17734006 CTL Assessment 2: William Johnston

Critical Reflection:
Youtube Link:
https://youtu.be/MR-aFEGcYbM

Contemporary leadership is based upon professional interactions where individuals

influence staff, students and entire school communities to achieve positive change
(Northhouse, 2016). As schools exist students to prepare for the ever-changing society we
live in, they must be constantly evolving with the times and as such are in continual need of
positive change (Dagget 2014; Rowland, 2005). All teachers are capable of being change
agents and Innovative changes allow teachers to be prepared to support their students to
achieve educational success and success in their future lives as effective members of society
(Taylor & Klein, 2015). As teachers, it is important that we grow and change with the times
and be improving in my own professional development. Throughout this course I have shed
the belief that I wont be able to instigate any real change until I obtain an executive position
and have adopted the mentality that If I am unaccepting of change and cannot continue to
develop in my profession or cannot enact change as a teacher, I am disadvantaging my
colleagues and future students (Taylor, & Klein, 2015; Shackleton, 2011).

Throughout this semester, I have engaged with evidence-based literature which entails the
importance of leaders and the role they play in ensuring successful change (Higgs &
Rowland, 2005). I’ve learnt that being a leader within schools isn’t necessarily based off an
executive role but those individuals whom support, influence and aid their fellow teachers
in the hopes of improving their school community and see change as an opportunity not a
hinderance (Taylor, & Klein, 2015; Drucker, 2000). As a preservice teacher, I aspire to be a
leader in my school and as such, it is important that I support innovative change and reflect
on my own views of change. In line with the arguments posed by Stronge (2017) Through
the team project, I feel as though I have proven my abilities to communicate, reflect, show
commitment and have been resourceful.

My group consisted of myself, Emily, Phuong and Rebecca. Acting as change agents my
group communicated through email, mobile chat app “WhatsApp”, zoom meetings, face-to-
face and via a shared google doc during which time we sought to identify areas for
improvement at a selected school of which I was familiar and generated a strategy to
intervene in the stream of sustainability. Sustainability Is a a cross curricular priority and will
benefit students in their future lives as stewards of the planet. In the process we built and
reflected on our contemporary teacher leadership skills (Daggett, 2014). As a group we
struggled to find time which suited everyone and had a hard time arranging and scheduling
meetings due to varying work schedules, however this was largely overcome through the
implementation of a running google doc which I suggest, and a WhatsApp group which
Emily suggested. In the filming of our final presentation, our group was strained as one of
our group members was unable to keep to a preplanned schedule. This challenge created a
drift in the group and put additional work load onto the rest of the group. However, our
time management and collaboration was ensured by the virtual community we had
established via ongoing zoom meetings and regular check ins with our tutor Denise, who
guided us through several discussions (Conway & Andrews 2016) The ongoing zoom
meetings also allowed those involved in the project to stay in regular contact and allowed
17734006 CTL Assessment 2: William Johnston

Rebecca to forward us work when she was made available. It also allowed us to build
relationships with future colleagues, overcome challenges such as the issue mentioned
above (Boud & Middleton, 2003). Being involved in weekly tutorial meetings through Zoom
assisted the group in overcoming challenges and build relationships between the group and
tutor. Using multiple communication platforms opened up broader communication
channels and thus improved our groups efficiency whilst we worked on the project.

During our first discussion via zoom, I came up with the idea to use the ‘return and earn’ (a
sustainability focus) as a way of building school credit to purchase lunch and food items
from the canteen at Chiefly College Mount Druitt Campus. Once we had decided on a focus
for our project, we discussed strengths and how each group member could make an impact
to the project. We then assigned roles and components of the task accordingly. By utilising
the UBD framework that we had come across in the course we were able to generate ideas
that allowed students to experience authentic learning through experience such as through
the vegetable garden and return and earn schemes. Using this framework helped us to
understand the bigger picture which was to improve student understanding of sustainability
through generating a school experience that allowed demonstration of learning at the
transfer level across several KLAs. This allowed us to adapt and improve our focus. Both
myself and Emily took on a leadership role and focused on the proforma, presentation. Our
group worked on individual bits of the proforma and slides within the PowerPoint
presentation. My focus was on the background overview and scenario. As a group we
organised and filmed/recorded our video via Zoom which I later edited.

Whilst out focus was on the task at hand, we also were reflecting on our own role as leaders
and how the requirements of the task and our strengths within this project reflected the
school environment and could be used within schools to provide effective change. The
challenges we faced during this project did make things difficult, but highlighted the
importance of collaboration and communication and maintaining positive relationships
(Conway, & Andrews, 2016). Had we not worked as a group we would have failed and would
not have modelled our future practice as leaders of change effectively.

On reflection of my performance as a leader and change agent, I feel as though I was

instrumental in the functioning of my group and the successful identification of areas of
need at Chifley College that aligned with the strands provided to us. I believe my practice
was most in line with Path-Goal Theory (Northhouse, 2016). Reminding others of set time
frames and motivating others to achieve their goals set by the group was important in
ensuring my group was able to successfully complete the task by the set date. Having a
positive and encouraging approach to others was difficult at times when challenges arose. I
maintained a strong working relationship with Emily and tried to build relationships with the
others the best I could through regular conversations, assisting others and by sourcing
answers to questions which group members had. Consequentially, I believe I effectively
displayed the key qualities of successful leadership through my resourcefulness, the
assistance I provided others and my executive decision making.
17734006 CTL Assessment 2: William Johnston

References:

Boud, D., & Middleton, H. (2003). Learning from others at work: Communities of

practice and informal learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, 15(5), 194-

202.

Conway, J., & Andrews, M. (2016). A school wide approach to leading pedagogical

enhancement: An Australian perspective. Journal of Educational Change, 17(1),

115 139

Daggett, B. (2014, June). Lessons learned from the nation’s most rapidly improving and

transformative schools. In B. Dagget (Chair), Addressing current and future

challenges in education. The 22nd Annual Model Schools Conference conducted at

the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin, Orlando, FL.

Drucker, P. (2000). The change leader. National Productivity Review, 19(2), 13-20. doi:

10.1002/1520-6734

Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2005). All change great and small: Exploring approaches to change

and its leadership. Journal of Change Management, 5(2), 121-151. doi:

10.1080/1469701050008290

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition, United States of

America California: Sage.

Shackleton, J. (2011). Teachers Leadership Conference 2011 with John Shackleton [Video

file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_lw81grek

Stronge, J. (2018). Qualities of effective teachers (3rd ed.) Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
17734006 CTL Assessment 2: William Johnston

Taylor, M., & Klein, E. J. (2015). A Year in the Life of a Third Space Urban Teacher Residency.

In A Year in the Life of a Third Space Urban Teacher Residency (pp. 1-21).

SensePublishers, Rotterdam.

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2nd ed. ed.).

Alexandria: ASCD.