Education leadership practices
The experience of team teaching Years 9 and 10 at Cargill and Tweedsmuir Schools over a six-year period has provided many valuable insights into the challenges and benefits that team teaching offers. This article discusses some of the critical factors for successful team teaching in a middle school setting.
The quantity and pace of current learning agendas for staff development mean that time is seriously limited for teachers to share ideas and concerns about their classroom practices. Eight teachers using a quality learning circle approach show how their learning is enhanced through opportunities for structured, focused and regular talk with one another. This approach demonstrates teacher enthusiasm, commitment, and ownership of very successful learning journeys, using the National Education Monitoring Project reports as the central focus.
Leadership coaching with a professional partner assists leaders to be reflective in action, on action and for future action, resulting in knowledgeable practice.
Three significant shifts in the focus of educational leadership are considered in this article: from generic to educational leadership, from a focus on leadership style to practice, and from a heroic to a distributed perspective. These shifts mean that educational leadership occurs at many levels in the school and requires specific educational knowledge and expertise.
School improvement has been the dominant paradigm informing educational policy and practice for a generation. There is no doubt that it has had a significant impact on almost every aspect of educational life. School improvement represents a powerful hegemony that informs the development of policy at the national, local, and institutional level in many education systems. Much of the prevailing academic orthodoxy informing teaching and research is centred on school improvement.
At the beginning of 2005, Red Beach School staff and community began a re-visioning process. We took the time to ask such questions as “What do we believe our school stands for?” Four years down the track, the staff have more clarity about what we believe our students should leave Red Beach School equipped with. Most importantly, we want to build on early years’ experiences and continue to develop students’ learning capacity as they enter secondary education.
Starting teaching in a new country and a new culture is like being a beginning teacher again. If you come from a Confucian culture where teachers are automatically respected, the New Zealand classroom comes as a shock. How do teachers from Japan survive, adapt and thrive in New Zealand schools, and how can principals support them?
Three key messages:
