You want teaching ‘to make a difference’ – right? Dr Jan Robertson Academic Director, National Aspiring Principals’ Programme Senior Researcher, Institute of Professional Learning, University of Waikato
I’ve been thinking about this topic for quite a while now Moral purpose engenders the shared values of equity and because this statement raises many questions we might take a social justice through the values of culturally responsive few minutes now to consider together. leadership and pedagogy, honouring the Treaty of Waitangi What sort of difference or how much difference do you want and the dual cultural heritage of New Zealand, and stepping to make and to whom? up to actively address the How far does your moral unde r- achie ve me nt of purpose in education extend – particular groups who have to your classroom, your school, not been well-served by the Building educational leadership capacity to students in the school down New Zealand education through partnership—SECOND EDITION the road, to the New Zealand system. Jan Robertson education system? This book is for anyone interested in developing Can you articulate your The new Coaching Leadership leadership—their own and others. It is for school leaders wanting to reflect on their own leadership, those working moral purpose in education edition (Robertson, 2016) in professional development, and teachers thinking about and how it guides your mahi relates a case study of how the how they can more effectively facilitate learning. It aims to get educators working with each other as coaches in schools? National Aspiring Principals’ and mentors, creating deep learning relationships within professional practice. Actually, when did you last Programme (NAPP) has Jan Robertson is a world leader in the field of leadership have a coaching conversation been working to develop coaching and this book draws on more than two decades of research and practice. She is passionate about with another senior leader leaders, through coaching developing leaders who see themselves as leaders and leaders of learning. about your moral purpose and conversations, who do talk This second edition contains: were asked questions like this? about their moral purpose • new case studies • new thought leadership When did you last talk about for equity and social justice. • new research • new coaching tools. your own moral purpose to Furthermore, they understand “In this edition of Coaching Since the first edition was published in 2005, the isolation felt by education leaders has not diminished. Leaders Leadership, Jan Robertson has your colleagues? When do you the importance of a strong need access to collegial collaboration and shared problem gone deeper and added details and talk to teachers about their moral purpose in leading solving if they are to tackle the important educational examples that make the book even issues and grow as reflective leaders of learning. This better. It is accessible, informative moral purpose? transformative change in their book provides the evidence, principles and skills needed and provides a model not only to develop leadership skills for individuals and across for thinking about coaching but a Teachers and leaders the schools and communities. institutions. process for actually becoming a good world over tell me, usually One of our very experienced Jan Robertson is an international leadership consultant, a coach and mentor in a reciprocal senior researcher for the Institute of Professional Learning at relationship. A must read for school after my keynote addresses kaiarahi coaches attests: ‘I have the University of Waikato, an Adjunct Professor at Griffiths leaders—formal and informal.” University and the academic director of the New Zealand Dr. Lorna Earl, Toronto. on this topic (e.g. see ACEL a lingering feeling of regret that Aspiring Principals’ programme. She draws her professional inspiration and energy from the sustainable lifestyle of her 2015), that the ‘moral purpose I didn’t have an understanding Waiheke community. conversation’ is not a common of the importance of coaching NZCER Press 2016 ISBN 978-1-927231-97-5 RRP: $49.95 one in their school staffrooms. as a principal. Today I would be Available from: The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) PO Box 3237, Wellington 6140, New Zealand So many teachers and senior far truer to the model of being Email: sales@nzcer.org.nz Fax: +64 4 384 7933 leaders have told me that their a leader who understands www.nzcer.org.nz/coachingleadership principal has never talked to coaching conversations. I them about moral purpose or would go to work every day discussed their own moral purpose with them. with the intention of having conversations with people about What is moral purpose and why is it such an important part of learning’ (Nick Major, Aspiring Principal Coach, 2015.) the leadership of transformative change in schools? Degenhardt We were interested in how leaders learn moral purpose for and Duignan, (2010, p.17) stated that the answer to the dilemmas equity. So we conducted a research study (Earl & Robertson, we face in our educational leadership ‘ . . . is ultimately a matter 2013, Robertson & Earl, 2013) that looked at thousands of of values, and what is understood to be the moral purpose of reflective journal entries and survey comments to try and education.’ We defined moral purpose in the following way understand how the aspiring principals were learning about (Robertson & Earl, 2014): moral purpose. We found there were four main areas that were
Coaching leadership
important to this leadership learning: An awareness of the equity issues in education in New Zealand today ■■ The examination of their own moral purpose and what their values and beliefs are about leadership for equity and social justice. ■■ The ability to have their views challenged or affirmed through critical reflection on practice and deep learning conversations. ■■ The evidence and experience of building leadership capacity with others and acting on this moral purpose both within and beyond their own schools. ■■
But what we found was paramount to this development was a strong, trusting coaching learning relationship to enable the type of conversations about leadership practice that approach areas of vulnerability, honesty and questioning of current practice. The Coaching Leadership case study also offers the research-based coaching SMART tool that NAPP coaches have used to initiate and deepen these conversations. The coaching paradigm underlines every aspect of the akonga learning in NAPP to develop leaders who have coaching skills, have experienced deep coaching relationships, and understand the potential of coaching relationships to change professional practice. Each akonga has an experienced leader coach – very experienced, credible past principals who know how to develop new generations of principals for New Zealand schools who will be more than they have been able to be themselves. This takes a special way of working through reciprocal learning coaching relationships. These past-principals describe the experience of learning leadership through coaching partnerships like this:
