01 : 770 (NET)
Dr. Cathryn Smith & Mr. Eric Sagenes
Summer 2021 (Term 2)
Issues and Trends in Educational Administration:
Developing Agency, Identity and Capacity as Teachers, Leaders and Facilitators of Adult Learning
Course Outline
Course Overview
01:770, Issues and Trends in Educational Administration: Developing Agency, Identity, and Capacity as Teachers, Leaders and Facilitators of Adult Learning, was an elective course taken in the summer of 2021. Like the previous course spring course, it was an intense, accelerated class completed in 13 days. The course focused on leading and facilitating professional learning through two lenses: 1) strategies to ensure that learning is engaging and meaningful, and 2) how to support the development of teacher agency with thoughtful leadership practices. We attended online Zoom classes for six full days, with a significant number of daily readings, reflections, and course work to complete. Assignments included a self-assessment on social justice teacher leadership, reflective journal entries, a brief presentation, and action proposal.
This was easily the most intense course of my program, but it remains one of my favourite. Dr. Smith and Mr. Sagenes engaged us with rich, thoughtful discussions related to leadership styles, re-evaluating our place in the education system, and how to engage fellow educators with professional learning. Each evening, there were four (or more) articles that needed to be read for the following class and I found many of them to be full of complex and challenging ideas that tackled concepts I had not given much attention to previously. In particular, the articles and class discussions focused on cultural position and equity – which forced me to look at the systems that have historically marginalized people of non-western cultural identities – were incredibly thought-provoking. Since this course, I have found myself re-examining the school system in an attempt to identify areas that could inadvertently be preventing students and teachers from achieving the success they otherwise could. Additionally, much of the course material encouraged me to focus deeply on how to engage with educators who are less inclined to “get on board” with new teaching practices and professional learning. This course was so well-rounded with its content, that it prepared me for many of the ideas that would be presented in further leadership courses in the graduate program. As I stated earlier, it remains one of my favourite courses on my Master of Education journey.
Artifact 1
USING STORYBOARDS TO FACILITATE INQUIRY PRESENTATION
This brief presentation asked me to reflect on using “focused and deep collaborative inquiry,” one of the textbook’s Deliberate Acts of Facilitation (Le Fevre et al.), through the technique of designing storyboards (Liberating Structures). This PDF of the power point I prepared includes a summary of what “focused and deep collaborative inquiry” is in the context of working with teachers, as well as an explanation of the protocols related to the use of storyboards to facilitate adult learning. After this information was given, the group that I was presenting with put these two techniques into practice. I asked group members to focus on an area of concern and then use storyboarding, along with focused collaborative inquiry, to explore our concerns. Evidence of our conversation is included in the power point chart. Finally, group members were asked to reflect on the use of storyboarding and how it could support collaborative inquiry in their schools.
I particularly enjoyed this assignment for two reasons. The first was that it asked me to engage in a brief, 15-minute facilitation of learning with fellow educators. It was an opportunity to practice the very concepts we were learning about in class. Following the assignment, not only did I engage in self-assessment related to how my presentation went, but I also received constructive feedback from group members to support my growth in facilitating adult learning. The second was that each member of our group had to present on a different Deliberate Act of Facilitation and delivery technique than me. As such, I was exposed to a variety of combinations that supported adult engagement with professional learning, while also reflecting on how successful each combination was in achieving the presenter’s goal. It became clear that some formats were easier to implement than others. Some styles may have been more challenging, but they were also more impactful in specific situations. As a teacher, I often consider what format will best support my students with their learning when I am planning lessons. This assignment ensured that I start to consider what learning technique will best support fellow educators with their engagement of new learning.
Artifact 2
FOSTERING COLLABORATIVE INQUIRY AND COLLECTIVE EFFICACY TO IMPROVE STUDENT OUTCOMES: AN ACTION PLAN
The final assignment of this course was to take the learning that we had engaged in and create an action plan that could be carried out in whatever role we hold in our schools. Included with the assignment is the “action plan organizer” that I prepared ahead of time, which included some background information on my particular role/context, the theory and action I planned to implement, how I planned to assess its success, and what next steps would occur. I then outlined my plan with specific details, drawing on the research that I explored throughout the course and how to use the Direct Acts of Facilitation studied in our course textbook (Le Fevre et al.).
This was a particularly challenging assignment for me, but one that was incredibly rewarding. The first challenge came from the fact that we had tackled a vast amount of information in such a short period of time. Therefore, I did not feel like I had fully wrapped my head around many of these ideas just yet and was still figuring out exactly how I would apply them exactly. The second challenge was that I would be starting a new teaching role in a different school in the coming fall. I was leaving my grade 4/5 role at a school I had taught in for seven years and would, for the first time, be teaching a grade 7/8 class in a much larger school with a population of over 1000 students. I had not yet met the students or teachers that I would be working with and did not yet have a sense of the school’s culture or collective challenges being addressed. However, I did know that I wanted to explore the impact that collaborative inquiry would have on collective efficacy. Therefore, my action plan focused on taking some time to identify areas of concern in the first few months at this new school before entering my solo plan of action and then, eventually, the team plan of action. I focused specifically on how I could use the concepts of teacher leadership, collaborative exploration of an issue, and team planning to tackle whatever issue we identified as needing our attention. What I found most appealing about this action plan was the “next steps” part. This highlights that our work, as educators, is never really finished. While we may take steps to improve student success, we can never stop there. There is always more that we can do to support the students in our care. As a future school leader, this also means that there is more I can do to support the teachers – and thus, the students – in my care.
