Schools lie at the heart of the community, so how can school leaders be supported to become great community leaders and foster impactful positive changes?
This question was discussed widely during our recent School leaders conference in Zambia and the evidence presented there suggested, that a school leader who is visible, focused on quality, advocates for community causes, and supports equity to build trust and foster positive change, is more likely to successfully win the support of parents and the community at large. This in turn will give a much more enabling environment for students to thrive in every aspect through a community parenting approach.
At the conference, 52 policy-makers and system leaders discussed how evidence-based research and practice from the UK and various other parts of the world could be utilised to support school leaders in defining their community role and developing expertise, confidence, and knowledge necessary to carry it out. In doing so, it addressed some key questions such as:
- What is community school leadership and why it is important?
- How can community school leadership contribute to a more inclusive education and to gender equality in relation to access to education?
- What are the characteristics of highly effective community school leadership and how can we support school leaders to develop these skills and competencies?
- If ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, what role should the community take in education and what influence should the community have over important aspects of provision such as the curriculum and how it is delivered?
- What strategies and tools can school leaders put into place for monitoring and improving the quality of their community relationships (with an emphasis on ‘development’ rather than ‘judgement’ and with a focus on developing resilience.
The programme format was a mix of visits, talks and interactive workshops. From India, Mr Sreekanth Yagnamurthy, RIE Mysore Principal and NCERT representative, Ms Pranati Panda, School Leadership and Quality Specialist from NIEPA and Dr Joseph Emmanuel, Director Academics, CBSE participated in the conference. Their contribution included insights about government policies and its implementation both in private and government schools across the country. Together they were able to effectively present the heterogenous school system of India. The key highlights were:
- There is a wealth of information and guidance in the policy documents but there is a gap between policy and its implementation. Also, there is no right answer or a magic bullet to fill the gaps of this diverse system. In some places, inputs are working great and in others not so well. It is not a trivial challenge but an important one.
- The ask from the school leaders is increasing and there is need to create a balance between the ask, capabilities and capacities. Through government tasks like census, vaccination, enrolment drives and election duty, schools regularly are engaged in community activities. But this is not the right kind of Community Leadership, there is a need to create a greater purpose, vision and strategy. The purpose could be alignment of policy guidance with community needs such as shifting gender bias, creating a scientific mindset, removing other social evil or simply ensuring better outcome for pupils.
- The group had an opportunity to visit two schools with inspirational leadership. The reflection at the end of the visit was focused on scaling up the magic of great leadership and how this might be accomplished.
Overall, it was a rewarding experience. The delegation came back full of fresh ideas and with a renewed determination to make community engagement in schools a top priority by giving school leaders the tools they need to actively engage with stakeholders and leaders in the community to advance the common good.