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Leadership that Leads to a Culture of Transformation
Eduardo ChavesMindWare – EduTec.Net
São Paulo, Brazil
Lessons learned here
• Belief • Vision • Policy
Belief
“Human beings are not the fastest animals. We're not the strongest. We're not even the sharpest in
sight or smell. It's amazing how we survived against the many
fierce creatures of nature. We survived and prospered because of our minds. We evolved to fill the cognitive niche. We learned how to use . . . tools and technologies [that] have
helped us to shape the environment around us. … “
“Digital tools magnify the abilities that make us unique in the world: the ability to think, the ability
to articulate our thoughts, the ability to work together to act on those thoughts.
I strongly believe that if schools* empower their students** and give them potent tools to do this with, they will always be amazed at how much
creativity and initiative will blossom forth".
Bill Gates, in Business @ the Speed of Thought
[* companies, ** employees – in the original]
Vision
Let us place these powerful digital tools in the hands of all children so that they can learn
anytime, anywhere
Qualification
The issue is universal access to quality tools. In some parts of the world it will be three or four
tools per child.In others it will be three or four children per tool
But this is the way it is, and it is fair, as long as everyone has access.
Leadership
To make this vision a reality we need competent, inspired, committed, untiring leadership at every
levelWithin education, classroom, school, school systemOutside education: political, business, midia, etc.
At all levels: local, regional, national, global
Clarity
Reformation or Transformation?
• Transformation: radical, innovative change • Radical, innovative change (transformation) only
comes about when we are convinced that the old model / paradigm no longer works and that it is not viable to reform it, to give it a fix
• Nothing short of a revolution will do
“The only way to change the school* is to imagine it totally different from what it is today.
Apply too much of the wisdom and knowledge that got us here, and you end up right where you
started. Take an entirely fresh look from a radically new
perspective, and get a new result”
J Allard, Microsoft, Business Week, 4-Dec-06, p.64
[* world, in the original]
Where will it likely come from first?
• Difficult to tell...• ... But easy to tell where it will not come from:
Finland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea
• These countries have probably led the old model to its limit
As the quality of a given school or school system goes up …
… the degree of radical innovation that becomes acceptable in it goes down!
As the quality of a given school or school system goes down …
… the degree of radical innovation that becomes acceptable in it goes up!
Nicholas Negroponte, 2004
Risk
• Certainly there is a risk in innovating ... • But there is more than risk in being conservative
in a world in radical transformation: there is the certainty of obsolescence (“custodial place”)
An unlearning organization
• Before the school can be transformed, it has to develop a culture of transformation
• To do this it needs to unlearn its present culture: • Its view of education • Its view of learning • Its view of curriculum, methodology and assessment
• Unlearning is often a subversive activity
Leadership
• Effective leadership has to manage change and lead the school to a radical new culture
• A new culture must include, besides curriculum methodology and assessment:• A consistent focus on protagonist student learning • A new faculty: learning facilitators / mentors /
advisers / counselors / tutors, etc.• A new learning environment that integrates face-to-
face and virtual, formal and non-formal• A new relationship with external stakeholders
