Abstract
This chapter describes the DREAM educational management and leadership approach, which the author has been implementing, researching, and developing for two decades. The DREAM acronym is based on ten principles inspired by teachers that ensure the educational teacher leader focuses on students and their learning by placing teachers at the heart of the institution. DREAM stands for develop, recruit, enhance, appraise, motivate and delegate, respect, enjoy, attend, and mentor. These ten principles are sequenced to provide a pathway of continuous teacher leadership development although they are all interdependent and practiced as a coherent whole. Each of the sections within the chapter is based on a principle and describes how it has been applied in a variety of contexts using feedback from previous course participants. The aim is to provide the reader with a series of short case studies of the DREAM approach in action.
TopMain Focus Of The Chapter
As noted above, the DREAM approach and philosophy aims to bring students and their learning back to the centre of all decisions made at the institution by empowering the teachers and staff to involve their students as they are involved in the management and leadership of the institution. A key element of this approach is the consistent offering of DREAM professional courses to the teachers, staff and students, so this section describes in depth how the courses are run and the impact they have had over the past two decades, drawing on participant reflections and feedback.
There are eleven courses in total with an Introduction to DREAM Management and Leadership as well as a course around each of the principles. Each course has 12 units with an Introduction, ten units on content, and a Conclusion. Each unit is broken down into four stages based upon the author’s work on teacher knowledge development (Quirke, 2009), which draws on social constructivist theories (Darling-Hammond, 2016; Maturana, 2012) that view knowledge as a collaborative process dependent on interaction with the community that constructs meaning from our experience and the earlier work of Tsui (2003) on teacher knowledge.
The first stage is Knowledge Seeker Preparation where the participants are required to read articles and view videos that introduce the principle and the underlying theories. This stage is where the participants begin to explore how this new information aligns or differs from their own understanding of themselves, their practice and their teaching and leading context, and they being to theorize their practical knowledge and scaffold this new input to their existing knowledge schema.
The second stage is Knowledge Discusser as reflection and application of new knowledge is seldom complete without the involvement of others as we attempt to articulate how our developing understanding is compatible with the context in which we work. At this stage, the course provides participants with the possibility to discuss both asynchronously via a discussion board and synchronously via video conference sessions.
The third stage is Knowledge User as participants must apply the new principle in their workplace as they complete a task requiring them to lead a team using the unit’s principle. This stage is crucial in the transformation of our knowledge structure as it is this practicalization of theory which confirms the applicability of the new knowledge to our teaching and leading context.
The final stage is Knowledge Provider Reflection, where the participants provide a referenced reflective narrative or discursive reflection on the impact of the unit and the task on their educational management and leadership beliefs and practice. The key to this stage is providing participants with choices in how they can submit their reflection, and the course allows them to use writing, audio and video formats individually or in pairs or small groups (Jandigulov et al,2023). This reporting element often strengthens the new knowledge structure and moves the new found beliefs and practice to the core of their professional selves.
This teacher knowledge developmental cycle provides a transformational framework, which is described in more depth in the next section, drawing on participant reflections and feedback.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Learning-Centred Leadership: An approach that requires the leader to be a role model, who is interested in teaching and learning, and keep in touch with what is happening in the classrooms.
Authentic Leadership: A style that emphasizes transparency, genuineness and honesty to inspire trust and a positive working environment.
Distributed Leadership: An approach that focuses on shared management with decision making dispersed to collaborative groups.
Democratic Leadership: A style that actively involves staff in participative management seeking feedback and inviting input.
Situational Leadership: A theory developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1988) that requires adaptability and the application of the leadership style that is most appropriate for a given situation and team.
Values-Based Leadership: A style and philosophy based on shared common beliefs generated with the team to strive for enhanced development.
Transformational Leadership: An approach that generates valuable and positive change, supporting teams to develop within and to changing social systems.
Ethical Leadership: An approach that requires the active demonstration of thoughtful conduct respecting the beliefs, dignity and values of others.
Servant Leadership: An approach that prioritizes serving the greater good putting the team and organization first.
Adaptive Leadership: A model introduced by Heifetz (2009) AU41: The in-text citation "Heifetz (2009)" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. which aims to mobilize teams to handle non-technical problems using emotional intelligence, organizational justice, development and character.