Conference Report 2007

A Changing Educational Environment - The Challenge of Leadership

Into the Future...

This year's conference set new records as nearly 90 delegates and speakers from over 16 Scottish Authorities attended the Marine Hotel in Troon on a blowy weekend in late February. The focus was on the future for development and improvement professionals in the challenges they face in the context of their work and personally in a changing educational landscape.

Delegates were welcomed to Troon by outgoing Honorary President, Professor Brian Boyd, who spoke of how much he had valued his work with AEDIPS over the three year term of his Honorary Presidency. Opening the conference, he celebrated the professionalism of quality improvement staff and the fact that future developments in the delivery of the national agenda relied heavily upon their work. The changing nature of the challenge for leadership required that quality improvement staff were ready to step up and fulfil the leadership roles that change demanded, he said.

Later in the conference, as Walter Humes, Professor of Educational Research at Paisley University was elected as the Association's third HonoraryPresident, he thanked Brian Boyd - "a tough act to follow!" - and promised to do his best to support the association in its continued development.

The conference was centred around CPD for quality improvement and advisory staff and the atmosphere was one of optimism as delegates took part in a discussion/consultation about the future direction of their CPD and the development of a proper professional recognition framework underpinned by new research, including the paper published in 2006 From Development to Improvement - A Step Too Far? The whole of the Friday afternoon session was devoted to this crucial aspect of the work and future of the Association and its constituents.

The Saturday session saw the cobwebs blown away by a dynamic double act of Elisabeth Morris, HMIe, and Chris Ward, world authority on cooperative learning techniques.Elisabeth, a former Secretary of AEAS, the predecessor organisation to AEDIPS, launched new information about the plans for implementation of the third version of How Good is Our School? Chris's expertise engaged the delegates in a detailed consultation on various aspects of the components of the new framework introduced by Elisabeth.

New Honorary President, Professor Walter Humes rounded the conference off with a witty and pithy resume of the key conference elements and invited everyone to return in February 2008.

President's First Report

Jean Nisbet, in her first address as President, reviewed the steps the Association had taken over the past year and looked forward to her future plans for AEDIPS.

She began by paying a warm tribute to her predecessors Roderick MacKenzie and Tommy Doherty for the very positive impact they had had in moving the Association forward in very trying times. "The healthy state of AEDIPS owes much to the work of these and other committee members over several years," she stated. "Roderick is unable to be here due to illness," she said, "but our thoughts are with him and we look forward to seeing him at next year's conference."

The research direction, started two years ago, was now crucial in taking AEDIPS forward, and she welcomed the involvement and commitment of the research community in assisting this process of development.

She acknowledged the excellent contribution of committee members in making AEDIPS more efficient, more effective and more modern and invited members to visit the new blog, set up to complement the website which had been running successfully for over a year in its updated form. "Your voice is important in shaping the future of AEDIPS," she said, "so make sure your views are known. Use the blog and keep us informed."

The CPD agenda would be crucially important for advisory and quality improvement staff to develop their future role and, to that effect, Professor Richard Elmore would be leading a seminar/consultation on QIO/Adviser CPD on 24 March. "This will lead to the creation of a national steering group on CPD for us," she stated."It is very important that AEDIPS takes the opportunity to put forward the views of the people who actually do this job. Future generations of heads of service and directors will come from the ranks of QIOs and Advisers. We need to be prepared."

Hierarchy, Collegiality and Leadership

Keynote Address by Angus MacDonald, Former Head of Education in Inverclyde Council.

Gus MacDonald got the 2007 conference off to an excellent start with his opening address on the theme "Hierachy, Collegiality and Leadership."

Leadership

"Leadership does not exist in a vacuum, he stated. "Expectations exist which will mediate through other individuals in the establishment. It is generally expressed through structures and is mediated by the ethos around it. Major changes in Scottish Education have been implemented without discussion of leadership or ethos."

He suggested that it was important that consideration should be given to the assumptions behind or below these structures.

He made reference to Sir Cloudesley Shovell and the loss of the fleet in 1707 which could have been prevented if action had been taken when an able seaman expressed concern over their position in relation to the rocks of the Scilly Isles. The able seaman was hanged for insubordination!

This might be compared to the collaborative model where interaction only takes place amongst staff of a similar standing.

Collegiality

This approach is built on the basis of equality and parity with anyone being my peer. Change is taking place so rapidly that a collegiate ethos is essential - "It is not possible simply to rely on one individual," he stated.

Clear differences exist between a command structure and a collegiate ethos. If we were moving towards collegiality would we start with a hierarchical model? The implication is that we would not, but that is where we are.

We are undergoing a flattening of promotion structures but doesn't this really making collegiality more difficult? Should we separate leadership from management?

If we want to promote devolved leadership and encourage staff to be involved perhaps we should have many short term task orientated minor promotions. Secondments / commissions may be seen as 'inventing' these types of opportunities.

Collegiality in Practice

There is currently a high degree of engagement particularly of new entrants to the profession. There is a possibility that a command ethos could infiltrate collegiate structures, ideas may be taken and handed to someone of 'more standing'. Attitudes and Assumptions exist and will manifest themselves in a time and resource inefficient organization which could equal contrived collegiality.

