Strengthening school leadership towards improving school resiliency
School leaders are pivotal in building the resilience of schools in the face of public health threats, natural disasters, armed conflict, political and economic crises, and other upheavals. They are critical in supporting improved teaching and learning through motivating teachers and students, creating enabling school environments, understanding local conditions, and mediating with the communities they serve. But school leaders in many developing countries receive little preparation for their role and frequently focus on managerial tasks rather than instructional leadership.
The objective of this project is to contribute to improved quality and equity of the continued learning and wellbeing of girls and boys in the Global South during the prolonged school closures of the COVID-19 crisis and future emergencies. It aims to strengthen the practices of school leaders in a range of low-resource contexts using data-driven decision-making. It will do so by establishing the extent to which a blended online/offline approach helps school leaders to effect pedagogic change in their school systems, with a focus on digital practices.
This project will take place in the Philippines, Kenya, and another country in sub-Saharan Africa. These countries share a concern with low levels of attainment among sub-groups of students, and a desire to strengthen the instructional role of school leaders and to enhance digital practices in education. They also represent a range of pathways to school leadership and degrees of autonomy in the role, thus maximizing the global good that can result from the project.
Project ID
109563
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
22 months
IDRC Officer
Matthew Smith
Total Funding
CA$ 705,500.00
Location
Kenya
Philippines
South of Sahara
Programs
Institution
Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development
Institution Website
Institution Country
Philippines
Project Leader
Victoria L Tinio
Institution
Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development, Inc.
Institution Website
Outputs
| Improving school leadership in challenging contexts Website
The website features a brief article and links to several presentation slides, a video, and the final project report. Author(s): Foundation for Information Technology Education and Development, Inc. Language: English |
Strengthening school leadership towards improving school resiliency Report
“Strengthening School Leadership Toward Improving School Resiliency” was a two-year interdisciplinary multi-country development research project exploring how the quality of school leadership could be strengthened as a means of improving education quality in under-resourced environments. The primary objective of the project was to understand whether use of a specific continuous improvement approach, Improvement Science (IS), supports sustainable change in the practices of school leaders. School leaders are acknowledged to have a critical role in improving the quality of teaching and learning within schools. Continuous improvement methods such as IS offer a set of ideas, tools and practices which empower practitioners such as school leaders to take an active role in improvement, crafting a narrative which explains the improvement initiative and helping to remove obstacles and blockages in the improvement initiative, and other actions which move the institution towards its goals. Author(s): Wolfenden, Freda, Walley, Paul, Agbaire, Jennifer, Hartley, Jean Language: English |
Strengthening school leadership through an improvement science approach : final report - Kenya Report
The relationship between leadership and improved educational outcomes is increasingly acknowledged in Kenya (The Republic of Kenya, 2008; Eacott and Asuga, 2014), but like in many other Global South countries, school leadership is under-researched (Asuga et al, 2015) and investment in school leadership under-funded. Worldreader, in collaboration with Open University in the UK, introduced an implementation science approach and the use of PLAN, STUDY, DO, and ACT (PDSA) cycles to test creative solutions towards improving reading outcomes in children. School leaders and researchers worked together to design, implement and assess innovations to the learning loss and literacy challenges facing their schools post Covid-19. In particular, school leaders were introduced to Booksmart, a digital reading program, and conducted a series of experiments to determine how best to leverage mobile technology for improved reading growth in students in their schools. The overall objective of the research was to understand how a learning science approach targeting school leaders could contribute to improved quality and equity and continued learning and well-being of girls and boys in the Global South during the prolonged school closures of the COVID-19 crisis, and future emergencies. Author(s): Worldreader Language: English |
School leaders’ professional collaboration to address problems of practice using improvement cycles, what are they (and we) learning? : case studies from Chile, Kenya and the Philippines Report
The presentation outlines the conceptual framing of developing school leaders’ problem solving and leadership capacities. The main focus is on deepening the understanding of how communities are using an Improvement Science approach and improvement cycles to achieve these goals in the school setting. Author(s): Wolfenden, Freda, Agbaire, Jennifer Language: English |
Self-confidence is flouring across Kenyan classrooms Article
In densely-populated neighborhoods dotting the outskirts of Nairobi, 12 underserved schools including St Paul’s Primary drove change in their communities by participating in a project designed to build knowledge and capacity. With the power of Worldreader’s BookSmart app, educators participating in the School Leadership Project gained data about their pupils’ reading habits, that allowed them to make data-led decisions in their classrooms. Author(s): Worldreader Language: English |
‘Winging it’ or developing new forms of practice exploring the boundary work in an international education endeavour Report
The presentation gives an overview of the project’s main goal, which is to understand the extent to which school leaders’ innovative use of an improvement cycle methodology strengthens their capacity to analyse problems of practice and organise collective action for improvement. Author(s): Wolfenden, Freda, Agbaire, Jennifer Language: English |
Nairobi teacher illustrates a life-changing lesson for parents in the community Article
Many of the schools lining Nairobi, and the thousands of pupils that attend them, are in need of resources and support. Our recent School Leadership Project introduced 12 of these schools to our BookSmart app, giving teachers powerful data about their students’ reading habits and allowing them to make data-led decisions in their classrooms. A project intended to build knowledge and capacity cultivated many fruitful benefits. Gatoto Primary, a school that participated in the project, is situated in the Mukuru slums, an industrial area of Nairobi. Peter Nyabuto Omimi has been a teacher for 20 years, and a headteacher at Gatoto for five. He has been encouraged by the positive effect BookSmart has had on his classroom, but also by the newfound connections he’s made with parents. Author(s): Worldreader Language: English |
| Improvement science as a way to build resilience Article
The Covid-19 crisis has given all educators worldwide a whole series of problems to solve. Given the real-time nature of the issues solutions have needed to be found quickly, so that continuity of education is maintained (where possible) and where pupils do not lose too much of their educational opportunities. In some cases, the evidence base about what solutions work best and the vital resources needed have both been in short supply. This is where Improvement Science is an approach to problem-solving that can be of use. Author(s): Walley, Pau Language: English |
Strengthening collaboration among Chilean early childhood school leaders : piloting an improvement science approach in a local public education service (SLEP) Report
The presentation outlines the main goal of the project; to bring an analytical tools to the school leaders and enhance their adaptive capacity to cope with changing and disruptive circumstances such as the pandemic. Author(s): Castillo-Canales, Dante, Canales T., Alejandra |
Continuous improvement science : strengthening school leadership and improving school resiliency Report
The presentation presents an overview of Worldreader, a nonprofit organization that brings high-quality, affordable digital learning to children in under-resourced communities. It outlines the research question: How and to what extent does an improvement science intervention provide a methodology for pedagogic change involving ICTs in Kenya? and presents the rationale, intervention, data collection, and results. Author(s): Mwachi, Joan, Gathoni, Wanjiku Language: English |