 
Week 4 - Local School Management
|  | It's Time to Work Together: Collaborative Structures to Improve Learning Outcomes |
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Listing of Papers | |
MS ROSEMARY NAUGHTON
Western Australia, Australia
EDUCATION REFORMover recent years, together with the development of information-based global economies, rapid social change, the impact of technology and changes in the nature of the labour market have led to new ways of thinking about learning.
Moreover, the concept of lifelong learning is providing a means through which school education is becoming the first step in providing strong foundations and positive attitudes to learning for life.
Society in general is being challenged in many ways, and the nature of the challenges resonates with school leaders. A major part of their role is to weave in and out of dealing with the challenges on a daily basis and to attempt to serve a broad client base, representative of students, parents, teachers and the wider community.
The place of school education, and its role in creating a more humane and progressive world, have become increasingly significant over recent years. In addition to this, changing needs, and fulfilling expectations that are different from the past, means reconceptualising structures and practices, and perceiving school education in new ways.
Fundamental Shift Needed
There will need to be energy and commitment, and a fundamental shift in values about the role of schools, in order to confront emerging complexities and to bring about change that will best serve the interests of young people, schools and communities. Perhaps the 'dawning of the new millennium', with all the rhetoric that comes with a general focus for change, will create the climate, for school leaders to become, in a very real sense, the agents to enable schools to meet changing expectations.
The Impact of Changing Expectations
Changing expectations for schooling rests not only in the provision for curriculum but also in servicing the impact of increasing complexities of family structures and social relationships, new patterns of employment and underemployment and the increased mobility of families. The way these complexities play out at a school level requires schools to reach out to expertise within the wider school community. It involves strategic planning that engages all stakeholders to develop a culture that enhances learning outcomes.
For some young people, socialisation of the generally agreed upon values and standards of society is difficult. Their capacity to develop healthy relationships is increased through the school's capacity to develop initiatives that focus on strong role modelling and the development of appropriate communication skills.
There are, however, increasing numbers of young people needing high levels of social support, and this requires schools to look for expertise and ownership beyond the school, and to engage local communities to nurture families and their children.
Specialised skills are required to work in these close partnerships to foster and monitor the development of young people as a whole. In addition, there can be hindrance in some schools, from those who lack commitment and view schooling through their own past experiences, and resist sharing the responsibility for behavioural management of children by deliberately adopting strategies to obstruct the values and pastoral-care systems in place.
How Will Learning Environments Change?
It is envisaged that schools in the 21Century will become learning communities, where students, teachers, parents and the wider community will all be learners.
Mentor programs in schools, contracting expertise outside the school community, collegial cultures rather than hierarchical ones, and physical spaces that reflect the culture of the information age, and which accommodate collaborative learning, will become key features of successful school environments.
The information age alone demands active learning environments that respond to a future insistent on higher levels of knowledge and skills, independence, self-reliance, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem-solving, and the capacity to exercise initiative across a range of contexts.
Team-working models, reflective of community and industry, require students to be skilled and measured in terms of their ability to listen, question, reason, evaluate, collaborate and be a part of democratic decision-making processes.
This shift in emphasis means re-thinking learning environments. The idea of box-like classrooms, set class groups, dividing the day into set periods of time, and the packaging of knowledge into subjects will belong to a past culture representative of the industrial age.
Cultural Sites of Connection
Schools could become physical and cultural sites of connection for communities. They could provide access to learning twenty-four hours a day, all year round and through a variety of sources, only some of which may be the school, as we currently know it. In the future, what, when, how and in what environments learning takes place, could be determined by self-managing learners.
Different timetable structures, to provide flexible learning programs for the whole community, becoming brokering agencies for other educational providers, and contracting expertise in the community to provide a range of services for the learning community beyond the current school day are already features being introduced in many schools.
Leading Differently
For some 'players' in the current education system, this change seems too removed from the reality of their lives, and is often dismissed as shallow rhetoric - it will never happen! The problem facing school leaders, who have a broader conceptual understanding of global trends and agendas, is creating a climate for action and reflection in order to create a broader learning community.