Hierarchy

There are three ways of getting things done: Hierarchy - single rule ( pyramid structure) Heterarchy - leadership from anywhere in the organization Responsible Automony - responsibility for one's own actions and outcomes. Recognition of the responsibility and accountability makes the positive difference.

Each of the above can be positive or negative. The current leadership programme in Scottish education with its four levels is an excellent piece of work - does it go far enough? It provides a very useful classification of leadership which, if

Peter Senge categorizes Leadership as follows:

Local Line Leader who integrates innovation and practice, tests system efficiency and builds shared vision linked to reality. Does this describe the Head Teacher of a School?

Network Leader a seed carrier building local capacity, spread new ideas, connect innovations and help embed innovations. Is this the role of the QIO working with schools to build capacity?

The changed role of QIO to link more closely with HMIe which has been carried forward with little real consultation or consideration of impact on service may have resulted in a loss of capacity building as an unconscious consequence of structural change.

Servant Leader is seen as someone with a long term, transformational approach to life and work in essence, a way of being that has the potential for creating positive change throughout our society.

What is the hope for Quality Improvement Officers?

Are authorities looking for the economies of scale and would good quality collaborations provide this?

Restructuring with the introduction of new posts e.g. faculty head, perhaps not fully thought through might lead to a greater requirement for specialist support.

The research undertaken by Brain Boyd and Fiona Norris, on behalf of AEAS, which led to the paper From Development to Improvement - A Step too Far? identified the level to which Education Authorities have become too closely engaged in HMIe activities. Perhaps it would be better if HMIe majored in challenge and Local Education Authorities majored in support, he suggested.

With the implementation of A Curriculum for Excellence there may be a greater need for support as schools become more autonomous. Network leadership will flourish if we have an ethos of collegiality to promote it.

Seminar Sessions

Margaret Alcorn, National Coordinator for CPD

Margaret Alcorn began her session by stressing that we are in a period of change in Education and that this can be an uncomfortable place to be. Scottish Education is doing well, she asserted, but there are challenges:

to improve the quality of teaching and teachers through effective CPD;
the need to develop leaders and build leadership capacity;
the quality of teaching is what makes a school great as well as the relationship between the teacher and the learner;
there are still some teachers who see teaching and learning as separate entities.

There are many excellent teachers, she said, but education is guilty of underutilising them to help improve the practice of others. What about teachers of excellence? she asked. Good CPD helps these teachers develop.

She continued her theme by discussing the four levels of CPD: becoming aware, becoming interested; integrating into practice; innovating and creating. She regretted the fact that we tend to 'get stuck’ on level 1.

She ended her presentation with a statement from Peter Peacock:

"We are clear now that we need a profession that is valued, that feels trusted and empowered to practise their professional craft and in consequence displays the highest professional standards."

Tommy Doherty, National Coordinator of the Virtual Advisory Service

Recently seconded to LTScotland to set up and manage the Virtual Advisory Service, Tommy Doherty explained the background to the project to delegates.

The Virtual Advisory Service was designed to offer curriculum support and advice for teachers. Aimed at the 3-18 age range, it makes available a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas and views, a searchable database of questions and answers and, most significantly, direct access to specialist advice in numeracy, literacy and science, provided by a team of high quality, experienced practitioners with deep knowledge of their specialist area, based on extensive teaching and management experience and work as educational advisers in a local authority context.

Practitioners from four local authorities, East Lothian, Midlothian, Dundee City and Highland, are participating in the phase 1 pilot which is running throughout February and March 2007. This phase is to be externally evaluated by George Street Research and a second phase is scheduled for September 2007. This phase will involve more participating authorities and additional curricular areas, social subjects and health & well-being.

The Virtual Advisory core team is augmented by a number of specialists drawn from support staff in those authorities who are participating in the pilot.

Also starring.....

The cooperative learning approach to consultation was led on Saturday morning by Chris Ward of the Durham Authority of Ontario. The context for the exercise, which involved 60 delegates, was the input by Elisabeth Morris, HMIe on the new How Good is Our School 3 document. The combination of input/discussion question/participative consultation was highly popular and effective. When the results have been collated, they will be featured on this site

John Muir, Signing Off!

The third award of Honorary Membership of the Association was made to Highland Council’s retiring Quality Improvement Officer, John Muir. John, who has served the Association well over 20 years - including two as President in the early 90s - was presented with his award by George Reid, QIO in Edinburgh City Council. John, who sat on the Teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Council for Teachers (SNCT) for over 10 years, recalled some of his experiences with a mixture of poignancy and wit, recalling some of the struggles to recruit members. “No such problem now,” he stated.

John was delighted to accept the honour, thanked members of the association and wished AEDIPS well. With reference to his ‘other’ pursuit, namely the writing of humorous books of classroom howlers, John announced that he was now signing off.

The Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra

Talented young musicians from various Ayrshire Schools provided the music to accompany the Conference Dinner at Troon.