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=WELCOME TO THE VALUES AND LEADERSHIP WIKI!=

This wiki has been created by the Australian Catholic University contingent at the 16th Values and Leadership Conference, to be held at the Laurel Point Inn, Victoria BC from September 25-27, 2011. It is a key part of our conference session.

A CONFERENCE SESSION WITH A DIFFERENCE
Our title is "Authentic leadership: unleashing moral agency in the pursuit of learning"

One of the critical questions for authentic leadership is how to engage a community in the ethical dimensions of school life – how to sensitise teachers and leaders to the deep moral purpose of education and most significantly, how to turn this sensitivity into action which makes a difference in the lives of learners.

In thinking about our session, we were worried about the usual experience of "conference crush" - of trying to communicate complex ideas in a very limited time, and then going away regretting that we would all have no time for real conversation? We want our session to be different. Instead of trying to squeeze our ideas into three short presentations we want to get people engaged in some lively academic discourse.

This session will provide the space to wrestle with these questions, drawing on research and practice coming out of Australian Catholic University. While the starting point will be the three stimulus papers (LINKS BELOW), we want it to capitalise on the wisdom and experience in the room by engaging in structured discussion.That is why we are hoping you will engage with our wiki.

If this sounds interesting, read on ......

** ATTEMPTING A DIFFERENT PROCESS **
This will be a symposium with a difference. It will look something like this. 1. There will be three papers from our Centre ; HOWEVER 2. We will not speak to the papers directly at the conference; INSTEAD 3. We have put the papers up on this wiki in advance of the conference. We would dearly love to see you take part in an online discussion and add your own contributions ; THEN 4. At the conference we will set up a dialogue process during the symposium around the issues that emerge from the papers and the wiki; AND 5. We will use the process to develop a proposal for an edited collection. Online and face to face participants with well developed and interesting perspectives on our theme will be invited to develop these into articles.

USING THIS WIKI
Wikis are shared spaces where people can create ideas together - so, in theory at least, a wiki is an ideal vehicle for a bit of pre-conference dialogue as a basis for meaningful face to face discussion. If you have come this far, you are well on the way to sharing the process. Thanks. Basically, you can access the conference papers below by clicking the links. Beyond that you can join - or start- a conversation thread about any of the papers by going to the "Discussions" tab above, and locating the relevant section for the paper in which you are interested. And/or you can add a longer contribution of your own by using the link in the left hand margin called - not surprisingly - "Add your own longer contributions here". You can even start a discussion about these if you want.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with wikis may find the videos below interesting/useful. If not - scroll down to the details of the abstracts and links to the papers.

FOR WIKI BEGINNERS
media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY" height="349" width="425"

For specific advice on embedding files if you want to put up a draft of your own: media type="youtube" key="2FPfMK4ZTys" height="349" width="425" Or, for those of you who might be interested in exploring Wikispaces a bit further: media type="youtube" key="df2rC2QfvFc" height="349" width="560"

THE ABSTRACTS
The abstracts for the three stimulus papers, and links to full text versions appear below. Once you have read these you have a few options: 1. Do nothing until you get to the session - OK but not great :-( 2. Go to the relevant discussion page and share questions, ideas and suggestions. Hopefully there will be others joining you there. This is better. 3. If you really get serious, you might like to share some more developed ideas in the form of a paper, or part of a paper - even in draft form. (Particularly helpful if you think you have something to contribute to the projected edited book) This gets the gold star!

We hope to be able to use your feedback to shape the discussion process at the conference, so please try to engage with the discussion.