Schools not willing to meet changing expectations and which demonstrate over-attachment to known and familiar structures and practices will not be able to compete with other schools, and will disadvantage their students, and in the longer term, their communities.
Creating and maintaining community team environments and open consultative processes to connect and commit communities is crucial to success. In the past, a top-down management approach was reflected in schooling, with school leaders following 'department' policy or setting the agenda. New leadership models require a rethinking of the role in order to effect successful change, and to work towards ownership of policy and practices on a broader community base.
Changing the structures and operational patterns of institutions and the minds of individuals (one of which could be that of the school principal) is easier said than done, and judging by past practice, will be a slow process.
Shifting Responsibility and Accountability
There are increasing expectations placed on schools to provide social anchorage in the community, as well to become flexible sites for the generation of new knowledge constructs. This calls for intensive resources in the training of, and support for, those who are responsible for providing opportunities for young people to achieve learning outcomes. With an ageing teacher population, there are many who need skilling in the use of information communication technologies to enhance learning, and in the shift from inputs-based education to an outcomes-focused approach to learning.
In a community partnership model, teachers, in particular, would be taking on different and very complex roles and for many, the challenges and shifts are too great. The biggest challenge for school leaders is moving teaching staff to a position where they become confident and committed to redefining their roles as mentors and facilitators of learning.
Local area management strategies reflecting greater responsibility and accountability at a school level create a competitive environment between schools within and across different regions. While this may be an effective strategy to increase the overall performance of schools, it draws attention to those schools which can and cannot provide knowledge-rich learning opportunities, and serves to further stratify the socio-economic differences in society. In addition, it places pressure on school leaders, in a fast growing school-market driven economy, to succumb to 'teaching to the test' syndrome, to ensure that the standards in their school look good on published league tables, and that their school out-performs neighbouring schools.
Preparing for the Challenge
The role of school leaders to provide for a school culture which is inclusive of all stakeholders is indeed challenging. A part of that provision is building community support across a wide range of contexts to encourage community ownership for the decisions that are made to improve learning outcomes, and to identify and meet complex, personal, cultural, societal and economic needs facing young people of all ages.
In order to work towards a vision of community partnerships, school leaders need to be cognisant of the requirements of all stakeholders, often with competing agendas. This requires excellence in communicating, strategic planning, negotiating, liaising, marketing, and entrepreneurial skills and, above all, to be able to set, maintain and build on the appropriate culture that will improve learning outcomes for all clientele.
School leaders have to prepare for, and accept, that they are largely responsible for setting the agenda. They will need to make decisions about the purpose of schooling for children at all different phases of development, as well as for the wider community. They will have to prepare their clients for what is becoming a world full of uncertainty, as well as opportunities. It will be both exciting and intimidating, and because it is a new model that shifts responsibility from centralised control to local area planning and to schools, for many it will be overwhelming. The biggest challenge, by far, reflects a futures orientation and it will be to ensure that schooling in this rapidly changing world is relevant to the knowledge and skills that the 'global society' requires of its young people.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ms Rosemary Naughton (M.Ed; Dip Teach. MACE) is the Executive Officer for the Post-Compulsory Education Review at the Curriculum Council in Western Australia. She is responsible for managing and co-ordinating the Review into post-compulsory education, which involves consultation with a wide range of stakeholders and preparing the position paper and final report that will set the direction for post-compulsory schooling in the future for Western Australian students.
Rosemary was former Dean of Studies at All Saints' College and Head of Department of English at Presbyterian Ladies' College and has twenty years school experience in teaching and administration across all sectors in city and country schools. Her interest in information communication technologies has resulted in implementing technology and software design to facilitate student learning and in introducing computer assisted outcomes-based reporting. Rosemary has been Chief Examiner for English Literature in Western Australia, and has been involved in the development of curriculum materials and publications for English, and Speech and Drama 8 - 12. Her interest in the use of appropriate assessment methodologies led to a Master's thesis that questioned determining literacy through multiple -choice testing in subject English examinations.
Rosemary Naughton can be contacted by email on:
augr@Curriculum.wa.edu.au
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