Leadership Development with Jan Robertson

Dr Jan Robertson, Leadership Consultant, Waiheke Island and Former Director of The London Centre for Leadership in Learning, talks with David Stewart about her recent work.

Addressed in the conversation are the similarities and differences in the way various authorities manage leadership development in their areas and the nature of the problems that they signal that they wish to address with this work. Jan talks about how the UK National College for School Leadership has widened its scope and why it has changed its name to The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services. Talk ranges around the possible implications of these kinds of developments for the current New Zealand Ministry of Education initiative of closely linking student assessment with leadership programmes.



Download interview with Jan Robertson (M4V)

Using a decision tree to work with National Standards

Deciding what sort of decision you are faced with and with whom you should consult in the process, is probably as important as actually making the decision. This is one of the judgement aspects of decision making. We have chosen to illustrate the pathway of this thinking with a conversation between two principals based around a decision tree. In this case the complex decision required is how to deal with the National Standards requirements and the decision tree selected is based on the work of Victor Vroom.

(Vroom, V. H., & Jago, A. G. (1988). The new leadership: Managing participation in organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.)

You can try this decision making tree for yourself at:

http://faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/LEAD/vroom-yetton.html

A further on-line reference you may like to visit:

http://www.epinions.com/content_4584087684

If you find this short role play useful please leave a comment. The Ariki Team are keen to make more of these podcasts if colleagues find them worthwhile.

Download National Standards Decision Tree (M4V)

Ariki Process Discussion

The two year trial of the Ariki Project is nearing its end and the programme evaluation phase will be completed by December 2010. At a recent seminar of Regional Directors it was decided to record this conversation where the group looked back over their last two years’ work. The participants are:

• Gary Punler responsible for Manawatu;
• Liz Millar responsible for Wellington;
• Dr Lyn Bird responsible for Christchurch;
• Dr Wendy Bamford responsible for Central Otago;
• Kay Tester responsible for ArikiRural; and
• Dr David Stewart, project director.

Running through this discussion are the notions that there are multiple ways of thinking and many ways of achieving the same aim – which we call Professional Discretion;

the belief that teachers are professionals and that schools function as teams – which we call Collegial Obligations;

that Reflective Inquiry and Discourse is the core of professional interaction and development; and

and that Evidenced based Professional practice can be spread across all school activity.      

These values are supported with the evidence we are accumulating through the programme evaluation data and we are all looking forward to expanding the project to further interested groups in 2011. Please contact us if you would like any further information.

Download Ariki Process Discussion (M4V)

Wendy Kofoed

Dr Wendy Kofoed, principal of Newmarket School, talks with David Stewart about her recent Doctor of Education thesis: Written Reporting: Strengthening learning partnerships through purposeful reporting.

The conversation covers an outline of the main purposes of the study, the questions that were addressed and the methodology for so doing. An explanation of the kind and range of data is given. There is a discussion about what this means for schools and how some of the contemporary issues might be addressed. National Standards bring new demands for schools and Dr Kofoed explains the relationship between her research and the current pressures to implement these notions in schools' written reporting schedules.

Click to view slides:

          

Slide Reference:
Kofoed, W.J. Written Reporting: Strengthening learning partnerships through purposeful reporting. Auckland University, Unpublished Doctor of Education Thesis. 2009.

Download interview with Wendy Kofoed (M4V)

An interview with Lester Flockton

In this interview Lester Flockton talks with David Stewart and Kay Tester on a range of issues currently confronting New Zealand school principals.

Lester Flockton is a graduate of Dunedin Teachers College and the University of Otago. He has extensive experience in New Zealand’s school system as a teacher, principal (5 schools small rural to large urban), inspector of schools, Ministry of Education official, researcher, university teacher, educational thinker and leader.

Throughout his career in education he has worked on many national curriculum and assessment committees and projects, including the revised New Zealand Curriculum (2007). He has led numerous professional development and learning programmes, made dozens of conference presentations, and held office in various professional organizations.

Kay Tester is principal of St Brigid’s School in Wellington, and a regional director of the Ariki project responsible for data management within the project. She also facilitates the ArikiRural group; a small school subset of the wider programme who operate at a distance.

Download interview with Lester Flockton (M4V)