How to best address the professional learning needs of those aspiring to leadership roles in schools is a crucial issue. Robust evaluation practices are needed to determine the quality of current provisions and to identify where improvements can be made. This paper considers the quality of professional learning programmes using a set of 10 criteria distilled from a synthesis of compelling international leadership learning research. We show the potential of the 10 criteria for judging the quality of professional learning programmes by applying them to examples of programmes drawn from five countries around the world. These examples provide a launching pad from which questions can be posed about the potential use and applicability of such criteria in making design decisions about the quality and value of professional learning programmes in a range of national and international contexts.
IntroductionThe primary purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to understanding the elements of high-quality professional learning programmes appropriate for the preparation of those readying themselves for future leadership roles. The paper is structured in four parts. First, we argue the need for a set of robust practices to evaluate the quality of the current provision of professional learning programmes for aspiring leaders. Second, we describe our evaluation of one professional learning programme and our use of a set of 10 criteria drawn from international research that we considered helpful in making judgements about programme quality. Third, we present these criteria and, using examples drawn from local and international programmes, illustrate their potential for judging the quality of professional learning programmes. Fourth, we consider the potential use and applicability of these criteria as a research-validated framework for making design decisions and determining the quality and value of professional learning programmes in a range of contexts. The paper concludes with some comments on key components of programme design to enhance the leadership learning of aspirants.
EFFEcTIvE PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN PARENTS, teachers and the community have universally been heralded as crucial to improving young Indigenous Australians' participation in early childhood education and their literacy development. This study of one remote preschool setting identifies the features that successfully framed familyschool and community-led partnerships there. Our account is based on reported experiences with Parents and Learning (PaL), a long-established program, and Mums n Bubs, a recent initiative in the community preschool. Mothers said they felt empowered when equal value and respect were accorded to them as key participants in what we have described as a 'yarning space'. This was a jointly constructed space and an intercultural strategy centred on the preschool where everyone listened carefully and respectfully to each other, helping to build and lead a literacy learning community. The co-researchers were privileged to be invited into this space to hear the mothers speak with pride of their achievements.
The starting point for this article is the lack of a robust research base regarding details of what works and why for school leaders' professional development. The article extends work undertaken for a recent commissioned literature review of selected international reports on supporting school leaders' development strategies. The authors reveal that the leadership learning landscape seems to be one where system provision over-shadows individuals taking personal responsibility for their leadership learning. In an endeavour to create a balance between system and individual agendas, the authors have created an augmented version of a leadership learning heuristic tool originally developed by Clarke and Wildy. The tool is designed as a starting point only, intended to help leaders identify the state of their current knowledge about leadership as well as their future professional development needs using the tool's five focal points -pedagogy, people, place, system and self. An example of the tool completed by a practising principal is used to show his current leadership knowledge profile and the knowledge fields on which he will need to focus his learning in the future. The authors conclude with suggestions for further research on personal agency in school leadership learning.
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