Extending innovative leadership to better student outcomes in primar Carolyn Stuart, Brendon Henderson, Anne Lye, Trevor Jeffries, Keith Rickard, Peter Simpson, Julie Mackey & Niki Davis
In the final 2014 issue of NZ Principal there was an article discussing six keys for digital leadership (Stuart, 2014). The article mentioned a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) which informed several of the keys including emerging ideas about strategies for creating and sustaining the conditions for digital leadership (see Figure 1). This article highlights elements of the TLRI project with each participating principal describing how they and their schools benefitted from being involved in this research.
Figure 1. Creating and sustaining the conditions for digital leadership
The project was entitled “Extending innovative leadership to enable e-learning for better student outcomes in primary schools” and ran over the 2013/14 school years. The project involved a group of principals partnering as co-researchers with a research team from the University of Canterbury (see Figure 2) to collaboratively research a case study of digital leadership at Tawa Intermediate and to contextualise their findings within their own schools. The first year focused on gathering the case study data and using this to identify a digital project in each school for 2014. In the second year the research focus shifted to the implementation of these projects. The group met once a term and over the course of the two years a strong professional community was established. Participating principals were Carolyn Stuart, Keith Rickard (in his role as Acting Principal at Tawa Intermediate), Brendon Henderson, Peter Simpson, Trevor Jefferies and Anne Lye, in partnership with University of Canterbury e-Learning Lab researchers Dr Julie Mackey and Professor Niki Davis. What follows is a brief account of each participating principal’s story.
Tawa Intermediate School – Brendon Henderson (& Keith Rickard) As part of the TLRI project I participated at two different schools due to my change from Newlands Intermediate School to Tawa Intermediate School in mid-2013. In 2014 Tawa Intermediate School introduced a school-wide reporting document that was digital in format and that was part of our student digital portfolio. We were combining both as we had made a recent change to our SMS and this dovetailed nicely with our student digital portfolios. The reporting implementation went well with staff PD sessions held to reinforce the process. We received good feedback from our community about this. The interesting thing for us came out of our separate parent focus group who were not convinced of the merits of our digital portfolios. They were concerned with it being time consuming for teachers and it didn't add greater value to their understanding of where their child was at with their learning. The parent focus group valued the one-to-one parent teacher conversations more. The weekly teacher emails that are sent home were also seen as more valuable by the parents. As a consequence we are looking at our digital portfolios and student-led conferences with a stronger lens in 2015 and in particular what support leadership can provide for everyone to be successful. Being part of this particular TLRI group has confirmed to me what good leadership is about – being involved in learning initiatives at the school but also giving others the opportunity to contribute in a full and meaningful way so outcomes are
Figure 2. The authors on one of their early site visits to a participating school.
enable e-learning for y schools
enhanced. I was lucky enough to work with a group of colleagues who were rich in experience and ideas and they were happy to share. Belfast School – Peter Simpson At the start of 2014 we were involved in two projects as a school. The MOE/NZPF and Te Akatea project around the Māori Achievement Collaborative and this TLRI. As part of our Charter we had set some targets for children who were below their expected achievement level and I, along with our ICT lead teacher, decided to bring both projects together around these children in her class, a few of whom were Māori. The concept was to give these children full access to a digital device to support their learning and monitor their engagement and progress. The concept was explained to the class and they were in total support of the plan and understood why a small group of children had a device all the time. As principal my leadership role was to firstly supply the devices and work through with the teacher what the project would look like. Support from the University of Canterbury researchers and their assistant identified the parameters for the research and provided an outside expert voice. The outcome exceeded our expectations with initially the engagement of the children towards their work, their improved behaviour and their progress academically. All the children made significant progress with two of the seven children moving up two years in their reading ages, all the others raised their ages by one year., even though the project only ran from term 2 through to the middle of term 4. Whilst it was a very rushed project it has reinforced to me what good leadership involves in allowing others to be part of the planning process and consequently giving real ownership. However, as a leader, it is often the principal who has to lead and enable others to join. This year we intend to expand the research across two classes and due to the success of the project we intend exploring ways of getting more devices into the hands of our learners. Levin Intermediate – Trevor Jefferies An interesting aspect of Levin Intermediate’s involvement in the TLRI has been an increased awareness of the advantages in collaborating with other local schools when thinking about IT decisions for our own school. Understanding their digital learning philosophies and IT strategies has impacted on our planning from device selection through to our IT policy and guidelines. It seems wise for an intermediate school to seek as much local
coherence as possible with contributing primary and secondary schools. Surprisingly, this was not apparent to us at the outset when it came to IT and digital learning. In the past we had acted independently, as had our neighbours, blissfully unaware of a bigger picture. Once we sat down with the other local schools we found that some of our IT plans could have become barriers for our students and families when they transitioned into or out of our school. By talking with the decision makers in our neighbouring schools, not only were we able to pre-empt some of these issues, we also began to see the possibilities collaboration might provide for all across a wide range of areas – procurement, teacher professional development, addressing equity issues through involving the local community, and ultimately providing better learning opportunities for all the students in our town. Principals, senior management and boards from all the schools in town are now engaged in a far reaching discussion about improving learning outcomes for our students, and the role IT will play in achieving that. As well as learning from Tawa Intermediate, we have drawn inspiration from the Manaiakalani Project and a similar initiative just down the road in Otaki. All of us have committed time to talk, share and learn from each other as we work to develop a shared IT vision which will work for all students in our community. My involvement in these discussions has made me more confident in the decisions I am making (around MLEs, Wireless SNUP, 1:1 BYOD, 24/7 Learning) as we move towards a seamless teaching model through Y1–13 in Levin.
