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Shared leadersip  and school development
My names' Alesssandra Basso
I'm Italian.
I'm Primary school teacher and I work at I.C. Villaputzu (Sardinia)

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The course lasts 6 weeks and is divided into 4 modules, one module per week with an extra 2 weeks to complete all work at the end. We will be opening up a new module every Monday. Once open, the modules will remain open until the end of the course so you can always still catch up at a later time throughout the course.

Each module consists of

a number of videos,

reflection and discussion activities

a more formal self-evaluation and planning activity

2- Duration & Workload

The course will last in total 6 weeks, from 29th May 2017 to 4th July 2017. So the final deadline for all work is the 4th July 2017.

3- Discussions & Exchanges

As part of the activities, you are welcome to share and discuss materials, opinions or experiences related to this course via a variety of online tools, which are integrated directly into each module. We have chosen these tools based on their user friendliness so you should not have to sign up to use them and most of them should be fairly self-explanatory. You will see that for most sections we have focused on the Padlet tool. For an introduction check this FAQ on how to post on Padlet.

4- Assessment & Certification

As part of the course you will be completing a self-evaluation and development plan that should help you identify some concrete steps you need to implement at your school to move towards a more distributed leadership approach.

In each module you will continue working on your self-evaluation and development plan.  In each module you are also free to submit your self-evaluation and development plan for peer feedback.

While in Modules 1-3 this is optional, in Module 4 this is a required part of the course and includes the submission of your self-evaluation and development plan as well as providing feedback to 3 of your course peers.

Only if you complete these steps in Module 4 you qualify for the course certificate.

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Shared Leadership and School Development Course Intro

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This video provides an introduction to the key functional and practical aspects of the Teacher Academy course on Shared Leadership and School Development

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On this course, we will be exploring the concept of distributed leadership in schools and how this can shape a school. Distributed leadership is:

“a form of shared leadership that is underpinned by a more collective and inclusive philosophy than traditional leadership theory that focuses on skills, traits and behaviours of individual leaders”

(Jones, Harvey, Lefoe & Ryland, 2012).
We start out the course in this first module by exploring the concept of distributed leadership, why it is important for schools, and what factors impact on it, as well as reflecting about the current leadership approach used at our own school.

Learning Objectives for this Module are:

1. Understand concept of distributed leadership (DL)

2. Understand benefits of using DL

3. Understand factors enabling DL

4. Reflect about situation at own school and start survey of current practices

More information and extra resources
School Leadership Toolkit which you can access directly here

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Leadership is a characteristic of an organization as a whole, not just the individual action of one o few "leaders".
Leadership is the outcome of lots of people's actions and interactions.
Distributed leadership includes  involvement by teachers, students, school staff.
Distributed leadership is  a leadership as emergent and participatory, it is based on  values of equity and democratic citizenship.
There can be degrees of distributed leadership it depends how extends it is.

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Now briefly reflect on the following questions and share your response in the Padlet below. 

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Now briefly reflect on the following questions and share your response in the Padlet below. 

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1.1 What kind of leadership styles do you have experience with (as a leader or not)? What are the pros and cons of these different styles? Which one do you prefer as a leader / as a team member?
I've been Primary school teacher for 25 years.
I teach in a small village in Sardinia and I've experiemented different types of distributed leadership: graeter or lesser extent.
I think in Italy now, school policy is  changing  and is orientated to a less extent distributed leadership in comparison to the past.
Fully democratic leadership it would be the best, in my opinion, but it needs to be reached step by step.
The same as a teacher I try to foster distributed leadership in my class, to give responsibilities to pupils and to make any decision more partecipatory.... it isn't easy, but results at the end reward for your hard work.

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1.2 Why use Distributed Leadership in Schools?

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1.2 Why use Distributed Leadership in Schools?

