What will our new leaders look like?

The very nature of the leadership role in an organisation, such as the ones we have described in last week's contribution, further exemplifies the dynamic qualities required of leaders. In addition to the philosophy and vision to which I have referred, the leader must coordinate the organisation and systematically search for the support of the people who compose it. This becomes more difficult as organisations increase in size.

One may argue that networks will increase the complexity of schools as they create problems of communication; possibly increase the layers of management; more forms and procedures will be introduced; more meetings will be called for, and possibly result in more delays in making decisions. Nevertheless, in spite of this complexity, the leader must actively strive to keep all stakeholders in touch with each other.

I believe that there are times when leaders must assume reactive positions. They must listen to individuals and groups and hear what they have to say. Indeed, they must encourage public involvement and participation in determining new directions for education, and when they have heard all groups, they must react with appropriate recommendations and decisions. There are times when leaders might deliberately create reactive situations.

Our new leaders: some characteristics

The new leader will have to recognise that complete consensus is a desirable goal but seldom an attainable reality in our pluralistic society. S/he will need to be flexible, adaptable, varying her/his leadership style in such a manner as to offset the conflict which arises from such inevitable circumstances as competition of staff for resources, conflicting expectations of education by different stakeholders, the accountability that results out of the responsibilities bestowed to school staff and the pressure this exerts; and all of this will have to be done without sacrificing his/her own philosophy and her/his own principles. The new leader will know that such conflicts will always exist and affect her/his decision-making. Within the broad framework of realities, s/he will seek the input and expertise of those affected by her/his decisions, always providing for more open communication between her/his school board and her/his staff.

S/he will make better use of time, freeing her/himself from confining detail and routine matters in order to diagnose major issues and concerns, and to work towards planned change. S/he will be aware of the many groups who are seeking a redistribution of power in education, and seek for ways and means to keep the system in smooth progression as readjustments are made to the realities of new power structures. S/he will recognise that a school is different from other social agencies inasmuch as it is the forum for formal as well as informal investigations of knowledge and the pursuit of truth.

The leader must be strong and direct, yet kind. S/he must possess the quality of openness, which is characterised by curiosity, honesty, a willingness to work with alternatives and a love of people. The new leader must also learn to ask her/his basic and penetrating questions those and of others. S/he must see most problems confronting her/his organisation as potential constructive situations where s/he can take the offensive to seek improvement.

In short, the new leader should be dynamic, flexible and precise - able to work with people, anticipate and accommodate change, and make decisions. This is no small task. It is one which good leaders heretofore have carried out, but will in the future have to carry out with a greater degree of sophistication.

Creating a collaborative culture

Working with people is far from easy. Getting people to come together can be painful. At the same time, we do appreciate the beauty and thrill of working with others, of results that we achieve when we work as a team. In all probability we have experiences along the continuum.

Networks are all about efforts of people working together, of collaborative efforts to know what is, to identify issues, to address unresolved ones, to improve what is. Networks will encourage the development of a context and eventually a culture of sharing such good practices, whatever these may be. I would like to focus on this point as I am confident that quite a number of us can relate, in one way or another, to this scenario.

I will be referring to real examples from the ones that I have experienced over the years in the various schools that I have been involved with. I am sure that they do not mind if I share them with others. After all, the ultimate aim is for us to learn from each other.

Picture a department meeting where teachers arrive eager to actively participate, where no one asks to be excused because of a personal emergency, and where some even linger to continue animated discussions about teaching strategies and curriculum long after the meeting's allotted time. At this meeting, a member of the department distributes the agenda that the group has collaboratively prepared, another teacher begins and continues the meeting, someone else takes care of the coffee break, and another person helps the group to summarise and evaluate the meeting's success. It is difficult to figure out who is the department/subject coordinator or chair, because all are part of a cooperative group whose purpose is to help each other learn about learning and teaching.

A subject coordinator (or any senior management team member) can be instrumental in changing traditional department meetings into this type of collaborative adult learning experience by providing staff members with the time, support, and validation necessary to become personally involved in their own professional growth and in that of their teaching peers.

