Social Justice Leadership Strand – ACTIVITY 3 guidance

Social justice statement – a personal reflection on what social justice means to you.  These are confidential within the group, but are intended to help us gain a better understanding of how we approach these issues as researchers.  This can be very personal, there is no set format – but we ask for a statement of minimum 1000 words – and it would be helpful if references/texts of key influences on you were identified – as this will help us frame a literature review.

Statements to be placed in the Dropbox

Note 1 – by definition this is a personal statement – and so one per person, regardless of whether you have been working solo or in a group.

Social Justice Leadership strand – ACTIVITY 2 guidance

A short report (minimum 1000 words – but as per other activities – longer, and with more details is better) in which you link your data to the framework developed by the group.

The framework is here – ISLDN Framework v1

This activity is a bit more complex (if we are to all tackle it in a consistent way). If you want support then please watch this:

Guidance 1   (5 minutes)

Then listen to this

Guidance 2 (30 minutes) [this is a link to an .mp3 file in the dropbox – you need access to the dropbox to access it – but you should have this already – contact Howard if you don’t]

Place your report in the Dropbox

Note 1 – this is a ‘group’ activity, ie if you work with others, then only 1 per group required.

Social Justice Leadership strand – ACTIVITY 1 guidance

Data collection and write up – conduct an interview with at least one school principal. There is no expectation of conducting more than 2-3 maximum. Indeed it is recommended project members do not conduct more than this number.  Select the principal(s) according to the sampling guidance provided here – and use the agreed interview protocol (available at same link).

Write up a report of the interview, with the work setting out the data against each of the four headings. This does not need to be long, but should be a minimum of 1000 words (500 words per question).  However, you may want to write considerably more to do your interview justice.  Place this report in the Dropbox. 

Note 1 – if you have presented this material in a conference, using the format of the 4 questions, then your conference paper can be used for this activity – but please make sure the format is clearly linked to the 4 questions.

Note 2 – this is one report per ‘group’, ie if you work in a group of 2-3 then only one report is required.

Note 3 – please feel free to write more than the minimum – and if you have an interview transcript please feel free to add this to the Dropbox (clearly labelled).

 

Social Justice Leadership Strand – pre-UCEA update

There is so much going on I am going to try and bring you all up to date on all the various issues.

UCEA Conference

We meet at UCEA shortly. We have 5 inputs to the programme.  Bruce and I have agreed that our planning meeting will be focused on our ‘research’ rather than ‘business’.  We have 4 hours and the first 3.5 will be within strands. All ‘business’ will be restricted to the final 30 minutes (this offsets the situation at BELMAS when the ‘research’/’business’ balance was the other way round).

My provisional agenda for our session is . . .

1)   Review of recent activity
2)   Macro/micro- Framework – how has this worked? How do we want to develop it?
3)   Data collection – next steps
4)   ‘Social Justice statements’ – what next? (how do we use these statements? how do we develop the ‘theory’ element of the project?)
5)   AoB (please suggest . . . )

Kris Hipp is organising a conference dinner – you’ve had the email, please respond to Kris.

ISLDN Network Meeting in Georgia, USA – Feb 2014

Pam, Ian and Jami are currently organising a network conference event in February for members to progress the initiative.  You have been provided with details. This is an event with lots of possibilities – please get back to Jami Berry via email and let her know if you can attend.

A final decision about whether this proceed will be taken at UCEA – which is why it is really important that the organisers have firm numbers about those interested.  If the numbers warrant it, this will proceed – and will be a significant milestone for the project – please let Jami now if you are hoping to attend. A good deal of work has gone into the planning of this, and we now need to see how we build on it – a big thanks to Jami, Ian and Pam.

