EDITORIAL

Dear ENIRDEM-friends!

It is time for another newsletter. A lot of things have happened since the last edition. The Board had its spring meeting some weeks ago and decided on the conference theme for our annual September Conference. This newsletter consequently contains information about all this and also a formal Call for Papers.

ENIRDEM is a mix of academics, administrators, school managers and educational management consultants. Together we have developed a warm and supportive Network. This Newsletter is part of our networking. E-mail makes it easier to contribute to the Newsletter. ENIRDEM is owned and inspired by its members and the Newsletter is no different. If there are no contributions there will be no Newsletter.

The information flow within ENIRDEM is organised through our national correspondents/ activators. We confidently rely upon their interest and energy. If you want to expand the national Newsletter sending list or have other creative ideas about how to widen the cluster of ENIRDEM friends in your country please contact your correspondent/activator (see list below).

Editors

NEXT CONFERENCE – CALL FOR PAPERS!

Dear ENIRDEM friends!

The topic of the 2001 ENIRDEM conference that will take place from 26^th to 29^rd September 2001 in Ireland was agreed in general terms in Bled (September 2001). The agreed conference theme is “Developing Caring Learning Communities – Challenges for School Leaders in Creating Learning Environments that Care”.

In a world that is full of conflicts that are historical, ethnic, tribal, religious or that emphasise the unequal distribution of wealth, power and influence, society has to create communities that care. These communities will know their history, will have a deep respect for the past, but they will not be bounded by their history. They will have a deep respect for their own past and they will know how to enrich and empower themselves and others. They will be deeply respectful of differences and have a developed fluency for accommodating and promoting difference, conscious that difference enriches all communities.

In a world that is full of contradictions and at war, schoolteachers have a crucial role to play in developing and sustaining learning communities that care.

This Conference will explore through multi-cultural perspectives how such communities are functioning. Through shared experiences and by listening to the stories of others, it is hoped that participants will be encouraged to being the process of developing caring learning communities. It is the aim of this conference that the notion of creating learning communities of learners should become a reality for all. Hence the challenge for schoolteachers, academics and researchers to develop knowledge and understanding in this area.

Conference Location: Kilkenny at the Newpark Hotel, email: info@newparkhotel.com. Website: www.newparkhotel.com.

Kilkenny is 120k from Dublin on a direct train route. It is an ancient city with roots going back to the 7^th century. It has a rich tradition, with interesting streets, buildings, a medieval castle restored and in use. It is a beautiful location. We look forward to meeting researchers, educators and practitioners – old and new friends.

We hereby invite you to submit papers under the topic:

Developing Caring Learning Communities- Challenges for School Leaders in Creating Learning Communities that Care

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted by 28^th June to:

KEC.ias@tinet.ie. They may also be sent by mail to:

Kildare Education Centre

Friary Road

Kildare Town

IRELAND

The papers should be completed by 1^st September and sent to the same mailing or e-mail address.

Applications to attend conference.

Final date to attend conference is Friday, June 7^th. An application form will be published in the next Newsletter and at the ENIRDEM website (www.enirdem.si).

REFLECTIONS FROM SLOVENIJA

SOME REFLECTIONS ON 10^TH ENIRDEM CONFERENCE "LEADING SCHOOLS FOR LEARNING"

I know that quite some time has passed since our 10^th conference took place in Bled. I was asked by David and Erik to prepare something for the previous Newsletter but I did not succeed. Perhaps it may even be better to reflect on the conference only now because I could have been too enthusiastic right after the end.

Reading your evaluations, I and my colleagues can be very happy and I have to thank you for your active participation, for all your contributions and for all nice and encouraging messages during and after the conference. Thank you also to those who have expressed some constructive criticism. I will inform the board about each detail in evaluation sheets so that the next conference can even be more successful. I will also prepare a thorough evaluation report for the next Newsletter.

This time I would like to present a brief summary from table group work. I have collected transparencies that you prepared and I have found so interesting and so worthwhile ideas that desire to be published in our Newsletter and shared also among those who could not attend the conference.