We are blessed by a system that paradoxically is not prescriptive as some may assume it to be. So much can be achieved if and when we decide to look at and possibly do things differently. While a number of school development days and staff meetings are 'mandated', to a large extent there is a lot of leeway which allows schools to allocate time for professional development purposes. Those leaders that think outside the box make optimum use of the days before the scholastic year starts; use specific days throughout the year; maximise the use of the two six-week teaching practicums for specific professional development sessions; and utilise the end of the scholastic year to train, evaluate and review practices.

A first step towards building a collaborative culture can be provided by giving the department members control and therefore ownership of particular sessions/tasks which may be identified during the opening meetings of the school year.

Providing teachers with the opportunity to create their own department meetings can meet with resistance. Some teachers, at the beginning of the process, might feel resentful because they believe that it is the subject coordinator's job to plan and coordinate meetings. Other administrators may question how the department will find out about needs and the head's announcements as they arise during the year. The latter is an easy problem to solve. Messages can be distributed in written memos, or each meeting's agenda can contain the infamous 'other' category to accommodate such needs and announcements. Additionally, the initial success of this collaborative planning and implementation model for meetings has lessened some teachers' concern about the responsibility and their accountability for the meetings. A number of schools I have worked with over the years can attest to the success of such a model. The process and product of collaborative department meetings undergo transformation and growth as the staff members and the senior management team become more comfortable with the change. There are various tasks that teachers can be directly responsible for and involved in. And there are varied ways they can go about it.

The collaborative model for department meetings has had many benefits for the teachers, the subject coordinator and the entire school. For the first time, the teachers feel that the meetings are time well spent on issues and concerns that directly relate to what and how they teach. They actually have the time and the vehicle (the meeting) to talk about their personal strategies, to listen to their teaching peers and to feel ownership of the real and paper curricula. And, at the same time we appreciate that there is nothing extraordinary about the time spent on these matters. Often, many argue that there just isn't enough time for professional discourse. This example goes to show that much can be achieved if there is the will, drive, care and commitment of all to the same mission. This is the real challenge. Creating this culture, this work ethic takes time. A lot of learning (and unlearning) has to take place.

For the coordinator, the collaborative model for department meetings allows the opportunity to model the role of a facilitator. Building among the staff members the conditions of comfort, trust and risk needed to function as part of this model is not an easy, straightforward task. At first, members of the department can complain that they are already too busy doing the real work of teaching the students and this might indicate resentment because they feel they are doing someone else's job. In this case, a perceptive coordinator could begin 'small' by asking for input on the agenda for two or three meetings and, after the success of these meetings, pursue more collaborative planning and implementation for the following school year.

On the other hand, a coordinator might feel reluctance or apprehension about adopting this model because, as with all cooperative and collaborative learning experiences, it involves a shifting of control and power from one person to the whole group. Will the department engage in productive goal setting and follow-up activities? Will the meetings become unfocused gossip sessions about curricula, staff, students or administrators? The adoption of the collaborative model for department meetings is not a complete abdication of responsibility, but rather a new perspective on the role of subject coordinator. The chief benefit is that this model allows for actualising the cooperative learning maxim: "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." Department members learn from and about each other. The coordinator becomes the 'guide on the side' who coordinates and helps to create a welcoming environment for cooperation and collaboration. It is appropriate for the 'guide on the side' to remind department members that network objectives or goals, state mandates such as core curriculum or school priorities such as site-based management need to be considered and discussed during the meetings.

Finally, for the entire school, this collaborative model can be the first step towards or a reinforcement of a collaborative school culture. In this congenial, cooperative and collaborative school, each member, whether teacher, parent or administrator, feels responsible for the others and their learning. The members of the department who feel ownership in the planning, implementation and outcomes of their own department's meetings and activities can be the standard bearers who can and will convince others of the feasibility, acceptability and benefits of cooperation and collaboration.

Dr Bezzina lectures in the Department of Education Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Malta. E-mail: christopher.bezzina@um.edu.mt

Dr Bezzina is also the author of last week's article Leadership... The Challenge Is Now.