LDC: Reconceptualising Leadership

Wayne Freeth: University of Canterbury

It is not just about the Leadership Team but there is a 'sleeping giant' of teachers who can make change to improve student learning.

Teacher Leaders :

• Show expertise in their teaching and share knowledge with others
• Are constantly looking for ways to improve their teaching
• Reflect on their teaching to improve learning
• Engage in action research projects
• Collaborate with colleagues, parents and communities about effectiveness of action
• Socially conscious and politically involved
• Mentors new teachers
• Involved in university or teacher pre-service training
• Are risk-takes who are involved in school decisions

To encourage teacher leaders, the principals need to:

His concept was that seeing 'knowledge' as a verb and employing 'distributed leadership' could form a starting point from where we could develop mere effective and equitable schools.

Summary: 

The NZNC challenges us to think deeply about core values and beliefs but the effort required to make change is underestimated.

Challenges:

Leadership structure works against shared leadership and autonomous actions.

Schools are getting on with the task but sometimes without a shared deep understanding or cohesive plan.

The over-loading of teachers reduces any participation in deeper thinking about the meaning of the curriculum and its nature within their school.