Leadership for a Brave New World, PART 2: Fostering collective action for education reform in Zambia and the Dominican Republic

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The world is rapidly changing. Climate change has advanced more quickly than predicted. It is wreaking havoc with our ecosystems and is impacting our daily lives in ways once only imaginable. Technological advances have also leapt forward with the rise of OpenAI, bringing with them the potential to radically reshape how we learn and understand the world, how we communicate, and how we work and interact with each other in our diverse socio-cultural, -economic, and -political spheres. Alongside ongoing conflicts and crises, these rapid changes may call into question how and what we want to achieve in education. But we must also consider the educational leaders who are needed to navigate these changes, and the skills and resources they will need to guide them on the fulfillment of their role in supporting quality, equitable teaching and learning for all.
A growing body of research is demonstrating both the impact and the capacity needs of educational administrators in leading their schools to success (Global School Leaders Evidence Review, 2024). The need for highly qualified, nimble and knowledgeable education leadership may be greater than ever to develop and sustain resilient educational systems. And yet, capacity strengthening for educational leaders is too often overshadowed by support for teachers as the primary levers for change in classroom teaching and learning. While teachers may be the primary conduit of a child’s learning success in the classroom, a child’s learning and wellbeing is equally dependent on the support of family and community (Brookings, 2021). So too teachers’ success and wellbeing are dependent on the educational leadership of their schools, and larger sub-national and national systems.
Responsible to oversee delivery of quality education in the classroom, school leaders are often ill-equipped to navigate the myriad challenges in our rapidly changing world with outdated tools and limited resources and capacity. The same story is true for community, regional and sub-national leaders and administrators, but education performance success rests on the shoulders of these individuals who hold up the “middle tier” of the education system (Change Agents, Education Development Trust, the Education Commission, & UNESCO, 2020; Mitchell et al., 2022).
Through this two-part panel, we will explore new research and programmatic elements around developing educational leadership in the Global South. Together we will share a range of digital tools and approaches, as well as evidence of what initiatives may have the biggest impact on educational resilience in a changing world.
In PART I, we will examine new research highlighting the critical role of school leaders in leading educational improvement. Panelists will address the importance of instructional leadership capacity for school-based leaders to support learning recovery, maintain educational continuity and build resilience in the face of ongoing crisis and challenges. We will present study results from Indonesia, Lebanon and Kenya, and discuss opportunities as well as challenges in leveraging digital solutions to support school-based reform.
In PART II, we will dive deeper into the dual role of school-based leaders and their middle tier counterparts – officers, inspectors, supervisors, and so on – in holding each other accountable for quality performance outcomes. Panelists will present program experiences and lessons learned from Zambia and the Dominican Republic, highlighting the advantages of collection action and “layered” approaches for educational accountability.
Across both panels, presentation attendees and discussants will engage in discussion around practical ways to enrich and strengthen educational leadership to address educational performance improvement. Through the panel presentations and discussions, we will attempt to answer the following questions:
● What is emerging evidence on the role of educational leaders in rolling out education reforms and fostering educational continuity?
● What are the digital solutions that work best for educational leaders in low-resource contexts?
● What are the constraints or barriers to successful capacity development of educational leaders?
● What research might be needed to deepen our understanding of successful educational leadership?

Sub Unit

• Educational Improvement SIG

Chair

• Deborah Kimathi, Learning Generation Initiative, EDC

Individual Presentations

• Scaling Innovation through Middle Tier and School Leaders in the Dominican Republic - Colin Smith, One World Network of Schools

• Bricklayers: The Overlooked Leaders Unlocking Change in Education Systems - Michael Greer, World Vision; Florencia Guerzovich, Independent Consultant; Thomas Aston

Discussant

• Amlata Persaud, Childhood Education International