The National Education Strategy 2024-2030 requires a leadership that impacts the lives of others. Christopher Bezzina argues that for any strategy or reform to be taken seriously, a new way of looking at school leadership is needed. School leaders currently feel they are administering their schools rather than being visionary and strategic. Various local studies keep attesting to this.
Heads of school are constantly putting out fires rather than working with and alongside their teachers to address issues related to the domains of teaching and learning, assessment and curriculum design, development and implementation.
This goes against the principles of the 1999 National Minimum Curriculum (NMC) and the 2012 National Curriculum Framework (NCF) that speak of school leaders that are transformational in their approach to doing things. We have known this for many years and yet we seem oblivious of the concerns raised by heads of school. No wonder we are finding it hard to find educators willing to take on the demands and pressures of headship.
We have to address this situation. I believe that this can be countered by giving the respective heads of college greater autonomy by providing each college/school the necessary personnel that will take on the administrative responsibilities currently consuming the time of the school leaders.
If colleges/schools have adequate resources (mainly human) to address the myriad of issues that keep cropping up, then our heads can truly function as leaders if they are allowed to focus on the human dimensions of leadership, which implies focusing on issues such as engaging, empowering, motivating people to take initiative, to focus on teacher efficacy as central to school improvement.
We need to adopt a new approach to strategic development and policy making that ensures greater levels of participation
Once heads of school act at the transformational level, they can slowly focus on the teaching and learning domain, which ultimately determine student success. For this to happen, as I have already highlighted, the way we view governance has to change to one that is more inclusive and trusting. For this to happen, we need to adopt a new approach to strategic development and policymaking that ensures greater levels of participation. Such decisions will filter down the system and lead to the desired improvements taking place. To address this, I am putting forward a series of recommendations, mainly for discussion purposes, and will also need to capture proposals coming from other stakeholders:
• Review all existing reforms. Set up review teams involving different stakeholders to understand and study the impact of the recent reforms.
• Identify existing forms of learning and study the impact they are having on student learning.
• Consider the introduction of new ones that help nurture more collaborative and collegial models of learning.
• Tackle in practical ways through college-based and school-based initiatives the levels of disempowerment, disengagement and scepticism that abound within the profession. Most reforms have remained detached from the realities of school life. This proposal encourages schools to identify issues that are of immediate interest and concern to school leaders and teachers. Move away from one size fits all.
• Review the current policy documents that define heads of school as school leaders, that see teachers as teacher leaders (e.g. NMC, 2000; NCF, 2012). This can be done through documentary analysis, focus group sessions with heads of school, council of heads, education officials and meetings with different stakeholders, so that we have a clear picture of the roles school leaders and teachers are undertaking. A review of the local literature also needs to be undertaken. This will help us propose realistic goals rather than remain on current rhetoric that is oblivious of the realities our schools are facing.
• Promote and engage in continuing professional development (CPD) models within colleges and schools to allow for the identification of good practices that can be shared with others. This will help to empower teachers and show that their work and efforts are respected.
• Explore greater collaboration between educational institutions and community/regional/national organisations to see how they can impact the learning process.
This is by far not an exhaustive list of recommendations but ones that require our attention and can easily be embraced in a strategic plan of action. The National Education Strategy (NES) implies an approach to doing things, and taking issues forward along a journey that can lead to growth and development. Things won’t just happen overnight but require an ongoing and genuine commitment by all those involved.
Such recommendations also portray a new way of engaging with the reform processes and the actors that are central to its implementation. I believe that through a genuine commitment by all, a change in mindset will take place and see a culture based on collaborative approaches being nurtured.
Christopher Bezzina is a professor at the Department of Leadership for Learning and Innovation at the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education.