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LEADING LIGHTS
New Zealand Educational Administration & Leadership Society NEWSLETTER Growing leadership potential ISSUE 4|2014
FROM HIDING TO SEEKING
Vicky Wilson
BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
REFLECTIVE
PRACTICE AND
APPRAISAL
A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
Dr. Leon Benade
coaching and
mentoring
Dr. Ann Briggs
THIS IS AN
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VISITING WMIER PROFESSOR
STUDENT
VOICE
SYMPOSIUM
Susan Groundwater-Smith
ISSN 2253-2390
branches: SUPPORTING LEADERSHIP THROUGHOUT NEW ZEALAND Conference 2015
DIRECTORY Welcome to our new sponsor BOOK REVIEW: TWELVE THOUSAND HOURS
CONTENTS LEADING LIGHTS | ISSUE 4 | 2014
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PRESIDENT’S REPORT: WELCOME TO OUR SPONSOR
3
EDITORIAL: COACHING AND MENTORING
5
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT: A POWERFUL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR
7
FROM HIDING TO SEEKING: BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
11
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AND APPRAISAL: A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
14
STUDENT VOICE SYMPOSIUM
19
BOOK REVIEW: TWELVE THOUSAND HOURS
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CONFERENCE
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NZEALS BRANCHES: SUPPORTING LEADERSHIP THROUGHOUT NEW ZEALAND
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BOOK REVIEWS: FOCUS ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
29
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
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LEADING LIGHTS SUBMISSION DEADLINES
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ACL CONFERENCE 2015: INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION FORM
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DIRECTORY: NZEALS COUNCIL 2014 + FINANCE OFFICER
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JOIN NZEALS TODAY
The New Zealand Educational Administration and Leadership
Society (NZEALS) promotes and supports quality leadership for
learning across all educational sectors. To find out more go to
nzeals.org.nz or to join simply click here. Complete your details
and pay the subscription online, or download a form if you prefer
to make direct debit or cheque payments.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 3
WELCOME TO OUR SPONSOR
PRESIDENT’S REPORT Juliette Hayes
What wonderful news to have secured a
sponsor for our prestigious scholarship,
the Dame Jean Herbison Award. Welcome
to Fuji Xerox, who have come on board and have committed to two years, initially,
in sponsorship! The award recipient receives $7,000 to undertake research, national
or international school visits, or conferences, and as a prestigious award recognised
by the Ministry of Education, may also receive up to four weeks of paid leave from
a state or integrated school. I was fortunate enough to receive this award in 2009
and it enabled me to travel to England where I visited schools in Leicestershire and
attended forums at the London Institute of Education. While applications for the
2014 award have closed I highly recommend that members give thought to
preparing to apply in 2015. More details can be found on the NZEALS website.
I recently attended the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL)
conference, in Melbourne. Among the 1100 delegates were 130 New Zealanders,
many of whom attended an international delegates’ cocktail party the night before
the conference opened. This was an opportunity for ACEL President, Jim Watterston,
and me to address the guests in attendance regarding our new, reciprocal
membership arrangements and to launch the 2015 ANZAC conference. Jim was a
very gracious host to all international delegates throughout the conference and
his team is to be congratulated on an excellent event.
PICTURED Juliette with David
Giles (far right) and colleagues
from Flinders University at the
ACEL conference cocktail party
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
The Centre for Educational
Leadership and
Administration (CELA)
aims to engage in is to
engage in high quality
research and teaching,
personal and professional
development that will
mutually benefit the broader
educational community
in New Zealand and
internationally.
CELA’s activities are
informed by sound
theoretical and practical
understandings of
educational leadership,
by current research findings
in the field of personal and
professional leadership
education, and by developing
relationships with client
groups that promote close
collaboration and trust.
e tipu e rea mo naga ra tou ao 4
The partnership between ACEL and NZEALS is mutually beneficial for members.
The membership arrangement means New Zealanders may attend ACEL events at
member rates, and with cheaper flights across the Tasman this is quite a realistic
professional development experience. We will also be bringing more international
presenters to New Zealand, in association with ACEL, beginning with Lynn Sherratt
from Canada in May. The 2015 ANZAC Conference is well under way in its planning,
and with spaces only available for 1100 delegates at the Sydney Hilton, it will
certainly be important that members register early. There will be New Zealanders
represented in the key notes and workshops, and a very special ANZAC tone to
the event. Click here to register.
It has been a pleasure to host our 2014 Visiting Scholar, Ross Notman, as he
visited branches over recent months. The Canterbury Branch was generous enough
to host their session in Timaru, enabling South Canterbury educators to network
together and hear about the findings Ross made from his work with the
International Schools Project. As always, I find it a privilege that NZEALS can
bring guests of this calibre right into our regions, where dialogue can be shared
with colleagues in our own local contexts.
As this time of reflection, rejuvenation and forward thinking is upon us,
I encourage you to consider how you might link more closely with NZEALS in 2015.
• How might NZEALS be a professional organisation not simply that you join,
but one to which you belong?
• In what ways might you engage with the organisation’s multiple events
and benefits in the new year?
• What is it that we must value and celebrate in educational leadership
in New Zealand?
I would like to thank the National Council of NZEALS for an excellent year of
moving our organisation to a next level, by sustaining the energy and innovation
fostered by our outstanding biennial conference in April. On behalf of the Council,
I wish all members a satisfying end to the academic year and a very well-earned
summer break. n
Juliette Hayes
NZEALS President
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential
COACHING AND MENTORING
EDITORIAL
Ann Briggs
In recent months, there has been a free-flowing discussion on the NZEALS LinkedIn
discussion page about coaching and mentoring, and related issues. Many thanks to
all the participants.
The question was posed: ‘What’s happening in your setting to provide coaching
or mentoring for staff and leaders in that setting?’ There is a concern that coaching
and mentoring are skill-sets that are developed in a somewhat haphazard way in
our school system. For example, Heads of Department (HODs) in secondary schools
will often provide coaching and mentoring to teachers in their departments, and
senior leaders will often coach or mentor HODs and other middle leaders. Similarly,
HODs and other senior teachers will mentor, as they have to, beginning teachers.
There is, however, a question about how well this is done, given the lack of training
available for this kind of work. Where schools have a culture of coaching, this
culture is created by leaders modelling coaching, as well as building coaching
practice in everyone.
It was noted that the boundaries between coaching, mentoring and professional
relationship-building are blurred, and that a helpful emphasis would be to ensure
that every leader’s kete includes ‘how to have coaching conversations in
differentiated ways’ - using coaching or mentoring skills appropriate to the
situation. A further extension of this is to engineer opportunities to engage in new
learning which allows us to reflect through our quality conversations. Adopting a
reflective coaching model dovetails helpfully with the current emphasis on
‘teaching as inquiry’.
The leader’s ‘kete’ needs to have a selection of conversational ‘tools’ fit for
purpose. The wisdom is knowing which tool to use in which context: for example,
the appropriate language or tone of voice. We are in a world where many different
conversations appear - courageous, fierce, hard, difficult, open to learning - all
appropriate at given times. The essential component is the relational factor: the
relational trust, the professional approach, the empathy for person and the focus on
learning. These conversations, while essential, are not necessarily coaching ones.
Principals are increasingly seeking outside facilitation to train senior leaders and
team leaders in coaching, to enable planned growth and sustainability of practice
5
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
LINKEDIN is a
business-oriented social
networking service.
Founded in December
2002 and launched on
May 5, 2003, it is mainly
used for professional
networking.
e tipu
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through the school. This is linked to individuals being supported in achieving their
professional growth goals. There is a need for leaders to create space for teachers to
reflect deeply about their practice, to create ideas that move the collaborative
thinking forward. How people understand their roles is important, especially in
relation to supporting and challenging the shifts in professional practice which
others are making and need to make. Shifting from being reactive to being
proactive, and starting evidenced-informed conversations and being responsive to
what is being witnessed in classrooms; having a less ‘fixing up‘ mindset and more a
‘what’s possible’ one: these are the areas which need support.
An example was given of a school development programme that offers
middle leaders opportunities for discussion, gives them a chance to reflect on their
own leadership style, shadow other leaders throughout the school and have the
opportunity to experience a wide range of institutional practice. The programme
has a strong focus on practising productive conversations and using this as a way
to deal with dilemmas while also building positive relationships. The ‘open-tolearning conversation’ methodology was also commended, which has useful
frameworks, suitable for resolving dilemmas. Middle leaders find them helpful
when developing team culture, or keeping relationships intact when dealing with
sensitive issues.
The thinking extends further when considering the systems needed to support
networks of leaders and expert teachers within the framework of Investing in
Educational Success. How will coaching and mentoring processes evolve in our
system to support leadership within these networks? An example offered was of
WAPA 2020, which has had a Professional Learning Group model of mentoring in
place for seven years. Groups of emerging leaders, aspiring Deputy Principals,
experienced senior leaders and aspiring principals meet three times a year and are
facilitated by an experienced principal or senior leader. This is one way to provide
opportunity to learn leadership skills while also building a network beyond
individual schools. n
The discussion continues. Click here. to join the group, or to read further and add
your own views to the conversation.
Thanks to the following participants for their thoughts, which I hope I have not misrepresented:
Linda Bendikson, Murray Fletcher, Marcus Freke, Graeme Macann, Carolyn Marino, Maggie Ogram,
Rachel Peak, Cherie Taylor-Patel, Pip Wells and Howard Youngs.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential
Professional learning and
development - a powerful
leadership behaviour?
