President's Pen - New Zealand Principal Magazine

President’s Pen Education Leadership in Aotearoa 2022: The pandemic, partnerships and possibilities Cherie Taylor-Patel

National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation

New Zealand has one of the most devolved education systems in the world. Consequently, principals’ roles are complex. Some aspects of management are the same across schools, but the kete of skills we develop and draw upon to lead our communities, varies according to our context. Just as no two schools are the same in New Zealand, no two principals will have had the same career pathway. We define our leadership roles in different ways, based on what we have learned, to suit the context in which we lead. Apart from the ‘First time Principals’ professional development programme, introduced in 2002, New Zealand has had no systemic, centrally funded, on-going professional development for school leaders for thirty years. Initiatives have come and gone, dependent on the political environment of the day. This has created inequities in access to quality professional development, resulting in too many principals struggling and choosing to leave the profession early. This has also led to “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, the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, announced that principals needed more support. It was proposed that a new centre of leadership be established, through the Teaching Council of Aotearoa. In addition, a redesigned Education Ministry would have the additional function of building the status and capability of school leaders through the establishment of leadership advisory roles. Since then, the Teaching Council has developed the Rauhuia Leadership Strategy, the Ministry of Education has restructured, and provision has been made to engage leadership advisors. The Pandemic Alongside this work, the world has been gripped by a global pandemic. With the ‘Team of 5,000,000’, school principals are supporting our world-class covid response. They extended their leadership role from being ‘leaders of learning’ to being ‘community and crisis leaders’. Whilst maintaining the integrity of learning content, they then supported teachers, staff, students, and whānau to adapt their school-based learning to homebased learning, using both online and hardpack resources. Consequently, principals and teachers have deepened their understanding of the students they teach, their families and the challenges they face. In 2021, the OECD commissioned research into the impact of the global pandemic from different jurisdictions around the

world. Led by Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on education policy to the OECD, data from France, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States was collected, collated and analysed. From this study, ten key themes to support learning emerged. Principles for schooling during the pandemic: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Keep schools open as much and as safely as possible Ensure equity and align resources with needs Provide a remote learning infrastructure which is designed to reach all students Support teachers in their professional lives Enable teachers and parents to support learners

Principles for recovery towards effective and equitable education: 6.

Provide targeted support to meet students’ learning and social and emotional needs 7. Co-design a robust digital learning infrastructure with teachers and stakeholders 8. Empower teachers to exercise their professionalism and benefit from professional learning opportunities 9. Encourage a collaborative culture of innovation 10. Learn from national and international experiences

These themes resonate with us, because, we have seen the impact the pandemic has had – socially, emotionally, physically, financially, individually, within families, in workplaces and in our wider society. Over half of the students in New Zealand will be entering a third year of disrupted learning in 2022. Partnerships and possibilities A global conversation has begun, centred on ‘Post-Covid Education recovery’ for different jurisdictions. In New Zealand we have enacted a world-class Pandemic response and an excellent education response. We are now well placed to develop and lead a ‘world-class Post-Covid education recovery’, starting with, system support for school leaders. Central to this would be the creation of a leadership professional development eco-system, founded on the principles of ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi’. The system would attract multiple partners and providers, to support the vision, core values and principles of the Rauhuia Leadership strategy, developed through the Teaching Council of Aotearoa. The next phase would be designing and implementing the ‘culturally-centred’ leadership strategy which would: ■■

Be a centrally funded, embedded system, not subject to the

■■

political vagaries of different government ideologies Deliver quality professional development, in every region of New Zealand to address inequities of access Be co-constructed and governed by principals, for principals, with principals and key stakeholders, to create a flexible ecosystem of leadership learning, that is enduring

If the ‘Post-Covid Education Sector PLD Plan’ is owned and driven by school principals and their key stakeholders, the ecosystem that evolves would be world leading. It would support systemic principal PLD so that every principal, no matter where they are situated and no matter what their context, would have leadership growth opportunities available to them throughout their careers. Equitable access to leadership PLD would mean that all principals could lead successful schools and our tamariki could all succeed in a ‘Post-pandemic world’. The challenge and the opportunity is before us. 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.

OECD-Education International (2021), Principles for an Effective and Equitable Educational Recovery, Education International, Brussels LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE MĀORI LEADERSHIP FORUM Leadership/Insight-Synthesis-of-views-from-Maori-LeadershipForum.pdf – New Zealand Education Council, Wellington: August, 2017. LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE SECOND PROFESSIONAL FORUM Leadership/Insight-Synthesis-of-views-from-Maori-LeadershipForum.pdf – New Zealand Education Council, Wellington: August, 2017. LEADERSHIP STRATEGY: SYNTHESIS OF VIEWS FROM THE SECOND ACADEMIC FORUM Leadership/Research-paper-sysnthesis-of-views-from-thesecond-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)

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