Fostering Leadership for Social Equity Through Transformational Pedagogies: Comparative Perspectives on a Global Network

• In Event: Indigenous Futures: Forging New Educational Possibilities and Leadership for Social Change Through Decolonizing Learning Environments

Abstract

This paper examines an international network of leadership development programs that are grounded in commitments to advancing ‘fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies’ (Atlantic Institute 2023). Oriented to supporting the work of mid-career social change leaders, these seven programs were established through funding from Atlantic Philanthropy, with all but one of the programs affiliated to a university. Each program provides a foundation year of concentrated learning for an annual cohort of ‘Fellows’ (program participants), part of which includes undertaking a social change project. Upon completion of the first year, Fellows remain connected as active alumni and members of a global network of Fellows from the other Atlantic programs. The Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity, the impetus for this symposium, is one of these programs, based at the University of Melbourne.

In this paper I report on a study undertaken of the different pedagogical approaches and guiding principles informing the program design and structure of each of these leadership programs. Adopting a comparative approach (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2016), these programs were examined individually and then brought together to build a case study of innovations in mid-career leadership education, where the explicit and shared focus is on redressing inequities, empowering program participants and working closely with communities.

The data sources for the study included extended interviews with program staff and curriculum directors, analysis of program documentation and curriculum modules, and observations of joint program meetings with curriculum directors and other staff.

The design of most of the programs from action research principles, with a focus on iterative learning through practice and critical reflection. These approaches were seen as suited to ‘adult learners’ who came with extensive experience and knowledge of the communities in which they worked, bringing with them their own ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll et al 1992; Moll 2019). I engage with the concepts of ‘practice architectures’ (Kemmis 2022), and ‘culturally responsive pedagogies’, (Rigney and Hattam 2022) to complement this analysis.

In this paper I highlight key points of difference across the programs and note some common tensions as illustrative of the challenges in designing pedagogies that are explicitly transformational in intent. While sharing broad commitments to education for ‘social equity’, the programs expressed diverse conceptions of what this entailed, and how change might be sustained. Many programs were infused with anti-racist, decolonial, and feminist agendas, in others there was overt emphasis on curriculum designed to understand ‘conflict with civility’, and in yet others community building and a sense of active conviviality was a strong theme. Key dilemmas for all programs including navigating affiliations to local communities and global networks, questions of curriculum co-design, interdisciplinarity, and effective learning. Across all programs, there was a strong sense of enacting living and at times uncertain pedagogies – of ways of learning, knowing, being and doing not as settled, but as dynamic and productive in their complexity. This opening paper provides a context for understanding the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program and its focus on Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous-led program design.

Author

• Julie E. McLeod, University of Melbourne