The TLRI project was timely as it provided opportunities to discuss key issues and to hear about how others were leading digital initiatives in their schools. We were able to compare the Tawa Intermediate case study with our own contexts and to draw on international examples too through our project’s critical friend Lynne Schrum’s research in the USA. While every context is a bit different, and definitely as a learner in this area myself, it is reassuring to share successful strategies and principles of effective leadership, and to really discuss the complexities involved in leading digital change in schools, especially when embarking on a significant project like our BYOD implementation. While having a very definite picture of where we needed to go, it has also been crucially important to be flexible about how we get there. As a leader, allowing teachers to share their passions, their enthusiasm, at times their frustrations, and support their learning has been an exciting and worthwhile journey, which is still continuing. Churton Park School – Anne Lye The start of the TLRI project was timely for Churton Park School, as we were in the early stages of considering BYOD implementation. As Principal, I wanted this initiative to enhance the teaching experience, without teachers getting “bogged down” dealing with technical issues around the devices. Identifying some key staff to trial the selected devices so challenges could be worked through and supported was a strategic starting point. The clear focus was always on ensuring that the planned BYOD implementation would enhance learning and so over time, and with a range of opportunities for professional development, a shared vision and understanding was developed. On reflection I can see that one of the advantages has been taking our time, rather than jumping in straight away, allowing teachers to initially explore without feeling too pressured. The implementation of the BYOD project extended across the life of the TLRI project and I tapped into the collective experiences and expertise of the project group, as well as researching technical and device options, and consulting with others about how they managed the practicalities of 1:1 devices. The willingness of our Board of Trustees to take the time to listen, to further explore, to ask questions and to provide finance allowed us to move forward in a planned and supported way. The implementation has been very successful. We have developed effective processes, including teacher and year level expectations, with a supportive focus on professional development to help teachers realise these expectations and to use devices effectively in classrooms. It’s been really important to reassure teachers that it’s ok to say, “I am not sure about this.” All teachers set related ICT goals documented through their appraisal. Teachers use personal blogs or websites and every term teachers provide feedback collaboratively about what worked well, what didn’t and what was interesting. In 2015 we will continue to build teachers’ confidence and expertise, manage the pace of change and provide ongoing support and mentoring, including for new staff to the school. Developing awareness of the digital footprint, including cybersafety issues, we recognise as an absolute necessity so a very comprehensive teaching programme has been developed. Our ICT learning pedagogy drives our decision making and, as we go forward, we want to find ways to further differentiate and personalise learning for students through the use of their individual devices.
Conclusion This brief article provides a glimpse of the rich learning and experiences of the TLRI project team over the past two years as well as further illustration of the six keys for digital leadership introduced in this magazine in 2014. The central spindle of authentic relationships was a key for the project as well the principals’ leadership actions in their own schools. We look forward to ongoing innovation and to sharing more insights which emerged from the time spent together on the project.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge that this project was funded through the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) managed by NZCER. They would also like to acknowledge the contribution of all the participating schools, their staff, students, communities and Boards of Trustees. The project’s critical friends Lynne Schrum and Bridget Somekh are also thanked for their guidance and support.
Further reading: Davis, N. E., Mackey, J. & Stuart, C. (2015). Leadership strategies for a future focused intermediate school – A case study. Paper to be presented at the American Education Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. 16–20 April. Lye, A., Stuart, C., Henderson, B., Jeffries, T., Simpson, P., Rickard, K., Davis, N. & Mackey, J. (2014). How can school principals effectively lead equitable e-learning in collaboration with their school communities to improve student outcomes? Presented at NZEALS, Wellington, 29 April–1 May. http://www.nzeals.org.nz/ pdfs/Mackey.pdf Schrum, L., & Levin, B. (2013). Technology-rich schools up close. Educational Leadership, (March) 51–55. Schrum, L., & Levin, B. (2012). Evidence-based strategies for leading 21st century schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Stuart, C. (2014). Six keys for digital leadership. New Zealand Principal, November 2014, 6–8. Note: This project is on the TLRI web site here http://www.tlri.org. nz/tlri-research/research-progress/school-sector/extendinginnovative-leadership-enable-e-learning
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