Harvard Graduate School of Education - Leadership: an Evolving Vision 2007

This will be the first of three posts which will explore the themes emerging from the Institute over the last 7 days.

The groupings emerged in the course of an exercise with our process group: 

Please feel free to leave comments and make suggestions for amendements or additions

INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS
Promoting academic proficiency should be our central goal
Improve instructional tasks
Purposeful Observation - makes a difference
Teaching matters!
Inspect what you expect
Command presence – be where the game’s happening
Feedback – tell them how their doing
What does engagement look like?
Keep an instructional focus
Reduce the variance in the quality of the instructional process
Set clear and unambiguous proficiency targets for learners
The teacher makes the difference
Identify a body of knowledge about instructional practice
Increase the knowledge skills of teachers
Believe that teachers can learn
Change the role of the student
Raise the content – more complex tasks

THE HURT OF CHANGE
Inner work - what’s going on inside people’s heads?
“Cherished Theories” – reluctant to let go
“Circle the Wagons” – them against us
Remember that allegiance fills the a void of belonging
We all have an emotional attachment to practice
Emotional response to change
Displacing responsibility to others
“That’s not my swing”
Experiencing loss in the process of change
Limited through the presumption of competence
Conflict has to do with underlying change
It’s human nature to resist change
Hurt people hurt people
Reflective listening – not reflexive
Honesty – are we prepared to have the uncomfortable conversations?
Always proceed with valid data
Believe that teachers can get smart
Separate a teacher’s practice/professional behaviour from the person

BELONGING
Have high expectations – for all
Giving children a hand up – not a hand out
Advocate for children
There is no such thing as potential
Kids can get smart
Promoting tenacious engagement
Be aware of unwitting segregation
Our mantra must be “Think you can”
“Believe that it is possible”
Promote a confidence to learn
Interrupting children who are on the journey to failure
 Everyone must say “These are MY children”
Commit to children
Avoid symbiotic dependency
Identify factors that erode belonging in school
Ability groupings don’t work

ADAPTIVE/CULTURAL LEADERSHIP
Develop a sense of common purpose
Move the school culture through critical mass
Concentrate on adaptive (cultural) challenges
Trust – comes only comes through consistency between action and practice
Create and sustain norms of behaviour
Manage your time to create space for our real business
Open source leadership – encourage contribution
Transparency  - don’t hide behind supposed confidentiality
Underpin your actions through - rigor, relationships, relevance
Seek out and use valid data
Authenticity – be who you who say you are?
Work “on” the system – don’t be “in” the system

THE LEADER’S LEARNING
Leaders must be prepared to learn from the ‘”sting” of negative feedback
Confidence – take risks  and learn
Be flexible with the leadership styles you adopt
Express a comfort with confusion
Challenge the concept of presumed competence
We can learn the most from those who are moving from “low performing” to “high performing”
Don’t expect others to go where you won’t go
Technical duties – master and deliver
Demonstrate a commitment to the instructional process above all else
Expect and support administrator proficiency
Get things done through people

ARE YOU MAKING AN IMPACT?
Social return on investment – what’s in it for society?
Effective effort – are you focussed on the right things?
Always be clear about the impact of your actions
Can you demonstrate impact in concrete ways?
Face up to uncomfortable truths if actions are not resulting in improvements

BUILDING YOUR COMMUNITY
Present “yesable” propositions
Build a coherent organisation
Be flexible with all but belonging and instructional focus
Be willing to negotiate
Build a consensus
Promote collective responsibility
Build a sustainable community, which extends beyond your presence
Develop partnerships
There can be no such thing as professional autonomy
Be aware that you inherit from others and leave a legacy to other leaders
Work to prevent atomised classrooms

DEVELOPING THE TEACHING PROCESS
 “Teaching without content – is not teaching”
Expect and support adult proficiency
Encourage people to reach into their “stretch zone”
Challenge through choice
Education must define and take control of its practice
Focus on improvement – not change
Create a sense of urgency
Develop networks of practice
Support teacher collaboration