Session Information
26 SES 11 C, Educational Leadership for Diversity and Equity
Paper Session
Contribution
The main theme of this project, funded by Leargas (Ireland) 2019-1-IE01-KA201-051528, was to support schools to engage with the bigger questions that frame the context of education and specifically to exlpore a more explicit and nuanced consideration of diversity, equity and democracy in leaders and teachers professional learning (Lumby, Crow & Pashiardis,(2008), Netolicky, D (2019) This part of the project had two objectives (i) enhance leaders and teacher knowledge base with respect to the three themes (two of which are considered in this paper ie.e diveristy and equity) by co-constructing a suite of action learning sets that would frame seminars designed to facilitate interprofessional dialogue on these issues and (ii) to work in a ways that would break down any barriers, either real or imagined, between the knowledge that exists in research and scholarship and the pedagogy of practice in schools. In working towards this objective we started from where schools were and in particular, where students were at in their thinking (Ruffin and Simon 2022). This baseline research work in the schools provided a real-time, picture of what was happening in each school. The student views, in particular, resonated with the teacher groups in the action learning set development sessions. When teachers and leaders witnessed quotes from students as to how they saw/ experienced these themes they recognised their roles in the development of these topics among themselves as professionals and in their own classroom practice. The team recognised the need to target the minds and hearts of the participants. In some cases, this involved a change of mindset, in others the need was more in the development or awakening of nascent mindsets. We knew we had ambitious expectations for transformative outcomes but we were not naive enough to think that working through an action learning set on diversity, for example, was going to change the world. We had hoped however that it might begin to change the questions asked and the assumptions that gave rise to these questions. Formative evaluations of an action learning sets therefore focused on picking up these changes and shifts in ideas and thinking. This paper will present finding from the school based case study on how leaders, teachers and students viewed diversity and equity, it will then outline the methodology used to scaffold the seminars with leaders and teachers and finally will present evidence of shifting ideas and thinking among leaders and teachers. It was important to recognise that issues related to these complex themes are not resolvable in a short timeframe however, once the initial commitment was made by the participating teachers the turn towards a more deliberative approach to an exploration of these themes started and consequently a more developed understanding was achieved by everyone who participated in the work. The next step was to recognise that the themes are difficult with inconclusive and evolving perspectives that will always be in flux - it was, therefore, essential to review ideas, change minds and revisit thinking this was achieved by the methodology and approach taken to the project activities.
Method
This was a phenomenological study of how best to work with school leaders on teacher on explicating difficult and contest topics that emerge in inter-professional dialogue as well as in classroom practice. Evidence was gather and collated using a qualitative and interpretivist approach with a high level of participant check in because the interventions (such as they were) were co- constructed with the participants. The study took place over a three year period which facilitated the development of bespoke interventions and ways of working that directly and positively impacted the outcomes. A series of formative and summative surveys containing open ended questions were used throughout out the project to capture key professional leaning outcomes. One of the key methods that informed the tone and trajectory of the action leaning set intervention was the focus that was placed on a development of a 'rights of the learner' approach originally developed in the field of mathematics education Kalinec-Criag (2017). This component of the methodology provides a compelling methodology for framing the exploration of the difficult, sensitive topics. Essentially, in the original research on mathematics, there were four rights (1) the right to be confused; (2) the right to claim a mistake; (3) the right to speak, listen and be heard; and (4) the right to write, do, and represent only what makes sense. The framework was originally intended to promote equity in the mathematics classroom and helps children and teachers to embrace productive struggle and mistakes as valuable steps in the process of learning mathematics (and learning to teach mathematics). We took these four steps as the core framework and added a fifth right i.e. the right to change one's mind and offer new revised ideas and opinions. This approach took the emphasis off particular content knowledge and ways of knowing and expressing this knowledge and instead placed a very explicit emphasis on developing knowledge, of not knowing everything, of a move aware from the binary right and wrong towards a more emergent type of knowledge and understanding (hooks, 2014) which is exactly where mindes set need to be in order to progress thinking and teaching when working with and on these themes.
Expected Outcomes
Qualitative data from the participants Key finding of the research on this professional learning initiative include: 1. The importance of trust building to develop a sense of shared mission with respect to the purpose of the initiative and the participation in the research dimensions of the study 2. The need to acknowledge the variety of individual response to ideas and discourses and to accurate this in the professional learning context 3. The efficacy of the methodology on the right of the learner in supporting the tone and timbre of the professional learning interactions
References
Lumby, J., Crow, G., & Pashiardis, P. (Eds.). (2008). International handbook on the preparation and development of school leaders. Routledge Netolicky, D. M.Transformational professional learning: Making a difference in schools. Routledge. Ruffin, Jean F. and Simon, Marsha E. (2022) "Developing Culturally Proficient Leaders Through Graduate Coursework: Examining Student Perspectives," School Leadership Review: Vol. 16: Iss. 2, Article 2. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/slr/vol16/iss2/2 Kalinec-Craig, C. A. (2017). The Rights of the Learner: A Framework for Promoting Equity through Formative Assessment in Mathematics Education. Democracy and Education, 25 (2), Article 5. hooks, b. (2014). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
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