UACEL DIRECTOR
Linda Bendikson
In 2011 I completed my PhD on the effects of principal leadership in secondary
schools. When I share results with school leaders they are most surprised by my
findings on professional learning and development (PLD). If you view the table
below you will see the results that show effect sizes, and you can probably see
why people are surprised. In this table the results from a specific group (seven
New Zealand secondary principals from higher performing schools and 17 from
mid-performing schools) are compared to leadership findings from the Best
Evidence Synthesis (BES) meta-analysis carried out in recent years (Robinson,
Hohepa, & Lloyd, 2009).
While the effect sizes for the Goals and Strategic Resourcing dimensions across
the two studies are similar, you can see the glaring difference between the effect
sizes for PLD. Why might that be? This short article discusses possible reasons after
firstly outlining some background factors related to my PhD study.
Robinson et al., 2009
Bendikson, 2011
Higher- and mid-performing
secondary schools
PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP
Bendikson, 2011
Higher- and mid-performing
secondary schools
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP
Orderly Environment
Ensuring an orderly and supportive environment
0.27
0.28**
0.55***
Strategic Resourcing
0.31
0.36***
0.38***
0.41***
0.45***
LEADERSHIP DIMENSIONS
Problem-Solving
Goals Establishing goals and expectations
0.42
0.31***
0.39***
Professional Learning Development
Promoting and participating in teacher
learning and development
0.84
0.17 (NS)
0.18*
Teaching and Curriculum
Planning, coordinating, and evaluating
teaching and the curriculum
0.42
0.21*
0.14 (NS)
0.24**
0.33***
Collective Responsibility
Developing a sense of collective responsibility
NOTE: * p < .05, ** p < .01, **p <.001, *** p < .001, NS = Not Significant
7
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
PRINCIPAL
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP AND
SECONDARY SCHOOL
PERFORMANCE
by Linda Bendikson, Viviane
Robinson and John Hattie
e tipu e rea mo naga ra tou ao 8
In or around 2010 I was the Regional Manager of the Central North region of
the Ministry of Education. As part of that role, I took a deep interest in the
performance of schools. The pattern of secondary school performance in NCEA was
very interesting. When schools’ pass rates were plotted against decile, it was evident
that schools that worked with communities of similar socio-economic status (SES)
sometimes had widely varying results. As I knew a lot of these principals and
their schools, I started theorising about the principal leadership effect. Ultimately,
I (with the help of a ministry analyst) developed a method to categorise schools
(fairly, I thought) into three performance groups (lower, mid and higher
performing); 25% of all Central North schools were categorised as lower or higher
performing based on four years of NCEA results for Māori and all students
(Bendikson, Hattie, & Robinson, 2011). I also categorised schools as improving or
not, regardless of their performance group.
Then, I developed a questionnaire to examine teachers’ perception of their
principal’s leadership and the overall leadership in the school (which I referred to as
cultural items but they can also be considered a measure of distributed leadership).
Overall, I received 651 teacher responses about the 29 principals who bravely agreed
to be part of this study. I was then able to examine patterns of leadership (in the eyes
of their teachers) with patterns of achievement.
Principals in higher performing schools were consistently rated as more
frequently involved in Goals, Strategic Resourcing, Orderly Environment and
Problem-Solving than all other principals. The only dimension that did not
differentiate significantly between higher performing schools and any other was
PLD. Why might that be? I put forward several possible explanations and think they
may all be part of the explanation.
1. Firstly, the Bendikson sample was entirely secondary. The BES PLD findings
were based on six studies, none of which used purely secondary samples.
Three of the studies were from a primary school context and three from mixed
samples of largely primary schools with a few secondary schools in the mix.
Unfortunately, the studies with mixed samples did not report separately on
primary and secondary school results. It may be that there is a difference in
primary and secondary school effectiveness of PLD that is reflected in these
differing results. Certainly, the quantitative secondary school evidence available
when the Bendikson study was carried out (which came largely from the USA),
indicated no significant positive results for secondary schools relating to PLD.
2. Done well, professional learning and development may make a big difference,
but how often is it done well? To gain positive effects, certain conditions need
to be in place. Our experience at UACEL suggests that in the secondary sector
at least, schools are overwhelmed by the amount of PLD contracts they engage
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential
with. They do not often have a coherent goal-focused approach to PLD and the
PLD may act as a barrier to improvement rather than a lever for improvement.
A recent report on 44 New Zealand secondary schools (Education Review
Office, 2009) supports the view that the majority of secondary schools do not
implement PLD well. On the other hand, most studies in the Robinson and
colleagues meta-analysis were primary schools - which tend to be more
cohesive (Firestone & Herriott, 1982; Weick, 1976).
3. Further, Robinson and colleagues had a much larger sample utilising 11
different studies overall. Six of those 11 studies contributed 17 items that effect
sizes could be calculated on for PLD. In the Bendikson study there were only
four items on which to calculate an average effect size. So these differences in
results may also relate to the number of items creating more chance of potential
positive responses by teachers.
4. The Bendikson items were developed after the findings of Timperley and
colleagues from the Best Evidence Synthesis on Professional Learning and
Development (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, & Fung, 2007) were published, and as
the items tended to reflect some of the Timperley findings, it may be that the
Bendikson items were a harder test of the effectiveness of PLD. For example
some items from the meta-analysis (Bamburg & Andrews, 1991) that would fit
the Bendikson PLD dimension were the following questions:
a. My principal promotes staff development activities for faculty
(not significant)
b. My principal is an active participant in staff development
(significant at 0.05)
By way of comparison the Bendikson items were as follows, and arguably,
the first three of these are a much harder test than the items above:
c. The principal ensures professional development focuses on the
relationship between what is taught and what is learnt.
d. The principal ensures there is discussion of the tensions between
current practice and any proposed change.
e. The principal encourages teachers to attend professional development
that is aligned to school goals.
f. The principal is an active participant in professional development
with teachers.
5. Another explanation could be that the Collective Responsibility dimension’s
effect that was significant in the Bendikson study, was part of Robinson and
colleague’s high scoring Professional Development dimension, whereas I chose
to measure it separately because of its reported power in secondary schools
(Lee & Smith, 1996). When measured separately in the Bendikson study,
9
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
e tipu e rea mo naga ra tou ao 10
Collective Responsibility (for student outcomes) was a significant behaviour
with small to moderate effects for both principals (0.24) and the broader
leadership team (0.33).
6. Finally, it should be remembered that the meta-analysis measured effects of
‘leadership’, not the effects of principal leadership. When the Bendikson effect
sizes for the broader leadership of the school were calculated, PLD was
significant, albeit with weak effects. In addition, other findings in the
Bendikson research indicated that it was senior leaders other than the principal
who typically led the PLD, perhaps also indicating why teachers rated their
principals so similarly despite the performance levels of their schools.
‘Serving students by
growing leadership and
expertise.’ The University
of Auckland Centre for
Educational Leadership’s
mission statement captures
the fact that they are
student-centred in that the
criterion they use to judge
the effectiveness of
leadership and leadership
development is its impact on
the well-being, engagement
and participation of
students. This is often very
hard to judge, as leaders
make a difference to
students largely by creating
the conditions through
which parents and
communities can improve
teaching and learning.
That PLD can have strong effects, does not mean that PLD always has strong effects.
Our observations in secondary schools lead us to believe that PLD is frequently part
of the problem in schools, not part of the solution. This is because PLD is frequently
not targeted on a key problem area that has been closely analysed but rather is
comprised of numerous pre-packaged versions of professional
learning that government agencies have contracted in the belief that they will
serve schools’ needs.
Schools do not improve by having more PLD. Schools improve when they are
absolutely clear on the achievement problem they are trying to solve, and when they
test and check the effectiveness of their improvement strategies and utilise PLD that
is closely aligned to the problem they are trying to solve. In our experience at
UACEL, this type of analysis and response is not a strength in secondary schools;
they frequently appear overwhelmed with ‘initiatives’. In my view, this is a system
problem, not a problem of individual schools. n CLICK HERE FOR REFERENCES
LINDA BENDIKSON
Linda Bendikson has been the Director for The University of Auckland Centre for
Educational Leadership (UACEL) since 2011. Prior to that, Linda had 17 years’ experience
as a primary school principal, and ten years as a regional manager in the New Zealand
Ministry of Education. A life-long educationalist, Linda completed her PhD studies at
The University of Auckland in 2011. Her PhD research focused on the impact of principals
and distributed leadership in 29 New Zealand secondary schools. In 2012 Linda was
awarded a Highly Commended in the 2012 Emerald Outstanding Doctoral Research Award,
for her research The Effects of Principal Instructional Leadership on Secondary School
Performance in the category of Education and Leadership Strategy. Since that time Linda
has worked to strengthen the curriculum of the Centre for Educational Leadership and
sought to spread its influence across Australasia, the Pacific and beyond. Her passion for
educational leadership is reflected in UACEL’s mission statement: Growing leadership
expertise that serves students.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 11
FROM HIDING TO SEEKING:
BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING COMMUNITY Vicky Wilson
Research is a term that can make teachers run and hide. It seems to be the scary
monster that hides under the bed and stops us from sleeping. What happens, then,
when you break down the barriers to research? When research becomes part of a
process that is slow and thorough, and allows the participants to engage at every
stage and come out with a new understanding of what research is really about?
Using a collaborative approach based on the inquiry model our team became what
could be termed a ‘professional learning community’ (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012;
Thornton & Wansbrough, 2012; Wenger, 1998).
