Autumn 2005

Leadership

EsseNTial steps to shared school leadership

Darwin’s Wanguri Primary School is well advanced in creating what many schools strive for: a school community with shared leadership. LIZ VEEL takes us through the process.

WANGURI is a primary school with a diverse student population situated in the northern suburbs of Darwin. This article describes some successful strategies to develop a community of shared leadership within the school based on the implementation of the Northern Territory Curriculum Framework’s EsseNTial Learnings. The strategies have enabled leaders from all parts of the school community (staff, students and parents) to get everyone involved, to walk the talk and to change the look, feel and sounds of teaching and learning in the school.

Learning communities that truly value shared leadership:

• have all members participating together as mutual learners and leaders
• successfully and continually look for ways to expand their capabilities to create a new future (step out) rather than just staying in coping mode (marking time on the step)
• innovate through reflective practice
• have simple rules
• have key shared vision and transparent values that provide inspiration and allow experimentation.

The skills needed for school leaders, students, teachers and parents to become mutual learners and leaders within and across their school community are embodied and described clearly in the NT EsseNTial Learnings, a framework for developing the networked and collaborative skills that provide a base for managing change processes.

Expressed in terms of student outcomes, the four domains of the NT’s Essential Learnings are for students to become effective inner, creative, collaborative and constructive learners.

Over the past two years at Wanguri Primary School the main strategy used has been to make the EsseNTial Learnings the basis for all community, adult and student leading and learning. School staff have needed to develop sound EsseNTial Learnings skills themselves to enable the students in their care to achieve the same skills.

These four EsseNTial Learnings questions were used as a basis for changing the nature of leading and learning at the school:

1. Who am I and where am I going?
2. What is possible?
3. How can I connect with and relate to others?
4. How can I make a difference?

The challenge for the school was how to embed in everyday teaching and learning conversations the EsseNTial Learnings’ focus on inclusivity, reflective practice and the sharing of successful teaching and leadership strategies.

Early steps toward the development of the learning leadership community

With two new leaders in the school at the beginning of 2003, what had gone before and the new leadership initiatives were seen to be of equal merit. Early conversations among staff were deliberately focused to identify which of the shared historical values were continuing to facilitate growth of a healthy work culture and which were blocking action. The Essential Learnings skills of the collaborative learner—effective and honest communication based on trust—were rigorously modelled by school management. Staff PD days were devoted to sharing and talking about issues in the school culture. School management, in consultation with the staff and community, developed a strategic blueprint for facilitating shared leadership in the school.

During 2003, formal and informal discussions about school values and vision among community members featured the need to develop knowledge of pedagogy for inclusion of individual learning styles, and to provide programs/modules of learning to ensure opportunities for all students to develop leadership capacity and responsibility for their own learning.

Following on from the focused vision and values discussions, leaders established an expectation that staff would write regularly in reflective journals. Sharing problems and possible answers became a routine part of staff meetings. Unexpectedly, this caused a flurry of unplanned discussions about student values and learning. In late 2003, a dismissive comment in a staff meeting about the loud and seemingly uncontrolled movement of Middle Years boys out of a boys-only music lesson sparked discussion. The boys’ movement through the library and back to their classes evoked response from almost every staff member about diverse attitudes to, and understandings of, boys and their behaviour management. It was eventually agreed to develop and adopt common shared rules about student movement inside the school. In each class some boys who showed potential needed to be encouraged to adopt a leadership role to model and reinforce the desired behaviour. Leading boys who demonstrated the correct behaviours were to be appropriately rewarded upon their return to class.

Making notes in reflective journals about the successes and frustration of personal teaching practice formed a basis of formal and informal discussions and, consequentially, a desire for change in approach and accountability. Staff who decided to wear their creative learner/risk-taking shoes actively sought PD to suit their needs. Visits to interstate schools, multiple intelligences workshops, ‘Tribes Training’ and visits to ICT Lighthouse schools actively changed teaching foci. After spending time trialling and reflecting on changing teaching practice, and modifying authentic student-owned learning processes such as independent learning plans and learning portfolios with a focus on self-assessment, the emerging teacher/learner leaders have led change agendas through the whole school. An emerging 2005 whole school practice is that students now have opportunities to become leaders through group learning strategies, and they use their inner learner skills to self-direct and reflect. Classroom meetings have become a place of leadership, growth, problem solving and reconciliation.

The 2003 library was just a place that you borrowed books from. With a focused staff placement, the 2004 ‘Hub’ became an environment with a living teaching and learning heart. The Hub teacher modelled a strong pedagogical focus on multi-age practices, multiple intelligences and Essential Learnings, and is a collaborative peer teacher. Her enthusiasm and the obvious interest of her students in their learning became evident to all who worked with her. She successfully modelled the practice of using older students to become peer mentors to early childhood students through shared reading and research lessons. This parallel leadership venture flowed on to other areas of the school. Multi-age grouping structures featuring student leadership and input are more evident around the school. Oral communication practices, particularly empathic listening, are practised. Effective communication and group membership are a focus of the collaborative learner. Collaborative and on-task learning groups where happy learning sounds are heard are now a strong feature of our learning environment.

Summary

At Wanguri Primary School, the evolution into a learning/leadership community has been an exciting and challenging event that hasn’t happened over night. The pathway forward is both demanding and challenging for individuals, leaders and the organisation. It is a journey, in fact many journeys. There is not an endpoint; it will be difficult to say that at some point we have arrived.

Liz Veel is assistant principal at Wanguri Primary School, Darwin.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au