Haiti educational training and leadership event: May 3-5

The next steps for our education capacity-building work in Haiti takes place this coming weekend in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. For the past three years, our team of Haitian and Canadian leaders has been providing professional development for more than 500 teachers in Haiti. We are now working alongside 30 Haitian instructional "champions" to prepare them for taking on increased responsibility in the Educator and Leadership Institute.

This coming weekend's version of the Educator and Leadership Institute will provide a high-level opportunity to identify with our Haitian partners how we will build on the successes of the past three years. The sustainability of ELI in Haiti is founded on a model where educators from the local context take on increasing authority for a peer-to-peer model of professional learning. Research I did last year in Egypt demonstrated that this form of professional learning is meaningful and authentic for participants (click here to read this article).

We will be leading workshops on leadership, andragogy (adult learning), assessment, and program planning. Throughout the weekend, we will continue to engage in research to identify the influence of the training on leadership development and how social change takes place in contexts such as Haiti.
Fundamental to this work is developing an understanding - from the perspective of our local partners - of how sustainable change can take place in Haiti.

We seek to listen and understand before determining a way forward: Reciprocity is fundamental to all that we do.

I will be working with three other Canadian educational leaders in the training weekend. We are fortunate to have received funding from a Canadian foundation (Gay Lea Foundation) which is supporting this training. Financial commitments from organizations like Wilfrid Laurier University and the Gay Lea Foundation - as well as many individual donors - enables change to take place. The training itself leads to a future where "seed funding" is not required. That is sustainability in action!

I think this is an amazing aspect of ELI:
Canadian and Haitian volunteers + Canadian charitable seed funding = social change

How does a principal shape the culture of a school? One relationship at a time

Schools are complex systems.

Anyone who has worked in a school - or for that matter stepped into one - recognizes this fairly quickly.

Systems --whether businesses, government, civil society, or in one's home -- are made up of people with some sort of shared activity or commitment. The more people, the more complex the system.

High schools are often very complex. Start with 100 teachers and support staff, add in 1,500 students, sprinkle in a few administrators and office staff, plus a dash of community members and you have a recipe for what can be a rich and vibrant mixture.

I've been working with a high school in the Waterloo Region the past few months as we consider how to build an inclusive environment for all students. My focus has been on English language learners (ELL) but with the understanding that inclusion means ALL students across our broad understanding of student diversity. The focus on ELL has been due to the relatively recent infusion of ELL in the school.

As a principal, how do you shape the culture of a large, complex system like a school?

There are many things that principals do to shape effective schools. A quick glance at the Ontario Leadership Framework (click here) can provide one with an overview of these practices.

Embedded in these practices is the importance of relationships. Change happens through relationships. And change is often most effective in the seemingly minor interactions that principals have with students, staff, and community members. It can be painfully incremental. After all, how many relationships can a principal have when there are 100+ teachers and 1,500 students in a school? However, principals should never discount the seemingly innocuous moments when they encourage a teacher, say hi to a group of students, confront a troubling situation, or give a student a high five after completing a test, reading a paragraph from a book, or scoring a basket.

Can school cultures be shaped through slogans, banners, newsletters, staff meetings, and assemblies? Yes. But these are just vestiges and temporal if they are not accompanied by meaningful actions that reflect care, trust, respect, and integrity ... lived out through relationships.

Inclusive school leadership article in The Conversation; Awareness and action

Today, an article that I wrote appeared in The Conversation. Click here to read the article entitled, "Every child matters: What principals need to effectively lead inclusive schools."

In the article I highlight some provincial issues related to supporting students with special education needs in Canada.

I also posit three key results from the national study I have led the the past three years:

1. School principals need effective professional development to foster inclusive school environments.
2. Strong professional relationships are key to the work of principals in supporting students with special education needs.
3. The work that principals do can be isolating and isolated. They need support to do their work effectively.

I've been engaged with research about school leadership in Canada and in other countries, including Haiti. In fact, last week our research team received a large research grant to examine inclusive education in Ghana. In my experience, the conclusions we drew from the Canadian study is mirrored in the work of principals in other contexts.

How to build inclusive and equitable education systems (Sustainable Development Goal #4) is certainly an issue that is drawing attention locally and globally. Now, we need to move from awareness to action.