The project – a collective effort

The project – I have rewritten the ‘how to get involved’ section of our website.  This now sets out our project in a simple set of ‘Activities’ (3 so far).  The 3 activities are:

1)   principal interview
2)   micro and macro contexts of social justice leadership – paper
3)   social justice statement

In each case we are asking group members to share the outcomes of their thinking in the Dropbox

Please can I remind you that participation in the project requires all members to commit to following the same, agreed, processes.  Some people have committed a great deal of work to this – but the minimum requirement (as set out in the activities) is not onerous.  Please can I ask that we all endeavour to perform all the basic activities specified – and to place the outcomes in the dropbox.  It is well understood that we cannot always get to conferences, and we WANT to include everyone – especially those who can’t attend conferences.  The basic way we can do this, all be involved, and all make a contribution, is to make sure we follow the basic activities as specified, and contribute the papers required. This is the way that all our individual efforts contribute to the collective goal.

Please note, and this is a personal view, but the conference presentations and the publications are what we take out of the project.  These are personal opportunities for us as individuals.  This is fine – the project was established to provide opportunities to UCEA and BELMAS members.  However, the 3 activities, writing them up, and sharing them, are what we put in to the project. As a group, we move slowly – but we move forward because of the effort, intellectual and otherwise, of project members.  I am delighted if members gain a lot from being involved in this project – but please be prepared to contribute – and this is through everybody contributing to the 3 activities (and submitting their work to the shared area in the dropbox).

Publications

As well as conferences we have publications to consider – the special issue of MiE is in progress, and we have an invited book chapter on social justice and micro-politics. Has anybody any thoughts on whether we should develop a ‘publishing strategy’?  At the moment it is opportunistic – but as the work develops, we need to be more strategic . . . special issues? A book? Thoughts . . .? Discuss at UCEA?

Conferences

Izhar has coordinated a submission to CASEA, and Simon Clarke offered a proposal to ICSEI.  The call for papers to BELMAS 2014 has been brought forward and is now open.  We can discuss at UCEA – but what do we want to do at BELMAS 2014, and who wants to lead on submitting the proposal? (please note – we have been guaranteed a slot at Belmas in the past – this will not be the case in 2014, where the standard reviewing process will apply).

Before BELMAS we have AERA – we agreed not to put a proposal for AERA, but will have a business meeting. What should our agenda be?

ECER – we presented a symposium at ECER in Istanbul. 70 people attended! Kadir, Khalid, Alison and Izhar presented, Katarina was discussant. As a result I have been asked to participate in an EU research bid by colleagues from Milan (I don’t know why, I didn’t present in the symposium!). This highlights the importance of this conference – what are our plans for 2014 (Porto)? The call will come soon . . .

Kadir organised a great meal at ECER  – and we had a very pleasant evening in a restaurant by the Bosphorous.   Many people attended and we made some new friendships.

Istanbul was an interesting experience – my account of it here.

New Partners  . . .

Since we last met at BELMAS our group has been added to by representatives from Portugal, South Africa and Scotland.  At the moment I act as gatekeeper to the group.  My criteria are simple . . . if you represent a country not already represented then come on board.  If you represent a country already represented, then please demonstrate how you will add value to our work . . . In the former cases I handle it myself – and in the latter cases, I’ll discuss with the group. Let me know of this isn’t ok.

Other stuff . . .

This week I met colleagues from the General Teaching Council of Scotland, following our symposium at BELMAS 2013 in Edinburgh.  In Scotland a commitment to social justice is very explicit in the professional standards for school leaders.  We discussed how our project might dovetail with theirs, for our mutual advantage.  I will report on this at UCEA, but suffice to say there is the possibility of a new strand in our work developing, driven by school leaders rather than academics, and which uses our research based framework to explore how social justice leaders can advocate more effectively for social justice. This is just a brief description – I’ll explain more at UCEA.  But this alliance represents an opportunity to connect our work much more explicitly with both practitioners and policy makers. From this we need to think how we might work together, and how we might connect our projects – informally and possibly formally.

ISLDN at UCEA13

The UCEA programme is here UCEA 2013 Convention Program

ISLDN features in the programme FIVE times:

Session 029 – Pre-session meeting of ISLDN team members (Thursday, 8:00am-12:00pm). This will be our planning meeting prior to the conference.

·         Session 102 – Learning from Each Other: Making Connections Between High Need Schools and Leadership for Social Justice (Friday, 10:50am-12:10pm). This session blends members of the two research strands.