A professional learning community (PLC) is a term that was developed in the
1990s and put simply is ‘a place where teachers inquired together into how to
improve their practice in areas of importance to them, and then implemented what
they had learned to make it happen’ (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012, p.127). One of the
main principles of becoming a PLC is the ability to be collaborative (Hargreaves &
Fullan, 2012; Thornton & Wansbrough, 2012; Wenger, 1998).
In our team we had varying levels of understanding about research. The teachers
came from four very different backgrounds and had qualifications ranging from a
two-year Diploma to a Masters degree. After going through the inquiry process
together for our annual appraisal goals, and having a positive outcome with new
shared understandings and knowledge, I wanted to impart how we moved from
this ‘hiding to seeking’.
Our team goal was to ‘use the action research cycle to inform our practice’ while
my (team leader) goal was ‘to lead the process of research with the team’. At first
there was some resistance to engaging with this topic. One reason for this may have
come from the perspective that this was a mandatory expectation as opposed to
self-initiated change (Hargreaves, 2004). The feedback from the team after the project
was finished indicates that at some point the teachers moved from the feeling of
‘having to’ engage to ‘wanting to’ engage. One participant stated, “We are more
reflective and interested in collaborative research. We all see the value in research
and how it can be positive for our learning community.” As Timperley (2011) has
also identified, once teachers realise the potential of inquiry learning, they move
from professional development (which is often an external expectation) to
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
The Enviroschools
Foundation is a not-for-profit
trust that supports children
and young people to be
active citizens, contributing
to ecological regeneration
and the creation of healthy,
resilient and sustainable
communities. It began as a
small, seed-funded project,
supported by Hamilton City
Council and the Community
Environmental Programme,
and piloted in three
Hamilton primary schools.
A founding partnership with
Te Mauri Tau supported the
development of the
guiding principles and
first Enviroschools Kit.
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professional learning, which is more likely to be a state of mind focused on being
open to learning and change.
Our first thoughts on how our inquiry might begin, was with the process of
identifying what knowledge others had. This started with questioning what
research is, and we narrowed this down even further to begin with ‘what is action
research?’ One of the reasons behind this was our commitment to being part of the
Enviroschools programme and using the action research/inquiry model to further
our understandings and children’s understandings.
As the leader, I thought the beginning would be to find readings that would help
the team to understand what inquiry/action research was and how it was carried
out. However once we engaged in dialogue about our understandings, I realised
that some team members did not know how to carry out a search for literature on
any topic. To counter this we used what could be termed tuakana/teina or
scaffolding by joining one more experienced participant up with another less
experienced. The pairs worked to gather the literature, read it and bring their
findings back to the group. We continued to use this collaborative model of learning
and gathering knowledge throughout the year. Hargreaves & Fullan (2012) identify
this learning as collective responsibility and utilising peer coaching. I believe this is
where a change in how our professional learning occurred.
This process is where we developed our shared understandings and became a
‘community of learners’ (Wenger, 1998). Through in-depth discussions and
reflections, we were able to share what was important to each of us and build new
understandings that allowed us to move to the next level of engagement with
research. What made this step of the process more meaningful was the discovery
of having conversations for learning. The importance of this is best described by
David Anderson, “All educators need to know how to skilfully navigate important,
learning-focused conversations. If you can’t have conversations, nothing changes”
(Dalton & Anderson, 2010, p.15). What we found was once we were all ‘open’ to
learning and change, then change naturally occurred without any effort.
As the leader of the process, I found it a challenge to reach a balance between
encouragement, setting tasks and being able to step back and allow the learning to
happen. This occurred right at the beginning of the process where I asked the team
to research their ideas on action research. They did this to a high standard and
I was impressed with their engagement. I began to wonder if this deeper
engagement occurred because I was not there telling them what to do, so they felt
comfortable to get on with it. Wheatley (2002) as cited in Dalton & Anderson (2013)
states, “It is very difficult to give up our certainties - our positions, our beliefs, our
explanations,” however, “We will succeed in changing this world only if we can
think and work together in new ways” (p.8). The learning became initiated by the
collaboration of the team. This event highlighted to me the importance as a leader
of stepping back and allowing
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 13
the collective inquiry to occur. The more I reflect on this initial episode, the more
I realise the importance of this. There is a clear difference between having
expectations for ‘professional development’ for teachers and developing a
community of learners or a PLC who both individually and collectively have the
desire to engage in self-initiated changes (Hargreaves, 2004; Hargreaves & Fullan,
2012; Thornton & Wansbrough, 2012; Timperley, 2011).
The next strategy that enabled us to meet our goals was in the planning.
The importance of planning has been identified through research as an integral part
of developing a professional learning community. Both Hargreaves & Fullan (2012)
and Thornton & Wansbrough (2012) cite scheduled release time and planning
together as an indicator of a PLC. I allocated time within our shared non-contact
time (collective administration time without children), where we collaboratively
developed a research question, made plans for gathering data, engaged in
reflections and discussions, and finally evaluated the research outcomes to inform
our next steps and practice. The value in how the team was intrinsically motivated
to achieve self-initiated changes was evident in feedback at the end of the process.
One participant stated, “We gained some new knowledge about what research is
and the process. We collaborated together, shared readings and had meaningful
discussions. It brought ideas out in the open, fired up thinking and developed
shared understandings. It was a team effort. Taking small steps made it meaningful
and not overwhelming.” Another said, “I enjoyed the collaboration of the
inquiry/research process and hearing different thoughts, it felt supported.” This
makes it evident to me that the process of breaking down the goal into small steps,
planning to be intentional in our professional learning and working together to
develop shared understandings and be a community of professional learners is how
team leaders can motivate others into being self-initiated learners.
The final thoughts and feedback on the process identified how the process
allowed the participants to feel that they were empowered and had a leadership
role. Shared leadership was a factor also identified by Thornton & Wansbrough
(2012) as a characteristic of a professional learning community. As we reflected,
the following thoughts were shared: “It is about... collaborative learning and
sharing the workload, promoting leadership and empowering us all promoting
deeper learning.” This was important to me as a leader as this meant the teachers
would use this knowledge in their own personal appraisal goals. They had indeed
moved from seeing their learning as an external expectation to us all being part
of a professional learning group where showing an inquiring habit of mind was
valued as much as trust and respect for each individual (Hargreaves & Fullan,
2012; Timperley, 2011). n
CLICK HERE FOR REFERENCES
VICKY WILSON is a team
leader in the early childhood
sector. She completed a
Master of Teaching and
Learning in 2011 focusing
on ICT and assessment.
She has a strong interest in
values-based leadership to
empower others to inquire,
reflect and grow.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
DR. LEON BENADE is Director
of Research in the School of
Education of AUT University.
The main focus of his current
teaching is at the postgraduate
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REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AND APPRAISAL:
A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AUT SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Dr. Leon Benade
level, teaching ‘Educational
Research’ and supervising a
number of Masters and
Doctoral candidates.
His current research interest is
the influence of the notion of
‘21st-century learning’ on the
work of teachers and the
strategic actions of principals.
In his former life, he has had
many years in high schools as a
teacher and senior leader, and
before entering university life
was an educational consultant.
THIS BRIEF ARTICLE REFLECTS ON ONE ASPECT OF THE INITIAL FINDINGS OF
AN ON-GOING RESEARCH PROJECT. IN ANSWER TO SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE, SOME PARTICIPANTS SEE A STRONG RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AND APPRAISAL. I WOULD LIKE TO SUGGEST
THAT CRITICAL, COLLABORATIVE REFLECTIVE PRACTICE PRE-SUPPOSES A LEVEL
OF TRUST THAT IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH APPRAISAL.
THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNING PROJECT: Since September 2013, I have been engaged
in an on-going qualitative research programme framed by the following question: What is the
influence of the concept of ‘21st-century learning’ on the work of teachers and the strategic
actions of leaders at a selection of New Zealand schools? I have understood the concept of
21st-century learning as the demand for the curriculum to be a carrier of skills, competencies,
dispositions and attributes required for young people to become 21st century citizens.
This demand is paralleled by a shift to digital pedagogies, increasingly enacted in flexible
learning spaces, and is supported and advanced by both current government and Ministry of
Education thinking and policy-making.
To date, twenty-three participants have been interviewed. These consist of six principals,
five leaders of ICT/e-learning, five teachers of long experience and four teachers with under five
years’ experience. These participants represent four primary schools and two secondary
schools. The schools have been selected either because they are established as ‘futurefocussed’ schools, with modern learning environments (MLE); they are traditionally designed
(single-cell classrooms), but with upgraded MLE, or happen to be moving decisively down the
route of BYOD (bring your own device); they are traditionally designed and continue with a range
of pedagogies, in which ICT is but one element among many others. In all cases, schools have
been selected that have a history of effective practice, as identified by the Education Review
Office. In addition, three ex-leaders, still working in education, but not attached to individual
schools, were interviewed as a focus group. One of the areas of focus has considered teachers’
reflective practice in relation to 21st-century learning, which is claimed to make fundamental
demands on teachers to be reflective practitioners.
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Growing leadership potential 15
My participants conceptualise reflective practice as both individual and
collaborative, valorising close questioning, being enacted in writing and discussion.
Technology enables reflective activities not previously possible, though reflection is
not attributed to the emergence of technological tools. Their refection often has a
narrow focus on ‘what works’, and the ‘teaching as inquiry’ model of teacher
reflection presented in The New Zealand Curriculum, which is not well understood
by all participants. Engagement in reflective practice assumes certain dispositions.
