Madeleine Clark Contemporary Teacher Leadership Paul Rooney

18063631 102098 TUT: 3pm, Wednesday (7A)

CONTEMPORARY TEACHER LEADERSHIP: ASSESSMENT 2 REFLECTION

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJErwy3V-Do&t=14s

The Contemporary Teacher Leadership course has arguably been created to foster the growth
of essential skills required when entering into the teaching profession. Dedicating a unit so
that the individual can focus on enhancing their collaborative and cooperative skills for the
benefit of future colleagues, potential schools and most importantly, the students, has
presented both challenges and progressions. Being presented with the task of designing a
project directed at school improvement has been an incredibly valuable opportunity for
developing this skill set. When Hairon and Dimmock (2011) discussed the importance of
having a “shared vision” (p. 417) in professional learning communities, I found it difficult to
visualise how this would work in the school setting. However, completing the CTL unit has
allowed me to realise the capacity I now have and the applicability of the skills I have attained
as a result of working with colleagues.

Senge (1990) defined a “learning organisation” as a place “where people continually expand
their capacity to create the results they desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking
are nurtured…and where people are continually learning to see the whole together” (in
Hairon & Dimmock, 2011, p. 406). Group “7A” consistently adopted this approach throughout
the semester, in terms of creating and obtaining the result we desired through the
orchestration of our team. Week after week we proved our ability to achieve the goals we set
as a group, whether it was through completion of the online posts or contributing to tutorial
discussions on Zoom. This placed the five of us in a good position when it came to the
beginning stages for designing our project.

Another central concept to this unit has been Frost’s (2013) notion of “teacher-led
development” (p.1) as being a vehicle for constructing “change through collaboration”,
“gathering and using evidence”, “experimenting with practice” and “transforming
professional knowledge” (p. 5). These four components were continually relied upon
throughout the assessment, as a means of ensuring our intentions and actions were aligning
with our end goal. This was a significant strength of our team, in being able to adapt to the
methodology of Frost, and in being motivated to act in the best interests of our students.
Madeleine Clark Contemporary Teacher Leadership Paul Rooney
18063631 102098 TUT: 3pm, Wednesday (7A)

Part of the rationalisation in choosing to prepare a sustainability project was that

“schools…engage young people in a school’s pragmatic social curriculum of learning to live
and work with others, including those who differ from them” (Starratt, 2012, p. 4). Based on
this finding, if teachers want student to learn how to “live” and “work” with others, it seems
that the only natural progression would be demonstrating these behaviours first between
colleagues, across faculties. Therefore, combining aspects of the curriculum for learning,
nurtures the development and maintenance of positive partnerships. This occurs through the
intertwining of Science, Mathematics, English and Food Technology to effectively
demonstrate to students, the importance of learning and the skills it fosters in preparing them
for life after school.

7A really demonstrated the ability to collaborate in the construction of our pilot program, the
No-Waste Café Garden. Individually, we all brought background knowledge and significant
skills to the table. In a collective sense, it was these skill sets that really complemented the
flow of developing the project, and in harnessing our knowledge to produce change for school
improvement. Marzano’s (2004) research underpins the importance of background
knowledge in supporting students’ capacity to learn new information. He says, “what
students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they
will learn new information relative to the content” (p. 1). Much of the work that needs to be
completed throughout the progression of this project is based on student understanding of
background knowledge. Connecting this background knowledge was imperative in the design
process of the project, to ensure that it was realistic and approachable for students. I believe
7A have achieved this together as a team.

A strength of 7A was the respect and regard we showed to one another whilst completing our
online tutorials, group meetings and in preparing our proposal (and now video). We have
always been able to come to a mutual agreement on a decision and run with the choice we
made. This again, goes back to Hairon and Dimmock’s (2011) discussing this idea of having a
“shared vision” (p. 417). I now understand that consulting one another, providing support to
one another and challenging one another are all behaviours that contributed to the success
of our “shared vision” (p. 417).
Madeleine Clark Contemporary Teacher Leadership Paul Rooney
18063631 102098 TUT: 3pm, Wednesday (7A)
The struggles that we faced as a time were mostly associated with the initial development of
the project idea. A definite obstacle was finding an appropriate policy as an example for us to
even develop ideas. A lot of the policies we did have access to were primary based, which
made it hard for us to visualise the scope of our project. Furthermore, trying to find one area
to focus on, proved difficult in attempting to find a topic we were all passionate about, and
wanting to make a significant change towards. We linked “sustainability” with the
development of school garden whereby the produce could be used to generate a lunchtime
café.

Developing the initial proposal was actually quite time consuming. We had just finished
Assessment 1, and were quite pressed for time over the Easter break. This made it really
difficult to find a block of time in which we could sit down and really focus on the direction of
the project. But as Starratt (2012) argues, school introduces students to “understandings of
civic life, as they learn how to govern themselves within an institution that engages in the
larger project of community self-governance”. Whilst he was speaking in terms of high school
experience, I definitely believe this applies to our group as university students also. As a
community of learners, we had to come together and make this assessment a priority, just as
Starratt suggested.

Learning what it means to be a “change agent” was a new concept that really resonated with
7A. I think each member of the group exemplified the ability to construct and carry out
changes within a schooling system, and potentially reap benefits through student interaction.
7A worked together positively within CTL to produce this project, with the intention of making
the education system a better place for students. I think we can confidently carry this skill set
across to our work in the profession in the near future.
Madeleine Clark Contemporary Teacher Leadership Paul Rooney
18063631 102098 TUT: 3pm, Wednesday (7A)
References

Frost, D. (2013). Teacher-led development work: a methodology for building professional

knowledge. HertsCam Occasional Papers: University of Cambridge
http://www.teacherleadership.org.uk/uploads/2/5/4/7/25475274/hertscam_occpap
ers_april2013(1).pdf

Hairon, S., & Dimmock, C. (2011). Singapore schools and professional learning communities:
teacher professional development and school leadership in an Asian hierarchical
system. Educational Review, 64 (4), 405-424. Doi: 10.1080/00131911.2011.625111

Marzano, R.J. (2004). “The importance of Background knowledge”. In Building Background

Knowledge for Academic Achievement. ASCD: Learn, Teach, Lead. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104017/chapters/The-Importance-of-
Background-Knowledge.aspx

Starratt, R.J. (2012). Cultivating an Ethical School. New York, United States of America:
Routledge. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uwsau/reader.action?docID=958657&ppg=1
8&tm=1546468517163