How might teachers’ and students strengths in developing capabilities in thinking, using language, symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing, be recognised and celebrated?
Key competencies are always in the back of my mind when teaching and I plan to make sure we celebrate these more by unpacking each key competency and using these as class dojo points in 2017. Rather than just celebrating good behaviour, we will celebrating thinking, participating etc.
This can also be celebrate at home with parents as they also have access to the class dojo and see what they have been doing well in class.
I feel that maybe setting up myself as part of the class I may also be able to model and get the children to notice my own behaviours.
Notes:
Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised New Zealand Curriculum for School Leaders
Wayne Freeth; University of Canterbury,Christchuch,New Zealand
Vanessa de Oliveria Andreotti; University of Oulu, Finland
- making a distinction between knowledge conceptualised as a noun and a verb.
- knowledge conceptualised as a verb is something we do something with, rather than something we have; it is linked with performativity rather than truth, and it is more like an ‘energy’ than building blocks that can be accumulated.
- knowledge conceptualised as a noun tends to enable autocratic and bureaucratic styles of leadership, while knowledge conceptualised as a verb may enable democratic,distributed and transformational styles of leadership, which are necessary for the effective implementation of the NZC, particularly in terms of the principles of inclusion and community participation in the co-construction and the co-ownership of the curriculum.
- Another important aspect of the NZC that is emphasised by the conceptualisation of knowledge as a verb is the role of teachers as leaders in the construction of the curriculum and in responding to the needs of diverse students.
- teacher leadership is different from leadership associated with administrative or managerial roles, as it moves away from top-down, hierarchical reward/punish (transactional) practices towards practices of shared decision making,teamwork and community building (Urbansky & Nickolaou, 1997; Wynne, 2001).
become socially conscious and politically involved
• mentor new teachers
• become more involved at universities in the preparation of pre-service teachers
• are risk-takers who participate in school decisions. (Wynne, 2001, pp. 2–3)
- making a distinction between knowledge conceptualised as a noun and a verb.
- knowledge conceptualised as a verb is something we do something with, rather than something we have; it is linked with performativity rather than truth, and it is more like an ‘energy’ than building blocks that can be accumulated.
- knowledge conceptualised as a noun tends to enable autocratic and bureaucratic styles of leadership, while knowledge conceptualised as a verb may enable democratic,distributed and transformational styles of leadership, which are necessary for the effective implementation of the NZC, particularly in terms of the principles of inclusion and community participation in the co-construction and the co-ownership of the curriculum.
- Another important aspect of the NZC that is emphasised by the conceptualisation of knowledge as a verb is the role of teachers as leaders in the construction of the curriculum and in responding to the needs of diverse students.
- teacher leadership is different from leadership associated with administrative or managerial roles, as it moves away from top-down, hierarchical reward/punish (transactional) practices towards practices of shared decision making,teamwork and community building (Urbansky & Nickolaou, 1997; Wynne, 2001).
become socially conscious and politically involved
• mentor new teachers
• become more involved at universities in the preparation of pre-service teachers
• are risk-takers who participate in school decisions. (Wynne, 2001, pp. 2–3)
Summary of characteristics of principals who promote teacher leadership
- Communicate a clear strategic intent
- model futuristic thinking; provide a safe environment for exploration and experimentation; show the linking of visioning to knowledge creation
- Incorporate the aspirations and ideas of others
- demonstrate confidence in teachers’ professional capabilities; help teachers clarify their personal values;
- explore the alignment between strategic and educational values
- Pose difficult-to-answer questions.
- heighten the level of professional dialogue about educational practices; encourage individual commitment from alienated teachers
- Make space for individual innovation
- Create opportunities for individual expression; encourage identification of – and confrontation of institutional barriers
- Know when to step back demonstrate trust; illuminate how power can and should be distributed; acknowledge the importance of the individual professional; attest to the central place of teaching in school decision-making
- Create opportunities out of perceived difficulties demonstrate ways in which knowledge may be created; encourage thinking outside the box
- Build on achievements to create a culture of success.
- model positive problem solving; create an ethos of teachers as guardians of the school culture; demonstrate that from little acorns, big oak trees can grow
Knowledge as a noun or as a verb?If ‘knowledge as a noun’ is represented by the colour red (and the metaphor of milk) and ‘knowledge as a verb’ is represented by the colour yellow (and the metaphor of weaving), which colour would you paint each statement?
Ideas about societySociety is something to be fixed into onenormative order, which creates the desire forcertainty, consensus and harmony (one lens)Society is complex, multiple and always changing: ideas of what is real and ideal are constructed by different communities(multiple lenses)
Ideas about truthAnswers are always partial, provisional and context dependent
Answers are right or wrong independent of context
Ideas about difference
Consensus (elimination of difference) is the only desirable outcome of conversations and clashes of perspectives (conflict) need to be ‘resolved’Consensus is desirable in certain contexts,not in others; the capacity to live with and learn from dissensus is a ‘key competency’ which requires seeing conflict as an opportunity for learning
- Pose difficult-to-answer questions.
- heighten the level of professional dialogue about educational practices; encourage individual commitment from alienated teachers
- Make space for individual innovation
- Create opportunities for individual expression; encourage identification of – and confrontation of institutional barriers
- Know when to step back demonstrate trust; illuminate how power can and should be distributed; acknowledge the importance of the individual professional; attest to the central place of teaching in school decision-making
- Create opportunities out of perceived difficulties demonstrate ways in which knowledge may be created; encourage thinking outside the box
- Build on achievements to create a culture of success.
- model positive problem solving; create an ethos of teachers as guardians of the school culture; demonstrate that from little acorns, big oak trees can grow
Knowledge as a noun or as a verb?If ‘knowledge as a noun’ is represented by the colour red (and the metaphor of milk) and ‘knowledge as a verb’ is represented by the colour yellow (and the metaphor of weaving), which colour would you paint each statement?
Ideas about societySociety is something to be fixed into onenormative order, which creates the desire forcertainty, consensus and harmony (one lens)Society is complex, multiple and always changing: ideas of what is real and ideal are constructed by different communities(multiple lenses)
Ideas about truthAnswers are always partial, provisional and context dependent
Answers are right or wrong independent of context
Ideas about difference
Consensus (elimination of difference) is the only desirable outcome of conversations and clashes of perspectives (conflict) need to be ‘resolved’Consensus is desirable in certain contexts,not in others; the capacity to live with and learn from dissensus is a ‘key competency’ which requires seeing conflict as an opportunity for learning
Ideas about identitiesIdentities are fixed and based on cumulative(innate or learned) attributes related to culture/nationality or ethnicityIdentities are socially ‘constructed’ and context dependent, and therefore multiple and open to reconstruction and negotiation (fluid)
Ideas about languageLanguage creates our ‘realities’ and the meaning of words is constructed in contextLanguage describes reality objectively and the right meaning of words is defined bygood dictionaries
Ideas about teacher educationTeacher education is about preparing students to reproduce existing ‘best practices’Teacher education is about preparing students to respond to the changing needs of diverse learners and societies (for ‘next practices’)
While distributed leadership could bring about more cohesive and collaborative curriculum development,existing traditional and hierarchical modes of leadership (supported by accountability processes) create a strong constraint. In addition, teachers are often overloaded. many resisted deeper, philosophical thinking in relation to the meaning of curriculum and its contested nature in schooling contexts (McGee, 1997).
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