·         Session 134 – Policies, Practices, and Preparation for Turnaround Leadership in Low-Performing Schools (Friday 3:30-4:40pm). This session focuses on the work of the High Need Schools strand.

·         Session 173 – Micro and Macro Context of Schooling: Understanding Social Justice from a Global Perspective (Saturday 8:00-9:20am). This session focuses on the work of the Social Justice Leadership strand.

·         Session 265 – International Summit (Sunday, 9:00am-2:00pm). During a roundtable session in the morning, members of both research strands will share their experiences.

Call for Papers

Special Issue: International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN)

  Edited by Annie Cheng, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, PRC

Miles Bryant, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Ross Notman, University of Otago, New Zealand

As was discussed at the BELMAS Conference in Edinburgh last July, members of ISLDN agreed to prepare papers for a special issue of Management in Education (MiE) that would be available for the July 2014 BELMAS Conference. This is the network’s first opportunity to publish a collection of papers to showcasing the International School Leadership Development Network project. Having our work appear in a MiE, BELMAS-sponsored journal, is particularly important.

All network members are invited to contribute to this special issue by submitting manuscripts or by serving as reviewers.  Members who do not submit a manuscript will be invited to serve the network as reviewers.

Management in Education is intended to be useful to practitioners.  Please be attentive to the needs of leadership practice.  Authors are encouraged to be creative in how they present their findings and ideas about the project. Authors may want to consider ‘non-traditional formats’.  Where possible please try to link the themes of the two strands

The entire volume is about 25,000 words.  We seek to publish eight articles (four from each strand– social justice leadership and high need schools).

Submission Guidelines

Manuscript ranges between 2,500 and 3,000 words.

Manuscript can take a range of various formats, but certainly are not limited to:

• A summary of research findings,
• Opinion pieces,
• Individual stories
• Descriptive/journalistic examples of social justice or high need
• Report some data in a different way, for example, an interview with a head teacher.  or school leader

 Important dates:

• 30 November 2013   –  Submit manuscripts to the editors noted as follows.

Annie Cheng at ayncheng@ied.edu.hk for Social Justice Leadership Strand

Miles Bryant at mbryant1@unl.edu or Ross Notman at ross.notman@otago.ac.nz for High Needs Schools strand

• 15 January 2014 – Authors receive feedback and decisions are made to determine which manuscripts are still under consideration.
• 1 March 2014 – Authors submit revised manuscripts to the editors
• 15 March 2014 – Manuscript review completed and submitted electronically to MiE
• July 2014 – Special Issue published

Any queries regarding the special issue may be addressed to any of the editors noted above.  For information about the BELMAS Journal, Management in Education please link to http://mie.sagepub.com.

Proposed Network Conference

International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN)

Network Conference Proposal

Drafted by Pam Angelle, The University of Tennessee

Jami Royal Berry, Georgia State University

Ian Potter, Bay House Academy

 

The Conceptualization for a Network Conference:

In addition to their attendance at their sponsor conferences (BELMAS and UCEA) the ISDLN group aims to organize an occasion that will enable deep and collaborative analysis of the data it has collected.

The rationale for bringing this learning community together is to facilitate a dialogue and reflection that is deeper and more intense than can be achieved through time constrained meetings at annual conferences or through digital media forums.

The proposed commitment will be for three days in January or February so as to fall between the BELMAS and UCEA annual conferences.  The proposed annual conference will alternate locations between ISLDN member organizations in the U.S. and the U.K. with the first event to be held in Atlanta, Georgia, at Georgia State University, on January 17-19, 2014, and the second event to be tentatively held in Hampshire, England, in early 2015.  The program will include visits to schools and the use of technology to communicate with colleagues in another hemisphere who cannot attend. Hence, the selected venue must have the facility to do this.

The proposed format will be for an academic to be accompanied by a practitioner in order to enrich the quality of analysis and discussion.

Accessibility will be a fundamental principle underpinning the organization of this conference, and so in accordance with the equality paradigm in which our research is located, we must keep the operating costs to an absolute minimum.

