Some Social and Cultural Aspects of Multigrade Education

Some Social and Cultural Aspects of Multigrade Education: Teacher’s possible innovative leadership roles in small rural schools (The example of Greece) Pavlos Koulouris, pkoulouris@ea. gr Ellinogermaniki Agogi Athens, Greece NEMED Conference “MULTIGRADE EDUCATION: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE? ” University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania 18 September 2007

Remote multigrade schools in Greece: valuable service to the nation • Abundance of remote and less accessible mountainous and insular areas • Small rural schools fulfilling a crucial function: – Providing the children of these areas with the access to education which all children of Greece are entitled to. – Thus keeping small remote and aging communities ‘alive’.

Facing problems and dangers • Consequences of a widening rural-urban divide: – urbanisation tendencies – abandonment of the countryside by younger generations (brain drain) – digital divide, disadvantage in the access to services and opportunities of the contemporary Information Society

Multigrade schools: more challenges… • Significant challenges of the multigrade classroom • Insufficient initial professional training • Inexperienced, newly-appointed teachers (typically)

Teachers’ need for professional development • To acquire knowledge and skills • To develop personal competences falling beyond the established teacher training curricula.

Teachers’ need for professional development • Not easy to offer conventional professional development provision (inservice training seminars): – Distance – Costs – Lack of substitute teachers –…

Our background • Projects addressing the needs of the small rural schools, tackling their isolation and bridging the digital divide

Our response to the challenges • Efforts to alleviate the isolation of teachers • Our main tool: – Provision of distance training, support and networking through ICT

Our focus here • New leadership roles teachers can take in such schools, as investigated in the projects NEMED and RURAL WINGS

Inviting the teacher to work with, and for, the local community

Linkages between the community and the school • Miller (1995): – We should build and sustain strong linkages between the community and the school – Rural communities may have a head start in developing these linkages: • schools have traditionally played a central role in the life of the communities

Rural schools promoting personal and community development • Diverse roles that the remote rural school can play –recorded in the literature

Diverse school roles Salant & Waller (1998): • non-educational impact of schools on rural communities • multi-faceted school-community relationship – positive economic and social impacts – a resource for community development – offering a delivery point for social services.

Links between education and rural development • Educational attainment is seen as a rural development strategy through which a better educated rural population leads to greater economic growth Barkley, Henry, & Haizhen, 2005; Beaulieu & Gibbs, 2005

Links between education and rural development • Recent studies in the USA: – more rapid earnings and income growth in rural counties with high educational levels – improving local schools can reverse the tendency of loss of young adults through outmigration (‘rural brain drain’)

Community development: not only economic • Economic well-being • Social well-being • Environmental well-being Community Development

Social capital: a crucial concept • ‘Social capital’: – social organization and resources embedded in the social structure of the rural communities, which can facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit, and thus community development.

Social capital: a crucial concept • Woodhouse (2006): – Social capital exerts a positive causal influence on economic development.

Social capital: a crucial concept • Miller (1995): –The school is an important element in the creation of community’s social capital.

This remains a challenge • A strong school-community partnership remains a major challenge: – this is not generally viewed as a traditional element of schooling • Approaches are needed that cross the boundaries traditionally separating the community as a place of learning from the school

Community-based learning • Miller (1995): – Teachers working in partnership with local leaders and residents – Giving students meaningful opportunities to engage in community -based learning that serves the needs of both the community and the students.

Three approaches (Miller, 1995) • The school as a community centre • The community as curriculum • School-based enterprise

Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 1) The school as a community centre – a resource for lifelong learning – a vehicle for the delivery of a wide range of services – school resources (facilities, technology, well-educated staff) can provide educational and retraining opportunities for the community.

Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 2) The community as curriculum – Study of the community in its various dimensions. – Students generate information for community development: • conducting needs assessments • studying and monitoring environmental and land -use patterns • documenting local history through interviews and photo essays.

Three approaches (Miller, 1995) 3) School-based enterprise – Developing entrepreneurial skills – Students not only identify potential service needs in their rural communities, but actually establish a business to address those needs.

Inviting the teacher to become a change agent in the community • He/she will catalyse innovation and development in the school and the local community • He/she will turn the declining school into a lively node supporting lifelong learning for everyone • The rural school will become more responsive to the growth and survival needs of its community • Education will develop responsible citizens and create opportunities for tomorrow's rural leaders to emerge

Being inspired Convincing and leading the others

The change agent: • Challenges the status quo by comparing it to an ideal or a vision of change • Accepts, communicates and defends the need for change • Defines and initiates change • Translates the vision into the context of a specific change initiative • Causes crisis in order to support dramatic actions and change efforts • Leads and manages change • Understands the cultural dynamics

The case of satellite broadband internet • Satellite broadband connectivity is made available to the school • The teacher is encouraged to: – turn it into advantage and opportunity for all – promote the development of a new culture among local citizens

Teacher’s multiple roles • Typically, the teacher is already: – acting as the head of the small school – considered a prominent member of the isolated community

Additional leadership roles • Manager of change in an informal local ‘reform’

Additional leadership roles • Instructional leader exploring new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning

Additional leadership roles • Developer of links and synergies between the school, the community and other schools in the area

Additional leadership roles • Facilitator of communities of learning in, around, and outside, the school

Additional leadership roles • Former and implementer of innovation matching local needs

Questions arising • Obvious need for corresponding professional development: – Which form? – What content precisely? – Which competences?

Possible professional development content • Pedagogies specifically adaptable to the ‘unusual’ settings of the small rural school • Solutions and opportunities of the Information Society • Innovation • Change management • Local and rural community development, etc.

Questions arising • Possible conflicts within a highly centralized educational system

Possible conflicts • The teacher in this context is encouraged to initiate and implement an informal local ‘educational reform’ • Little decentralisation and autonomy of school units is encouraged by the system • This discrepancy may be a source of interpersonal and interinstitutional tension • Even in the intrapersonal level: – internal conflicts between the teacher’s formal/recognised and informal/self-initiated leadership roles.

Possible conflicts • Even in the intrapersonal level: – internal conflicts between: • the teacher’s formal/recognised roles and • informal/self-initiated leadership roles.

• Barkley, D, Henry, M, & L Haizhen (2005). “Does Human Capital Affect Rural Growth? Evidence from the South”. In Beaulieu, L J, & R Gibbs (eds), The Role of Education: Promoting the Economic and Social Vitality of Rural America. Southern Rural Development Center and USDA, Economic Research Service. • Beaulieu, L J, & R Gibbs (eds) (2005). The Role of Education: Promoting the Economic and Social Vitality of Rural America. Southern Rural Development Center and USDA, Economic Research Service. • Miller, B (1995). “The role of rural schools in community development: Policy issues and implications”. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 11, 3, 163 -172. • Salant, P, & A Waller (1998). What Difference Do Local Schools Make? A Literature Review and Bibliography. Annenberg Rural Challenge Policy Program, The Rural School and Community Trust. • Woodhouse, A (2006). “Social capital and economic development in regional Australia: A case study”. Journal of Rural Studies, 22, 83– 94.