This brief article reflects on one slice of the initial findings in relation to reflective
practice, namely the relationship some participants see between reflective
practice and appraisal. This selection of findings is related to comments made
by 11 participants: four principals, two ICT/e-learning leaders (who are also deputy
principals), one new teacher, one experienced teacher and the focus group of three
ex-leaders. Apart from the focus group, the participants represent two secondary
schools (one futures, one traditional now implementing BYOD), and three primary
school (one futures, one traditional with new MLE added, one traditional).
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
‘Reflective practice’ is taken here to mean the on-going, regular and persistent use
of reflective tools to engage, individually and collectively, in critical thinking about
various aspects of practice. Practitioners should be able to look back, but also be able
to reflect on their immediate practice of the moment, and to project into the future.
Reflection should encourage practitioners to problematise, confront and challenge,
and should lead them to create plans for just action. By implementing these plans,
practitioners hope to effect significant and meaningful change to the circumstances
of people and situations closest to them.
From this definition, we can see that the practitioner must have specific skills and
relevant theoretical and practical knowledge, in order to do reflection. Many writers
say that writing, such as journals, diaries or blogs, is critical, and will improve
reflective activity (see Argyris & Schön, 1974; Brookfield, 1995; Bryan & Recesso, 2006;
Freidhoff, 2008; Larrivee, 2000; Reid, 2004; Smyth, 1992). Being able to engage with
theoretical literature about reflective practice allows practitioners to name the
general elements of their practice and to give their practice a wider socio-economic
and political context (Brookfield, 1995). Most importantly, reflective practitioners
must develop and display dispositions to be reflective. They must be disposed
to testing their personal assumptions and beliefs and the evidence for holding
them (Dewey, 1910). Further dispositions are the willingness to collaborate with
others, and to invite their feedback, to question their own practice, and to
commit to change.
Many of these ideas were reflected in the discussions I held with the participants.
A key idea I took away from reading many of the transcripts, is that reflective
practitioners, if they are to live up to some of the ideas above, will also have to
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
AUT UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH
AUT research areas that
lead to inventions, new
products and services
improvements in people’s
lives and society thinking
and acting differently.
The result - to advance
economic and social
development throughout
Asia and the Pacific.
They conduct this research
with the help of
government, business
and the wider
community.
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display certain qualities of character, and one of these is courage. This is because
of the requirement that one be deeply critical of one’s own assumptions and
beliefs, and that one test these in public contexts, and in collaboration with
others. For instance, many of the participants on whom this article is based,
referred to the importance of practitioners being open and transparent about
their successes, but especially their failures. Thus, Eric (principal, futures
primary school) said, “reflective practice [means] staff supporting and
challenging each other’s learning and teaching. What’s going on in the space?
How is it working? What’s not working?” For those working in MLE contexts,
transparency and openness is a physical reality (that is, teaching happens in
the open, or in teams in large open spaces with as many as 80 students).
For example, Quentin, a new secondary teacher, made this observation of the
benefits of collegiality in a MLE:
“…feedback is regular and on-going. And it’s not always pats on the
back, it’s like, ‘let’s talk about the elephant in the room’ or ‘let’s talk
about how this really went’. Having that here in the room and that trust
and that relationship with that person, you can actually have those hard
conversations that - in a traditional model, if you didn’t have that
conversation, you might have it once a year at appraisal time, which
is a meaningless, pointless task.”
Quentin’s comments allow me to segue into the core of my interest in this
article, because of his reference to both trust and appraisal. I will discuss the
question of trust shortly. With regards appraisal, common to the eleven
participants, around whose comments I have written this article, is that they all
found a way of associating reflective activity with appraisal, but they did so in
slightly different ways.
APPRAISAL AS A DEVICE TO ENCOURAGE REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
Brian (ex-principal), Eric (principal, futures primary school), and Dianne
(ICT/e-learning leader, futures secondary), each saw appraisal serving an
instrumental purpose in igniting, activating or validating reflective practice.
For Brian, his appraisal system was run so that teachers would be encouraged
to read literature that would challenge their thinking about a futures orientation;
to meet their appraisal requirements, Eric’s staff keep a reflective journal; while
Dianne believed a more rigorous approach to appraisal would mean it “could
be a tool [to] encourage more...reflective [activity].”
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS A TOOL OF APPRAISAL
Several participants, namely Eric, Harold (principal, traditional primary school),
Teresa (principal primary, mixed traditional and MLE), and Tracey (experienced
teacher, secondary BYOD school), referred to the ways and means the product
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 17
of reflective activity becomes ‘evidence’ that ‘counts’ towards appraisal. In a
number of cases, this took the form of journaling or online postings (such a
e-portfolios), which could serve to both support the appraisal process and also
indicate satisfactory performance against Registered Teacher Criteria. Eric had the
view that reflective activities gave “some real purpose to appraisal”. This included
using reflective writings to pinpoint areas of personal weakness requiring support.
Harold used teachers’ reflective writing to ensure the staff all had a shared
understanding of the principal’s strategic intentions for the school, through their
individual goal attainment.
TRUST AND VULNERABILITY
I indicated earlier that courage is a quality of character practitioners require to
engage in the kind of open, critically collaborative reflective practices suggested by
the principals, Nick (futures secondary school), Eric, Harold and Teresa. Harold,
for example, mentioned that what was “important to [him] about reflective
practice…was having a viewpoint, having an idea, wanting it tested, being prepared
to take feedback on it.” Nick spoke of the important role of a formal ‘critical friend’
practice at his school, requiring teachers to pair up and discuss issues, and later
journal the discussion. Courage is required because of the public nature of making
both successes and failures apparent and transparent. Courage is implied in the
significant trust one would have to place in others, and participants Nick, Quentin
and Dianna specifically referred to trust.
Trusting is an attitude, according to McLeod (2011) that requires being vulnerable
to others, thinking well of others and being optimistic that the trustee (the one
being trusted) has certain capabilities. To be willing to allow ourselves to be
vulnerable requires us to be confident that the trustee is both competent and
committed to do what is required. O’Neill (2013) says, slightly differently, that the
trustee must be honest, competent and reliable. I will go with McLeod, however,
who argues that reliability is linked to disappointment, rather than betrayal, which
is the effect of broken trust. There is a further reason I think reliability is not enough
to build a relationship of trust: this is because reliability can be ensured by placing
certain conditions over the trustee to carry out a task as agreed. The problem,
however, is that the greater the restrictions, the less it can be said that a trusting
relationship pertains.
This is where the appraisal system comes in: it is a form of contract that requires
the person being appraised to meet certain requirements to the satisfaction of the
person doing the appraising. In critiques of the neoliberal state, it is said that the
state adopts a ‘low-trust model’, and this is especially true of accountability systems
(of which appraisal is an important part). Dianna captured this really well, when
she said the following:
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“I think the trust comes in with, if it’s a light hand or a heavy hand on the
tiller, in terms of the external appraisal model. I think if it’s more like a
partnership, that’s actually quite a high trust model, rather than someone
coming in to...judge you on [a] one-off occasion, that’s a low tick box.”
Now while the principals were hopeful of a ‘high trust model’ (for example,
Eric, who sees “reflective practice...[as] just a natural part of staff supporting and
challenging each other’s learning and teaching,” and Nick, who encourages
“a culture of respectful critique,”) the reality may be differently experienced by
others. The problem I see in principals linking reflective practice to appraisal is that
reflective activities revolve around collaborative sharing, demanding high-trust,
with no repercussions, whereas appraisal is at best an evaluation of performance,
at worst, evidence for retributive action against teachers.
While these comments are at odds with notions presently current, such as the
idea of appraisal as a formative learning opportunity rather than as a summative
assessment of teachers’ work, clearly there continues to be the view of appraisal as
a low-trust, ‘tick-box’ annual performance. This is a view I have heard from my
participants, and, I note, in Justine Driver’s small-scale study into ‘teaching as
inquiry’ (2011). So, to sum up: reflective practice requires a high-trust environment,
where teachers can be fully open, especially about their failures and successes, in the
knowledge that their colleagues have the competence to assist and support them,
and are willing to do so. The important question is how honest (meaning critically
self-reflexive) teachers will be when they know the results of their reflections will be
captured in their appraisals, potentially as evidence of (non) performance. n
THIS IS AN
interactive
publication
REFERENCES:
Argyris, C. & Schön, D. A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.
Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Bryan, L.A. & Recesso, A. (2006). Promoting reflection among science student teachers using a web-based video analysis tool.
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 23(1), 31-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402454.2006.10784557
Dewey, J. (1910). How we think. Boston, MA: D C Heath. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/howwethink000838mbp
Driver, J. (2011). Teaching as Inquiry: Understandings and challenges towards a professional way of being
(Unpublished MEdLM thesis, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand). Retrieved from
http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/1828/Justine%20Driver%20MEdL%26M.pdf?sequence=1
Freidhoff, J.R. (2008). Reflecting on the affordances and constraints of technologies and their impact on pedagogical goals.
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 24(4), 117-122. DOI:10.1080/10402454.2008.10784597
Larrivee, B. (2000). Transforming teacher practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice,
1(3): 293-307. DOI: 10.1080/14623940020025561
McLeod, C. (2011). Trust. E.N. Zalta (Ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/trust/
O’Neill, O. (2013, September 25). What we don't understand about trust. [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://blog.ted.com/2013/09/25/how-to-trust-intelligently/
Reid, A. (2004). Towards a culture of inquiry in DECS Government of South Australia, Department of Education and
Children's Services, http://arrow.unisa.edu.au:8081/1959.8/137989
http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/learnerwellbeing/files/links/link_72576.pdf
Smyth, J. (1992). Teachers' work and the politics of reflection. American Educational Research Journal, 29(2), 267-300.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8312%28199222%2929%3A2%3C267%3ATWATPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L
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Growing leadership potential 19
STUDENT VOICE SYMPOSIUM
VISITING WMIER PROFESSOR Susan Groundwater-Smith
On 30 September, over 50 participants gathered together at Innovation Park,
Hamilton for a one-day symposium focusing on ‘student voice’ in schools.
