We inhabit a very complex world that constantly shapes shifts in its attempt to accommodate the unknown limits and possibilities of human agency. Within our burgeoning population, we inevitably witness a contrasting spread of opportunities, talents and aspirations.
Schools traditionally, have performed a critical role in helping bridge this proverbial gap. Espousing provides its pupils with a propensity to succeed by training them in essential skills, competencies and attitudes to propel their future academic study and help establish fulfilling careers.
Leadership in schools continues to be a central pivot, that determines the extent to which schools have succeeded in amalgamating societal expectations with their personal worldview of the learning culture they promote and nurture.
School Leaders of today, are familiar with both the complexity and the fast-paced nature of change that implores them to challenge the conventional understanding of what constitutes knowledge and therefore learning.
As educators therefore it is imperative that we recognize the abundance of useful knowledge that is curated to meet the diverse needs of our learners, especially when it is available beyond the four walls of a school. Embracing this complexity requires every school leader to reflect deeply on the changing nature of leadership and community. In doing so, we need to be critical about our present practice and demonstrate both adaptability and agility in helping build a strong culture of learning that values collaboration amongst and between, educators and students.
Research has constantly provided us with a bouquet of strategies, in every color and hue to meet the diverse leadership challenges that we face in our particular contexts and in our schools. Agile Leadership, is one such idea that is embedded in realism, with a clear understanding of the stiff challenge that confronts school leaders as they strive to lift student achievement in both literacy and numeracy, accommodate the diversity of learners in the classrooms through inclusivity and the need to constantly bring forth pedagogical innovations that achieve greater impact and meet the learning outcomes stipulated by the boards, governments or the society at large.
To navigate through the multiverse of complex challenges and exciting opportunities, school leaders must reflect upon deeply held beliefs that continue to manifest in schools. Such a change, would by design, require us to move further from a commonly held perception that – change is linear, simple and predictable.
As educators, we continually witness a definite shift in patterns of learning and therefore teaching. It is not uncommon to feel a sense of nostalgia when teachers discuss the changed nature of interest and attention span when analyzing student learning. The writing on the wall seems clear and presents a compelling case for teachers to examine and innovate their craft to effect improvements in student learning across a wide range of valued outcomes.
A significant first step in this direction is for all educators to appreciate that complexity can be understood and remedied only by a continual process of experimentation, learning and refinement.
There is an urgent need to understand that the dominant model of learning that is prevalent in most of our schools, promotes a transmission view of learning. Students in this prevalent worldview continue to operate as units separate from each other. The traditional outlook of this model is evident in the importance that it accords to standardized tests as a benchmark for evaluating learning while continuing to rely largely on the use of lectures as the primary mechanism for the transfer of learning. Most schools, very easily fit within the continuum of the ‘input-output model’, where the students are large recipients of transmitted information. Teachers, are required to set broad objectives for student improvement and as a group they are required to implement their plans effectively, constantly evaluating and making alterations if necessary to the pedagogies they employ. Synthesizing research on the effectiveness of this model, it is evident that it has not been very effective in developing skills and values essential for the personal development of students.
To address this inertia, globally, various school improvement initiatives that focus on student learning have been successful in personalizing the learning experience for the students through strategies that cater to the diversity within the classroom. Flipped Learning or the ‘Inverted Classroom’ and Project Based Learning which has gained in popularity, are among the many attempts to promote interactive group learning within the classroom and complement it with computer-based instruction that is direct to students outside the classroom.
Achieving this requires a shift in our perspectives and a willingness to re-design our curriculum and its outcomes around the learner. This also calls for a paradigm shift in the role of a teacher and in our understanding of school leadership.
The changing role of a teacher as a facilitator has been advocated by researchers and practitioners as a remedy to the fixed mindset view of schools, whose original purpose, especially in the Western world can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution. We can find ample references that promote the critical need for teachers to ‘facilitate’ learning within the classroom. Emanating from its roots in social constructivism, the dynamic role of a teacher is grounded in the idea of promoting collaboration and cooperation among peers for achieving deep learning. In the context of the connected world that we inhabit, the social environment interacts very closely with the conventional structure of a school. For teachers, it becomes critical that they reflect on their practice and understand that knowledge is flowing through the students and not delivered to them. They need to comprehend that the social field of learning encompasses, students and teachers in a spiraling circle of learning and reflection. Further, if the true purpose of education is to help humanity become better and solve real-world problems through innovation, teachers need to recognize that the motive of learning transcends mere self-fulfillment and attainment of personal goals, paving the way for an empathic model of learning.
