Comparative and International Education Conference - Puerto Rico

This week I have had the opportunity to be at the CIES conference in Puerto Rico. I am presenting a paper on measuring global citizenship dispositions within teacher education candidates. You can find a copy of my PowerPoint on my Wilfrid Laurier University website research page (click here).

Canadian perspectives on global citizenship

Today I'm presenting a paper at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) meeting in Vancouver. The paper provides an overview of a variety of Canadian university programs for global citizenship education as well as some of the recent Canadian literature on the topic. The second part of the paper considers the transformationalist (McGew, 2000; Shultz, 2007) approach we've taken at WLU with our Glocal initiative.

A copy of my PowerPoint from today's presentation is available on my WLU web-site (click here):
Steve Sider's WLU Research Home-page

Sorry for the goose-chase but I couldn't attach the PowerPoint in my blog!

Networking to improve student learning in Haiti (Pt 1 #5)

5. Liaise with MENFP, Haitian universities, and other partners to further develop the educational system in Haiti.

One of the challenges of working to improve student learning in Haiti is the lack of coordination and cooperation between the many different groups involved with education. A national principals' organization could serve as the conduit (and catalyst) to change this.

Working with the Ministry of Education (MENFP), Haitian universities, and other interested groups (external universities, NGOs, IGOs), a national organization of principals would serve as a hub for networking. Without a particular charitable, political, or financial purpose, but with the mission of improving student learning through enhanced educational leadership, the organization would be logically situated to bring the different groups together around this goal.

The organization could partner with MENFP to recognize and credential the principal qualification program (described earlier). It could work with academics within the various ecole normale superieure (university faculties of education) and external universities to provide professional development opportunities (courses, workshops, journals, newsletters, etc) as well as research support. By being a non-partisan organization, it would be able to communicate with the disparate private school systems throughout the country and not be viewed as infringing on a particular mission, charity or business.

When we (re)imagine a new educational possibility for Haiti, it begins with leadership. A national principals' organization would provide the contextual capacity for such leadership, whether by developing a certification process, initiating and supporting research projects, providing professional development resources, and/or networking with the various stakeholders.

Professional learning communities in Haiti (Pt 1 #4)

4. Provide professional learning opportunities such as regional events and a national gathering of school principals

Approximately 15% of schools in Haiti are public (government) schools. The remaining 85% of schools are a wide variety of Catholic, Protestant, and other private schools. A system of professional learning communities would provide an opportunity for networking and shared professional learning around a common goal: improved student learning. Although there is a strong sense of "silo-ism" (i.e. not wanting to collaborate or cooperate with other schools/school systems - sometimes based on suspicion of the intentions of others or in an attitude of "what's in it for me?") in Haiti, my experience has shown that there is a move among new, emerging, school leaders to break this down. A national principals' organization, in partnership with universities and the Ministry of Education, could serve as the catalyst for breaking down these barriers. The organization could also lead the effort for developing regional professional learning events and even a national convention for school leaders. On-line professional learning communities could be developed in tandem with these face-to-face events and would serve as a networking hub to support and extend professional learning on a 24/7 type of basis.

Regional events would be relatively easy to develop in Haiti. The country is already organized around 10 (geographically-based) departments that would serve as natural professional learning regions. A national event may be more challenging (e.g. costs and time involved with transportation) but utilizing digital technologies could overcome these challenges. For example, a national event could take place in a large city such as Port au Prince or Cap Haitien and web-cast to regional hubs. I am already familiar with a leadership conference which occurs in the United States which is simulcast in Port au Prince. A similar model, with a central conference and regional hubs, could be utilized in Haiti. If the event couldn't be simulcast (live), it could be taped and then distributed to the regional hubs for regional conferences scheduled a few weeks later.

