Principals Australia Institute’s project worked with two activity areas through MATSITI: enhancing school leaders’ capacity to support newly-appointed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers; and building the capacity of future school leaders.
Both strands involved practical, highly-interactive approaches across the life of the projects. What became apparent is that with individualised and contextualised professional support to newly-appointed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and future leaders shared through experienced colleagues (including those who themselves are not Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders), the professional journey is enhanced. Further, when the professional journey is seen as an opportunity to share cultural perspectives, outcomes are even stronger.
Peter O’Beirne, Consultant, Principals Australia Institute
MATSITI #OurMobTeach conference, 30 September 2015
1. … Engaging Mentors and Enhancing Leadership
Two components: 2014 and 2015
Two focuses:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers new to teaching …. a
mentoring focus
Future educational leaders who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders… a leadership development focus
# OURMOBTEACHConference , 30 September 2015
2. What the project did…..
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers new to teaching ….
…..a mentoring focus..
17 in-school pairs of mentees and mentors…..most states;
government and Catholic schools
Principals/line managers as ‘mentors’ as opposed to ‘supervisors’
…active support…. jointly identifying support needs…. creating
learning and development opportunities… build mentors’ cultural
intelligence….
March-October, 2014: face-to-face, online and webinars
Possibly a ‘first’ of its kind
3. Successes…
100% strongly agreed or agreed that ‘it was a very helpful/useful partnership’
100% strongly agreed or agreed that they ‘felt and equal partner’
88% of mentors felt that mentees had challenged their (ie the mentor’s) thinking
100% strongly agreed or agreed that they ‘recommend the mentee-mentor partnership
to future graduate teachers’;
43% of mentee respondents strongly agreed that ‘the mentor gave me opportunities
along the way’
100% strongly agreed or agreed that they ‘felt and equal partner’
4. Challenges...
Keeping ‘mentor/mentee’ separate from line manager relationships
Sharing the simplicity of the model!
Getting it on schools’ and principals’ radars…..
Such a model doesn’t appear to be in place
5. What the project did…..
Future educational leaders who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders…
….. a leadership development focus …
23 current and future leaders: 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and
women
Primary, secondary, K-12; govt./Cath. schools; seven
states/territories
Leadership development workshop, Part 1 workplace project
workshop, Part 2
Based on PAI’s L5 Framework
Leadership learning and cross-cultural learning
6. Successes…
… The mixture of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-indigenous people encouraged
a much deeper and more meaningful discussion …. A great model for inclusive
partnerships in education …
… not only the networking opportunities but also hearing stories from a cross-section of
people has helped me understand different perspectives about Indigenous education …
… we’ve been able to share, to bring a lot of expertise together and when we think about
bringing together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, what we’re saying is that if we can
do it , then other people can do it … it will empower other people to take on leadership
roles…..
7. Challenges...
Sharing the simplicity of the model!
Encouraging systems and schools to continue such a model.. very low-cost
Getting it on schools’ and principals’ radars…..
Separating ‘system’ approaches from broader professional
learning….developing ‘professionals’ as opposed to developing ‘employees’