‘How I wish I had known about and used a coaching approach in my years of principalship. What a difference it might have made!’ Nick Major, Aspiring Principal Coach, 2015. ‘When I left principalship I took up golf and bridge and got a coach for both those activities, yet I never had a coach for the most important job I have ever done in my life . . . be a school principal.’ Graham Young, Aspiring Principals’ Coach, 2015. Each akonga also has a peer coach from NAPP who works through the year supporting and challenging their inquiry into their leadership for transformative change. One then-aspiring principal- now principal – NAPP described it like this: ‘Having a buddy throughout my leadership inquiry provided an authentic and purposeful learning relationship. The questions . . . were as challenging as those provided by my Kaiarahi. This also provided me the with many opportunities to devise and ask my own challenging, open ended and reflective questions. Throughout this process I saw myself change my own perception of what an effective leader is. Personally, it was acknowledging that I don’t have the answers and I don’t need to be the one that does.’ (February 2015). The regional professional learning groups spend time on group coaching around issues of practice throughout the year. The online learning communities provide ongoing, flexible online coaching opportunities on all aspects of the multi-faceted role of the principal as the akonga engage in deep dialogue about current and future leadership practice in New Zealand schools. Another aspiring principal described the power of the connected community in working towards
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moral purpose for equity in this way: ‘What a journey so far – It’s been like hopping into a river in a canoe in the calm and then finding there are unanticipated white waters and rapids and falls . . . thankfully finding others in canoes paddling as hard as I was, and crashing against the occasional rock wall, has helped and connections with some amazing other aspiring leaders of learning has been supportive and affirming.’ Aspiring Principal, 2013 Why should we be talking a lot more about moral purpose for equity in schools? Educational leadership is all about the challenges and dilemmas of natural justice and fairness. Meira Levinson from Harvard University stated ‘A lot of everyday quandaries educators and policymakers face are dilemmas of educational justice, but we don’t support or even acknowledge their struggle to address these challenges and make ethical decisions,’ (Anderson, 2015). The injustices in education should be the drivers of our leadership practice. The injustices of difference in the quality of teaching within and between schools; the differences in resourcing between schools in New Zealand (Yes it is an injustice if you are in a well-resourced school and the school down the road is struggling for resources); the amount of time we give particular subject areas; the amount of knowledge in our curriculum of Te Ao Māori; the depth of partnership with iwi and community; the poverty in our communities; how well teachers’ pedagogies are in keeping with the needs of 21st century learning; the difference in quality of educational leadership between schools; the difference in academic performance between schools. And yes – it is an injustice if your actions adversely affect the wellbeing and education of students in other schools around you. I could keep listing the injustices in our education system – but more importantly, is that leaders and teachers in our staffrooms in schools around Aotearoa New Zealand are uncovering, surfacing, acknowledging and talking about the injustices in their own regions and how they might work together with other schools to ameliorate them. This leads us back to my first questions, and it calls us to account on what and how much difference we are really wanting to make as educators in New Zealand. Can we move from being part of the current problem to develop a new mindset and mobilise our courage to address and lead transformative change and become part of a solution? Sir Peter Williams QC – an active and fearless campaigner for human rights and social justice in New Zealand – poignantly stated in his final year of life ‘The river of injustice has flowed since the beginning of time and will continue to flow forever. Your job will be to reduce its number of victims.’ (Chisholm, 2014). We have to ask ourselves, is our current educational leadership practice in New Zealand education creating more victims or reducing the number of victims? I believe this question is the greatest challenge for educational leadership in New Zealand. As Beatriz Pont from the OECD said in September last year at the leadership seminar in Zug, Switzerland, although many countries have the policies of social justice – they need further investment in developing leaders with the right skills and disposition for a moral purpose for equity and quality with the agency to lead transformative change for fairness. The Education Council commissioned five Think-pieces
(Education Council, 2015) on the future of educational leadership in New Zealand and have developed a discussion paper for future direction for the leadership of communities of learning. The new Centre for Leadership Excellence established by the Education Council will be working to support and develop those principals who have stepped up into the system leadership roles of the Communities of Learning. Mason Durie, in his Think-piece, called for collective leadership focused on a loyalty to students: E hara taku toa I te toa takatahi Engari I te toa takatini My success should not be mine alone: it was not individual success but the success of a collective. Will these leaders in Communities of Learning be able to lead beyond their own school gates to create the new knowledge and capacity building with other leaders that will be needed to address their regional challenges? If they have the disposition to learn the way with their colleagues and lead together with a strong moral purpose for equity and justice their educational leadership will make the difference needed in New Zealand education today. What would education look like if systems were designed to be truly just? References: ACEL Robertson Keynote Slides Retrieved 8 April 2016 from: http:// www.acel.org.au/acel/ACEL_docs/Events/Conference%20 2015%20Presentations/Keynote/Jan%20Robertson%202015.pdf ACEL Robertson Keynote Video (partial): Retrieved 8 April 2016 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpRdX6bCGfs Anderson, J. (2014). Getting to the root of educational injustice. Retrieved from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/14/07/gettingroot-educational-injustice Chisholm, D. (2014). The final verdict. New Zealand Listener, 25th September, 2014. Retrieved online 8 April 2016 from http://www. listener.co.nz/current-affairs/profile/the-final-verdict/ Degenhardt, L., & Duignan, P. (2010). Dancing on a shifting carpet: Reinventing traditional schooling for the 21st century. Camberwell: ACER Press. Earl, L. & Robertson, J. (2013). Leadership learning: Insights from the National Aspiring Principals’ Programme. Wellington: Ministry of Education. Education Council (2015). Think-pieces. Retrieved 12 March 2016 from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Five%20 Think%20pieces.pdf Education Council (2015). Discussion papers on Leadership for Communities of Learning. Retrieved 12 March 2016 from https:// educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Discussion%20paper_ leadership_web.pdf Robertson, J. (2016). Coaching leadership: Building educational leadership capacity through partnership. (Second Edition). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Robertson, J. & Earl, L. (2014). Leadership Learning: Aspiring principals developing the dispositions that count. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 29(2), 3-17.
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