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Leading From the Middle: Spreading Learning, Well-Being, and Identity Across Ontario
Abstract
This research report documents the nature and impact of a Consortium of 10 school boards a liated with the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) in leading bold and sophisticated change for today’s students, in one of the highest performing and most culturally diverse educational systems in the world – the province of Ontario in Canada. Over more than a decade, these boards built on an earlier approach by all of the province’s 72 boards to advance deep learning not by imposing reform from the top, or by supporting a multitude of initiatives among teachers and schools at the bottom of the system, by what educators themselves describe as “Leading from the Middle” (LfM).
... Poor confidence, competence, and comfortability in CSE can result in certain topics (e.g. LGBTQI+ issues, sex positivity etc) not being taught while other issues such as physical health are frequently privileged in the teaching of RSE, but are frequently taught without critical evaluation (Hargreaves et al. 2018;Lamb 2013;Barrie and Smith 2015). ...
... The key to the success of an excellent education system depends on two elements which are a stable teaching profession [1] and followed by an excellent educational leadership that can influence students' achievements [2], [3]. The Malaysian government had paid special attention to these components to be applied in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 [4]. ...
This study obtained expert consensus on the constructs of personal leadership competencies for Malaysia Matriculation College middle leaders using the approach of the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). A list of instruments containing the proposed construct and all the elements was given to 30 experts from various fields and backgrounds. This study's finding indicates that most of the experts agree with the proposed constructs and elements of the personal leadership competencies. The threshold values for all the 14 elements tested met the requirements of d≤0.2. All the expert agreements achieved the targeted percentage, which is between 75% and 100%. The Alpha-cut value also met the requirement needed between 0.878 and 0.950, which is the threshold of 0.5 (α-cut≥0.5). Through FDM, the defuzzification process was carried out to rearrange all the elements based on the experts' ranking agreed. This study successfully presented a new construct by considering the crucial elements in middle leaders' competencies in the Malaysian context.
... Vertical pressures and supports were also described as the key role of leadership at multiple levels, including what Hargreaves and Shirley (2018) describe as "from the middle" (p. 3). ...
Differentiated Instruction (DI) is a framework that supports planning for diversity within K-12 classrooms. Research has grown steadily over the past 15 years that explores DI implementation, as well as beliefs and practices. Literature to date has focused heavily on the experiences of educators, with limited attention given to the role of leadership in implementing DI in schools. The current study explores the perspectives of 19 school and board-level administrators regarding the ways in which a differentiated instruction framework was implemented within their school board as well as facilitators and barriers to the implementation and uptake of the framework. Interviews revealed five themes: a) DI continuum, b) differentiated professional learning supports, c) making space for shared professional learning, d) align/integrate/embed, and e) multi-level leadership. Our findings reflect a strong belief system of most of the participants with respect to the foundations of DI as well as an understanding of effective approaches to professional learning and school change.
... The system they had managed to create through professional learning communities facilitated common learning processes and common visions that are viewed as essential in all innovations (Hall and Hord 2015;Leithwood 2018;Stoll et al. 2006). A crucial task for the learning organization is to reach a shared vision and demonstrate a congruent practice in the institution (Hargreaves et al. 2018;Stoll et al. 2006). In their capacity-building in the institutions, the leaders highlighted everyone's importance and responsibilities in working towards a common vision. ...
This paper investigates early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions’ opportunities to build a learning organization and master future innovations by focusing on core components, implementation drivers, leadership, and collective collaborative systems.
The paper is based on results from semi-structured interviews with ten ECEC leaders from three different municipalities in Norway that had taken part in the Being Together (BT) innovation five years earlier.
Three areas were identified as crucial for the continuation of ECEC teachers’ capacity building: (1) a strong focus on implementation processes and sustainability; (2) transformational leadership; and (3) developing professional learning communities. Potential challenges to building capacity in ECEC institutions include the variety of educational backgrounds among ECEC staff members in Norway and too little time to create professional learning communities.
The quality of education is heavily influenced by the professionalism of teachers and the effectiveness of educational leadership. Previous studies have examined educational leadership, and most concentrate on the roles of principals and head teachers. There is a need to delve into a more comprehensive examination of leadership by middle leaders who served as the backbone of the educational system to improve the education quality in the country. Thus, this study aims to establish a consensus among experts regarding the construct of professional leadership competencies for middle leaders in matriculation colleges, employing the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). An instrument comprising elements related to professional leadership competencies was administered to a panel of 30 experts from diverse fields. The study's outcomes reveal the agreement among expert panels concerning the proposed constructs and elements of professional leadership competencies. All 13 elements met the condition of d ≤ 0.2, achieving expert agreement exceeding 75% with values ranging from 93% to 100%. The alpha-cut values also exceeded 0.5 (α-cut ≥ 0.5), ranging from 0.886 to 0.940. Through the defuzzification process facilitated by FDM, all elements were ranked according to the hierarchy established by the experts. This study introduced a novel construct related to professional leadership competencies, specifically to educational middle leaders.