According to the first keynote speaker Anita Trnavčevič and her critical friend Eric Verbiest two questions were addressed in table groups:

1. Do we want marketisation in schools?

2. What is the role of the school leader in promoting learning?

The table group leaders reported that the questions were very complex and so they could not be discussed deeply enough in one hour. Despite that, many interesting ideas were developed. I hope that I have grasped some core ideas:

Marketisation is not an issue that allows schools to decide whether they want it or not. It is already there. Marketisation is "language of the community" and community prefers it. Although it may have a negative connotation there are also some positive effects: it can increase quality of schools, it gives us the freedom of choice ("the right to choose schools"), it may improve communication with parents and thus co-operation. Although it may cause stratification a compromise is possible, namely the state system using positive discrimination. Among negative consequences of marketisation the following issues were emphasised: it may cause a losing/winning school distinction and even a winners/losers concept of competition among schools; it may lead to segregation and thus threaten pupils'/students' rights. In spite of a rather powerless attitude towards marketisation there was an optimistic message: Yes, we have some possibility to shape it towards best-fit approach and to make use of its positive implications.

A lot of ideas were written about the role of school leader in promoting learning. There was an important message from all groups: The school leader is a leader of adult people so he/she must be focused on their learning. He/she should promote opportunities to reflect on learning and also reflect on what teachers are doing (critical friend). He/she must know 'the big picture' and transcribe it to everyday work by being strategic 'gatekeeper' between the state and the school community. There should be a clear focus on learning in every school but also an appropriate infrastructure for it. Besides, the school leader should organise the learning process and choose the right teachers.

If he/she wants to perform the role of promoter of learning he/she needs high degree of legitimation within and outside school. Therefore he/she should stand for values (based on community and children's rights) and establish good relations with all stakeholders. Above all, he/she should be a leading example.

Discussing the role of the school leader we have become aware that we have gradually changed management to leadership – not only as a term but also as a concept of leading schools. Perhaps it is time to change ENIRDEM to ENIRDEL?

Justina Erculj

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN …?

Albania

This country has 3,5 million inhabitants and 500000 concrete civil defence bunkers or ‘pillboxes’ built during the regime of the dictator Hoxha to repel imagined invaders. These concrete mushrooms litter the landscape and in the time of the dictator every secondary school had an armoury with guns that all 16 year olds were taught to use. In 1997 when the country fell into civil crisis nearly all these guns were stolen and many are still not retrieved. The conditions of the schools and teachers are among the worst in the world. Any investment must come from abroad and the EU and many bi-lateral donors (especially the Swiss, Germans and Austrians) are currently trying to rebuild the devastated system. In one school that I visited everything, even the electric wires embedded in the walls, was stolen during the civil disorder of 1997. Teachers are paid ten times less than professionals with equivalent qualifications in the private sector so there is a massive outflow of talent from the school system.

I am currently drafting a proposal for the European Training Foundation for projects to develop a teacher education system for vocational education in Albania. The ETF is the EU agency based in Turin, Italy that administers aid to vocational education in 46 partner countries of the EU.

David Oldroyd

England and Wales

Following the claims of the government that its imposed literacy and numeracy strategy (compulsory minimum of one hour per day in each basic skill) in primary schools has succeeded in raising standards, attention is now being turned to the 14-19 age group. A ‘Green Paper’ on 14-19 Education was issued in February 2002. The Green Paper contains preliminary proposals for wide discussion and consultation with interested parties before the end of May). Its slogan is ”Access of all to excellence” and it seeks to raise the level of retention of students in school beyond the legal leaving age of 16. The English system retains fewer 17 year-olds in education than any OECD country.

A significant proposed innovation is the creation of vocational ‘A’ Level examinations for 16-18 year-old students. This follows the creation of vocational GCSEs (the national examination at age 16). Both new examinations are an attempt to raise the status of vocational education and to place vocational qualifications on a par with the ‘gold standard’ ‘A’ Level academic qualification. The problem of perceived disparity between academic and vocational courses is no doubt familiar to all ENIRDEM members.

Other government initiatives include expanding the partnership programme between independent (private) and state schools. The government has funded partnership activities over the last five years in numeracy, literacy, special educational needs, sport, citizenship and teaching gifted and talented pupils. A music and dance scheme is an offshoot of these partnership projects. It will support specialist schools in Music and Dance and offer scholarships to talented young dancers. Further support for the gifted will come in the form of a National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth. It is an idea borrowed from the Johns Hopkins University Summer School in the USA and will be aimed at the top 55 of academically able students. The Academy will include on-line learning opportunities, mentoring and individual learning plans for these students. It is clear that the Labour government has in mind not only the disadvantaged section of the population in advocating ”Access of all to excellence”.