The symposium was co-sponsored by the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational
Research (WMIER) Waikato University, the Institute of Professional Learning
and the NZEALS Waikato Branch Each of these groups was well represented
along with a range of teachers who had put aside a day of their holidays to
participate. Not only that but Year 6 students and their teachers from Matangi
School were actively involved for the day.
Before turning to some highlights it is important to consider why there has been
continuing and increasing attention being paid to the ways in which children and
young people can contribute to and participate in decision making in schools.
Children, as human beings, are said to possess the same rights as all people. This
assertion is recognised by The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child declared in 1989. The Convention sets out a broad range of rights in addition
to the universal human rights shared by everyone. Children are defined under
Article 1 of the Convention as including ‘every human being below the age of
eighteen years’. The Convention is comprehensive and entitles children to a broad
range of rights including, inter alia, the right:
• to express views in all decisions that affect them and the opportunity
to be heard in any court or administrative proceedings;
• to freedom of expression and the right to seek, receive and impart
information of all kinds;
• to have their best interests treated as a primary consideration in all actions
concerning them, including decisions related to their care and protection ;
• to free education available on the basis of their capacity; and
• to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health and an adequate
standard of living.
In 1989, governments
worldwide promised all
children the same rights by
adopting the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of
the Child, also known as the
CRC or UNCRC. These rights
describe what a child needs
to survive, grow, participate
and fulfil their potential.
They apply equally to every
child, regardless of who
they are or where they
come from. The CRC is the
basis of all of Unicef's work.
It is the most complete
statement of children’s
rights ever produced and
is the most widely-ratified
international human rights
treaty in history.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
SUSAN GROUNDWATER-SMITH
is co-author of two books
related to eliciting
student voice:
Participatory research with
children and young people.
Engaging with student
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In particular, Article 12 states that every child has the right to say what they think
in all matters affecting them and that they should be heard. New Zealand ratified
the Convention in 1991 but had already been working hard in the area having
established the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 1989 with a responsibility
to advocate for the interests, rights and wellbeing of children and continuing to act
in this role to this day.
The Rights of the Child has particular ramifications in schools in that listening to
young people and acting upon their concerns has consequences for a wide range of
policies and practices. Over the years a number of models have emerged that
outline the levels of participation with which children and young people can be
engaged. Shier’s (2001:110)1 model is particularly useful in considering children
and young people’s involvement because it embodies the nature of commitment
required for a project to be successful. He argues that there are five levels of
participation, namely: 1) Children are listened to; 2) Children are supported in
expressing their views; 3) Children's views are taken into account; 4) Children
are involved in decision-making processes; and 5) Children share power and
responsibility for decision-making. He goes on to argue that at each level of
participation there are three stages of commitment: openings, opportunities and
obligations. Openings are where there has been a commitment or statement of
intent to work in a certain way. It is only an opening, because at this stage, the
opportunity to make it happen may not be available. At the second stage, an
opportunity occurs when the needs are met that will enable the young people to
operate at this level in practice. These needs may include resources such as the
provision of time, skills and knowledge (maybe through training), development of
new procedures or new approaches to established tasks. Finally, an obligation is
established when it becomes the agreed policy of the school that the young people
should operate at this level. Throughout the symposium attention was paid to such
notions associated with participation and related matters including the exercise
and distribution of power in schools.
voice in research, education
and communities:
WORKING WITH THE METAPHOR OF ‘BRIDGES’
Beyond legitimation
and guardianship.
An organising metaphor for the symposium was the concept of the bridge.
While the bridge is a bounded object, it nevertheless varies in size, composition,
structure and function. A bridge is composed of heterogeneous materials and
traversed by diverse parties for different purposes. The symposium connected the
concept of the bridge to the ways in which consulting and researching with young
people can provide an authentic bridge between teaching and learning, between
teachers and learners. To this end participants viewed a series of images of bridges
ranging from fragile, floating bridges to massive structures such as San Francisco’s
Golden Gate bridge. These they linked to their own perceptions of the relationships
between teachers and students regarding their learning.
1. Shier, H. (2001). Pathways to participation: Openings, opportunities and obligations. Children & Society, 15 (2), 107-117.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 21
MATANGI SCHOOL
To remain faithful to the motivation for the symposium, ‘listening to student voice’,
the presence of young people was seen as essential. They were to be there not as
some kind of token presence, but to act as the ‘expert witnesses to their own
learning’. They also presented the key note address for the day.
The students introduced themselves via a video that had been created by the
whole school. It had taken two terms in the making and was full of dynamic images
and great music. It demonstrated the positives of school life; a comfortable learning
environment; and, a range of sports and arts based cultural activities. Students saw
that there was an element of risk-taking that allowed them to try out new ideas that
they were then able to communicate in a wide range of ways. They also saw that
their school had high expectations. Key words for the school were: respect,
resilience, relationships and responsibility.
Students attending the symposium reported that they enjoyed the opportunities
to be listened to and not just heard. They expected and wanted to be involved from
the very beginning, “students know what students want,” and they were prepared
to lobby for increased funding for technology and innovation. Throughout the
presentation they used powerful and specific language. Their ‘takeaway message’
was that teachers have to listen to students and involve them in their learning.
Students should interact with teachers more and discuss their learning. It is
important that everyone trusts each other, and that teachers are open to the ideas
that students may have. Furthermore, throughout the day, facilitated by Janine
MacKay, students exchanged their perceptions with the symposium attendees by
joining in and leading roundtable discussions.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
A number of speakers addressed the symposium including:
• Emily Nelson, who has just successfully completed her doctorate at the
University of Waikato in relation to an investigation of students’ perceptions
of their achievements and their need to connect with their teachers; she
characterised students and teachers as “pedagogical partners”;
• Roseanna Bourke, Victoria University, whose work focuses upon
student voice in relation to learning, self-assessment and motivation.
Her key question for discussion was “what do children have in their minds
when they speak of learning?”;
• Sarah Te One, an independent consultant concerned with advocacy for children’s
rights across a range of human services, who raised important matters of ‘who
participates’ and for ‘how long’. Too often, consultations are with the young
people who are articulate and capable, leaving the more vulnerable children
silent and at the margins;
• Sandy Harrop and Gaynor Terrill, as professional learning consultants with the
Institute of Professional Learning, argued for ‘shifting the balance’ from a
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transmission model of learning to one in which students are enabled to discuss,
clarify and reflect on their learning; and
• Rachel McNae, from the Faculty of Education, University of Waikato and
senior lecturer in educational leadership and initial teacher education, discussed
youth-adult partnerships being enabled to engage in sustained conversations
and the ways in which appreciative inquiry can be employed to document the
significant benefits of authentic dialogue.
RETURNING TO THE CONCEPT OF BRIDGES
SUSAN GROUNDWATER-SMITH
is the convenor of the
Coalition of Knowledge
Building Schools whose
purpose is to engage in
ongoing, systematic
practitioner inquiry. She has
supported a large number of
other schools as an academic
partner introducing them to
innovative methods of inquiry
with a particular emphasis
upon student voice and the use
of images in capturing young
people's perspectives on their
learning experiences.
Susan collaborates with the
Audience Research Unit at the
Australian Museum assisting in
consultation with students and
teachers regarding actual and
planned exhibitions. She works
with a range of universities in
Australia, the United Kingdom
and the Netherlands.
On reflection at the end of the day it was argued “how powerful the bridges
metaphor had proven to be’. In conclusion, we turned to a remark made by Jurgen
Habermas, a renowned social philosopher, who commented on the democratic
bridge of communication being “almost devoid of traffic”. We found in the
discussion throughout the symposium that we have images of bridges thronging
with connections between young people and those who educate them.
As a means of summarising the outcomes of the symposium, the doings, sayings
and relatings of the day were compared to a series of bridge-building exercises that
is to be engaged in:
• Building bridges between and among students as ‘pedagogical partners’ who
can meaningfully contribute to planning for, executing and assessing learning;
• Building bridges with children’s thinking that provides conditions and
opportunities for children to better articulate the ways in which they
engage with their learning;
• Building bridges that make for different perceptions of the pacing of teaching
and learning in the classroom, recognising tension between providing for
the need for reflective ‘silence’ and the need to move things along;
• Building bridges between the strategic thinking of the school with
understanding the diverse needs of the students;
• Building bridges between learning in school and out of school by
recognising that children may learn differently under different conditions
and pressures for achievement;
• Building bridges across existing practices so that well-established
and defensible practices are recognised and affirmed;
• Building bridges to provide connection with metapractices, that is those policies
with which teachers are obliged to engage such as dealing with national
standards or bridging key competencies with the principles of student voice;
• Building bridges between children’s services - education, social work
and health, seeing that each of these impacts upon the other;
We finally recognised that bridge-building that brings students’ and teachers’
voices together is hard work - challenging and confronting. It involves, respect,
responsibility, reciprocity, trust, risk-taking and resilience. n
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Growing leadership potential 23
TWELVE THOUSAND HOURS:
EDUCATION AND POVERTY IN
AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
BOOK REVIEW
Dr. Paul Potaka
EDITED BY VICKI M. CARPENTER & SUE OSBORNE, DUNMORE PUBLISHING, AUCKLAND, (2014)
The contributors to this book are key New Zealand writers and thinkers in the field of education and
poverty. Reasons for our contemporary schooling's inequitable outcomes are examined and critiqued.
