Student Centered Leadership - Going further.

Our 'Why':

Revisiting our 'why' is important when you are working on making your leadership more centered around students' needs. As a department, our 'why' is focusing on the students we care for. They are the participants and benefactors of our work as leaders and teachers. 

Our 'What':

The collective goal for the English department this term is to accelerate the achievement of Year 11 students. Here a few questions that helped me reflect on what my colleague, Ms Amber George and I have achieved with the department so far with our Year 11 students. 

• What was your deliberate act of leadership? Following up with the department, being more visiable to the students, talking with the students and having restorative conversations. 
• What was the outcome? Credit shift (gaining more credits through intervention), there is a long way to go but the improvement promising. 
• What did you learn? To be patient with the process, to fix what is not working straight away and the importance of clarity in communicating our expectations to the department. 

Student Voice (What the young people are saying): 

The students' were able to share their thoughts on what they want from their teachers. 

The findings is a result from conversations that were held with senior students (Year 11, 12 and 13). This is some of their responses:

• Listen to what we want to achieve 
• Push us to get endorsements
• Know our skill set and abilities 
• Comfortable environment 
• Make our parents proud 
• Fun work
• Don't talk a lot
• Explain what we need to do to get merit and excellence
• Slow down and explain 
• Respectful environment

Critical Perspective: 

Barbara Alaalatoa (Principal of Sylvia Park School) states that “Teachers who are connected to and know the students deeply”, “Authentically build their teaching practice around the student”, “Committed to learning about their craft and their learners” and “They make no assumptions about the learners in front of them”

The Bigger Picture: 

Viviane Robinson states "The more leaders focus on their relationships, their work, and their learning on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes." When thinking about the bigger picture with student centered leadership, I have learnt that one of the core jobs of a middle leader is to lead the learning of the department. As middle leaders it is vital that we help to translate teaching practice into the classroom and ultimately effect and influence the team and students. 

What does effective teaching look like?

Effective teaching is collaboration with colleagues, strength based learning with a focus on students needs. The relationship with the student is an integral part in effective teaching. 

It is a commitment to the student, I believe that when you are committed to the student then you are open to change, learning, evolving and not staying static. 

Student Centered Leadership: What does it mean?

What does student centered leadership mean?

Student centered leadership can mean many things. For myself I believe that student centered leadership looks like:

Self-directed learning
My goal for my Level 3 students this year to design a program where they drive what they want to do with their writing assessments. I am looking forward to working with Cynthia Orr (Team Solutions) who will help me put this program together. I believe that if the students find texts that they are interested in, their response to the text will be more genuine. Watch this space!

Learning needs of the students drive the learning objective
Teachers taking note of the student and their needs and adjusting their program to the need. I have spoken about this before, this is something I support and endorse.

Sharing of power in the classroom

We as educators can learn so much from our learners. This is something that I am interested in pursuing. There is so much value in what our students bring to the classroom and this can be utilized in way that will enrich the classroom experience for everyone involved. I am wanting to inquire in what has worked for our students who have achieved exploring what helped them succeed and how they applied this to their studies. 

Tom Webb states student centered leadership is "leadership that makes a difference to the equity and excellence of student outcomes". Education is a source of equity for our young people. If our focus is on making the learning needs the priority and encourage the sharing of power with our learners, our leadership will be one where it is not only leading from the front but from all areas. 

Student Centered Leadership: And so it continues....

Viviane Robinson states "The more leaders focus on their relationships, their work, and their learning on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes."  As I read this I think about my role as an educator and how I want to be an effective leader. I believe that the core role of middle leaders is to lead the learning of the department. To translate teaching practice into other classrooms, to share knowledge that is effective for the learner and ultimately to influence the students and my colleagues.

In my previous posts I have explored the question 'what does student centered leadership look like?' I can conclude that there is not a specific answer for this. It is something the will continue to evolve and change, that is the beauty of it. It is all part of growing in learning, learning is growth, growth is important. In my inquiry I have also thought about 'what does effective teaching look like?' Is it result based? Data focused based? Classroom behavioral management? A few thoughts I have in answering these questions that do not necessarily answer the question but offer as ideas that have helped me understand what I am looking for.

• Effective teaching is collaboration - working with colleagues to building better outcomes for the learner. 
• Effective teaching is making the learner the most important person in the relationship. 
• Effective teaching is everyone (student and teacher) committed to being a learner. If everyone is learning then change is reinforced, it is building each other in the process. When you are committed to learning then everything evolves.