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To promote inclusive, holistic learning
To promote innovation
To promote democratic citizenship

Where distributed leadership for equity and learning works well, it increases:
Capacity - mobilizing knowledge, expertise & energy
Co-operative learning: People are enabled to work together and to share experience and ideas.
Motivation and commitment

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EPNoSL European Policy Network on School Leadership

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Why Distributed Leadership for equity and learning (DLE)?

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Thinking about your own school, to what extent does your school face the challenges of increased accountability for learning, enabling innovation and promoting democratic citizenship? What other challenges/concerns exist at your school that might be (or are already being) addressed/solved (even indirectly) through a distributed leadership approach?

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Thinking about your own school, to what extent does your school face the challenges of increased accountability for learning, enabling innovation and promoting democratic citizenship? What other challenges/concerns exist at your school that might be (or are already being) addressed/solved (even indirectly) through a distributed leadership approach?

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Since  my school has been involved in european project ( Erasmus eTwinning) there were some changes in our organization: first of all the activities, into the school curriculum, are more shared with pupils, parents, local community; we strongly support the cooperative learning and peer learning. As concerning the school, we are different schools linked to one Institute,there are differet approaches. I'm the person in charge for my school  and we have been created  a good  team
( this is  my opinion) with a shared responsibility, we thake the decision together ( of course we need to discuss them with the headteacher). Our  whole school is orientated to an innovative approach, which is building year by year.

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Description of current practice
The self-evaluation and development plan is there to help you consolidate your reflections and sharing of ideas on the course and help you to identify concrete, actionable steps that will move your school towards a more distributed leadership approach. The idea is that as you finish the course you have a sort of action plan that you can start putting into practice across your school or, if you have been working on the course individually, to use it as a starting point for a discussion with your colleagues at school

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Distributed Leadership Self-Evaluation & Development Plan

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Module 2: Developing Distributed Leadership

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Module 2: Developing Distributed Leadership

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Learning Objectives in this module are:

1. Understand the conditions and steps to developing DL at school

2. Reflecting on the areas of development at own school

3. Investigate the level of agreement with own assessment of school’s leadership approach

4. Investigate the level of accessibility of institutional structures at own school

5. Evaluating compatibility of existing own school structures with DL

6. Identifying existing school values

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EPNoSL European Policy Network on School Leadership

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How can Distributed Leadership for equity and learning (DLE) be developed?

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Created by Philip Woods and Amanda Roberts (University of Hertfordshire, UK).

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At the end of the first module you started noting down the current situation at your school as part of the Self-Evaluation & Development Plan. Based on this first assessment which of the five levers do you feel require most work at your school? 

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At the end of the first module you started noting down the current situation at your school as part of the Self-Evaluation & Development Plan. Based on this first assessment which of the five levers do you feel require most work at your school? 

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In my opinion, in my school,  it is necessary to broaden the partecipatory culture, but  the key level 4 requires more work, because
the culture of evaluation as  reflection on our actions andtheir  impact on the school, is not achieved  yet.

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DL needs to be continually cultivated and nurtured in supportive ideas and values that people genuinely share and are committed to. Looking at it in this way, developing, DL is rooted in a greater understanding of how things get done, how the various interactions between people bring about an end result and what values are most important in distributing leadership in inclusive ways that benefit learning.

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To what extent is your assessment of the school leadership approach shared by others at your school?

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To what extent is your assessment of the school leadership approach shared by others at your school?

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Somewhatshared

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2.3 Developing a Participatory Culture & Open Social Environment

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2.3 Developing a Participatory Culture & Open Social Environment

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shared visions teaching leading learning

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Howard Winneshiek discusses how to create an environment where all stakeholders have a voice. Example of how they used project based learning as a means of developing teacher leadership. Personalized Professional Learning for Future Ready Leaders http://tech.ed.gov/leaders

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Does your school have a set of organisational values defined? If so, do they work and are they accepted and acted upon? And how were they defined? If not, what type of values would best describe your school?

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Does your school have a set of organisational values defined? If so, do they work and are they accepted and acted upon? And how were they defined? If not, what type of values would best describe your school?

