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Associate Professor Jim Davies, Ms Jayne Heath & Mr Graeme Oliver Australian Science and Mathematics School (at Flinders University) South Australia, Australia
Unplug the amplifier! Modern popular music has evolved on the back of technology that electrifies, amplifies and distorts. Those with music and creative genius at the core of their being have developed the genre to the status of an international language that people all over the world understand, engage with and enjoy. Unplug the amplifier and the volumes, reverberations, echoes and distortions are removed. The purity of the chords, notes and harmonies become the attention and the focus for the listener. It ' s like when we hear the great Lennon and McCartney music played by a symphony orchestra and we are absorbed by the clarity and purity of the music.
School leadership needs to be unplugged occasionally. It ' s not that we suggest that its complexities, interconnections and nuances require simplification or separation. The key is that often quoted preamble to texts about leadership: ' Leaders need causes and causes need leaders ' . We need to understand with clarity the focus of school leadership without the amplifications and reverberations that can distract.
Clearly, the cause is learning. It defines the mission and generates the passion in those of us involved in leadership in schools. Leadership of learning needs to be the centre of attention and electrified, amplified, ' popular music ' school leadership needs to be generated thereafter, and from a deep understanding of what generates enhanced learning for the young people in our schools.
Leadership of learning demands the creation of an ethos and culture about learning throughout the school and is not an activity to be vested in a few. It is generated by leaders who consistently demonstrate an overwhelming confidence in their own ability to learn and to lead the learning of others. It is the development and establishment of an attitude that is contagious. It ' s an activity that needs the attention of everyone in the school community and a pattern of leader behaviour that demonstrates confidence and trust in others to demonstrate their leadership. Leaders shape and define the ' charisma ' of their leadership through the generation of this ethos and culture about learning.
Like any other leadership function, creating a culture of learning requires high energy and public demonstrations of desire to make a difference, as well as the self-discipline to maintain the focus. These leader behaviours provide the foundations for the generation of leadership capacity throughout the school community. Trust and integrity are enhanced by leaders who ' walk the talk ' and consistently display congruence between what they say and what they do. Other leaders develop their leadership when the ideas, goals, thinking, debating and collaborations are actively shared, particularly when a leader is able to consistently demonstrate an ability to place the leadership activities, with a degree of humility, in the context of those working around the leader. Regularly recognising and celebrating team accomplishments, and the individual contributions within the team, generates the attitudes that feed the development of the ethos and culture about learning.
The sophisticated leader who consistently ' walks the talk ' , empowers others to act and to be confident in initiating action. The avenues to success are through fostering collaboration and by promoting the conversations that provide mutual understandings about goals and directions. Trust in the leader and trust in the activities of others is built. It is as much about giving power away as using the authoritative power of leadership. The leader who can provide choice and opportunity for others to demonstrate initiative and simultaneously provide tangible and responsive support will consistently be rewarded with the development of capacity in leading the learning.
A good leader is constantly creating music. This is the music of leading the learning with its own purity of chords, notes and harmonies that resonate with all of those around. Sharing the leadership brings more voices into the choir and more instruments into the orchestra that creates the music of learning in the school. In their time, each voice and instrument may have a significant solo role, but overall their harmonious working together will create the pure, unplugged music that is required.
Leading the learning is about leading the pedagogy. This means that the leader is in there with all others, designing and shaping the approach, and engaged in the reflection. The idea is to have collective thought and wisdom shaping and reshaping the goals, ambitions, ideas, and beliefs about learning. The reality is that we all are unique learners and the use of collaborative reflection about our learning, and that of others, brings powerful insight to the leadership of learning in a school.
The Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) has been established with a spotlight on learning as the central driver. Designing the predominant approaches to teaching and learning, the pedagogy, was the significant central focus. Several evolving beliefs about learning underpin the pedagogical approaches.
The interesting thing about these beliefs is that they are written down and they do appear on the ASMS website but they remain subject to change and refinement. They are constantly the subject of further inquiry and reflection. Learning is not static and neither should our leadership of learning be locked into a sense of status quo or to a set of doctrines that, by default, define a finishing line. Our school community has permission to experiment, to question, and to search for new ideas and approaches. The learning is not finished and the leadership of learning continues to focus on improvement. Leadership of learning is driven by continuous on-the-job, just-in-time learning. Sharing the learning and understandings is part of the music that moves us forward.
There is no doubt that success is inextricably linked to fostering and encouraging a strong sense of ownership of the beliefs about learning but knowing that we all have a shared responsibility to continue to shape and move those beliefs and our subsequent practices forward. Everyone should feel that they are a valued contributor to the song of the moment that is the music of the school.
Learning leaders, leading the leaders of learning, requires some careful planning for the human interactions that are so important in the collaborative processes suggested. Learning is full of feelings and emotions and it is clear that honest communication, open-mindedness and a culture that celebrates discussion and debate is essential. Some operational protocols that rehearse the important elements of the respective roles of those involved and some shared understandings about how we agree to treat each other in the collaborations seem essential. Listening and talking are the tools we use and we need to engage with these activities with humility, dignity, respect and humour. Learning moves forward when each activity is generated with fun, enjoyment of the professional technicalities and energetic engagement from all participants. It takes time and patience and a careful ear for the harmonies of how the school is operating.