__ Bezzina, M. //Moral agency: a blind spot in ethical leadership?// __
Moberg (2006), in a study of ethical behavior in organisations, developed the notion of frames and blind spots, which together served to influence the behaviour of members. He argues that frames create blind spots, those defects in the perceptual field that can cloud judgment, and lead to erroneous conclusions, or provide insufficient triggers to appropriate action. This paper argues that often the moral or ethical domain of school leadership embodies just such a blind spot, particularly in a climate in which high-stakes standardised testing, league tables, and the use of data systems as census and control mechanisms has intensified. While there has been increased interest in gaining a deeper understanding of the role of leadership in cultivating and promoting the core work of the school - teaching and learning (Leithwood 2003; Marzano et al. 2005; Robinson 2007; Robinson et al. 2009), the messages from this important research may be muted by constant demands for change, increased politicisation of educational data and the commercialisation of schooling and its outcomes. These pressures can create technical frames of reference for leaders which can cause them to ignore or take for granted other dimensions of their practice – including the moral purpose of their work. The paper, draws on work done as part of the Leaders Transforming Learning and Learners (LTLL) project (Bezzina 2008b; Bezzina and Burford 2010; Bezzina et al. 2007; Burford and Bezzina 2007), in which teachers and leaders are supported in focusing explicitly on the moral dimensions of learning and leadership. In particular, it sets out to explore the dynamics by which exposure to a moral rationale is given expression in the school, and how this is perceived as impacting on teaching, leadership practice and student outcomes.

For the full paper, click below



__ Branson, C. //Exploring the relational side of authentic leadership// __
As the experience of our world has become more chaotic, our understanding of leadership has changed. Now, key writers in the field acknowledge the importance of the leader being able to not only act instinctively and intuitively to the unique demands of their immediate environment but also to consider the needs of the people as well as the organisation. People expect their leaders to provide them with some sense of optimism, security, guidance, purpose and meaning. They want their leaders to understand their specific predicament and to act accordingly with wisdom, empathy and expertise. In response to these new demands, Begley has established the concept of “authentic leadership” described as “a genuine kind of leadership – a hopeful, open-ended, visionary and creative response to social circumstances.” (2003, p.1-2) Moreover, Begley’s image of authentic leadership features “a form of leadership that acknowledges and accommodates in an integrative way the legitimate needs of individuals, groups, organizations, communities and cultures – not just the organizational perspectives.” Thus, integral to this understanding of an “authentic leader” is the concept of ‘relationship’ such that a deeper understanding of the practice of authentic leadership can be gleaned from an exploration of the nature of the relationship between an authentic leader and those they lead. This paper argues that this relationship is founded upon the four qualities of mindfulness, character, sensitivity and adaptability. Moreover, this paper utilises the unique insights and principles of complexity theory to elaborate upon these four qualities and, thereby, to provide additional understandings about the nature, development and practice of authentic leadership.

For the full paper, click below.



__ Burford, C. and Pettit, P. __//__ Leaders as Moral Agents: Giving purpose to student outcome data __//
Increasing demands by Australian governments and communities for results accountability and the transparent reporting of student and school performance have meant that schools, and their leaders, are being faced with increasing pressure to not only improve student learning, but also to be responsible for producing and influencing evidence of student achievement. Recent international literature has identified these pressures as causing leaders to make conscious adaptations to their leadership practices (Fullan, 2009; Rowe, 2000), with the consequences of such actions resulting in moral and ethical tensions and sometimes discord at a person and community level a (Frick, 2009, p. 50).

A recent study by one of the authors (Pettit, 2010) researched how one educational jurisdiction in Australia made use of data from national testing of literacy and numeracy, particularly in relation to the role that school leadership plays in this process. Part of the purpose of the study was to examine the experience of school leaders making decisions using external testing data for the improvement of learning. The research reported on the differing perceptions of principals and classroom teachers about the nature, role and impact of leadership in this process uncovering tensions operating within schools about: the value and purpose of using data on student achievement from external tests, the practical implications of operationalising an effective analysis and response to such data, and the contexts of accountability and public reporting in which such tests are conducted. Findings as to how these experiences emerged as moral decision-making for educational leaders contributed to the development of a conceptual framework for viewing leaders as ‘moral agents’ in making such decisions about, and leading the school in, the use of data on student achievement to improve learning outcomes.

For the full paper, click below