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My school  outlines its values in the "three years School  Plan". Our   values are coexistence, positive interaction with peers and with adults, valuing uniqueness, singularity and cultural identity of each student. Our plans have been focused on aspects related to  learning environments innovation.  They were approved inside the teachers  meeting. Not all teachers totally agree, but there are a large  majority of teachers who acept them  and try to do their best to innovate our school.

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2.4 Enabling Institutional Structures & Evaluating DL

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2.4 Enabling Institutional Structures & Evaluating DL

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Participatory: Evaluating distributed leadership for equity and learning needs to involve staff and students, but also other school stakeholders

Examining the degree of DL and hierarchy: Recognise that developing DLE is a journey and that schools will have both hierarchy and open social relationships, so evaluation examines the degrees of DLE and hierarchy in a school

Focusses on student learning and inclusiveness

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You can also share any reflections in the Padlet

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You can also share any reflections in the Padlet

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In my school (as in all schools in Italy) there are:
1. Parents, teachers and administrative staff Council-
2. Teachers committees
3. Teachers working groups.
This  does not mean that we have an ideal  DL. There are some difficult and, in the end, the  final decision is taking by the principal, but we can discuss  in group about important decision and changes in our school.

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Distributed Leadership Self-Evaluation & Development Plan

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Teacher leadership

Learning Objectives for this module are

1. Understand the concept of Teacher Leadership

2. Understand how Teacher Leadership can benefit a school

3. Understand steps to enable Teacher Leadership

4. Reflect on own teacher leadership approach or potential

5. Reflect on the enabling factors at school to allow for teacher leadership

6. Reflect on the impact of teachers taking a leadership role and how to address such impact

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What teacher leadership means and why it is important to enable it at school.

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This is "SCEL - what is teacher leadership?" by SCEL on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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Teachers who act informally or formally as teacher leaders take on four roles:

as teachers they are oriented consistently to the achievement of their students,

as professionals they continually develop their own practice in relation to current external and experiential knowledge with a focus on effectiveness,

as role models they inspire colleagues and have a positive influence on others' development, and

as ambassadors they communicate the vision and goals of their school internally and externally.

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If you are a teacher, given the definition above, do you feel as a teacher leader? Which of the four roles do you confidently follow? Who at your school would you consider a teacher leader? 

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If you are a teacher, given the definition above, do you feel as a teacher leader? Which of the four roles do you confidently follow? Who at your school would you consider a teacher leader? 

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First of all I would say that I completely agree with Rosaria. I try to encourage my pupils to achieved their goals and try to enhance my teaching skills and strategies, to innovate my teaching styles to offer new and better opportunities to my students.As a e twinning ambassador and Erasmus plus coordinator, I try to encourage my colleagues to develop and improve their competencies, through the online and on-site European opportunities.
Moreover as school cordinatoor I try to improve and innovate the school organization; but there are other teachers in the school who are taking an important role in the improvement of school system: two teachers are innovating the maths curriculum and are a lighthouse for other teachers, as well as concerning technologies.
I think in the last five years my school has made big changes,
even thought more steps are needed .

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At school level enabling teacher leadership can take many different forms starting with simple recognition of those that act as teacher leaders and ending with comprehensive workshop programmes that stimulate certain reflective approaches and attitudes or outline processes for teachers to become teacher leaders

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Teacher leadership: the HertsCam/ITL approach

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Such a comprehensive approach might not be realizable everywhere immediately so let’s consider some other ways to enable teacher leadership. Take a look at the below video for some ideas:

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For the examples of teacher leadership identified in section 3.1what enabled these teachers to become teacher leaders? What aspects of your school culture, timetabling, professional development, use of space, compensation schemes, formal functions, etc. enable teachers to take on responsibility and drive forward an area of learning close to their heart? 

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For the examples of teacher leadership identified in section 3.1what enabled these teachers to become teacher leaders? What aspects of your school culture, timetabling, professional development, use of space, compensation schemes, formal functions, etc. enable teachers to take on responsibility and drive forward an area of learning close to their heart? 

