Circuit Managers mobilising change

5th workshop on leadership for change

“This exercise made us realise the extent of what inclusion entails. It is a wider concept than what we previously understood.”

VVOB supports FSDOE with the professional development of school leaders and teachers towards improving inclusion in schools, by supporting capacity development of province and district officials. A workshop on inclusive practices took place in June 2017 for Circuit Managers and officials from the Management and Governance sections at district and provincial offices. One of the goals was to see how they can initiate and support change at their schools.

Last year’s case

Circuit managers started their learning journey on leadership and effective CPD in May 2015. In 2016, there were workshops in March, June and September. There, Circuit Managers started working on their own change case which entailed an improvement path for a school in their circuit. In this June 2017 workshop, participants reported progress made on their individual cases, exchanged success and challenges and listed lessons learned.

Improving impact

The change case reported progress on working with one school. However, Circuit Managers have many schools. How to mobilise more people and have more impact? How to support change in many schools? Participants thought about their own consultation role as an ‘expert’, ‘doctor’ or ‘process facilitator’, and about situational leadership related to the way they perceive the task-maturity of their principals. They also engaged with the concept of ‘coaching’ linked to critical success factors for PLCs.

Inclusion: our business

The workshop then focused on inclusive pedagogy by recapping the basic inclusive concepts and policies. Participants collected practices they witness at their schools showing inclusion and exclusion. These practices were analysed using a framework for inclusive pedagogy. This framework is also the backbone of the self-reflection tool for inclusive pedagogy which describes the profile of the Inclusive Teacher, that was developed by officials from all sections and VVOB.

Mr. Mosea: “By looking at practices which are general and widely accepted, through an inclusion lens we become more aware. This exercise made us realise that we accept exclusion in schools thinking that it’s normal.”

Mobilising change

Officials then identified a new change case, something they feel should change, improve or be developed at their schools. They developed (the first steps of) a plan on how they could support the schools/principals. Participants were specifically requested to look at ways of improving their support impact by using Professional Learning Communities as a tool to bring principals together to learn with and from each other. In the coming workshops, participants will continue to work with these case studies and see how they can best support change.

Listen to the change case of Mr. Mohaladi, Circuit Manager in Fezile Dabi.

More pictures of the workshop can be found on Flickr.