David Oldroyd

Hong Kong

In this Special Autonomous Region of China secondary school headteachers earn around 15000 euro a month (yes that is correct – 3 zero’s after the 15!) and experienced teachers around half that amount. The price paid by the teachers and school leaders for earning probably the highest salaries in the world in our profession is that they have around 32 x 40 minute lessons a week to teach and all classes have 40 pupils. There is tremendous pressure from parents for high academic results and consequently a huge amount of marking and teaching of extra classes after the normal timetable ends at 1530. (The school day starts at 0800). Few teachers in the better schools get home before 1900 during the working week and it is not uncommon to turn off the school intranet at 2130 to force the more dedicated teachers to go home! Teachers often depend on their parents to look after their own children as they work such long hours.

Your ENIRDEM friends David and Dorota ran school-based workshops in Hong Kong in March on the theme of “Unleashing the Potential of Teachers”. The aim was to help teachers become more resilient and better able to cope with the huge demands upon them. Soon the extra pressure of salary cuts will be felt as the effects of the economic downturn leads to 5-19% reductions in their earnings. Maybe most ENIRDEM members, especially those in central and eastern Europe would not mind a reduction of their own salaries if it meant 1500 euro deducted from a monthly 15000!

David Oldroyd and Dorota Ekiert-Oldroyd

Nitra, Slovakia

We are students of school management at the University of Constantine the Philosopher. We would like to inform you about what we do and who we are. We are in the 3rd grade and we have already passed some ineressting subjects where we have learnt how to improve ways of teaching, learning, managing and budgeting. We hope you will enjoy our short article.

The History of Constantine the Philosopher University

History of Constantine the Philosopher University goes back to 1959 when the Pedagogical Institute was founded to train teachers for both Slovak and Hungarian schools. So by the end of current school year we will have been educating teachers for forty-three years continually increasing in size and student intake. The former Institute has existed as an independent teacher training college since 1964. Since 1977 the college has been accredited to prepare teachers for both primary and secondary schools.

After political changes in 1989, the humanisation of our school system was on the agenda. In this spirit, the teacher training college enlarged the existing forms of study. The Slovak National Congress decided in December 1992 that the University of Education was established and after four years of existence, in 1996 a new law was passed in which the University was renamed to the Constantine the Philosopher University. At the University, the Slovaks are educated along with members of the Hungarian and German minority students and with members of Romany ethnic minority. The project of educating teachers of Jews and Rumanians minority is discussed and prepared.

The objective of these activities is that in the 21^st century, the graduates of our University will live in a Europe without borders in the renaissance of national and minority cultures. Our University pledges these ideas within all its academic programmes. Today the main aims of curriculum are its openness, co-operation among faculties, compatibility of the format and content of study with other European university centres and increasing independence of the departments which we consider as the basic link between pedagogic and research activity at the University. In this regard the Institute of Didactic Technology has its special position, to apply new technology and prepare school managers for education and developing new methods and practical teaching skills. To improve educational methodology we have started co-operate with NCEE [National Council on Economic Education in USA].

Students of Jan Michalko

Sweden

A new master’s degree has been introduced in the Swedish university system this year. The new degree is not intended for students planning for a career as researchers but should be regarded as an advanced programme for professionals. Many universities are now planning for special programs directed towards school leaders.

Erik Groth

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO …?

For the next Newsletter, please send us news about yourself or other ENIRDEM friends!

BOOK REVIEW

Sergiovanni, T.J. (2001) Leadership: What’s in it for schools? London: Routledge Falmer

This book by a leading American thinker in the field of school leadership is part of a new series edited by two UK professors John MacBeath and Kate Myers. The series aims to make current educational policy issues relevant and intelligible to practitioners. Sergiovanni provides a relatively short book that recognises the contingent and essentially humanistic nature of leadership in a complex and messy world of schooling. He laments the over-emphasis on the controlling, rationalistic and technical approach the raising educational standards currently in favour with politicians especially in the UK and US.

The perspective he offers reflects the new discourse of organisational theory that contrasts with the rationalist system discourse still widespread in educational management studies. For example, the concept of ‘organisational intelligence’ is presented with its variables of organisational perception, memory, reason, imagination and motivation. These throw light on how span of control, leadership density, time spans for implementation and the degree of decentralisation in decision-making can be adjusted to different school contexts. He sees leadership as primarily based on ideas rather than personalities or rules. The central task of school leaders is to build ‘communities of responsibility’ in which leadership is widely diffused. This requires new leadership competencies that link leadership with learning. In 124 pages, Sergiovanni offers ENIRDEM members a challenging and stimulating follow-up to their tenth annual conference in Bled ‘Leading Schools for Learning’.

