Leadership learning for transitions to unfamiliar cultural contexts

Susan Lovett, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New ZealandBev Flückiger, Griffith University, Brisbane, AustraliaNeil Dempster, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

European Council for Educational Research (ECER) Conference, Budapest, Hungary, September 2015

Objectives for the presentation

• Examine the continuing significance of the influence of context on leadership work;

• Show that when the cultural context is one with which leaders are unfamiliar, new dimensions are added to their leadership learning needs; and

• Discuss the knowledge needs and types of concerns which must be addressed if leaders are to move fluidly into unfamiliar contexts

European Council for Educational Research (ECER) Conference, Budapest, Hungary, September 2015

Our study

Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) illustrates leadership transitions into unfamiliar cultural contexts

Features of PALLIC:• Funded by Australian Government 2011-2012 under its “Closing the gap” initiative;• 48 schools in remote, rural and regional communities;• More than half in very remote Indigenous communities;• Leadership Development with task implementation in local contexts supported by mentors

Our study: Five leadership development modules with follow-up tasks

1. Leadership for Literacy Learning

2. Learning to Read

3. Analysing Data

4. Planning for Reading Improvement

5. Evaluating Reading Action Plans

Importance of context (1)

McLaughlin (1998) suggests:To ignore context is to ignore the very elements that make policy implementation a "problem," and contribute to the highly variable local responses that trouble policymakers (p. 79).

ECER conference, Budapest, Hungary, September 2015

Importance of context (2)

Hallinger (2012) argues that schools are not static organisations able to be led with a single set of dispositions, strategies or behaviours.“no such list could fully account for the contextually contingent nature of successful leadership practice” (p. 135) Because“the impact of the principal’s leadership is mediated by the culture, work processes and people” (p.137).

Importance of context (3)

The Cambridge University led Carpe Vitam project in 8 countries reinforced the premise that:

“context and culture matter and that school leadership is intrinsically bound in time and place” (MacBeath & Dempster, 2009, p.1).

Importance of context (4)

There is a special complexity in leading in an unfamiliar context which is located in a different culture (Bishop et al., 2011)

We focus on four of the concepts that helped us with that complexity in our work with Indigenous communities in Australia.

The Four Concepts

1. Intercultural Space

2. ‘Both Ways’ Leadership

3.Shared Leadership and Partnerships

4.Culturally Responsive Conversations (‘Yarning’)

European Council for Educational Research (ECER) Conference, Budapest, Hungary, September 2015

The concept of intercultural spaceTaylor (2003) explains intercultural space as: “The meeting of two distinct cultures through processes & interactions which retain the distinctive integrity & difference of both cultures and which may involve a blending of elements of both cultures but never the domination of one over another” (p.45)

Priest et al., (2008) argue:“there is a gap in the mainstream knowledge base [about an unfamiliar culture] and this creates an environment where genuine collaboration & shared leadership can occur” (p.121)

Leadership ‘both ways’: ‘Warrki Jarrinjaku’ (working together everyone listening)

Consistent with the ‘both ways’ leadership literature Priest et al., (2008) illustrate the need for intercultural space by documenting differences between conventional leadership practice & Warrki Jarrinjaku leadership practice.

Fundamental to the effective use of intercultural space “is the development of relationships [partnerships] through which mutual understanding can occur” (Frawley et al., 2010, p.10)

Shared Leadership and Partnerships

There is need for the re-theorising of leadership as a collective or shared responsibility requiring active participation by school and community personnel in partnerships, the identification and involvement of ‘boundary crossers’, and the pursuit of multi-vocal approaches to gathering understandings of leadership and community needs.

Frawley et al. (2010); Fitzgerald (2003); Kilpatrick & Johns (2004); Anderson-Smith (2008); Schwab & Sutherland (2001); Johnson et al. (2014) and Yohani (2013)

Creating partnerships with Indigenous communities• You can’t have a partnership without a relationship and

you can’t have a relationship without a conversation

• You’ve got to have the conversation

• Everything starts here.

What Works (2011)

Culturally responsive conversations

McNaughton and Lai (2009) talk of the need to create spaces for regular dialogue, sharing, reflection, collective sense-making, and planning, never assuming that dialogue in intercultural settings is automatic.

They go further to argue that a clear, local, evidence-based focus on student engagement and learning should be the core of these kinds of conversations.

Conversations as yarning space

A space that is “ not so much a physical location as a positioning or socio-cultural strategy for communicating across linguistic & cultural boundaries” (Flückiger, Diamond & Jones, 2012, p.53)

Yarning space allows people to ‘yarn up’ so all voices are heard (Burchill & Higgins, 2005)

Explaining conceptual differences between cultures

We illustrate two of the concepts (refer to handout) with extracts from the work of Priest et al., (2008, pp.123-124) on the differences between conventional leadership practice & Warraki Jarrinjaku leadership practice

followed bythe examination of a two-part strategy designed to open up discussion of the knowledge needed to understand cultural differences in leadership practice (questionnaire and disciplined dialogue).

Simulated dataAccepted or Conventional Leadership Practice

A O S N Intercultural Leadership Practice 

A O S N

1. Reading improvement practices are designed, planned and prepared by non-Indigenous educational professionals

90 10 - - 16. Reading improvement practices are designed in genuine partnership with Indigenous people

- - 10 90

Disciplined dialogue discussion (Swaffield & Dempster, 2009)

1. What do we see in these data?

2. Why are we seeing what we are?

3. What, if anything, should we be doing about it?

NB: We now apply these questions in a demonstration discussion using simulated data to highlight some of the knowledge needs of leaders and teachers transitioning into unfamiliar cultural contexts

Gaining necessary knowledge

Conducting a strategy such as this with teachers inside the school is not enough.

Leaders must gain knowledge about how Indigenous people feel about both conventional and intercultural leadership practice.

Therefore, leaders need to take their knowledge concerns with them deliberately into unfamiliar cultural contexts.

Hall & Loucks (1978) knowledge concerns (1)

Q1: When I make this transition what will I have to learn myself ? (self knowledge)

• What do I need to learn about the creation of intercultural space?• What do I need to know about leadership in this cultural context?• What do I need to understand about partnerships with local people?• What do I need to learn about ‘yarning’?

Knowledge concerns (2)

Q2: What tasks will I have to understand and take on to manage this transition? (task knowledge) • What strategies do I need to open up intercultural space?• What do I need to know about the actions which will ensure leadership occurs ‘both ways’?• What relationship knowledge will be essential for establishing partnerships and gaining commitment?• How is yarning best undertaken in this community?

Knowledge concerns (3)

What do I know about the impact and effect of what I am doing in this cultural setting? (impact knowledge)• How will I know when intercultural space is an accepted medium for our work here?• When will I be able to tell that leadership ‘both ways’ is occurring authentically?• What evidence about the effects of our partnerships is important to all of us?• Why would I be able to say that our yarning has created successful relationships?

Conclusion

These 4 concepts are indicative of the kind of knowledge needs principals moving to unfamiliar contexts face. We suggest they have generic qualities with valuable applications to a wider range of contexts than that which we have used in this illustration from particular aspects of Indigenous Australia.