Collective leadership matters: Driving transformation across education systems

From the ministry to the classroom, positive leadership behaviors set the tone for countries' education transformation strategies, rallying partners behind the national vision, sparking reforms, shifting the organizational culture and leading by example in the classroom to support more equitable learning.

June 24, 2024 by Carmela Salzano, GPE Secretariat, and Janne Kjaersgaard Perrier, GPE Secretariat
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5 minutes read
GPE leadership, education advocates, GPE youth leaders and ministers of education from 15 partner countries gathered at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. June 2022
GPE leadership, education advocates, GPE youth leaders and ministers of education from 15 partner countries gathered at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. June 2022
Credit: GPE/Emmanuelle Jacobson-Roques

Behavioral features such as social mobilization, radical collaboration, commitment to innovation and partnership dynamics are all recognized in both education research and practice for their significant impact on the speed, scale and sustainability of education transformation.

Equally important is the influence of inspirational and committed leaders at all levels and across all domains in driving and enacting a vision for transformation. Committed leadership is central to moving all stakeholders in the direction of system change and leveraging different types of influence to address complex education challenges.

Leading the charge: High-level champions

High-level leaders anticipate the needs of an education system, articulating the vision and setting a strategy to meet future learning and skills expectations in relation to economic growth, employment, poverty reduction and resilience to climate shocks.

As champions of change, these leaders build advocacy movements and campaigns around different dimensions of the transformation agenda, inspiring others to follow suit and forging coalitions among policy makers, managers and administrators, teachers, civil society organizations, development partners and nontraditional partners such as private sector actors.

They also understand their political economy and governance structures and are well-positioned to follow through on pledges by mobilizing the political capital needed for shifts in policy and legislation.

The hard part is gathering the political will and actually going out and doing it. That is what takes a lot of courage and a lot of commitment.

Anwar Makarim, Minister of Education, Indonesia

Nadiem Anwar Makarim, Indonesia’s Minister of Education has spearheaded the foundations of systemic change at scale in the world’s 4th biggest education system through the holistic reform Emancipated Learning – Merdeka Belajar.

Showing signs of impact on students’ learning gains and general change in mindsets, this reform has required major public campaigning to build consensus and overcome massive resistance. The reform has also launched 27 major policies to support school transformation and ensure that various rules, regulations and practices are coherent throughout the system and clearly communicated.

Effective high-level leaders also take the time to engage with stakeholders in the places where policy impacts are experienced the most—including in schools, communities and school district administrations—to understand and respond to different concerns.

Traits and behaviors such as these are also seen in the dynamism of leaders such as Awut Deng Acuil, South Sudan’s first female Minister of Education who is a vocal advocate for inclusive, quality education.

She has dedicated herself to supporting a system transformation vision through global and national advocacy, explaining that her country’s focus on inclusive education is more than just a policy. It’s a lifeline to cohesion and social justice for thousands of children affected by conflict and displacement, and a commitment to rebuilding a nation through the power of learning.

H.E. Awut Deng Acuil, South Sudan’s first female Minister of Education, with Charles North, Deputy CEO of GPE. April 2023
H.E. Awut Deng Acuil, South Sudan’s first female Minister of Education, with Charles North, Deputy CEO of GPE. April 2023
Credit:
GPE/Timo Diers

Steering capacities for change: Leadership in the messy middle

Midlevel leadership often lacks the visibility conferred to decision makers higher up in the hierarchy but is no less critical to effective systems transformation.

Midlevel leaders and managers within central, regional and provincial education authorities hold important responsibilities for following through on bold policy shifts and radical reforms. They build ownership and buy-in across the organizational culture and coordinate across complex education ecosystems to connect the dots and ensure coherent decision making. Their relationships with the education workforce—and especially teachers—are central to mobilizing and incentivizing support to reform efforts.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the Education Ministry has strengthened the institutional leadership and positioning of the Support and Coordination Unit as designated actor for the oversight of the partnership compact. This is to ensure that leadership and delivery roles and responsibilities are clearly mapped and understood.

To this end, technical steering, coordination and leadership capacities are being reviewed, in consultation with concerned directorates of the ministry, to ensure capabilities for pursuing and monitoring the theory of change and generating more connected decision making in targeted priority areas.

