Examining the systemic approach to the development of education leadership

Introduction

In the context of the ever-evolving landscape of education in India, the role of effective education leadership has gained increasing recognition. As a result, we see an upward shift in organizations working on systemic reform and education leadership. This connection between effective education leadership and school transformation encompasses some key areas.

These include establishing clear goals and vision for the school, cultivating leadership capabilities within the school leaders, promoting continuous teacher professional development, and many more. This article draws insights from our practical experiences and some scholarly research to establish the relationship between leadership elements and their impact on school transformation.

The common trap: balancing system reforms and school transformation

The recognition that societal challenges like education need to be addressed with a systemic lens has been present for over a few decades. However, the recent few years have seen a surge in the efforts that governments and CSOs have taken on this front. This has led to leadership, governance, policies and other such factors in improving school performance being increasingly recognized and focused on. Sometimes governments and civil society find themselves focusing too much on these “system” level factors.

In a small exercise done in a university, students were divided into groups. Each was given the role of a stakeholder in education, such as parents, teachers, school leaders, teacher mentors, etc. They were asked to discuss the school development plan. In each of the groups, there was also an observer. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, the role of this observer was to count the number of times references were made to how children’s lives would improve because of some efforts taken to improve the school. Most groups tended to not talk about children and their lives. This was precisely because they simply assumed that all efforts were for that goal.

Now if this dilution of goal can happen even at a school level, imagine the challenges that organizations and governments face. Think about your own organization. How many times do conversations mention children? How often do children’s experiences and their lives come into everyday conversation? In the pursuit of school improvement, many organizations have set their sights on implementing system-wide reforms. This is a common trap. We focus on improvements in layers above the school. We often do not have a clear logic for how these finally impact the school.

When organizations fall into the common trap, the focus shifts away from the core purpose of education: the holistic development of students. Instead, energy and resources become directed towards bureaucratic compliance, paperwork, and rigid protocols. As a result, the original vision of meaningful school transformation becomes clouded, and the potential impact on student learning diminishes. To avoid this trap, organizations must consistently remind themselves of their initial purpose and reevaluate their strategies considering their mission. While system reforms are undoubtedly important, they should also serve to facilitate the desired transformation in schools.

Thinking first mile

Constantly enabling everyone to think school first helps ensure that all our efforts are truly aimed at the goal. Additionally, this focus enables the following aspects. It helps align all actors toward a common goal, a common area of convergence of multiple interventions. While there may be initiatives and interventions for different stakeholders, it is important to have a common vision for how these impact schools – as at the end of the day it’s just four common stakeholders who make the magic happen: teachers, school leaders and administrators, students, and parents.

It also helps if all actors connect to the purpose of their everyday work, which sometimes may seem removed from schools. “Thinking school first” brings agility and agency to actors by helping them focus on the goal, and not just immediate interventions and activities. The latter may change over time or adapt to achieve the goal of school improvement.

Education leadership: a critical element in school transformation

Schools with high levels of student achievement typically have education leaders who set high expectations for students and teachers. They create a culture of collective leadership that encourages the active participation of teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders in decision making processes. This collective approach ensures that the notion of academic success for all becomes a shared vision within the school. Education leaders ensure that this vision underpins a schoolwide learning improvement agenda focusing on specific student progress goals. This vision provides a clear direction for the school, aligns all stakeholders, and motivates them toward achieving a shared goal.

Research conducted at the universities of Minnesota and Toronto and seven other cities in the US in 180 schools demonstrates a strong link between effective education leadership and improved student achievement. Principals who establish high expectations for students and teachers and pay attention to various measures of student success are more likely to lead schools with higher levels of achievement. Furthermore, they foster a culture of collective leadership where teachers and other stakeholders actively engage in the decision-making process. Effective school leadership is instrumental in creating conditions where various individual factors combine to impact student achievement significantly (Louis, Karen Seashore, et al., 2010). Principals and district leaders exercise a substantial influence on school decisions, which reinforces the importance of their leadership in the pursuit of educational excellence.

Teacher motivation and increased competence are crucial factors that influence student outcomes. Effective education leadership plays a significant role in enhancing teacher motivation, which is found to have the strongest relationship with student achievement. Moreover, leadership strengthens the professional community within the school. Teachers’ engagement in this professional community enables the use of instructional practices associated with improved student achievement.

Leadership practices targeted directly at teachers’ instruction have notable, albeit indirect, effects on student achievement. When school leaders share leadership responsibilities with teachers, it leads to stronger working relationships. This, in turn, contributes to higher student achievement. Creating a supportive school climate, underpinned by professional community building, encourages student effort beyond what individual classrooms can offer. (Louis, K. S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K. L., Anderson, S. E., Michlin, M., & Mascall, B., 2010)

Stories of education leaders enabling school improvement

To illustrate the significance of education leadership in school improvement, here are a few stories from our experience of working with education leaders where they enabled positive changes in schools, classrooms and communities.

Story 1 – reading campaign in Bihar: In 2022, over 20,000 schools implemented reading-focused projects across the state of Bihar, under the “Padhe Bihar, Badhe Bihar” campaign. These projects were implemented by teachers and school leaders of the schools, with support from multiple leaders across the state education system. State level institutions like SCERT developed the concept and ideas, and mobilized others. District offices and DIETs supported schools and nudged through reviews and recognition.

Story 2 – learning spaces at home in Tumakuru: In 2021, over 22,000 parents set up small learning spaces at their homes to support children through the period of school closures. This was enabled by 1,000+ schools supporting parents through Parent-Teacher Meetings, among other means. Cluster Resource Persons supported leaders and teachers in implementing the parent-teacher meetings and seeing the significance of engaging parents. The DIET in Tumakuru conceptualized, planned and implemented the entire program

Story 3 – Nali Kali in Anekal block: In 2022, over 200 teachers took on a challenge of revamping their classrooms into more “print rich” environments, and teaching in a more activity-based manner. All of this was possible because of a Block Resource Coordinator (BRC) who noticed that schools in their block could be more inviting for students, and teaching practices more innovative. The BRC didn’t stop at noticing the problem. They went on to develop the capacity of teachers through workshops. Then they regularly provided coaching support through classroom observations.

Story 4 – teacher coaching in Punjab: In 2020, teachers at secondary schools in Punjab showed an improvement in how interactive their classrooms were. This included using more teaching-learning material in classrooms, increasing student participation and voices in the lesson, and incorporating more peer and group work. Teachers were supported by regular coaching and mentoring by Block and District Mentors across the state.

School visits had always been a key role of these mentors. However, they would earlier have less clarity about what needed to be observed in the schools. Their observations were also not being properly recorded anywhere. This is what the Department of Education observed. It took on an initiative to develop digital tools which the mentors could use to record and track their observations. This helped them plan their school support in an effective manner.

In conclusion

As these stories would have demonstrated, school leadership has a key role in facilitating a facilitative school culture, in building teachers’ capacities and motivation, in improving learning outcomes, and creating connections with communities. Effective school leadership might be the missing link that can help us transform schools into spaces that honor teachers’ agency and support effective student learning.

References

1. Louis, K.S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K.L. and Anderson, S.E., 2010. “Investigating the links to improved student learning.” The Wallace Foundation.
2. Louis, K.S., Dretzke, B. and Wahlstrom, K., 2010. “How does leadership affect student achievement? Results from a national US survey.” School effectiveness and school improvement, 21(3), pp.315-336.