FDTL voices : drawing from learning and teaching projects

This publication draws on insights and experiences from individuals and teams within learning and teaching development projects in higher education. It considers lessons learnt from the processes, outcomes and tangible outputs of the projects across the spectrum of the FDTL initiative, with the intention that colleagues can draw on and benefit from this experience. The overriding theme at the heart of every FDTL project has been the desire to achieve some form of positive and meaningful change at the level of the individual, institution or discipline. The continuing legacy of the programme has been to create wider community involvement as projects have engaged with the higher education sector on multiple levels - personal, institutional, practice, and policy. This publication has remained throughout a collaborative endeavour, supported by Academy colleagues. It is based around the four themes emerging from the initiative as a whole: • Sectoral/Organisational Change • Conceptual Change • Professional and Personal Development Partnership and • Project Managemen

Distributed Leadership: A Review of Literature

A review of empirical research studies of distributed leadership from public and private sector settings completed since 1995

Complexity and leadership in teacher professional development : the case of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics

There has been considerable interest in the teaching of mathematics over the last two decades, both internationally and in the UK. This has led to a number of government sponsored interventions in both curriculum and teacher professional development. The establishment of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) in 2006, arguably, represented a departure from previous policy and initiatives related to professional development for teachers of mathematics. This paper looks at what was distinctive about the NCETM approach (2006-2010) and the impact of its work, as well as exploring a number of theoretical issues that arise when describing these. The paper draws on data from a study of the impact of the NCETM that was informed by interview and case studies. Telephone interviews were conducted with 89 teachers and others with differing levels of involvement with the NCETM. In addition, 10 school-based case studies of different NCETM-supported activity were conducted. This material was analysed using a CPD evaluation model (Coldwell and Simkins, 2011) and more generally in relation to literature on school and teacher change. In this paper, we explore ways in which theoretical tools drawn from complexity theory - complex adaptive systems and formal and informal systems - can be used to describe the nature and consequences of the NCETM's actions. Further, in understanding and assessing the impact of the NCETM intervention on subject leadership and teacher identity we suggest that parallels can be made with analyses of identity in social movements. Finally, we examine the concepts of dispersed and distributed leadership in relation to their applicability to the organic development of mathematics teacher leadership that the NCETM promotes. The paper outlines both the type of outcomes of the NCETM's activity and the factors that supported these. Many of these are similar to those previously identified in relation to professional development that focuses on and supports school-based leadership and can be analysed in terms of theoretical concepts such as distributed and dispersed leadership. However, the NCETM's approach had some distinctive impacts and features that, we contend, are particular to the complex interrelationship of the different forms of NCETM activity

Curriculum implementation exploratory studies: Final report

Throughout the history of schooling in New Zealand the national curriculum has been revised at fairly regular intervals. Consequently, schools are periodically faced with having to accommodate to new curriculum. In between major changes other specifically-focused changes may arise; for example, the increased recent emphasis upon numeracy and literacy

Leadership & Collective Impact: A Guide for Strengthening the Impact of Your Leadership Development Work

It is time to ask ourselves if the countless dollars and tremendous effort on the part of dedicated nonprofit leaders are getting us where we need to be. Many would agree that we are falling short of the mark and are not seeing the progress that is sorely needed on any number of serious, complex social problems. In their seminal article, "Collective Impact," John Kania and Mark Kramer suggest that no single individual or organization can tackle persistent social issues such as the early childhood health outcomes, lowering global carbon emissions or pervasive poverty alone. We need a new way of working together and a new kind of leadership to transcend hierarchical belief systems to bring about a change in how we treat each other as well as our greater global communities and ecosystems. In 2010 the Leadership Learning Community (LLC) produced the publication, "A New Leadership Mindset for Scaling Social Change," an article describing the need for a new leadership mindset that understands leadership as a process in which change agents align their purpose and actions to have a large scale impact on critical issues like community well-being and the sustainability of the planet. The article offers compelling evidence of leadership programs that are achieving impressive results in education, the environment, and community development, to show what happens when people come together across boundaries to connect their ideas and resources in ways that transform our future in a positive direction