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Towards a Common Vision for Innovation: Making Sense of Complexity in a Health Sciences Program
Get PDFThe growing use of digital educational technologies in higher education has seen considerable change resulting in significant institutional energies directed towards maintaining currency with today’s emerging trends. The move to digital transformation is an inevitable assumption and generally positively accepted by academia. Despite this, technology integration has emerged in an ad hoc and reactive fashion rather than purposeful and strategic. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the need for a shared vision for technology adoption across a health sciences program in a mid-sized institution. Although faculty participate enthusiastically in developing curricular initiatives, their roles and engagement with technology visioning are often void of their collective voices. The theoretical concepts of sensemaking and learning culture offer insight into the complexity of connecting technology to learning pedagogy. Central to developing capacity requires facilitating meaningful connections between users about the technology and the implications to practice. This OIP builds upon the need for a collaborative lens that acknowledges cultural nuances and individual empowerment. Key in the success of leading the process will be the enactment of adaptive and transformational leadership, where the approach for change is modelled in a collaborative and supportive manner. The change implementation plan of the proposed change is fostered by the dual application of Cawsey et al.’s (2016) Change Model and Kotter’s eight-stage process (2012). Ultimately, this OIP will result in an integrated visionary approach to technology adoption across a health science program
Absent and Present: The Mental Health and Wellness of Ontario Teacher Leaders Using a Catholic Social Justice Approach
Get PDFAbstract
The purpose of this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is to present a Problem of Practice (PoP) at Trinity Forever Catholic School (pseudonym: TFCS). This is the limited focus on teacher-leader mental health and wellness (MhW) stemming from a lack of resource organization by school and board leadership levels. Current MhW resources are not focussed on the health and well-being of educators. It is necessary to navigate resources that minister to the common good and dignity of all teacher-leaders. This exercise is important to the work of a teacher-leader who is serving TFCS under long-standing conditions that impair MhW. Catholic principles of social justice viewed through Gregory Baum’s critical theological lens is featured. A Christian view of critical theory will provide further support. A multi-faceted frame scrutinizes the status quo at TFCS and stays faithful to the Catholic mission and vision of the organization. Through iteration of the guiding questions, authentic-servant leadership coupled with Ai and theological reflection demonstrate what is good and positive at TFCS and begin a transformation by placing teacher-leader MhW in full view of the school community. The change model being employed is AKDAR (Hiatt, 1996; Hiatt & Creasey, 2012), to affect the elimination of the PoP. Teacher-leader MhW needs an equitable place in education discourse, beginning at the school level, and perhaps proceeding to the board level and faith-based conferences, to reach more teacher-leaders in wider contexts. Valuable knowledge can be shared through communities of practice. Teacher-targeted MhW resources need to be discoursed on a regular basis.
Keywords: Educational leadership, elementary school, critical theology, Catholic social justice, teacher wellness, ADKA
A Values-Based, Holistic Approach towards School Mission in a U.S. Islamic School
Get PDFU.S. Islamic schools endeavour to foster the development of moral practices and values stemming from Islamic teachings. Their efforts are demonstrated in classes (such as Islamic studies and Qur’an study), ritual practice (such as daily congregational prayer), and faith-based assemblies. Yet the schools often lack awareness, structure, and procedures for a focus on character, morality, and spirituality to permeate all aspects of schooling. They also tend to have limited resources for embarking on large-scale change initiatives. This Organizational Improvement Plan is written from the standpoint of the author, a scholar-practitioner, and Dean of Mission of a U.S. based K-12 Islamic school whose mission includes a commitment to holistic and Islamic faith-based teaching. The problem of practice concerns the lack of procedural and structural elements to ensure that the mission is upheld in all aspects of the school and that the school practices what it preaches. To diagnose the problem, I select a value-based Islamic leadership model supplemented with moral and spiritual leadership. Using the model, along with a framework for change designed from holistic and systems thinking, yields four potential solutions. The preferred solution is based on a tailored, school-wide approach to character development, refined with an Islamic pedagogical approach to character growth involving self-monitoring (Muraqaba) and self-evaluation (Muhasaba). Finally, to connect theory with practice, I present an implementation plan based on a lightweight pilot approach, monitoring and evaluation plans, and a communication plan, all of which reflect the chosen Islamic leadership model and a holistic, systems-thinking approach to change
Citizenship Education in Neoliberal Times
Get PDFIn pursuit of continuous rather than episodic change, this organizational improvement plan uses Kotter’s (2014) framework for organizational change, embedded within the PDSA cycle, to create a professional development community at the school. The school’s mission is focused on citizenship, but implementation is still an area of action. The compliance culture at the school and the dominant transactional leadership approach have influenced the enactment of the school’s mission throughout the various high school departments. Using a conceptual framework adapted from Hackman’s (2002) framework for building a collaborative environment, this improvement plan explores how a private school in Ontario can implement its mission statement despite the impact of the market neoliberal ideology on the school’s practices. The change initiative is grounded within the instructional leadership and team leadership frameworks and centers around two goals: (1) implementing a cross-curricular thematic approach to citizenship education and (2) creating a learning community at the school. Authentic implementation of a professional development community requires leadership commitment and an organizational context that emphasizes collaboration and supports teachers in giving explicit attention to citizenship as a cross-disciplinary issue. Monitoring and evaluating the change process allows the leadership team to determine if the desired state of the school has been attained. It is anticipated that a collaborative learning network would not only institutionalize the school’s mission in the teaching and learning practices, but it would set the stage for the school leadership to embed citizenship in its culture as teachers and leaders strive for continuous improvement and professional growth
Virtually Constructed Leadership: A Study of Accountability in an International Non-profit Organization
Get PDFThrough the eyes of a leader within a virtual non-profit organization (referred to as the Centre), this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores the lack of formal accountability amongst an international team of volunteers. The lack of formal accountability has the potential to hinder all interactions of the team, decreasing efficiency of the organization and ultimately decreasing its impact on beneficiaries. The relationship between the volunteer leaders and the Centre is described as organizational volunteerism, where organizations are voluntarily contributing their human resources to benefit the international community. This improvement plan examines a combination of complementary leadership approaches that form a conceptual model of virtually constructed leadership. The main leadership approaches are adaptive leadership to enhance accountability, authentic leadership to explore virtual identity, and connective leadership to encourage collaboration. Through an exploration of the organizational context and possible solutions, this OIP ultimately proposes a solution of home-grown accountability where home organizations take a larger role in participating in the work of the Centre through a more formal relationship. The solution allows leaders in the Centre to leverage the structure of the home organization to create a sense of formal accountability in the volunteer team. The change implementation plan for this solution is built around appreciative inquiry, a constructivist approach to change that focuses on the potential of the organization, and engaging the passion and commitment of volunteers. Appreciative inquiry as a change model is used to develop collaboration and accountability within the volunteer team, ultimately improving the effectiveness of the Centre in its goals for today and the future
