In an increasingly disruptive world, school leaders need to possess the necessary skills, aptitudes and attitudes to implement effective, culturally-appropriate and context-responsive transformations in their communities.
In continued partnership with the Ateneo de Manila University’s Ateneo Center for Educational Development, The HEAD Foundation is pleased to complete another round of leadership development programme for educational leaders in the Philippines. The Certificate of Education Studies in Leadership (CESL), under the TransformLEAD@21 programme offered by the University of Nottingham, is led by Programme Director A/P Vicente Chua Reyes, Jr.
22 school leaders and educational officials from the School Division Offices of Tarlac Province and San Jose City, Nueva Ecija took part in this fully online programme from October 2021 to March 2022. They were introduced to the key challenges in developing transformative leadership capabilities, contemporary theories about educational leadership within rapidly changing and challenging contexts and drivers of educational change.
Through relevant scholarly and practice-based sources, case-studies, scenarios and breakout discussion sessions, the scholars were challenged to both reflect on current and likely future issues facing education and leaders, and identify their own individual leadership development needs.
Each CESL 2021 scholar also worked on their Transformational Action Projects – planning and implementing initiatives that transformed their schools and/or divisions. With the guidance of alumni mentors who shared their experience in implementing projects in their schools, the CESL 2021 scholars continuously refined their projects to ensure that they bring about maximum change in their communities.
A common thread from the projects was the ground-up and inclusive approach in asking and allowing their teachers to re-imagine what they can do in their schools.
The programme culminated in a showcase conference, held over three days. On 16 February 2022, eight CESL 2021 scholars presented their projects that re-imagined teaching and learning practices. A common thread from the projects was the ground-up and inclusive approach in asking and allowing their teachers to re-imagine what they can do in their schools. Seven more CESL 2021 scholars presented on 23 February 2022, sharing how they re-designed professional development through community and stakeholder involvement. They highlighted the innovations they did to convince the community, parents and local chiefs to be co-teachers and work with schools to ensure that their children continued to learn at home. The final session on 2 March 2022 featured the final seven CESL 2021 scholars who transformed systems through evidence-informed governance and engagement. They shared how they used system-wide technological innovations to systemise teacher professional development and research. Keynote speakers Prof S Gopinathan, Academic Advisor at The HEAD Foundation, Prof Tony Bush from the School of Education at the University of Nottingham, and A/P Vicente Reyes shared their insights and long-term considerations for sustaining transformative projects and implementing institutional change.
The HEAD Foundation is pleased with what the 22 outstanding educational leaders have achieved in a short time, and look forward to continued impact and further innovation from these leaders and their colleagues.