HertsCam MEd Leading Teaching and Learning Information Leaflet This leaflet provides an outline of the MEd programme to enable people to decide if they would like to apply for a place. There will also be an opportunity to find out more about the MEd programme at the Information Session on 19 th May - 5.00 pm at the Novotel, Stevenage (refreshments from 4.30). Information about the MEd and about HertsCam in general is available at www.hertscam.org.uk. More information about the thinking that underpins the MEd programme is available at www.teacherleadership.org.uk. A teacher in a special school explains his strategy for culture change to a fellow MEd participant. A secondary school teacher on the MEd discusses her development project with a senior leader in a primary school. Contents of this leaflet Overview p.1 Rationale for the programme p.1 Structure of the programme p.2 Programme content p.2 Vision of teaching and learning p.3 Programme team p.4 Participation / commitment p.4 University partner p.5 Application process p.5 Financial matters p.6 International Teacher Leadership p.6
Overview The HertsCam MEd in Leading Teaching and Learning is a two-year, part-time masters programme beginning in September 2015. It is designed to support the development of practice in schools by enabling participants to become effective agents of change. The MEd programme is part of the HertsCam Network which is dedicated to building professional knowledge by providing opportunities to engage in dissemination, critical discussion and collaboration. This networking activity has an international dimension through sister networks in more than 15 countries. Rationale for the programme The HertsCam MEd programme is part of a wider strategy reflected in the HertsCam Network s charitable objects: To advance education for the public benefit through the provision of programmes for teachers to improve the quality of education in schools. The programme is designed to enable teachers and other education professionals, regardless of status or position, to enhance their moral purpose and develop their leadership capacity. It draws on the tradition of non-positional teacher leadership (Frost, 2014) and teacher-led development work (Frost & Durrant, 2003; Frost, 2013) in which it is assumed that change and improvement can be achieved through well-planned, time-bounded development projects. It is assumed that good development projects: start with the concerns identified by teachers themselves are the subject of consultation and negotiation in the institutional context are informed by scholarship involving relevant literatures and knowledge domains feature collaborative processes of reflection, evaluation, dialogue It is also assumed that professional knowledge in the education system is built when accounts of development work are shared within networking scenarios and subject to the critical friendship of peers. 1 A seminar at the HertsCam Annual Conference
Structure of the programme The MEd programme comprises four sequential modules. Module 1: The analysis of institutional contexts for development work (30 credits) This module enables participants to engage in an initial exploration of their professional context in order to negotiate an agenda for practice development. This analysis will be illuminated by relevant literatures and conceptual frameworks introduced in the programme sessions. Module 2: Improving teaching and learning: exploring starting points for development (30 credits) This module enables participants to explore the nature of pedagogy and examine in depth a particular aspect of professional practice drawing on relevant literatures and conceptual frameworks introduced in the programme sessions. Module 3 Planning development project: project design (60 credits) This module enables participants to design and plan a development project. This involves the clarification of the focus of the project, analysis of the organisational context and the establishing of collaborative relationships on which leadership of the project will depend. Module 4 Leading a development project (60 credits) This module enables participants to lead a development project that makes a difference to the quality of teaching and learning in the school or relevant setting. Critical reflection and the writing of a final report will contribute to our understanding of the leadership of change in organisations. Programme content The programme is underpinned by a Topic Framework which helps participants to plan their development work and make sense of it as it unfolds and after it has reached a conclusion. The framework is organised under four headings and summarised below. Leadership and professionality: This group of topics is concerned with leadership and includes the consideration of teacher professionality and teacher leadership, the role of the teacher in leading change and building professional knowledge through the leadership of development work. Organisations and change: This group of topics is concerned with schools as organisations especially in relation to the challenge of innovation and change. Included here is consideration of the organisational structures and processes, the idea of professional learning community and factors such as governance and accountability. Pedagogy: This group of topics is concerned with pedagogy and includes exploration of the nature of learning and the variations that we encounter in learners. The contexts of curriculum policy and schools as learning communities are examined. Project design: This group of topics supports the design of development projects. Here the focus is on project management and impact. Included also is consideration of tools for practice development, including those which scaffold reflection and deliberation, and for inquiry. 2