In Uganda, the experiences of the international nongovernmental organization STiR Education have underlined the existence of a “missing link” between education leaders/officials and teachers, showing how closer professional relationships between them can impact teachers' intrinsic motivations to support system transformation.

STIR’s partnerships with government have highlighted the need to redefine relationships so that officials can play a more dynamic role of coach, mentor, facilitator or ‘critical friend’ to teachers, and the need for teachers and their peers to reflect on their experiences, share challenges and find creative solutions to delivering on system transformation.

Making a difference in schools and classrooms: School leadership practices

The roles and behaviors of school-level leaders have many important impacts on school culture and the quality of classroom instruction. School leaders ensure an efficient, safe and healthy environment for learning, optimize resources to overcome everyday challenges and raise awareness in the community on the importance of school attendance, especially for girls.

Many GPE partner countries have recognized the need for change in how to strengthen competencies for and provide support to school leaders.

Nicola Johnson (center), Chief Planning Officer at the Ministry of Education in Guyana, works with Planning Officer Kimberley Bakker (left), and Headmistress Rosemary George to review the school's records at Moco-Moco Primary School in Region 9, Guyana.
Nicola Johnson (center), Chief Planning Officer at the Ministry of Education in Guyana, works with Planning Officer Kimberley Bakker (left), and Headmistress Rosemary George to review the school's records at Moco-Moco Primary School in Region 9, Guyana.
Credit:
GPE/Kelley Lynch

In Guyana, the ministry of education has put strengthening culturally responsive and effective instructional leadership as well as improved accountability (at district and school levels) at the heart of its priority reform. Here, ‘leadership’ is envisaged as an umbrella concept covering many dimensions, including culturally responsive leadership, school-improvement planning and instructional leadership.

With innovative pedagogies and technology integration at the heart of many education approaches to improving learning outcomes and transforming systems, a KIX-supported leadership program in Nicaragua and Honduras has focused on equipping school leaders and teachers for innovation and change.

Such leadership programs, based on practice-based peer learning, can positively affect school performance and help address gender bias, school-based violence, resource scarcity and dropout rates. Thanks to changes in teachers' leadership skills and related pedagogy and curriculum, students have increased confidence and excitement for learning.

Given the evidence on how female school leaders and teachers positively impact learning outcomes for girls, the Ministry of Education inMadagascar is prioritizing a more structured competency framework and career development processes for female primary school leaders.

This initiative, supported through the country’s partnership compact, holds promise to contribute to overcoming gender-based barriers to becoming a school principal.

By fostering a culture of shared leadership, education systems can become more resilient and effective in meeting the diverse needs of all learners.

High-level leaders provide the vision and advocacy needed to initiate change, midlevel leaders ensure the implementation and sustainability of reforms and school-level leaders confront complex challenges in everyday learning contexts.

Their combined actions and dedicated support to ensure different types of leaders have the agency and resources needed to enact reform objectives are pivotal to system transformation.

This blog is part of a series on system transformation, sharing voices and insights from partners and practitioners on what we are learning about education system transformation in different contexts and what it takes.

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Dans une vision systémique, le leadership partagé est en effet essentiel. Le GPE semble cependant adopter une approche descendante (top-down), et sesactivités se résumer au niveau central. Nous n'avons connaissance, par exempe, d'aucune activité concrète du GPE - dans les dix pays d'Afrique francophone où sont situées nos associations professionnelles - concernant la formation au leadership des gestionnaires locaux ou leur professionnalisation. Pourtant, comme le rappelait Jaime SAAVEDRA, Directeur Éducation, Banque Mondiale « Le domaine le plus souvent négligé en matière de politique éducative est sans doute la sélection et la formation des responsables éducatifs au niveau de l’école et du district, ceux qui sont les mieux à même de concrétiser la vision du gouvernement et de faire progresser l’acquisition des apprentissages fondamentaux. »
Nous sommes convaincus de l'importance pour le GPE d'adopter une approche hybride (descendante et ascendante) si elle veut, dans la réalité, favoriser l'émergence d'un leadership partagé.
Richard Charron
Administrateur ÉduGestion
richard.charron@edugestion.org

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