The proposal is for BELMAS and UCEA to initiate a project fund to help cover elements of the conference as indicated below. The host institution will provide space and meals as outlined below. Members of the network will look to their own institutions to offer additional contributions to the fund by way of subsidies for travel for both the attending academic and practitioner.  The only cost to participants is travel and Saturday dinner.

Proposed Network Conference Program:

Day 1 – Friday

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.                School tour

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.                        Lunch (provided by host organization)

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.                           Group meeting of entire network for school tour discussion and general overview

3:00 – 4:30 p.m.                           Breakout meetings of Social Justice and High Needs Schools Groups

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.                           International Dinner and Showcase Performance (provided by host faculty/practitioners with local school group performance)

 Day 2 – Saturday

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.               Breakout meetings of Social Justice and High Needs Schools Groups

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.                         Lunch (provided by host organization)

1:00 – 4:00 p.m.                           Breakout meetings of Social Justice and High Needs Schools Groups

6:00 p.m.                                         Dutch Treat Dinner – Individuals pay                                                                     their own way at a local restaurant.

 

Day 3 – Sunday

9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.               Breakout meetings of Social Justice and High Needs Schools Groups

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.                         Lunch (provided by host organization)

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.                           Breakout meetings of Social Justice and High Needs Schools Groups

 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.                           Group Meeting of Entire Network for Follow-up

6:00 – 8:30 p.m.                           Social Hour (provided by host organization and attended by local faculty/educators to include a traveling tables exercise)

 Proposed Cost to Sponsor Organizations (BELMAS and UCEA):

Based on 16 participants:

Van costs for school tours                                                                     $600.00

(2 10-person vans for two days)

 Hotel for participants                                                                             2880.00

(based on 8 rooms at $120

 double occupancy for three nights)

 Total Estimated Cost                                                                             $3480.00

 Proposed Cost to Event Host:

Based on 16 participants:

Space                                                                                                                        N/A

3 days lunches (at $10 each)                                                               480.00

3 days break food (snacks)                                                                   300.00

Sunday night Social Hour hors d’oeuvres                                       500.00

Total Estimated Cost                                                                             $1280.00

 Proposed Cost to Individual:

Flight 

Saturday dinner

Additional nights hotel as needed

NOW COMPLETE THE SURVEY – CLICK HERE

ISLDN at CCEAM 2014

The next CCEAM conference is about to be held in Canada in June 2014 (for more details see http://www.unb.ca/fredericton/conferenceservices/events/cceam/callforpapers.html).

We would like to submit a proposal for an interactive symposium that is based on both groups in ISLDN. In the proposed symposium, though, we aim to combine two streams of research and share our ideas and ponderings with delegates from different countries. A sharing of ideas with international delegates of an academic conference has always contributes to cross-cultural fertilization and, in turn, to knowledge production in any field of study.

Our purpose in the proposed interactive and structured symposium is threefold:

1.     How do people/educators from different nations and societies perceive leadership for social justice?

2.     What do social justice leaders do in different nations and in different schools including high needs schools?

3.     How are high-need schools defined and what types of local and national policies aimed at high-need schools are found in different countries?

 

If any of you are planning to attend this conference, please make a contact with Izhar Oplatka, the organizer of this symposium (oplatka@post.tau.ac.il).

 

ISLDN Social Justice Leadership Group at ECER, Istanbul, September 2013

Session Title: 07 SES 02 JS: Making Sense of Social Justice: An International
Exploration of School Leaders Perspectives
Time: 10/Sep/2013, 3:15pm – 4:45pm
Room: D-303

Presenters: Alison Taysum (England) , Kadir Beycioglu (Turkey), Izhar Oplatka (Israel) and Khalid Arr (Israel). Discussant – Katarina Norberg (Sweden). Chair – Howard Stevenson.

The full session proposal is here – ecer-proposal-2013

Kadir Beycioglu, our Turkish network member, is organising a Network dinner in Istanbul on the night of our symposium (ie 10th September).  Network members who want to attend – please email Kadir to confirm.

Project Network meeting – BELMAS, July 2013

Prior to the 2013 BELMAS Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, ISLDN members met to update progress on the project and determine next steps for conducting and disseminating research. The meeting was well attended by members of both strands. Summarized below are the major issues discussed during the session.