Re(imagining) educational research in Haiti: (Pt 1 #3)

3. Encourage educational research and disseminating this research through a professional journal and web-site.

Currently, educators in Haiti rely on research, and the resulting reports, articles, and books, that is based in North American and European contexts. We need more (and better) research completed in, and on, Haiti. A national principals' organization can support this through the certification process (described earlier), partnerships with academics at Haitian universities, and through "knowledge mobilization."

Knowledge mobilization refers to the dissemination of research. It can take place through workshops and courses but, to cast the widest net, should certainly include dissemination through a professional journal and website (see www.haitieducationalleadership.com). Mobilizing the information contained within research reports is not really all that challenging in today's digital age; first, we have to establish a mind-set (a professional expectation) that research is something all educators should be involved in.

Typically, we refer to "on-the-ground" research as action research. Teachers and school administrators identify a problem and determine steps to investigate that problem, usually within their own school or local area. The findings lead to steps to resolve the problem, leading to improved practice. There is a cyclical nature to research as the action steps and changed practices should themselves be examined. Principals should be leading this type of action research on an on-going basis and setting new and improved direction for their schools based on the results. They should also be sharing the results of localized action research practices (knowledge mobilization) so that others can learn from their experiences.

I have led action research training in Haiti (see the guide I've published in French and English which is located on the www.haitieducationalleadership.com website). Principals can receive basic training in a day. One of the successful practices we developed in Haiti has been an opportunity, usually 4-6 months after the initial training, to bring the participants back together to share their experiences. In 2009, we published a number of these action research projects in a book (posted on www.haitieducationalleadership.com). Again, this is part of knowledge mobilization.

Haitian universities should be heavily involved in this process. Scholars within these institutions should be leading the training, supporting the research, and establishing conferences, journals, and web-sites to ensure the results are widely publicized.

Haiti: (re)Imagining a System for Principal Qualifications (Pt 1 #2 elaborated)

2. Develop a system for principal qualifications.

A number of steps would be important in developing a structure to support a "principal certification" program. Likely, this would need to be a "two tier" certification program since some people currently serving in principal positions would not have a university degree which should be seen as a minimum academic standard.

a) Determining minimum educational qualifications. A university degree, preferably in education, would be the minimum standard for a "tier 1" principal qualification. For those with only a high school education, the track they would embark on would be for a "tier 2" (or "associate"?) principal certificate.

b) Establishing multiple professional courses which candidates would have to satisfactorily complete in order to be recognized as a certified school principal. This could follow a number of different models:

• four courses, each of 30 hours in length (i.e. 1 week), which would cover issues of leadership, educational law, curriculum development, programming, educational psychology, budgeting, etc
• multiple, shorter courses (i.e. 1-3 days) focused on specific topics (e.g. 1 day on a facet of educational law, 2 days on curriculum development, etc)
• Master of Education degree - obviously, this would involve a longer period of completion (and wouldn't be available to those without a university degree) but would provide an internationally recognized professional degree program leading to principal certification

c) In any model, there should be two distinct aspects built into the certification program: an internship (or service component) and an action research project. More on this in my next blog posts.

Fixing Haiti - a meeting with the author, Jorge Heine

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with Jorge Heine, the Chair in Global Governance at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), affiliated with my university (WLU). He is a former Chilean ambassador to South Africa and India and has a long, distinguished career. He recently co-edited a book on Haiti (see below) and has been highlighted in some Canadian media outlets such as The Toronto Star and CBC.

I was amazed at how interested he was in my work in Haiti. There are four faculty members, between WLU, University of Waterloo, and CIGI who are doing work in Haiti. Jorge believes that this represents the largest core of faculty at universities in English-speaking Canada who are engaged with Haiti. He encouraged me to contact Mirlande Maniget, a former presidential candidate for Haiti and current vice-president (vice-rector) at Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince. She wrote one of the chapters in his recent book Fixing Haiti: MINUSTAH and Beyond (see image below). While we were meeting, he sent her an email encouraging us to meet and I am hoping to do so when I am in Haiti in mid-May.