David Oldroyd

ENIRDEM PUBLICATION

The substantive editing of the book of proceedings of the 10^th Annual ENIRDEM Conference held in Bled, Slovenia in September 2001 is now completed and is in the hands of the technical editing staff at the National School of Leadership. The title is ‘Leading for Learning’. The contents are arranged in three sections as follows:

Theory and policy papers

• Berg, Gunnar To lead or to be led – that is the question: from the uniprofessional to the multiprofessional school organisation

• Hanses, S, and Lundgren, M, School leadership and in-service training: Reflections on organisation theory and pedagogy

• Rutar Ilc, Zora How can schools contribute to the development of pupils’ complex thinking?

• Ivanova, Ilze Thinking about learning in universities

• Koren, Andrej and Trnavcevic, Anita Markets and Autonomy for Learning Schools

• Neimane, Signe and Vegere, Sarmite Developing school leaders’ learning

• Sundstrom, Bo Turnaround Management in Education

Research papers

• Anderson, Kirk Leadership Reciprocity: The Mutual Influences of Teacher Leaders and Principals

• Hansen, Börkur. Jóhansson Olafur H. and Lárusdóttir, Steinunn Helga Decentralisation of Basic Schools in Iceland: Management Emphasis at a Crossroad

• Kobal, Darja. Kolenc, Janez and Lebaric, Nada Motivation to learn in Slovenian secondary schools-Gymnasium

• Levacic, Rosalind. Glover, Derek. Bennett, Nigel and Crawford, Megan Combining cerebral and insightful approaches: challenges for school management in England

• Novak, Bogomir Changing the Paradigm of the Slovene school

• Pecek, Polona Non-formal staff development in primary schools

• Trnavcevic, Anita Schools in the 21st Century: National Educational Policies, Organisational Learning and the Educational Markets

• Verbiest, Eric (ed.) A Cross-European Perspective on Training School Leaders

Papers from developers and practitioners

• Decaesteker,C. Mahieu P. and Spooren E. Training for school leaders - A Flemish reflection on two different training concepts.

• Erculj, Justina Collective learning in "networks of learning schools"

• Groth, Erik Leader’s learning – an occupational shift from Military Officers to School Leaders

• Hanses, Svante and Lundgren, Mats School leadership and in-service training Some reflections from perspectives of organisation theory and pedagogy

• Nezvalová, Danuse Intercultural competencies towards interactive professionalism – a challenge for leadership training

• Oldroyd, D and Högberg, S Helping the dog to wag its tail - evaluation through dialogue for the learning school

• Policnik, Vlasta Effective team work; the first step to successful leadership

• Sternudd-Groth, Mia Marie Steering school improvement in a democratic way: using drama for school leadership development

• Trunk Sirca, Nada Learn to know how to live in the community – pathway to a learning school

The editor wishes to thank all the authors for their co-operation in meeting the tight deadlines set during the editing process of refining 24 articles, 22 of which were written by users of English as a second language. This type of editing task is a not the most sensible way to accompany a busy life trying to earn a living but we hope that the publication will be a fitting testimony to the truly memorable Conference with which we celebrated our tenth anniversary.

David Oldroyd

WORTHWHILE WEB-SITES

The United Nations web-sites provide a source of major interest. To access their large number of alphabetically arranged sites go to www. followed by:

unsystem.org

There you will find sites relating to all aspects of the UN’s work, including education. One particularly relevant site for students and educators is:

cyberschoolbus.un.org

It has many fascinating hypertext links about peace education, human rights, and statistics of the world’s nations that are user-friendly for school managers, teachers and their students. The site promotes international collaboration between schools in a variety of projects and encourages interaction.

What Makes a Child-Friendly Learning Environment?

This is a hyperlink on web-site www.unicef.org/teachers. It is obviously closely related to the topic of the next ENIRDEM Conference in Kilkenny.

David Oldroyd

…and don’t forget to market and help to update our own website www.enirdem.si !!

Erik Groth

WOMEN IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

The Socrates-Comenius project IPWEM+TT (International Project for Women in Educational Management - Training the Trainers) has successfully come to its end. The project IPWEM+NET continuing the work of IPWEM TT, with emphasis on the pedagogical use of net, will hopefully get green light by September. In this case I could inform interested Enirdem participants during the conference. It is possible to include new

partners. The participating countries now include ES, IE, FI, UK, IS, CZ, LV, PL, CZ, SI.