1. Bruce Barnett and Howard Stevenson were asked to contribute a chapter to the upcoming Handbook on Urban Leadership. Their chapter will showcase the two strands of the project – social justice leadership and leadership in high-need schools. Bruce will send a copy of the manuscript to all members.

1. Linda Hammersley-Fletcher, editor of Management in Education (a BELMAS journal) – mie.sagepub.com/‎ , extended the invitation for us to complete a special issue for the journal. We decided this would be a great idea and its publication would coincide with the 2014 BELMAS Conference. Specifications for the issue include:
2. Although articles can range from 2500-4000 words, they should aim to be about 3000 words. This would allow us to include up to 8 articles plus a short introduction to the project for a total of 25,000 words.
3. Many of the members present expressed interest in submitting a manuscript for consideration.
4. The tasks and timeline for publishing the July 2014 issue are:

• Select editors and reviewers (August 2013).
• Publicize manuscript submissions (August-September 2013)
• Submit manuscripts (November 30, 2013)
• Complete reviews and request revised manuscripts (January 15, 2014)
• Submit revised manuscripts (March 1, 2014)
• Editors submit of materials to publisher (March 15, 2014)

1. Because of this tight timeline, we need to determine who will serve as the editors. It was agreed that reviewers would be drawn from the Network membership and that this represents an excellent opportunity to become familiar with wider work in the group. Howard and Bruce have other commitments that prevent them from taking on this role; however, they will provide guidance to those who take on this task. We were encouraged to have one person from each strand serve as an editor and to use our ISLDN team members as reviewers. Those interested in serving as editors should contact Howard (SJL) or Bruce (HNS) by 1^st September – it would be really helpful to provide an outline of any ideas you have for the special issue.

A further option would be to try to have one or two of the MiE articles reproduced in UCEA Review – Bruce and Howard to explore the possibility.

1. We discussed our strategies for continuing to meet and present our work at professional conferences. Several items were clarified:

• We reaffirmed our desire to present our work at the annual BELMAS and UCEA conferences (Bruce and Howard to co-ordinate) as our sponsor organisations. Members were encouraged to coordinate submissions to additional conferences (e.g., AERA, ECER, CCEAM, ICSEI). It was agreed that members are free to use their own material to present and publish where they wish (but please acknowledge ISLDN where the work reflects some collective intellectual input).  Moreover, anyone is free to organise an ISLDN symposium at whichever conference they wish – simply liaise with Bruce and/or Howard so that there is an overview, and then we can establish if there is interest from other network members. Bruce and Howard will continue to coordinate pre-sessions for AERA, UCEA, and BELMAS.
• The High Need Schools group is submitting a 2014 AERA proposal, coordinated by Kristine Hipp, Mette Baran, and David Gurr. Because of time restrictions for AERA pre-sessions, we decided to conduct our own pre-session prior to the conference, rather than submit a formal request to Division A. This is similar to what we did at AERA in Vancouver in 2012. Simon Clark (simon.clarke@uwa.edu.au) has strong connections with ICSEI and is willing to coordinate a proposal submission for the January 2014 conference in Indonesia. Contact Simon if you want to participate. Proposals are due by August 8, 2013.
• In June 2014, the CCEAM Conference will be in Canada. Izhar Oplatka (oplatka@post.tau.ac.il) will be coordinating a proposal submission for those interested in participating. Contact Izhar if you are interested.

1. Concern was expressed that we have not been able to spend much time examining what we are learning from our research. We decided to address this in several ways:
   1. Our UCEA pre-session will be devoted to having members of each of the research strands discuss our findings, insights, and areas for further exploration.
   2. We decided to pursue the idea of a “Network Conference,” similar to what the ISSPP has been doing the last several years. This two- or three-day conference would bring together project researchers to share insights about their work, determine promising ways to expand their research, and consider how their work can impact preparation and practice. Jami Berry, Pam Angelle and Ian Potter are responsible for crafting ideas for the group to consider. Howard will approach BELMAS Council regarding funding to support this event (e.g., rooms, food) and Bruce will contact Michelle Young about possible financial support from UCEA.