The editors of Twelve Thousand Hours (Carpenter & Osborne, 2014) present us
with an unsettling reminder of the devastating effect poverty is having on the lives
of many New Zealand children. For some, this book will be an uncomfortable
revelation. For others it will confirm many of their existing ideas. For everyone,
our understanding of the perceptions held concerning poverty, and its relationship
with educational underachievement will be enriched.
The editors are clear about their position on poverty. “For too many children,
the effects of wider systemic inequalities have a negative impact on their education.
Those who live in poverty are less likely to reach their academic potential...” (p13).
Through a wide range of perspectives this book tells the stories of the
disadvantaged and their struggle to achieve equity as government responsibility
towards its poorest has been gradually abrogated. It also considers the role of
education in that struggle, asks ‘where to next’ questions and posits productive
areas for consideration in the quest for an improved future for those likely to face
the devastating effects of poverty and underachievement in education.
An interesting feature and strength of this book is the use of critical theory to
analyse poverty and its relationship to educational opportunity. The themes of
the book align very much with the ideas of Freire (1972) and Bourdieu (1993).
Contributors to the book have also successfully built on the work of New Zealand
researchers such as Bishop (1999), Boston (2014).
There are three parts to this book; through eight wide-ranging chapters
the first introduces us to the issues around poverty and education.
Ivan Snook and John O’Neill address three important questions: What is
the relative contribution of home and school to educational achievement?
To what extent can achievement be improved by changes to educational policy?
Can education policy alone close the achievement gaps or is the answer to be
found elsewhere? Their conclusions are not surprising and offer a challenge to
current political ideology.
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
DR. PAUL POTAKA is the
principal of Nelson Central
school in Nelson. He is also
a member of the Human
Rights in Education (HRiE)
Trust board. He was
a researcher in the
New Zealand phase of the
International Successful
School Principals Project
and has been a contributor
to the Journal of
Educational Leadership,
Policy and Practice.
His research interests
include educational
leadership, curriculum
design and implementation,
and, human rights
in education.
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Manuka Henare challenges our mental frameworks with the provocative statement
that current measures of well-being do not adequately measure the well-being of
Maori and Pasifika. He affirms the existence of poverty, outlines the consequences
for those in forced poverty, and suggests that a structure of inequality exists and is in
danger of perpetuation unless action is taken to change our current trajectory.
Donna Wynd discusses food-in-schools programmes that offer possibilities for
alleviating child poverty, but questions whether or not they signal the emergence
of a new space for the practice of a broader, more progressive politics (p67) and
that the door has been opened for emergency social entrepreneurs. This raises the
question: who really stands to benefit from their actions?
Martin Thrupp, in his contribution - ‘deficit thinking and the politics of blame’
- outlines the nature, uses and consequences of deficit thinking. He believes that
overstating valid concerns can lead to co-option for political purposes and warns
that ‘a blanket approach to deficit thinking is likely to be counterproductive’ (p99)
and that the issue to be addressed is a structural and political one.
Diane Mara believes that education policies and programmes have ‘resulted in less
than the intended improvement in Pacific educational success’ (p102) often due to
lack of improvement in health, housing, employment and other social indicators.
She believes that a deficit position continues to inform some aspects of policy aimed
at Pasifika achievement and that ‘more nuanced and authentic definitions of poverty
are needed, including the voices of those concerned’. There needs to be a concerted
effort to implement innovative and collaborative processes to move away from deficit
paradigms and into ‘comprehensive strength-based and creative responses’ (p120).
Vicki Carpenter says, “While there have been small and positive changes in levels
of achievement amongst children in poverty, progress overall has been minimal”
(p123). She focuses on what successful teachers do to make a difference to the lives of
children living in low socio-economic circumstances and advocates context related or
dialogical reforms of professional development for teachers. This, she believes is
where ‘pedagogies of hope’ can flourish and make a difference to student
achievement.
In part two, six research contributions from teachers and post graduate students
take us to the experiences of those at the heart of disadvantage. They provide the
details that help readers understand the reality of those in poverty and make
important links between their situation and educational opportunity. The examples
are wide-ranging and give insight to the diversity of what it means to live in poverty.
They are very useful vignettes in terms of illustrating the complexities of poverty and
its relationship to education. The contributions in part two raise another important
question for us: is there more to know about the phenomenon of poverty and its
relationship to education?
Readers will be enriched through perspectives on alternative education; the belief
that all schools can be ‘turned around’; understanding the potential power to be
unleashed through engaging pre-service teachers with poverty and disadvantage;
increasing communication between governance, management and the community;
helping principals to get in touch with the diversity in their communities; recognising
and accepting the view that Maori failure is due to schools, teachers, parents,
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 25
socio-economics, colonisation and peers, and resolving to engage in dialogue with
stake holders to resolve ‘situations’ where they exist; and, making genuine efforts to
achieve equitable outcomes for Pasifika students.
Through the experiences of researchers and field workers, part three gives us
what we need - hope that there is a way forward. We need to think about how we
might best use the twelve thousand hours of schooling available to us. Several
projects presented in part three provide that hope.
Anne Milne’s experience of starting a school designed to address the needs of
children hitherto unsuccessful in traditional schooling has become a national success
story. There are lessons here for those who work with children suffering poverty.
The Starpath Project promotes student success in secondary schools serving low
SES communities. It identifies structures and processes that limit student academic
progress and replaces these with practices that could help them.
The Nga Rangatahi Toa Creative Arts Initiative has been designed to address
and reverse “the harm perpetrated by the universal rangatahi experience of being
‘shaped’ in an image not of their own making” (p247). This project involves students
in reshaping their present and hopefully their future. Community cultural
development projects, public events and innovative partnership models encourage
and help students to develop even stronger platforms for success.
The Manaiakalani Initiative is a collaborative innovation to facilitate schools
and low decile communities working together to address the needs and interests of
children. The success of this project has been reported widely and many people
have seen its success for themselves.
Peter O’Connor believes the true measure of public education is not in individual
achievement but in the success of participatory democracy (p263) and that “the
neoliberal assault on public education creates communities without hope” (p263).
That is a situation that has to be reversed if children and their families are to have
a decent future.
There is nothing oblique about the way the editors lead us through the many
forms and shapes poverty takes. Their writing serves to remind us that we are not
as egalitarian a society as we might like to believe. Many of the ideas presented in
part three are anecdotal and untried on a large scale but are successful in meeting
their goals.
One area where the book could have been strengthened would have been to
include a wider range of examples of promise and success from early childhood
education onwards. Early intervention can be so important; waiting until children
are older simply makes the task of rescuing those in poverty so much harder.
This book has been released at a time when interest in poverty and its relationship
to education has been heightened, firstly as part of campaigns in the recent general
election, and secondly with the release of a new UNICEF report that concludes child
poverty rates in New Zealand have been static since 2008 while other similar sized
countries have experienced a fall. I am sure this won’t be the last word on the subject
of education and poverty in Aotearoa; there are too many daily reminders for that to
happen and books such as this will continue to keep the issues in front of us. n
CLICK HERE FOR REFERENCES
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SAVE THE DATE!
18 MAY 2015
NZEALS is delighted to
bring to New Zealand
Lyn Sharratt
on Monday 18 May,
for a full-day workshop in
Auckland: Putting Faces on
the Data followed by a
book launch of Lyn’s new
book Good to Great to
Innovate with co-author
Gail Harild. Details will be
sent to members soon.
ACEl CONFERENCE: Hilton Sydney 30 September - 2 October 2015
setting the learning agenda:
courage and comMitment to lead
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE ANZAC The 2015 ACEL National Conference
commemorates the centenary of the ANZAC spirit. In our pursuit of excellence,
educational leaders are courageous and committed.
Courageous and committed leaders:
• Act decisively, empowering others to utilise their talents,
remain focused and to make a difference.
LYN SHARRATT’s background
includes cumulative
experience as teacher,
curriculum consultant,
teacher-trainer, public
education policy analyst,
superintendent of schools,
and superintendent of
curriculum and instruction.
Currently, Lyn is an
Associate at Ontario
Institute for Studies in
Education at University of
Toronto, where she
coordinates the Ed.D.
cohort in Theory and
Policy Studies.
• Innovate boldly, respecting tradition and remaining future-focused
and relevant in the pursuit of a vision.
• Make decisions fearlessly, standing firm on what is important
and what makes a difference.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS A powerful program of world-class thought-leaders including: Wendy
Kopp, CEO and co-founder of Teach For All; Robert J. Marzano, CEO of Marzano Research
Laboratory; Michael Full, worldwide authority on educational reform; Jan Robertson, senior
research fellow in the University of Waikato Faculty of Education’s Institute of Professional
Learning; Yong Zhao, internationally respected scholar, author, and speaker; Andy Hargreaves,
Thomas More-Brennan, chair at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College.
SPACES ARE LIMITED SO BOOK EARLY ACEL member rates are available for NZEALS members.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION FORM • CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 27
NZEALS
NZEALS BRANCHES: SUPPORTING
LEADERSHIP THROUGHOUT NEW ZEALAND
2014 HIGHLIGHTS Ann Briggs
NZEALS’ eight branches sustain regular face-to-face contact between educational
leaders, giving opportunity for knowledge-building, discussion and support on a
year-round basis. Many branches also offer online discussion and networking
between meetings, sustaining strong links across the the educational sector.
