Effective Leadership in the Global School:Guiding Information for School Leaders, Teacher-leaders, Professional Learning Communities, and Committees
As any administrator or leadership team knows, implementing a new initiative with staff can be a challenge. No matter how you proceed, the Law of Thirds seems to prevail. You know what I am talking about... 1/3 will back the initiative with full buy-in. They are gung-ho and ready to go no matter what. Conversely, you will have the 1/3 that is going to be against anything new and wants nothing to do with the initiative. And then you will have the 1/3 in the middle that you have to work to get buy-in, but the potential is there for support. In the ideal, magical world of leadership, you would propose an initiative to your faculty and staff and.... voila!... everyone would be happy and fully support your idea. As we all know, this is nearly never the case. If you can get the top two thirds to follow, you are in pretty good shape.
So that is nice, but how does that play a role in leading global education? Well, it has everything to do with leading global education. You will have to start somewhere and that somewhere usually starts with an initiative; an idea. You may be leading the charge or it may be one of your teachers. No matter what, how you proceed is critical to the success of the new initiative. Your support of the initiative and your teachers is paramount when moving forward. Your role as a administrator or governing body is essential in the orchestration of making global education a reality at your school.
Below are two resources to help leadership teams not only effect institutional change, but effect global change.
John Kotter's Eight Steps to Change: Kotter lays out a strategic pathway to bring about change to any institution. The graphic below shows you how to reach success.. Conversely, in the article attachment below, Kotter writes about why transformation efforts fail. Looking at both will help you develop a sound plan for advancing global education at your school
In John Kotter's book, Leading Change, there is a chapter dedicated to why transformation efforts fail. Reading it will give you insight into why each step is so important to effecting positive change. Click below to read the chapter.
Brandon Wiley's Six School-Wide Strategies to Globalize Schools:
Brandon Wiley basically sets out a road map for the globalization of schools within his six strategies. His strategies are more specific to leading and advancing global education in the educational environment. Each step is clearly defined and explained, giving important guidance for implementing successful global education programs in any academic institution.
Here are his six strategies:
Make the Case
Define Success
Make Strategic Upgrades
Leverage Technology
Grow Global Leaders
Create Global Partnerships
To find out more about Wiley's strategies and how each of the strategies work, click here to download Chapter 5 of Wiley's book Leading the New Literacies.
At Pinkerton Academy we are currently employing Wiley's strategies. Click below to find out how.
Here's how we are using Wiley's strategies in our school:
NOTE: This TGC Capstone Project is not an official U.S. Department of State website. The views and information presented are the grantee's own and do not represent the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, IREX, or the U.S. Department of State.