Professional Development of Systemic Leaders: Leveraging Leadership Capacity for Collaboration

• In Event: 51.060 - Learning to Improve Professional Development for Distributed Leadership in Chile's Public School Sector

Abstract

Objectives and perspectives
As part of Chile’s education reform, collaboration has been advanced as a key principle to challenge the culture of competition among schools (Carrasco & Fromm, 2016; Montecinos et al., 2015). To facilitate school-to-school collaboration, the Ministry of Education launched a strategy of “School Improvement Networks”, where principals and curriculum coordinators come together to exchange and improve their practices, supported by district and ministry advisors (MINEDUC, 2017). These networks require leadership capacity to sustain effective collaboration and promote school and system improvement (Hopkins, Stringfield, Harris, Stoll, & Mackay, 2014). This paper reports the experience of a professional development program designed and implemented for principals and curriculum coordinators to develop systemic leadership capacity, in order to support the Ministry’s network strategy.
Most definitions of systemic leadership emphasize the actions of leaders to promote the improvement of learning for all students in their territory (Boylan, 2016; Hopkins & Higham, 2007; Schley & Schratz, 2011; Spillane, Hopkins, & Sweet, 2015). These actions are framed by the creation of collaborative spaces, such as learning communities or school networks (Katz & Earl, 2010; LeMahieu, Grunow, Baker, Nordstrum, & Gomez, 2017). Research suggests that networks require leaders to develop specific capacities to activate and sustain effective collaboration (Chapman, Chestnutt, Friel, Hall, & Lowden, 2016; Diaz-Gibson, Civís Zaragoza, Daly, Longás Mayayo, & Riera Romani, 2016; Moolenaar & Sleegers, 2015). Based on this evidence, the “Systemic Leadership and Networked Learning” program was developed in 2016 to assist principals and curriculum coordinators in developing capacities for networked collaboration.
Methods
A follow-up study was conducted in 2017 with participants from the 2016 cohort of the Systemic Leadership program. An exploratory mixed methods design (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2006) was employed to study if, and is so how, participants transferred and applied knowledge and skills to their professional practice in networks.
The 2016 cohort consisted of 53 people, 38 women and 23 men, who were principals (23), curriculum coordinators (28), and district advisors (2). An online survey was sent to all participants, asking about their perceived capacity on different topics covered in the program, receiving 35 valid answers (66%). In parallel, seven participants were interviewed about the transfer and application of knowledge and skills to their professional practice.
Results
Participants valued the importance of assuming a systemic perspective about improvement. They developed knowledge and skills to facilitate collaboration, such as setting a shared purpose, distribute leadership and organize teamwork in their networks, acknowledging that these can also be useful in their schools. However, participants were in need of practical tools and developing social skills to share and transfer what they learned in the program to other people in their networks. For instance, they reported difficulties when negotiating changes to their networks’ organization with district and ministry advisors.
Scholarly significance
These findings suggest important ways in which the program can be improved to better meet participants' needs. Promoting cultural change from competition to collaboration among school is a complex process, but the development of systemic leadership capacity offers a way to mobilize this change through networking.

Authors

• Álvaro González, Universidad de O'Higgins

• Luis Ahumada, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso

• Mauricio Pino-Yancovic, Universidad de Chile, Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Educación (CIAE)