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I agree with Sevastiani for the first part of his post. As concerning second part in my school teacher leadership is not encouraged, but if you are able to demonstrate  your capability you can take an important role in the school, but many time, next to what you care about  you have many other appointments who absorbed your energy and time.

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It is truly interesting to read the other posts. I've experimented same situation, but now in my school it s better. I think colleagues are a bit more equipped for changing. Even thought some teachers are not eager to be fully involved in innovation.
One thing that I would like introduce it is the change in school desk layout; I think    there will be  some teachers not happy for this...

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If you are a school leader or administrator or another stakeholder, think about how the level of irritation caused by teacher leaders could be dealt with. What actions can you take, what support can you provide to ensure teacher leaders are not discouraged when they meet significant reactions from colleagues. If an activity will inevitably lead to resistance, what can be done to manage the situation? Share your ideas in the Tricider below and comment on each other’s suggestions.

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Distributed Leadership Self-Evaluation & Development Plan BASSO

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Learning Objectives:

1. Understand who school stakeholders are

2. Develop some ideas, steps to formalise the involvement of students, parents and other schools shaping own school

3. Finalising the self-evaluation and distributed leadership school development plan

4. Reviewing and providing feedback to the development plans of two peers.

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Uploaded by School Education Gateway on 2017-06-15.

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4.1 Who are School Stakeholders?For the groups identified in the diagram, reflect on, how are they involved in your school already? Where are the contact points? Do you have contact persons to reach out to for each group. What institutional mechanisms are in place to involve them? Also consider which group you engage most with and why? What risks or opportunities are at stake when engaging with each group?

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4.1 Who are School Stakeholders?For the groups identified in the diagram, reflect on, how are they involved in your school already? Where are the contact points? Do you have contact persons to reach out to for each group. What institutional mechanisms are in place to involve them? Also consider which group you engage most with and why? What risks or opportunities are at stake when engaging with each group?

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As I teach in Primary school students are involved,but there isn't a formal group of students. As concerning parents we have two formal groups at two different levels: first of all there is a contact person for the class: he/she is the for the class: he/she is the at the meeting with class teachers. This role is impportat because  if the teachers are able to establish a good relationship with him/ her there is a good probability he/she can engage all parents . There is also a School Council in which are involved parents, teachers, other school staff  and the headteacher. Parents who are part of this Council are elected every three year and act as contact people between the shool and  parents. The most important decision concerning the school organization, extractivities, budget management  are  taken here. Even this Council is important and in my opinion a good leadership should make all effort to important and in my opinion a good leadership should make all effort to establish good relationship with the school Council.

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4.2 Engaging Parents – Live Webinar 21st June 16:30h

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4.2 Engaging Parents – Live Webinar 21st June 16:30h

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Some good questions posed by my peers.
Can you suggest different ways of having parents involved in schools that are not the traditional end of term meetings?

Do you think it´s alright to engage the parents with a LMS (learning platform) or do they need to be at place in school for being engaged?

If you happen to teach in a very low socio-economic school, families are just not involved no matter what you do. Any suggestions?

Could you give concrete practices at schools who are engaging parents instead of only involving them? Can you describe any successful methods/strategies to invite/motivate parents to get more engaged in their children’s learning environment at school and to participate in the Parents Council?

I am very interested in the concept mentioned in the introduction which speaks about "engaging rather than involving " parents. Could you explain this idea in more depth? Thank you in advance.
MY REFLECTION
I think the last question  extremely interesting:
engage instead of involving

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Involving students 1

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Why getting students involved is so important?

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Let's hear from one of OBESSU's board members, Ferre Windey, explianing why getting students involved is so important.

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Student leadership groups aim to improve attendance, academic achievement

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In investment schools across the District, there is a group of students known as the "Student Learning Community," "Student Learning Council," or simply "SLC." The SLC helps make important decisions for its school, much like a student council. The group usually meets weekly to discuss issues like attendance and academic achievement.

