Leading Ahead 2011Lyderiu laikas (Time for Leaders): Lithuania’s response to leadership

development

Egle PranckunieneCentre for School Improvement, Lithuania

Leon, October 2011

Personal experiences

• National strategy development;• Management of large-scale

education projects;• Management of international

projects• Development of modules for

training in school improvement; • Experience in international

training and consulting programs.• Number of articles on school

improvement.

Centre for School Improvement

School improvement

A movement of school community for :

• Progress of all students; • Holistic approach to students’

personal development; • On-going self-evaluation and

reflection.• Strenthening of a learning

organization;

History • Founded at 1999 ; • Since 2001- self-

sustainable; Mission : a school where everybody is learning

• to learn;• to do;• to be;• to be together.

What do we do?

• Professional learning of educators: school-based, external , study visits and other forms;

• Consultancy of educational organisations in Lithuania and abroad and professional development of educational consultants;

• Implementation of complex educational projects: school networks, research, training, public consultations, policy advise, etc.

How can you change the system?

Time for Leaders: approach to changing policy that will impact on school leaders, their development and support and subsequent intended change in learning for students and pupils.

“Time for Leaders” – intentions

• Promote sustainable educational leadership as the development of an in depth universal learning;

• Research the field of management and educational leadership in Lithuania;

• Explore the ‘state of the art’ ideas on educational leadership;• Involve both educational and academic as well as business

communities and experts from different fields and countries; • Stimulate discussions and public consultations with all

stakeholders; • Motivate and inspire the education community.

“Time for Leaders”- components

• The development of school leadership models;• The development of consultancy system to support

individual and institutional leadership;• The development of leadership competencies by MA

program and in-formal programs;• Setting a Virtual platform for leaders;• Performance of longitudinal investigation on

leadership context and expression at school level.

Interrelationship between the different components of the project

Structure of components

Conceptual bases• Leadership for learning. Pupil learning is the pivotal point for

leaders in education ; (Blandford (2009), Knapp (2006)).

• Sustainable leadership. (Fink and Hargreaves (2006)): the creation of powerful and equal conditions for learners, professionals, and the entire system in which leaders are making learning the basis of their work.

• System leadership (Hargreaves (2007)): school partnering another school (facing difficulties), brokering networks/partnerships, introducing new roles, e.g. consultant leader: someone who helps in setting direction, developing people or organisation.

Who is a leader?

• Professionalism;• Responsibility;• Creativity;• Learning;• Values;• Quality.

Educational leaders are competent in these areas :

• Leading learning; • Leading people ;• Leading organizations;• Self-development.

Major findings and further questions

• What are the links between leadership and learning (content and processes, and the impact on student learning) ?

• How do we view school effectiveness ? What is a good school?

• What is the level of influence in what happens in the classroom ?

Where next – II stage?• Increase of the “critical mass” of

leaders in education;

• Promotion of leadership for learning in all levels of education;

• Public debate, consensus building by regular leadership forums, public consultations;

• Bridging the gap between research, theory and practice and building networks at all levels;

• All the activities will be implemented simultaneously to ensure sharing, to promote trust and mutual understanding.

Where next – II stage?• Conceptual models piloted at 15

municipalities and 50- 100 schools; • Selection and training programmes for

consultants will be piloted;• 300 leaders from national, regional

and school level will be involved in the Masters programme and non-formal leadership studies;

• Individual and organisational growth will be documented in written and audio-visual formats;, especially personal experiences and success stories;

Thank you !

• Eglė Pranckūnienė

egle@mtc.lt

• www.mtc.lt

• www.lyderiulaikas.smm.lt