Those interested can contact me even before that:

Annikki Jäntti

IPWEM+NET Coordinator

e-mail: annikki.jantti@opeko.fi

ENIRDEM CORRESPONDENTS

Below is a list for year 2002 of the person in each country who has kindly volunteered (or has been volunteered!) to be ENIRDEM Correspondent/activator. They have undertaken to be active in:

• distributing the newsletter to existing and potential ENIRDEM members in their country

• finding new items for as many of the sections of the newsletter as possible

It is not essential that correspondents have attended or will attend our Conferences, especially as our virtual ENIRDEM network develops. Maybe we can fill in some of the gaps in the list below with contacts we have from our professional work. Please contact the editor if so.

1. Albania - Alqi Mustafai (ipsved@icc.al.eu.org)

2. Austria -

3. Belarus - Yuri Zagoumenov (izag@user.unibel.by)

4. Belgium - Paul Mahieu (paul.mahieu@ifsia.ac.be)

5. Bosnia-Herzegovina – Enes D (denes@tk.kim.ba)

6. Bulgaria - Bozhidar Gyoshev (gyoshev@mail.techno-link.com)

7. Croatia – Vesna Hrvoj-Sic (vhrvojsic@yahoo.com)

8. Cyprus - Yiorgos Lambrou, Ministry of Education (yslyiorgos@netscape.net)

9. Czech Republic - Lenka Slavikova (lenka.slavikova@pedf.cuni.cz) Not confirmed!

10. Denmark – Susanne Gottlieb (susanne.gottlieb@delud.dk)

11. Estonia -

12. Finland - Anniki Jantti (anniki.jantti@opeko.fi)

13. France -

14. Germany - Uwe Hameyer (hamayer@ewf.uni-kiel.de)

15. Greece -

16. Hungary – Maria Szabo (drszabom@axelero.hu)

17. Iceland - Borkur Hansen (borkur@khi.is)

18. Israel - Zohar Tal (zohar@macam.ac.il)

19. Italy -

20. Ireland - Maureen Bohun (bohanm@educ.irlgov.ie)

21. Latvia - Ilze Ivanova (ilzei@lanet.lv)

22. Lithuania - Rimantas Zelvys (zelvys@delfi.lt)

23. Luxembourg -

24. Macedonia (FYROM) -

25. Malta -

26. Moldova -

27. Netherlands - Eric Verbiest (e.verbiest@fontys.nl)

28. Norway - Christen Jordet (cj@kuf.dep.no)

29. Poland – Dorota Ekiert-Oldroyd (ekiert@us.edu.pl)

30. Portugal - Maria de Fatima Sanches (fsanches@correio.cc.fc.ul.pt)

31. Romania - Madlen Serban (vladut@vet.kappa.ro)

32. Russia -

33. Slovakia - Jan Michalko (jmichalko@ukf.sk)

34. Slovenia - Justina Erculj (justina.erculj@solazaravnatelje.si)

35. Spain -

36. Switzerland -

37. Sweden - Erik Groth (egro@du.se)

38. UK - David Oldroyd (d.oldroyd@talk21.com)

39. Ukraine -

40. Yugoslavia –

These action groups were agreed in Slovenia, September 2001. During the next conference we hope to have a report from every group after one year of activities (?).

1. Fundraising and Brussels AG – People with good connections and access who have successful bidding experience. Dual targets: funding for Conference attendance; funding for research – Annikki Jantti.

2. Collaborative Research AG – To link institutions or individuals for cross-cultural and comparative European projects – Annikki’s I.P.W.E.M./Peter Karstanje & Ray Bolam.

3. Exchanges and Attachments AG – To develop individual inter-institutional exchanges or visits, or invitations to training events – Olafur Johansson (Iceland)

4. Public and Public Relations AG – Newsletter, ENIRDEM Portfolio for use in bids and Recruitment – Erik Groth & David Oldroyd and one recipient in the Country to receive news.

5. Regional Intervisitation AG – To organise small-scale e.g. 10-20 people, seminars or study visits to specific countries e.g. Iceland – Justina Erculj and Kristina Malmberg.

6. Recruitment A.G – Christen Jordet (Norway) & Edel Haukeland

7. External Relations AG – to explore common interests and links with other networks – Anne Gold.

8. Publication & Terminology A.G – online dictionary & conference publications – David Oldroyd.

9. Collaborative Development A.G. – e.g. Eric’s Verbiest leadership development survey; European Master’s Degree.

10. Co-operation in Professional Groups A.G – Find time for roundtable discussion for professional groups – Ilze Ivanova.