Unplugging leadership is recognising teachers as the real leaders of learning
The most significant avenue to improved learning is through improved teaching. Unrelenting support for teachers ' engagement in quality learning about learning is essential to building confidence in the knowledge and expertise of the processes of teaching. Work at the ASMS is shaping our leadership practice in this area. Shulman ' s (1999) comment below guided the shaping of learning opportunities that varied from traditional ' sit ' to ' listen and discuss ' seminars.
' Acquiring sophisticated knowledge and developing a practice that is different to what teachers themselves experienced as students, requires learning opportunities for teachers that are more powerful than simply reading and talking about new pedagogical ideas (Ball & Cohen, 1996). Teachers learn best by studying, doing and reflecting, by collaborating with other teachers, by looking closely at students and their work, and by sharing what they see. ' (Shulman, 1999:11)
The ASMS is a bold venture intended to mould a new form of science and mathematics education that speaks to innovations in science, is responsive to student interests and student-directed learning, and achieves a validity and depth endorsed by practicing scientists and educators. The professional environment of teachers has been radically altered so that opportunities for learning and development are pervasive throughout their professional activities and working day. Their learning is integral with, and driven by, their interaction with university staff, their industry partners and each other. The learning environment of students is derived from, and a reflection of, the learning environment of the teaching staff.
The professional opportunities and challenges being attended to by teachers at the ASMS are the design, development and implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum and the development and use of new pedagogies. They are reframing the role of the teacher, de-privatising their professional practice and designing authentic and transparent assessment that still meets the criteria set by the South Australian Secondary Schools Assessment Board. While teachers at the school all face these issues, they do so to varying degrees and with varying degrees of success. It demands flexibility and adaptability in the leadership of the professional learning opportunities facilitated at the school and by the teachers themselves.
Every teacher at the ASMS is a learner and sharing the learning with colleagues is a focus. Teachers are engaged in significant action research projects about their professional practice. The professional activities of teachers have been almost entirely de-privatised. All of the curriculum development, planning of learning activities, teaching and assessment and reporting of student learning is conducted in collaborating teams. Teaching is an open and public event in the learning commons. The public and transparent professional practice generates collegiate scrutiny, collegiate support and professional dialogue that have a catalytic impact on the development of teacher practice. The generation of higher stakes professional practice by the profession is clearly evident.
Sparks, (2002, 6.6) suggests that ' successful learning communities have at their base high-quality relationships, collegiality, reflection, risk taking, and collaborative problem solving ' . The ASMS is located on the campus of Flinders University, which provides opportunity for the establishment of professional partnerships where leadership of learning is shared more widely than in a conventional ' stand-alone ' school. The university ' s research scientists consistently engage with staff from the school in developing new and innovative curriculum offerings. School of Education academics and staff from the ASMS work as a team in developing opportunities for teachers ' learning, which can be formally accredited within academic awards. Collaboration and high quality relationships have helped ' unplug the leadership ' to build the ASMS professional learning community.
Curriculum development occurs through collaborative interactions between teachers, university scientists and educationalists and concurrently provides for substantial staff development. It provides a source of critical reflection by staff on their teaching and learning, and a focal point of organised professional development programs within the ASMS. Some parts of the curriculum are co-developed and co-taught between ASMS and university staff, providing extension and potential new mainstream material for the core curriculum. Such extensions provide opportunity for authentic learning experiences in industry, government agencies and research environments. In many instances this learning is a collaborative process between the teachers and the students of the school.
Leadership of the ASMS professional learning community is supported through the establishment of the routines that command constant attention to the focus on learning. The routines include the allocation of time each week for the school ' s staff, and university colleagues to participate in professional development activities as a group. Again, collaborative leadership drives the establishment of interdependent teaching roles, and individual professional development plans for every staff member. These focus on developing pedagogical content knowledge, participation in action research, publishing, and sharing experiences and practices of the ASMS.
Leadership is a capacity that doesn ' t just happen. It is subject to improvement processes, like many other activities. It is at its best when it ' s built on and around the real purpose of schooling, which is the endeavour to foster and enhance learning. Leadership of learning is best done ' unplugged ' , without the distractions of all of the ' white noise ' that envelopes school leadership.
Collectively, around the world, educational leaders have been searching for the effectiveness and efficiency issues to drive further improvement in the leadership of learning. There is no doubt that there are limits in these two areas and our suggestion is to focus sharply on learning and search out innovative approaches to shape our leadership of learning. As educational leaders we must know that the pure music of schools is in the learning of the students. We must be able to cut through the distorted amplifications that blast our way from many sources, trust our students and trust our staff to have their own good ears for music. Let them create their own pure sounds, rather than try to force unnecessary noise upon them.
Shulman. L.S. (1999). ' Taking learning seriously ' . In Change. July/August. 31/4. pp 10-17.
Sparks, D. (2002). Designing Powerful Professional Development for Teachers and Principals. Oxford, OH: National Staff Development Council.
Associate Professor Jim Davies, Ms Jayne Heath and Mr Graeme Oliver are part of the leadership team at the Australian Science and Mathematics School, which is located at Flinders University, in South Australia, Australia. They variously fulfil the roles normally ascribed to principal, deputy principal and assistant principal, as well as undertaking many other activities at the school. For further information on the ASMS, see the school ' s website at: www.asms.sa.edu.au.
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