Conference Agenda

As the concept, idea, practice, and goal of ‘innovation’ has grown in dominance in the discourse around leadership and educational change, there remains a scope for exploration as to how innovation is conceptualized, theorized and supported in policy making and practice (Poirier, et al, 2017). Varied societal, systemic, and contextual conditions which influence the work of educators and leaders can come to frame how innovation is understood and manifested. Cultural values, systemic priorities, political norms, and competing demands can enable or inhibit the emergence of innovation in its varied forms (Lu & Campbell, 2020).

Deriving from an ICSEI Educational Leadership Network webinar, and subsequent research group, this session aims to explore how leaders, as sense-makers and influencers within their organizational contexts, are well placed to utilize contextual knowledge, negotiate political demands, and mobilize others in developing and sustaining collective forms of professional learning that can lead to innovation, and the improvement and change that can result (Murphy & Devine, 2023).

What remains, and will be explored through this innovate session, is the need for a critical examination of how innovation is understood and manifested across systems, how this relates to broader concerns of equity, excellence, and professional capacity building in the pursuit of improvement and change, and the lessons that can be derived from varied cultural and systemic contexts.

To facilitate this, the session will be framed around three key questions:

- How is innovation understood and manifested across contexts?

- Which, if any, underpinning concepts relating to innovation could transcend context and system?

- How might we understand the relationship(s) between innovation, leadership, and capacity building?

The session will begin with a brief provocation exploring innovation in the context of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area drawing upon the work of Lu (2019). Participants will then be invited to collaboratively, in smaller groups, respond to the questions driving the session, and visually represent the common threads and themes for presentation back to the whole group. Following this, avenues for continued exploration of these ideas and themes will be shared; namely through a collaborative research group, Twitter Chats, and subsequent ICSEI Educational Leadership Network activity.

Participants will consider Innovative Learning Environments, the changing patterns of educators’ work, and subsequent implications for professional learning. Drawing on findings from research undertaken in Aotearoa|New Zealand (Charteris, Smardon and Kemmis, 2022), the session will explore contradictions in the practices described by school leaders working in new and refurbished school buildings.

Teachers’ professional work has changed with innovations in school building design, shifting expectations around pedagogical approaches, and revolutions in learning technologies. Taken in combination, these factors contribute to a ‘21st century learning’ rhetoric around ‘21st century skills.’ There is a manufactured urgency that schools need to respond to forces of globalisation and the associated rapid advances in technology. The case for change is premised on the notion that new sorts of learning and forms of knowledge are necessary for students to be active, contributing citizens, and future potential workers. Findings from the research suggest how practices in ‘innovative learning environments’ or ‘new generation spaces’ are shaped through discourses, workplace activities, and power relations.

Participants will be provided with an opportunity to examine and reflect on practice initiatives in the context of new school building design and associated pedagogies. This interactive session will actively engage participants to explore recently published research where there is a focus on leading for change. The format of the session is as follows.

Participants in this session will view summary slides outlining the literature on Innovative Learning Environments and the context of the research with educational leaders. Conversation will be generated through the initial information shared and snippets of data from school leaders. The following prompts may be used to structure conversation:

• Share an example where you have seen one or more of the contradictions and tensions signalled in this research.

• Are there other contradictions or tensions that you have encountered in context when leaders have worked to foster new practices and ways of thinking?

• How might you raise awareness around the contradictions in schooling setting where innovation is a priority?

The session addresses the theme of the conference: Quality Professional Education for Enhanced School Effectiveness and Improvement. There is recognition of the contradictions that leaders encounter when they engage in practices that target educational change. Specifically, the session enables participants to consider how leaders can promote high quality professional learning for teachers and also the influential discourses that underpin organisational change.

Leaders practice in an era characterised by uncertainty and meta-change. Consideration is given to what it means to engage in practices that support continuous improvement, where there is an emphasis on restructuring and reconstructing what has come before. Within the education context, where there is an emphasis on changing practices in new and refurbished school buildings, a new pedagogical imaginary and associated conception of professionalism can be compromised if assumptions are left unexamined.

Knowledge Building is an approach to teaching and learning that places students' questions, ideas and observations at the centre of the learning experience. Students move from a position of wondering to enacted understanding and further questioning.

Being an instructional leader is a key role for school leaders. As Principal, being a Co-Learner along the journey has made the difference; as well as, being intentional in providing Professional Learning for all.

Will highlight experiences in implementing Knowledge Building, for both educators and students, to transform learning environments into authentic places of wonder filled with imagination and opportunities for problem solving and places where children are forever curious, as they explore new learnings based on their questions.

Research: The session builds on Scaradamalia's 12 Principles and the ongoing research in Knowledge Building community. Underlying this approach is that both educators and students share responsibility for learning. When involved in this type of learning, students are better able to take other points of view and to make connections. In doing so, their literacy skills are strengthened as they are involved in purposeful and authentic ways. Knowledge Building involves creating an environment where there is diversity of ideas and the students are researchers in their own learning. Student curiousity is nurtured to create a classroom culture of authentic learning.

Presenters: Cassandra Reda Gavin is a teacher with 7 years experience, who is including Knowledge Building principles and KB circles in her teaching, informed by her research and understanding of the KB pedagogy. Her thesis, "The Implementation of Knowledge Building in the Elementary Classroom" guides the learning.

Silvana Reda, is a former experienced administrator with global experience, who places importance on Professional Learning. Using a Collaborative Inquiry approach through Knowledge Building, to maintain a high level of expectations, develops authentic, relevant and meaningful learning,

Format: Knowledge Building Circles is an approach in allowing for both knowledge sharing and discourse. All participants are sitting in a circle; in doing so, there is the ability to interact with one another and share diverse ideas and perspectives. It adds to the contribution of knowledge in the community.

This will be the format for the presentation. That is, participants will sit in a circle. After a short presentation on Knowledge Building, questions and further learning will be part of the Knowledge Building Circle.

Connection to Conference theme: Principals and Instructional Leaders can make improvements and support the learning for both educators and students, through Knowledge Building. By using the Collaborative Inquiry approach for Professional Learning, administrators and educators work alongside one another, regardless of their official role in the school. It is important for the Principal to be part of the learning, and clearly demonstrate the importance of life-long learning and that learning together and collaboratively is instrumental in making changes. It builds the efficacy for all.