Autumn 2005

Leadership

Let the music play

A musical metaphor underpins a penetrating discussion about learning and leadership by JIM DAVIES, JAYNE HEATH and GRAEME OLIVER of the Australian Science and Mathematics School.

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 hearing the great Lennon and McCartney music played by a symphony orchestra and being 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 all 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, and 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. It is as much about giving power away as using the authoritative power of leadership.

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 create 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 pedagogy

Leading the learning is about leading the pedagogy. The Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) has been established with a spotlight on learning as the central driver. Several evolving beliefs about learning underpin the pedagogical approaches:

• Learning is enhanced when students possess deep understanding of their preferred approaches to learning and are able to self-direct and individually plan their learning
• Education is most effective when the needs and interests of students shape their curriculum and learning experiences, and supports their development as independent, lifelong learners
• An experiential and inquiry-based, interdisciplinary learning environment deepens understanding
• Learning is enhanced through rigorous intellectual challenge and the opportunity to explore issues in depth
• Learning is enhanced through the development of a thorough understanding of the applications of science and mathematics within the wider community
• Access to information and communication technologies empowers learning
• Effective and inclusive learning communities value collaboration, flexibility, respect and interconnectedness with others
• Perspectives gained through intercultural and international communications strengthen understanding of ourselves and others, and our ability to operate within a global context.

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.

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. 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 practising 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 to 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.

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. In many instances, learning is a collaborative process between teachers and students.

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 deprivatised. 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.

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 envelops 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.

Jim Davies (top), Jayne Heath and Graeme Oliver are part of the leadership team at the Australian Science and Mathematics School at Flinders University, South Australia. They variously fulfil the roles normally ascribed to principal, deputy principal and assistant principal.

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