Although, at first glance, it may appear to be too idealistic and surreal, it definitely strikes a chord in most of us, as it questions the fundamental purpose of education. Achieving parity, therefore requires a strong culture of learning and collaboration among teachers but also points to developing a leadership ethos - a catalyst that nurtures such a culture.
School Leadership, in our present context, needs to tread carefully and balance the world of collective learning that our students inhabit with the requirements laid down by the standards-based approach that continues to drive various school boards. Moving forward from content mastery to accommodate an applied skills approach that blurs the boundaries between subjects in both science and the arts, is therefore critical to make a positive difference in this world.
Agile Leadership, broadly, refers to a coherent systemic approach aimed at building the capacity to be responsive to emerging problems and opportunities and work in short iterative cycles of adaptation, learning and improvement. The focus areas of Agile Leadership through its focus areas, extend its ability to help other educators in the school pursue leadership in their own contexts and domains in addition to being effective in Principal preparation. The collaborative fabric of Agile Leadership is aptly suited to develop dynamic and flexible leadership in schools.
For school leaders who wish to embark on leadership development as a lever to achieve system-wide change, developing an open attitude towards new information, learning and insights is a significant first step. It is imperative, therefore for school leaders to look beyond themselves and enhance the potential of fellow educators within the school ecosystem. Promoting autonomy to achieve a greater distribution of leadership potential necessitates building tolerance for ambiguity. Most leaders who are engaged in effecting change, continue to hold on to an idea and incubate it till it has achieved a desired level of perfection. However, agility according to Breakspear, requires leaders to demonstrate capacity and commitment to rapidly learn by doing. ‘Ambiguity Tolerance’ does not imply that leaders would have to sacrifice rigor. They need to harness evidence of impact throughout the process of change work they are trying to accomplish.
Navigating such complexity hence requires school leaders to be nuanced in their understanding of what works, for whom and under what conditions. This clearly points to a leadership mindset that responds to the iterative nature of continual learning. Further, it points to a critical need for school leaders to build and sustain trust as they continue to work with their teams. School leaders need to demonstrate consistency and provide ample freedom for their team of educators to take risks as they learn newer approaches. Ensuring the ‘psychological safety’ of the collaborative team of educators within the school, therefore becomes a requisite need of Agile Leadership. Such an approach ensures the development of a school culture that demonstrates empathy and a willingness to help each other to maximize the impact of knowledge while helping build collective expertise.
Building leadership potential within schools is typically relegated to small-scale leadership development programs that are sporadic in nature. Agile Leadership, demands that building individual and collective leadership practices must be embedded within the day-to-day experiences in schools. Further, this points towards the need to design customized teacher professional development programs that are deeply contextual and incorporate the specific outcomes of both teachers and learners. The opportunity to participate in professional development programs can further be effectively utilized to action research cycles, where teachers can collectively address specific challenges and opportunities they encounter in their classrooms and in the larger context of the school. This definitely aids in building trust, accountability and brings forth the joy of learning together.
It becomes clear, therefore that successful education reform that addresses the complexity of expectations, skills and attitudes of educators and learners alike is inextricably linked to a collective capacity of school leaders and other educators to drive learning and innovation in the school ecosystem. Agile Leadership, offers a refreshing change alternative by encouraging the development of a positive mindset that allows for change to permeate through small and critical steps. Tolerance for ambiguity and its prescription of an iterative cycle of change initiatives that is grounded in reflection and learning is pragmatic and encourages practitioners to embrace it.
The most significant value that is derived by applying the tenets of Agile leadership, however, is a profound understanding that achieving complex change that is sustainable, is a collective journey embarked on by educators and learners alike. This truly has the potential to build a strong culture of collaborative learning.
