Written by Dr Karen Edge and Deborah Kimathi
The UK and Kenya governments recently came together to host the Global Education Summit. Civil Society actors from around the globe, including Dignitas, hosted a series of conversations on education as side events to the main forum. Our event was focused on ‘School Leadership for Quality Teaching‘, and we collaborated with our friends from Alokit (India), SEED (Nigeria), and UCL Institute of Education.
We hosted a vibrant conversation in which we heard from actors, researchers, and partners from across the globe, and School Leaders from Kenya, India and Nigeria. Important themes emerged, and often resonated across various geographies – educator well-being, strategies to navigate the ongoing pandemic, and the importance of supporting school leaders to distribute leadership and ensure teacher autonomy.
We were privileged to hear closing comments from Dr Karen Edge, from the UCL Institute of Education, who shares with us her insights below.
“Our panel discussions were so rich with examples from different contexts. It was a true joy to be a part of the session. My observations centred around four distinct, yet interrelated, themes:
The role of schools during COVID19.
One of the most important patterns to recognise is that schools in different jurisdictions have been asked to take on different roles and responsibilities during COVID. For some, their focus was maintained on the shifting educational provision for students. However, in other places, schools became responsible – either by mandate or choice – for caring for entire communities, providing food and care.
The different roles school leaders must play.
The changing and essential role of schools throughout the pandemic shines an important light on our educators – especially school leaders – as central community anchors and change agents. The first step should be ensuring that governments, agencies and communities recognise, support and celebrate school leaders. Second, acknowledging the empirical evidence base that establishes the key role school leaders play in securing powerful teaching and learning in schools. There is evidence, while mostly from high income countries, outlining how leaders work to support growth, learning and success in schools. Two urgent needs emerge. First, ensuring our collective commitment to championing the importance of school leaders, while working to establish and strengthen the evidence base from different jurisdictions is essential. And, second, asking: how can leaders best be supported to deliver their educational duties, as well as all of the additional expectations set forth during the pandemic?
Are Professional Learning Communities (PLC) the answer?
Many panelists discussed the importance of leaders belonging to and nurturing PLC. This is important. The evidence suggests that membership in positive and productive learning communities can greatly enhance educators’ work and experience. However, my worry is that – collectively – we may be adopting PLC as a crutch. If we stop and think about what positive and influential PLC require and create, it is: a balance between support and challenge; a safe space for leading and learning; collective commitment to supporting members in a trusting and caring way. However, what if we stopped associating success and support with PLC and instead aspired for our schools and educators to have access to and catalyse environments for adults and students that are based on: kindness, working together, listening, identifying areas that need improvement, practicing (as all new skills require practice), testing out ideas/strategies, reflecting on shifts, accepting that change takes time. These are all components of PLC. What if we could create organisations underpinned by care, kindness and a desire to get a little bit better, each and every day?
The challenge of leading.
Throughout the pandemic, it is hard to avoid the news. It is also, perhaps even more so, difficult to avoid the fake news! Information has become essential for keeping individuals and communities safe. However, we are all experiencing increasing noise and chaos emanating from circles unwilling to listen to the scientific evidence and determined to create and sustain polarising debates about what is ‘real’. While these patterns create great dangers for individual and collective health and safety, I worry that they are setting the ground for an even more seismic issue: broken trust and confidence in science and leadership. While this may seem like a national level policy leadership issue, my greatest fear is that the short and long term influence of this pattern may make leadership, even of schools and communities more difficult. While I don’t have answers, it is an important issue to flag as we all prepare to lead our organisations and communities through the next waves and years.
The importance and challenge of collaboration.
Throughout our session, leaders talked of the importance and power of their collaborations with other schools, agencies and organisations. The merit of working together to solve new, and existing challenges, was clear. Collaboration emerges when there is a need to learn from others; share resources; support each other’s organisations and individual learning. Collaboration succeeds where there is a clear ambition to succeed, open communication between partners and acknowledgement that while needs may be different, they can be balanced and supported simultaneously. Our individual and collective ability to collaborate will only become more important as we strive for solutions to pandemic-related and other broader challenges.
Equity as the anchor.
Across the conversations, ensuring that students, teachers and communities have access to the resources they need to survive and thrive was a common thread. Not only ensuring that resources are equally distributed but that leaders have the freedom to share resources as needed based on their local community knowledge. Ensuring leaders, and all educators and support organisations are clear about their own biases, how to recognise and challenge them becomes even more paramount in times of crisis. Ensuring fair access to opportunities to lead and shape policy and organisations is only but one step.
I am constantly inspired by my educator friends and colleagues. Often, the wisdom that stops me in my tracks is shared by my 10 year old son. During this school year, reflecting on different learning experiences, he shared three things that make a difference in his learning and that of his classmates. I believe these elements also underpin all learning, belonging and development. He described to me what happens with the most influential educators:
They know me. They respect me. They expect me to do well. And, they expect everyone to do well.
These are thoughts and advice I hold close to my heart. I believe that if we all strive to ensure our families, colleagues, students, schools and communities are committed to knowledge, respect and equal ambition, we are on the road to success.”