Week 2 - Reflective practice and Key Competencies in Leading

At the moment, the Key Competencies that are perhaps my strengths are, Managing Self and Relating to Others. The Key Competencies that I would like to develop further are, Thinking, Participating and Contributing, and Using Language, Symbols and Texts. 

Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised NZ Curriculum for School Leaders.

I found this article really interesting to read.

Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised NZ Curriculum for School Leaders - by Wayne Freeth, with Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti.

What I learnt...

Knowledge - is it a noun, or a verb?

In today's 'knowledge society', perhaps knowledge can be seen more as a verb, rather than a noun. A verb is a doing word, whereas a noun is like an object we have. Therefore, knowledge is the 'life of the party', the power, the drive that keeps us going, instead of being a collection of Lego blocks stacked upon one another.

If knowledge is a verb, then what does that mean for leadership in schools? It means some leaderships styles in school need to be tweaked.

Teacher leadership is distancing itself from top-down hierarchical styles, and moving closer to collaborative leaderships practices, where the process of making decisions is shared by teachers, senior management, and the community. Schools are at an advantage if the leadership is genuinely distributed. Staff feel empowered by having collective ownership of their disciplines.

Knowledge as a verb

Education - relevant, flexible, meet the needs of everyone.

Biculturalism - super important, fits in with all curriculums.

Multiculturalism - also super important, positive connections between people and their communities are vital.

Unique - everyone is different, and everyone being different is great because we all have something to offer, and we all see things in different ways and have varying perspectives on things. Learning about our differences helps people develop empathy. It also helps people realise their strengths, and also to be able to see the strengths in others.

Community - instead of schools just telling the community what's what, whānau, parents, caregivers can be actively involved in how decisions are made regarding the curriculum.

• Teachers need to see themselves as leaders as well.
• Teachers need to be equipped to become independent thinkers.
• ‘Although one cannot change another person, a person may change as a result of something you do.’ (Freeth, W. p 16).
• Distributed leadership could foster collaborative curriculum development, but barriers to this are the existing traditional and hierarchical types of leadership.