1. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 1Event Name and Venue
Building leadership capacity for
school improvement: is
professional capital the answer?
Professor Howard Stevenson
School of Education, University of Nottingham
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3rd June 2013
2. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 2
Collaboration in action:
The Collaborative Learning Initiative
www.pdstcli.wordpress.com
5. The CLI-cycle . . .
Identify a
problem
Investigate it . .
.
Do something
about it . . .
See if it worked
. . .
Share what
you learned . . .
6. Research ‘the triumph of evidence over anecdote’
(Mortimore, 1999)
Improvement occurs when people are not put on the defensive. It
starts with questions in your mind about what you are doing and
accelerates when you share them with others engaged in the
same enterprise. (Brighouse and Woods, 1999)
‘What works?’ is not the right question. Everything works
somewhere, nothing works everywhere. Under what conditions
does it work? (Wiliam, 2006)
CLI – made simple . . .
7. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 7
CLI values:
• Teachers at the heart of change
• Collaborative working and collective
responsibility
• Equality within and across participating groups.
• Valuing professional judgement and expertise
• Research-informed and research-engaged
• Partnerships - teachers, advisors and students
• Knowledge creating and knowledge sharing
8. Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Event Name and Venue 8
CLI and the reflective practitioner . . .
• Examines, frames, and attempts to solve the
dilemmas of collective practice
• Is aware of and questions the assumptions and
values that underpin our teaching
• Is attentive to the institutional and cultural contexts in
which we teach
• Takes part in curriculum development and is involved
in school change and efforts
• Takes responsibility for our own professional
development
(from Zeichner and Liston, 1996: 6)
9. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 9
CLI – effective because . . .
• It engages with teachers – driven by their
concerns
• Involves collaborative working
• Grounded in the classroom
• Sustained over time
• Driven from within, supported from without
• Drives change from below, supported from
above
10. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 10
CLI – developing teacher leadership
through professional voice . . .
• Agenda setting
• Problem-solving
• Planning
• Communicating
• Co-operating
• Analysing
• Confidence building
11. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 11
CLI – support from above. . .
• Learn to let go
• Trust
• Encourage
• Value and celebrate
• Problem-solve – remove obstacles, don’t create them
• Believe
• Resource – create time
• Work with – ‘our’ project, not ‘your’ project
• Challenge – upwards and downwards
12. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 12
CLI – it’s all about the questions . . .
It starts with a question . . .
. . . there is no answer . . .
. . . just more questions
. . . but questions that create conversations that
look for answers (that drive change . . . )
13. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 13
Alignment: Schools as models of the
educational process – critical reflection and
inquiry
Organisational
Learning
Teacher Learning
Student Learning
• Inquiry-driven
• Openminded
• Critical
• Reflective
• Collective
• Dialogic
14. Wednesday, June 05, 2013 Event Name and Venue 14
In conclusion . . .
Mobilise the power of teachers collectively . . .
Develop professional and teacher leadership . . .
Privilege democracy (participation) over
accountability (surveillance) . . .
Value hope and ambition over compliance and
conformity
15. The relationship between teacher and pupil is active and
reciprocal so that every teacher is always a pupil and every
pupil a teacher.
Antonio Gramsci The Prison Notebooks (1971:350)
thankyou
howard.stevenson@nottingam.ac.uk