EDUC43200 Managing the Organisation

Academic Year 2023/2024

In modules one and two, when considered collectively, there has been a focus on approaches to teaching and learning, and their underlying assumptions, as well interrogation of various leadership concepts—Distributed, Transformative, Democratic, Teacher, Instructional etc—with a persistent return to the ‘so what’: the implications for the exercise of leadership by various actors in your own school community. Module three builds on this foundation. Additionally, since this programme commenced, the DES has declared that 'distributed leadership' is the only leadership game in town-- and that School Self Evaluation both lends itself to such an approach, and in the process builds leadership capacity.
You will not need any reminding here, whether you work in the primary or post-primary educational ‘vineyard,’ that ‘Looking At Our Schools’ (DES, 2016) (A Quality Framework) is a pivotal education policy document written for schools by the Inspectorate. School Self Evaluation (SSE), in its various iterations, has had a presence since 2012. In this policy environment it becomes obvious that these external prescriptions increasingly encroach on the daily lives and work of teachers and principals. The DES website, describes SSE as follows:
School self-evaluation is a collaborative, inclusive, and reflective process of internal school review. An evidence-based approach, it involves gathering information from a range of sources, and then making judgements. All of this with a view to bring about improvements in students’ learning. (http://schoolself-evaluation.ie/)
These policies, along with many other contextual considerations, create the working environment for teachers and learners alike. It is necessary therefore, to come to terms with these policies, their implications for practice, and to do so in a professionally responsible manner, while seeking also to decipher their leadership implications.
Purpose of module: learning outcomes
Against the backdrop of the above, on completion of this module, you will be enabled to:
• Contextualise recent policies in the Irish context by situating them within international policy discourses of educational reform
• Use intellectual tools for the interrogation of national policies
• Identify and isolate the implications of these policies for practice, from a leadership perspective
• Understand the extent to which policies have potential to foster or restrict teacher-leader agency
• Discuss strategies that build capacity within school communities to lead change in a professionally responsible manner
• Be better equipped (i) to engage in reflective professional conversations on reform, renewal, and transformation of school communities with colleagues within and beyond the school, and (ii) to cultivate a more discerning disposition towards the role of evidence in decision-making, while iii) to be more critical of the nature and sources of evidence
• Identify strategies for policy enactment that are simultaneously potentially transformative and subversive