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Students involvement in school is crucial.They should be involve in decision making process, in different ways and shapes, according their age,but it is important to take care their involvement since the beginning, when they are young students, in order to help them to build democratic participation capacity.

Ideas

Pros and cons

Votes

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Do you agree with Ferre's view? Is involvement of students always a good idea and to what extent? Are there differences depending on the age of students? Identify arguments in favour and against allowing students to fundamentally shape your school in the Tricider below. Even if you fully agree or disagree, think about what counterarguments colleagues might put to you if you were to convince them of your opinion.

http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/3QunXtLL1sl

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Do you agree with Ferre's view? Is involvement of students always a good idea and to what extent? Are there differences depending on the age of students? Identify arguments in favour and against allowing students to fundamentally shape your school in the Tricider below. Even if you fully agree or disagree, think about what counterarguments colleagues might put to you if you were to convince them of your opinion. - brainstorming and voting | tricider

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Do you agree with Ferre's view? Is involvement of students always a good idea and to what extent? Are there differences depending on the age of students? Identify arguments in favour and against allowing students to fundamentally shape your school in the Tricider below.

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In the video below Ferre Windey identifies some general strategies of how to involve students and how students can shape a schools leadership approach. He also addresses how to overcome common challenges.

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Ferre Windey identifies some general strategies of how to involve students and how students can shape a schools leadership approach. He also addresses how to overcome common challenges.

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Strategies to support and empower students

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In this video Ferre outlines some specific strategies to support and empower students for the engagement in school development.

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I teach in Primary school, we don't t have a oformal student Council or something like that at this level of education. IN my school there aren't t any type of school groups organization. We try to enhance participation of students in school development, by involve them in discussion about we should do. I for example discuss with them the activities and how we should organize them. Sometimes I propose the topic and then we discuss the better organization for the activities and students give their opinion.

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In the video below Anne briefly outlines some ideas ensuring school partnerships can develop and be successful. For me Anne's speech is the mot ineresting part of th course.  I totally agree with her.

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Schools shaping each other – School Partnerships & eTwinning

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Anne Gilleran, senior pedagogical advisor for the eTwinning project briefly outlines some ideas ensuring school partnerships can develop and be successful.

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In the second video, Anne explains in more detail what the eTwinning network is about and how it is a powerful tool to develop school partnerships and thereby shape your schools’ development.

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Schools shaping each other – School Partnerships & eTwinning

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Anne Gilleran, senior pedagogical advisor for the eTwinning project explains in more detail what the eTwinning network is about and how it is a powerful tool to develop school partnerships and thereby shape your schools' development.

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My school has been involved in e twinning partnership. We just ended an Erasmus plus partnership. At local level my school is part of network with other schools for teacher professional development. We also establish an informal network with experience for example regarding e twinning projects or other interesting activities in which each school is involved. First of all I would say that by the great collaboration wiyh other schools in Europe, thanks to Erasmus and eTwinning our school has changed and innovated its organization.Moreover the partnership with local school is helpful to open the school to better opportunities.

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Self-evaluation and development plan identifies some concrete steps you need to implement at your school to move towards a more distributed leadership approach

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Self-evaluation and development plan identifies some concrete steps you need to implement at your school to move towards a more distributed leadership approach

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This is my final self evluation...I'm waiting for peers reviews

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Distributed Leadership Self-Evaluation & Development Plan BASSO

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At the end of this really interesting MOOC I would share here, in my Learning diary, what I  have been learning ( I use the present perfect continuous because even if the course is ended, the learning is still in process)
1. As a teacher how to take a more active role in the school as part of formal leadership.
2. How to collaborate in order to  get involve more colleagues in the decision making process
3. How to build more links with external actors
4. How to engage parents in the decision making process
5. Hot to involve students in the decision making process and expecially that it should be a botton up process instead of a top down, as normally school leaders design  it.
6. I also found a confirmation on what I already know and I have experimeted: network with oher schols and other actors are helpful for the school development and, for istance, eTwinning is a great network.