Our vision of teaching and learning The programme is designed to enable participants to make a difference. The approach to teaching and learning is therefore facilitative. The programme is evaluated according to the pedagogic principles set out below. Our approach to teaching and learning will be characterised by: 1. the cultivation of moral purpose as a dimension of extended professionality 2. enabling the development of professional practice through the design and leadership of development projects 3. scaffolding the development of a learning community in which enhanced social capital allows critical friendship to flourish 4. enabling reflection on experience and thinking through participation in dialogic activities 5. building the capacity for critical reflection and narrative writing in which scholarship illuminates problem solving in professional contexts 6. facilitation and support through the use of discursive and conceptual tools that deepen understanding of themes relevant to the development of educational practice 7. building professional knowledge and fostering mutual inspiration through the organisation of networking and opportunities for international engagement In summary, the dominant approach to teaching and learning on the HertsCam MEd is to enable participants to lead development work in their schools and to provide opportunities for them to discuss their projects with other programme participants and a wider range of colleagues at Network Events. Taught sessions enable the teaching team to scaffold and enrich the discussion with reference to relevant conceptual frameworks, literatures and knowledge domains. 3
The programme team The teaching team comprises experienced scholar practitioners who are all graduates of the HertsCam masters programme and hold senior posts in secondary or primary schools. In 2015-16, the programme will be coordinated by Val Hill, Assistant Headteacher at Birchwood High School. Additional team members include: Sheila Ball, Vice Principal, Aspire Academy Tracy Gaiteri, Headteacher, Wormley Primary School Clare Herbert, Headteacher, Peartree Primary School Sarah Lightfoot, Early Years Consultant Jo Mylles, Deputy Headteacher, Sir John Lawes School Paul Rose, Assistant Headteacher, John Henry Newman Catholic School Val Hill speaking at the Annual Conference Members of the team work collaboratively to teach the programme and provide one-to-one supervision. Participation / commitment The award of the degree depends on full participation in the programme and successful completion of all assignments. The programme: This extends over a period of 2 academic years or 6 terms. During each term participants are required to take part in: a Residential Conference (9.00am Friday 2.00pm Saturday) four twilight sessions (4.30-7.30pm) on Tuesdays at a Hertfordshire school one HertsCam Network Event held at various schools in the region An additional requirement is participation in the HertsCam Annual Conference normally held in June. Assignments: In Year 1 participants must submit two assignments for assessment. There will also be nonassessed formative assignments. At the beginning of Year 2 participants must submit a portfolio of papers which are evidence adequate of project design and at the end of the year a substantial report which accounts for the leadership of a development project. 4
Our University partner Full participation in the programme and successful submission of the required assignments leads to the award of the MEd Leading Teaching and Learning by the University of Hertfordshire (subject to validation). Participants in the HertsCam masters programme will become enrolled as students of the University of Hertfordshire and will enjoy the benefits and privileges such as access to sports facilities, library and online resources that other UH students are entitled to. Residential conferences will be held close to the De Havilland Campus where the School of Education is housed. This provides easy access to the Learning Resources Centre on that site. More information about the facilities at the University of Hertfordshire can be found at this site: http://www.herts.ac.uk/university-life The application process Applications are welcome from education professionals including teachers, senior leaders, teaching assistants, local authority advisers, consultants, school librarians and others working in educational settings. Application forms must be completed and sent by email to the HertsCam Network Manager: Viv Wearing: vwearing@hertscamnetwork.org.uk Alternatively, completed application forms can be posted to: Viv Wearing HertsCam Network, 1st Floor Venture House 6 Silver Court, Watchmead Welwyn Garden City Herts. AL7 1TS Applicants will be invited for interview provided their application forms indicate the potential to fulfil the selection criteria. Interviews will be held in June 2015 at a number of convenient locations. Viv Wearing HertsCam Manager 5
Financial matters Participants will be charged a fee of 2,900 per annum. This covers the costs of: tuition and supervision catering at residential conferences, twilight sessions and network events overnight accommodation at residential conferences graduation ceremony network subscription access to University of Hertfordshire s facilities The fee for 2015-16 must be paid before the start of the programme - 25 th September. HertsCam may be in a position to offer bursaries to partially offset the fees. HertsCam and International Teacher Leadership HertsCam has attracted attention from around the world. Its approach to practice development has been seen by many as an attractive alternative to top-down reform. Since the launch of the International Teacher Leadership initiative in 2008, there have been many opportunities for members of HertsCam to participate in networking events in other countries. In 2012-13 a HertsCam group participated in a network event in Fruska Gora in Serbia involving teachers from nine countries. Another group went to Sarajevo for a similar event. In 2014 a group from HertsCam visited Braga in Portugal to participate in a teachers network event. New teacher leadership programmes inspired by HertsCam have recently been launched in Palestine and Egypt. HertsCam expedition to Braga References Frost, D. (2013) Teacher-led development work: a methodology for building professional knowledge, HertsCam Occasional Papers April 2013, HertsCam Publications, www.hertscam.org.uk. Frost, D. (ed.) (2014) Transforming Education Through Teacher Leadership. Cambridge: LfL the Cambridge Network. Frost, D. and Durrant, J. (2003) Teacher Leadership: Rationale, Strategy and Impact, School Leadership and Management, 23 (2) pp 173-186 6