Highlights of recent and upcoming branch meetings are as follows.
AUCKLAND The topic for the August meeting held at Auckland Girls’ Grammar
School was Special Education and Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities. The invited
panel of researchers and practitioners in special education presented a wealth of
information and expertise that stimulated interesting discussion amongst the
63 attendees. All sectors were represented in the panel with Bronwyn Glass,
Head Teacher, Botany Downs Kindergarten; the Learning Support Team,
Waterlea Primary School; Dr. Dawn McKintyre, HOD in Learner Support,
Rosehill College; Judy Selvaraj, Educational Psychologist. It was encouraging
to see new faces amongst the attendees and a greater number of colleagues
from the secondary sector.
BAY OF PLENTY Jeff Johnson, Education Director of the Asia New Zealand
Foundation, spoke at the September meeting about opportunities for leaders that
are available from the foundation. Bay of Plenty’s treasurer has benefited from a
number of trips to China, as well as exchange trips with his students as part of a
global learning focus. Branch members had a good opportunity to consider links
for their schools and students through the foundation.
CANTERBURY A political panel forum was held in late August at the University of
Canterbury. Barry Brooker took a lead role in organising this event. Coinciding with
the first leaders debate televised later that evening, discussion included: qualified
teachers in early childhood, national standards in primary schools, class size, and
Investing in Educational Success (IES). On the panel: Joanne Hayes, National;
Megan Woods, Labour; Dora Langsbury, Green Party; Beverley Ballantine, Internet
Party.
NELSON A research forum was held in late October to support those undertaking
or considering educational leadership research in their own institutions. This was
led by branch members Annie Henry, Mike Milstein, Paul Potaka, Bradley Hannigan
and Ann Briggs - all internationally experienced in research, and in working with
new researchers. The meeting explored the research-based needs of the forum
participants, and leaders from Nelson Central School shared their experience of
applying research methods to inquiry-based learning. Follow-up discussion
groups will give further support to participants.
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OTAGO Dr Ross Notman’s Visiting Scholar presentations in November, both in
Dunedin and Invercargill, will offer the branch an opportunity to create a more
extended learning opportunity than just a single workshop. Having a ‘local’
visiting scholar means that these sessions can be used as an igniter for sustainable
conversation, either as follow-up sessions or electronic sharing forums.
TARANAKI In Term 4, the branch will be holding two workshops. Transitions across
the sector appear to be a hot topic at the moment. The next branch meeting will
focus on developing a shared position on transitions between early childhood to
primary, and primary to secondary school. In late November, a workshop will be
offered as part of the Visiting Scholar series, with the possibility of an additional
workshop for principals. The last workshop will also involve the annual meeting.
JOIN NZEALS
TODAY
The New Zealand Educational
Administration and
Leadership Society (NZEALS)
promotes and supports quality
leadership for learning across
all educational sectors. To find
out more go to nzeals.org.nz
or to join simply click here.
Complete your details
and pay the subscription
online, or download a form
if you prefer to make direct
debit or cheque payments.
WAIKATO In late September a student voice symposium was held in a 3-way
partnership with the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research (WMIER)
Waikato University, and the Institute of Professional Learning. The international
speaker was Susan Groundwater-Smith (her report is on page 19). Seven students
from Matangi Primary School gave both the opening keynote and ran the
roundtable discussions. Fantastic feedback was received saying how powerful the
messages were. Definitely a thing to do again next year!
WELLINGTON Bernard Beckett, an award-winning author of novels for children and
young adults, was the guest speaker at the Term 3 meeting. Bernard’s awards
include the 2005 and 2007 New Zealand Post Book Awards Young Adult Fiction
category, and the 2005 Esther Glen Award at the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards.
Bernard led the meeting with a focus on ways in which schools can support
students to develop critical thinking skills. His expertise and knowledge was
appreciated by a small group of mostly high school teachers. In November,
Wellington branch is looking forward to the values-based leadership workshop
presented by our NZEALS Visiting Scholar, Ross Notman.
VISITING SCHOLAR An important element of branch meetings in Terms 3 and 4 was
the Visiting Scholar tour, carried out in 2014 by Ross Notman of Otago University.
Ross’s topics were firstly, ‘What makes a successful school principal?’ based on
research findings from the 20-country International Successful School
Principalship Project, and secondly, ‘Leading high-needs schools in New Zealand:
Challenging cases,” drawing on preliminary New Zealand case studies of the 8country International School Leadership Development project. This covers a range
of urban and rural contexts, including leading during the traumatic circumstances
of the Christchurch earthquake. The third topic was a hands-on workshop on
values-based leadership, where attendees identify their own set of personal and
professional values; how these values align with their school/organisational values;
and how conflicting values might play out in a chosen critical incident. The Visiting
Scholar tour is part of NZEALS’ commitment to providing high-quality leadership
development in all of our regional bases. n
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Growing leadership potential 29
FOCUS ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
TWO BOOK REVIEWS
Dr. Richard Smith
ARA MAI HE TETEKURA - VISIONING OUR FUTURES:
NEW AND EMERGING PATHWAYS OF MAORI ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP
Edited by Paul Whitinui, Marewa Glover and Dan Hikuroa. Contributors include:
Paul Whitnui, Marewa Gover, Dan Hikuroa, Selwyn Katene, Malcolm
Mulholland, Nathan Matthews, James Ataria, Melanie Mark-Shadbolt, Simon
Lambert, Meegan Hall, Heather Gifford, Amohia Boulton, Melanie Cheung,
Phillipa Pehi, Reremoana Theodore, Margaret Forster, Katarina Gray-Sharp,
Piki Diamond, and Renei Ngawati.
Paul Whitnui (an Associate Professor of Māori Teacher Education at the University
of Otago College of Education), Marewa Glover (the Director of the University of
Auckland’s Centre for Tobacco Control Research) and Dan Hikuroa (an earth
scientist and Research Director for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga based at the
University of Auckland) are all fine scholars in their respective fields of academia
and they have come together to co-edit an excellent book on Māori academic
leadership - a field that has not often been written about so this makes and
incredibly valuable contribution to this area. The back cover informs us of the
following:
With less than two percent of the total Māori population holding a doctorate,
the need for Māori leadership planning in academia has never been greater.
The purpose of this book is to present the experiences of new and emerging
Māori academics as a guide for others to follow.
In 2010 professor Sir Mason Durie oversaw the creation of the Te Manu Ao
Academy at Massey University, designed to advance Māori academic leadership.
In partnership with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the course looked to develop
participants’ thinking around effective leadership principles, values and ideas.
This book grew from that programme, in response to the need to create the space
for new and emerging Māori academic leaders to speak openly about what
leadership means both personally and professionally.
Ara Mai He Tētēkura is further evidence of the breadth and sustainability of a
new generation of Māori leaders. Mason Durie KNZM.
I am a Pākehā academic in a wānanga Māori higher education institution Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi (TWWoA). Along with well-known Māori
colleagues Graham Smith, Cheryl Stephens and Hine Waitere we are currently
developing a one year postgraduate qualification in indigenous leadership.
This book will make excellent core reading. It has an introductory chapter followed
by 13 additional chapters: 1) He Toka Tūmoana: Māori leadership within the
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academy; 2) A commentary on the changing landscape of Māori leadership:
Historical, contemporary and future perspectives; 3) Principles over pinstripes:
developing and leading Māori academics; 4) ‘Capacity and the cusp’: Māori
academic leadership in iwi development setting; 5) Te manaaki ngā Kaiārahi Māori:
looking after Māori leaders; 6) Caterpillars to butterflies: learning to lead with tika,
pono and aroha; 7) Te Ara Tika ki te Ranagatiratanga: Embracing Māori academic
leadership in today’s Māori teacher education world; 8) Mahitahi: interconnectedness and leading together; 9) Kaitiakititanga as environmental leadership;
10) Kia Āio: Manaakitanga and academia; 11) Art education: A portal to the
knowledge of two worlds; 12) Māori leadership in the academy: A scientist’s
perspective; 13) The challenges of nurturing Māori success: Is it my job or am
I just the ‘lecturer’?
This is indeed an impressive line-up. All contributions are well written,
informative and passionate. However, perhaps signalling my bias as an academic,
four in particular stood out for me. The first chapter by Nathan Matthews, Chapter 3
by Meegan Hall, Chapter 7 by Paul Whitinui and the one by Dan Hikuroa (Ch. 12).
That is not to say the contributions by the other eleven scholars were not as good.
An excellent text and a ground-breaking one, the editors, the contributors and
their mentors, and the programme from which the book was forged are all to be
congratulated for a fine piece of scholarship. My one point of consternation,
however, was that was there were no contributions written in Te Reo. Whilst
I understand this is to be a text for mainstream institutions as well as Māori
academies and wānanga, it is sad that none were included. I urge the editors to
consider this for future editions. I rate it an excellent 10/10. n
RESEARCHING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT:
METHODS AND APPROACHES
Edited by Mark Brundrett and Christopher Rhode
This second text is harder to review in a number of ways as it is written by
well-known UK educational leadership scholars Mark Brundrett (Professor of
Educational Research at Liverpool John Moores University), and Dr Christopher
Rhodes (a Senior Lecturer in Education in Educational Leadership at the University
of Birmingham). To be honest whilst it is a very good and clearly written text, the
larger, thereby more comprehensive book Research methods in educational leadership
& management (2012, co-edited by our own NZEALS scholar Professor Ann Briggs,
with Marianne Coleman and Marlene Morrison) is much better. That said, I will
try to review the current text as ‘objectively’ and dispassionately as possible.
