concept was mooted with the CEO of the Teaching Council and then with the Secretary of Education, Iona Holstead. Principal representatives from Secondary, Intermediate, Primary, Area schools, Independent Schools, along with Te Akatea and the New Zealand Pasifika Principal Association, have united to call for principals across New Zealand, to lead an iterative process, to develop a professional development strategy, designed by principals, for principals and with principals, in
partnership with the Teaching Council. For this government to achieve their goals of developing high quality leadership in our education system, we need an effective, centrally funded leadership strategy, that supports all principals to achieve success as leaders. Through this initiative, it will be possible to a) Begin to systemically develop the capabilities and capacity of principals throughout their careers b) Address equity of access to quality professional development for principals c) Support principals to lead successful schools, where students succeed in learning in all contexts d) Strengthen leadership at all levels of our education system
The challenge and the opportunity is before us. There is the political will to support the development of a national education leadership strategy that we know is needed. We have expertise within our system to lead this work. We also know that whatever is developed needs to be based upon Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles, culturally responsive, bespoke and appropriate for our diverse contexts and effective in supporting principals. So who needs to be in this waka? Principals need to be in this waka, with key stakeholders, so together, we move forward together, in the same direction and achieve success as principals, leading a world class education system. Whakamaua te pae tata kia tina Take hold of your potential so it becomes your reality. References Berryman, M., Elizabeth E., Ford, T., & Egan, M. Leadership: Going beyond personal will and professional skills to give life to Ka Hikitia, Hamilton, NZ: University of Waikato. LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE MĀORI LEADERSHIP FORUM. Leadership/Insight-Synthesisof-views-from-Maori-Leadership-Forum.pdf – New Zealand Education Council, Wellington: August, 2017.
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LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE SECOND PROFESSIONAL FORUM. Leadership/InsightSynthesis-of-views-from-Maori-Leadership-Forum.pdf – New Zealand Education Council, Wellington: August, 2017. LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE SECOND ACADEMIC FORUM. Leadership/Research-papersysnthesis-of-views-from-the-second-Academic-Forum.pdf – New Zealand Education Council, Wellington: August, 2017. Lovegrove, J. 2020. First Principals into the new Millennium: Continuing the History of the New Zealand Principal’s Federation, Fisher Print, Palmerston North: October, 2020. Kōrero Mātauranga. Supporting all Schools to Succeed: Reform of the Tomorrow’s School System, Ministry of Education, Wellington: November, 2019. Tomorrow’s Schools Review (education.govt.nz)