KeyNote 2
Presenter: Ann Liebermann
Venue: SKYCITY Convention Centre, Auckland
Topic: What do we know about Teacher Leadership and what's to gain?
Resource: bit.ly/UlearnAnn
Dr. Ann Lieberman was previously a Senior Scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and is Professor Emeritus of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Lieberman is widely known for her work in the areas of teacher leadership and development, collaborative research, networks and school-university partnerships, and the problems and prospects for understanding educational change. Ann has been involved in the TEACHERS AS LEARNERS AND LEADERS PROGRAMME in Ontario for seven years — a programme that encourages knowledge created by teachers, for teachers and with teachers.
Her latest book is
Mentoring Teachers: Navigating the Real World Tensions (with S. Hanson and J. Gless). Her other books include Inside the National Writing Project: Connecting Network Learning and Classroom Teaching (with Diane Wood), Teachers: Transforming Their World and Their Work, and Teachers in Professional Learning Communities: Improving Teaching and Learning (with Lynne Miller). Lieberman has served on numerous national and international advisory boards, including those of the United Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. She is also a past president of the American Educational Research Association. As a researcher she is currently working on deepening the field's understanding of different structures that support school reform including networks, partnerships and coalitions. She has recently been to Shanghai and Finland as a speaker and a learner. She will be a keynote speaker in Beijing at the end of April speaking at a conference on "Teacher as Researcher." Lieberman received her BA and Ed.D at UCLA and her MA at California State University at Northridge, where she also received an honorary degree.
Notes:
Why Teacher Leadership? And why now?
- Changes in the world
- Challenges for schools
The National Writing Project
- Social practices (Everybody is of value)
- create the conditions for learning; learn by doing and reflecting; Ts teach their best lesson; Ts read research together; Ts learn to be in community - “Ts as students of their own work”
Changes in the world, but few talk about the challenges for schools/educators. Teacher-leaders can make the diff.
Challenges: from teaching to learning; passive to active; rote to t4understanding; solo silos to members of a professional community; anecdotes to evidence; aligning policy to practice
Learning in practice: Schon’s reflective practice; make the private public; make implicit explicit; Wenger’s “Communities of practice”; learning as social participation; learning as discovering meaning; Learning as identity; Learning in Community;
Social practices of the NWP: everyone has value/a contribution; honoring T knowledge; created public forums; learning in practice and relationships; multiple entry points; reflecting on T thru reflecting on learning; OK to not know/ask questions; Prof. Identity linked to Prof. community
Teacher Scholarship (via Carnegie Academy CASTLE): Yvonne, Joan,
Learning Leadership: Acquiring identity; handle conflict - make it productive; develop collaboration & community; learn from practice - reflecting on old and new knowledge
Mentors as Teacher Leaders: Building a new identity; developing trusting relationships; accelerating T development; Mentoring in challenging contexts; Learning leadership skills
Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP): Teachers write proposal and do professional development in their own school with small budget; What did you learn? About Leadership? How do you share what you learned with others?
TLLP Study results: T-led, self-directed unique and vital; 85% worked wth 1 other or team; Huge benefits in teacher learning, leadership, spreading practices
What they learned: How to organise project; create & share; manage budget & more
Ts who lead: are inquirers into their own practice; community is critical; culture is critical to leadership; go public/share;
TL: organising learning; connections btwn knowledge and practice; combining explicit and tacit ways of learning; developing and nurturing community; negotiating the tensions btwn privacy and views of community