When confronting dominant discourses of race and ethnicity discriminations, and resultant inequality and social stratification, we are reminded of the teachings of John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), who appealed for the welfare of humanity and who said that ‘We are all citizens of one world’:
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that although learning can and sometimes does occur without teaching, on any significant scale, and especially among the most marginalized and vulnerable children, a lot of learning does not occur when children are deprived of teachers and teaching. Any questions of learning loss in the short term and learning transformations in the long run cannot therefore be addressed in any meaningful way without examining the short- and longer-term impacts of the pandemic on losses, gains, and transformations in teachers and teaching. This article analyzes actual and likely pandemic consequences of and insights deriving from remote access, digitally based interactions, and physical distancing in relation to three core characteristics of teaching and teacher quality. These are the development of “teacher expertise”, the nature of teaching as an “emotional practice” in which the well-being of students and teachers is reciprocally interrelated, and the ways in which external changes either enrich or deplete teacher’s “professional capital”, especially their “social capital”. Beyond post-pandemic narratives of educational doom on the one hand and of jubilant celebrations of bright spots and silver linings on the other, the article concludes that the future of teaching after COVID-19 will actually be complex, uncertain, and contingent on the policy decisions and professional directions that are set out in the recommendations to this report.
This research critically examines the role of pedagogical leadership as it is distributed amongst middle leaders. It seeks to better understand the playful utility of a popular culture metaphor as a frame for understanding empirical data about pedagogical leadership in two Australian schools during a period of imposed curriculum change. Utilising ‘the theory of practice architectures’ (Kemmis, Stephen, Jane Wilkinson, Christine Edwards-Groves, Ian Hardy, Peter Grootenboer, and Laurette Bristol. 2014. Changing Practices, Changing Education. Wagga Wagga: Springer), the paper explores a direct quotation as metaphor from several pedagogical middle leaders that ‘we’re spies’ – and from one participant, ‘in a good James Bond sort of way.’ This research plays with and interprets the politics of practice including collaborating or ‘licensed trouble shooting’, and empowerment or ‘interrogation’ in everyday pedagogical leadership practice where distributing leadership may create espionage, or compliance during reform. Educational reform is espoused for ‘the good of the empire’ of education through the enabling and constraining practices of pedagogical middle leaders.
In The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, Tom Nichols explores the rejection of experts and the ongoing assaults against knowledge and critical thinking. He notes several influences, including the ubiquity of the Internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a continual entertainment machine, among others. In this updated and expanded edition, Nichols returns to these themes and he is more alarmed than ever, especially in the aftermath of a pandemic and the outbreak of war in Europe. The rejection of expertise—in which people are hobbled by narcissism and reliant on an overestimation of their own knowledge—is now the foundation for populist political movements. The attacks on science and knowledge have become attacks on democracy itself by an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who are lost in a maze of misinformation, conspiracy theories—and even paranoia.
The author advocates for a new paradigm in education that builds on individual student's strengths and passions to bring value to our rapidly changing world of work and life.
This book presents a detailed analysis of the educational model in Nordic European countries. It describes the traditional idea of education for all, which can be characterized by the right for every child to have an education of equal quality in a common school for all pupils regardless of social class, abilities, gender, or ethnicity. Against this background, The Nordic Education Model traces the rise of neo-liberal policies that have been enacted by those who believe the School for All ideology does not produce the knowledge and skills that students need to succeed in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace. It examines the conflict between these two ideas and shows how neo-liberal technologies affect the Nordic model in different ways. The authors also show how social technologies are being interpreted in different ways in actual school practices. This process of translating national regulations into internal sense builds on the values in the culture to which they are introduced. In the end, this book reveals that a Nordic model can constitute a delicate balance between traditional values, institutionalized practices, and contemporary, neo-liberal forms of governance and policies. It may be argued from a new institutional perspective that the main structures of the Nordic educational model will sustain as long as the deeply rooted Nordic culture survives in the globalised society.
Teacher Learning and Leadership asserts that teachers should be put at the center of creating, developing, organizing, implementing, and sharing their own ideas for school change rather than being passive recipients of knowledge from the outside. It argues that there is tremendous potential for the good of students and the professionalization of teaching, when teachers work collaboratively to develop their own and their colleagues' professional knowledge and practices and are supported by school and system leaders, unions and government. The book draws on the groundbreaking work of the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program in Ontario and uses an in-depth case study to illustrate its points. It demonstrates how professional development built around collaboration, teacher leadership, curriculum development, technology and pedagogy can be organized in a way that redistributes control and responsibility to teachers, thereby instilling a genuine sense of pride and accomplishment in their work. This book is a sincere outreach from the authors who advocate for the professional development of, by and for teachers as individuals and, importantly, as a collective profession. The authors argue that projects like the TLLP (a joint initiative between the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario Teachers' Federation) can radically, and positively, transform teachers' knowledge, skills and practices. The book provides an important model for school change led by teachers, rather than experts, in partnership with school and system leaders and is a fascinating read for all those concerned with teaching, teacher development and educational change. © 2017 Ann Lieberman, Carol Campbell & Anna Yashkina. All rights reserved.