The text is organised in three sections, each with four to six chapters.
Part 1: Preparing to carry out research on educational leadership contains
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
Growing leadership potential 31
Chapter 1) Introduction: key issues in research on educational leadership; 2)
Theories on educational leadership; 3) Ensuring reliability, validity and
‘trustworthiness’ in research; and 4) Reviewing existing ideas to develop a
conceptual framework. Part 2: Designing and using research tools for educational
research covers six chapters which highlight research approaches,
or cover using specific research techniques including: Chapter 5) Developing a
sample; 6) Questionnaire research; 7) Interviews and focus groups; 8) Using
observation ; 9) Documentary analysis; and 10) Action research and practitioner
enquiry. The final section, Part 3: Analysing data and reporting the findings of
research in educational institutions, consists of the following four remaining
chapters; Chapter 11) Analyzing quantitative data; 12) Analyzing qualitative data;
13) The uses of leadership research; and 14) Conclusion: writing reports and making
sense of outcomes.
This small text is pragmatic and straight-forward and is written in a non-technical
way - which makes it useful for practitioners or those new to research. It has a range
of useful tables and figures. These are the features I liked about the text. However,
I also found it somewhat limited in orientation, and perhaps again highlighting my
own biases a little, there was no chapter on case studies, a method used in a lot of
educational research. There was also no chapter specifically related to the
undertaking of a critical literature review.
Each chapter begins with a text-box providing a useful overview and aims of
the chapter, and I liked the sections at the end with suggested further reading.
There were also text-boxes of specific studies offering overviews and advice these, too, were a helpful addition.
The book is chatty and designed, in my opinion, with early career researchers and
postgraduate students as its target audience. For the most part it is a good text
which will serve these domains well. However, for the more serious educational
leadership scholar it is more of an introductory text, and whilst still useful, it is not
comprehensive enough in its coverage of different research techniques, and its
coverage of ethics and ethical issues is scant. For these reasons and the fact that
there is no mention of indigenous research in the index I score it a 6.5/10, and
suggest saving your money and investing instead in the more wide-ranging
text by Ann, Marianne and Marlene. n
REFERENCES:
Briggs, A., Coleman, M. & Morrison, M. (Eds.). (2012). Research methods in educational leadership
& management. London: Sage Publications/
Brundrett, M. & Rhoades, C. (2014). Researching educational leadership and management.
London: Sage publications.
Whitinui, P., Glover, M. & Hikuroa. (Eds.). (2013). Ara mai he tētēkura: Visioning our futures. New and emerging
pathways of Māori academic leadership. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press.
DR. RICHARD SMITH is is an
Associate Professor in the
School of Indigenous Studies
at Te Whare Wānanga o
Awanuiārangi in Whakatāne.
He teaches and researches
in the areas of educational
leadership and policy and is
on the Council for NZARE.
Richard also sits on the
editorial boards of a range of
Aotearoa New Zealand and
international journals.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS | ISSUE 4 | 2014
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT - A POWERFUL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR?
by Linda Bendikson; p 7
Bamburg, J. D., & Andrews, R. L. (1991). School goals, principals, and achievement. School Effectiveness
and School Improvement, 2(3), 175-191.
Bendikson, L., Hattie, J., & Robinson, V. M. J. (2011). Assessing the comparative performance of secondary
schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 49(4), 443-449.
Education Review Office. (2009). Managing professional learning and development in secondary schools.
Wellington: Education Review Office.
Firestone, W. A., & Herriott, R. E. (1982). Prescriptions for effective elementary schools don’t fit secondary
schools. Educational Leadership, 40(3), 51-53.
Lee, V. E., & Smith, J. B. (1996). Collective responsibility for learning and its effects on gains in achievement
for early secondary school students. American Journal of Education, 104(2), 103-147.
Robinson, V. M. J., Hohepa, M., & Lloyd, C. (2009). School leadership and student outcomes: Identifying
what works and why. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development.
Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Weick, K. E. (1976). Education organization as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science
Quarterly, 21(21), 1-19.
FROM HIDING TO SEEKING: BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
by Vicki Wilson; p 11
Dalton, J & Anderson, D. (2010). Learning Talk: Build understandings. Victoria: Hands on Educational
Consultancy Pty Ltd.
Dalton, J & Anderson. (2013). Learning Talk: Develop the art of inquiry. Victoria: Hands on Educational
Consultancy Pty Ltd.
Hargreaves, A. (2004). Inclusive and exclusive educational change: Emotional responses of teachers and
implications for leadership. School Leadership and Management: Formerly School Organisation.
24 (3), 287-309. Retrieved 30 July, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1363243042000266936.
Hargreaves, A & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. New York:
Teachers College Press.
Thornton, K & Wansbrough, D. (2012). Professional learning communities in early childhood education.
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 27 (2) 51-64.
Timperley, H. (2011). Realizing the power of professional learning. Berkshire: Open University Press.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
BOOK REVIEW: TWELVE THOUSAND HOURS by Dr. Paul Potaka; p 23
Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture counts: Changing power relationships in education.
Palmerston North: Dumore Press.
Boston, J., & Chapple, S. (2014). Child poverty in New Zealand. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books.
Bourdieu, P. (1993). Language and Symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Carpenter, V. M., & Osborne, S. (Eds.). (2014). Twelve Thousand Hours: Education and poverty in
Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Dunmore Publishing.
Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Penguin. n
NZEALS LEADING LIGHTS
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LEADING LIGHTS: ARTICLE
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE 3 February 2015
The Editorial Committee would like to encourage you to provide an article
for Leading Lights, which might outline new policies and programmes, legislation,
trends, developments, research or education debates in your own locality.
We are seeking short articles (500-1,500 words) and photos for forthcoming
issues of the magazine. Your topic should be relevant, of professional interest
to educational leaders in New Zealand, and based on your own area of
interest/expertise. You should keep in mind current issues and developments
in educational leadership.
We are also seeking papers of emerging findings from educational leadership
research being carried out by post-graduate students. If you are seeking a
publication opportunity for your work this is a great place to begin. Longer
papers are published on the NZEALS website: Members’ publications.
Your target audience is cross-sector leaders throughout New Zealand.
A brief outline of the context of your education setting would be useful for
readers. Any recommendations you might make to readers, based on your
experience, knowledge or research, would be most appreciated.
Articles should be emailed directly to the Editorial Committee at
juliette.nzeals@gmail.com as attached Word files or as plain email messages.
Please also include a one-paragraph ‘about the author’ section and attach a
head and shoulders photo of yourself as a separate file (high resolution jpeg). n
2015 SUBMISSION DEADLINES: 3 FEBRUARY • 3 MAY • 3 AUGUST • 3 NOVEMBER
Leading Lights
Editorial Committee
Juliette Hayes
Richard Smith
Ann Briggs
Annette Sheehy
Graeme Macann
Paul Potaka
Leading Lights
Editorial MANAGERS
SALTMINE DESIGN
Hugh & Fi McCafferty
fi@saltmines.co.nz
NZEALS
New Zealand Educational Administration and Leadership Society
nzeals.org.nz
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Courageous and Committed leaders:
•
Act decisively, empowering
others to utilise their talents,
remain focused and to make a
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•
Innovate boldly, respecting
tradition and remaining futurefocused and relevant in the
pursuit of a vision.
•
Make decisions fearlessly,
VWDQGLQJȴUPRQZKDWLV
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NZEALS COUNCIL DIRECTORY
Growing leadership potential 1
The NZEALS Council is elected by the membership at the biennial NZEALS conference, or co-opted to a certain
portfolio, and reflects the cross-sector nature of the society. Council members hold key portfolios for the services of
NZEALS, and meet bi-monthly by tele-conference to progress strategic work. Questions or ideas may be directed to
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SECTOR
EMAIL
JULIETTE HAYES
National President
Secondary
juliette.nzeals@gmail.com
JEREMY KEDIAN
Immediate Past President
Tertiary
kedian@waikato.ac.nz
DOUG MILNE
National Treasurer
Consultant
charliemarmite@xtra.co.nz
SANDRA HUNTER
Finance Officer
ANN BRIGGS
National Secretary
Tertiary
ann.briggs@ncl.ac.uk
MAGGIE OGRAM
Auckland Branch President
Educational Coach
maggie@ospreyconsulting.co.nz
MELANIE TAYLOR
Bay of Plenty Branch President
Primary
principal@goldensands.school.nz
ANDY WALKER
Canterbury Branch President
Tertiary
andy.walker@intueri.co.nz
PIP WELLS
Nelson Branch President
Primary
principal@tasman.school.nz
MURRAY FLETCHER
Otago Branch President
Educational Coach
fletchermurray4@gmail.com
JASON ELDER
Taranaki Branch President
Primary
jason.elder@norfolk.school.nz
RACHEL MCNAE
Waikato Branch President
Tertiary
r.mcnae@waikato.ac.nz
ANNE LYE
Wellington Branch President
Primary
annel@churtonpark.school.nz
ROSS NOTMAN
Member at Large
Tertiary
ross.notman@otago.ac.nz
ANNE MALCOLM
Member at Large
Primary
amalcolm@ponsprim.school.nz
ANNETTE SHEEHY
Member at Large
ECE
annette.sheehy@taurangakindergartens.org.nz
CED SIMPSON
Member at Large
ECE/Primary /Secondary
ced.simpson@hrie.net.nz
KATE THORNTON
Co-opted Member 2014
Tertiary
kate.thornton@vuw.ac.nz
sandra@astraaccounting.co.nz