Welcome to the second series of iNet online conferences. I am pleased to welcome all delegates to the second series of online conferences organised by iNet - the international arm of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The first series of conferences focused on student voice, leadership, learning to learn and new technologies. The conferences attracted some 40,000 delegates, who provided stimulating comments in response to a number of high quality papers. The papers from these conferences are archived and may be found at: http://www.ssat-inet.net/olc/default.aspx. The conference papers can be found through clicking on each of the themes located in the left-hand side menu.”

We are confident that the second series of online conferences will also provide stimulating workshop and supporting papers from educators and academics from around the world. The themes are:

• Curriculum
• Advice and guidance
• Workforce development
• Coaching and mentoring

The success of the conferences is dependent on the contributions from all delegates - we are hoping for lively debate that challenges us to look at our practice.

We are always looking for new contributors to the writing of papers — if you are interested in doing so, please contact Debra Brydon at brydon@cybertext.net.au.

Thank you to all participants - enjoy the conferences.

Sue Williamson

Director of Leadership and Affiliation Networks

 

The agenda for personalising learning and deep support for deep learning (for example, Hargreaves, 2006) lends itself very clearly to the literature on coaching leadership and building mentoring relationships. Coaching and mentoring can lead to the building of leadership capacity for educational improvement because, once leaders have experienced being coached and have developed effective skills in working with their adult colleagues, they know the experience and power of a deep learning relationship. They can then more easily recognise the need to build this depth of relationship and the personalising of learning between themselves and students, and can work in new ways in developing a learning community.

Being responsible for one’s own development to provide more effective learning experiences for young people is perhaps the most important quality that coaching and mentoring can develop. So often in education, those who are young (and those who are older!) are told what to do, how to do it, and then how well they have done it. No wonder many in education have forgotten how to think! Effective coaching and mentoring should place the responsibility for self-assessment, growth and accountability back in the hands of the learner (teacher or student). Teachers who have worked through an effective coaching and mentoring programme talk of how their classroom interactions have changed as their role has moved from ‘teacher to coach’ and hence, how they have become the facilitator of a learning process with a focus on student achievement (Robertson, 2005).

Drawing on learning experiences and building on prior experiences and knowledge assist with the construction of new learning. This type of professional leadership as learning requires:

• relational trust, in order to achieve a depth of sharing and risk-taking;
• respect and regard, for different ways of working and thinking;
• reciprocity, a two-way learning process, where the coach or mentor gains equally from the process;
• reflection on reality, in action, on action and for future action;
• reflexivity, which leads to the development of new structures for leaders to work in new ways, by being influenced by the process.

Coaching and mentoring also provides opportunities for affirmation and validation of practice, which are important in leadership development. The self-esteem of the leader/teacher, as with any learner, is important, and any form of professional critique should have a careful balance of positive and negative evaluative feedback, which must always be preceded by self-assessment. Learners need to feel confident to actively experiment with different and innovative concepts and ideas. This experimentation with new ideas will have been based on the learning from reflection on previous experience and the critical reflection following that reflection, established through the coaching or mentoring process. Reflective practitioners, through coaching and mentoring, can then act with a degree of confidence in new situations, as they make informed decisions about their actions. Coaching and mentoring with a professional partner will assist leaders to be reflective in action, on action and for future action, which results in a knowledge of practice.

Some starter questions for discussion

Some of the key questions this conference seeks to discuss are listed below:

• How might coaching and mentoring influence the learning relationships between teachers and students in the 21st century?
• What impact on responsibility and accountability for student achievement might coaching and mentoring have?
• What skills and protocols need to be in place for an effective coaching and mentoring process?
• How might coaching and mentoring develop creativity and critical thinking?
• What are the implications of ‘personalising learning’ through coaching and mentoring, on curriculum planning and delivery?

Educators from all countries outside the United Kingdom are especially invited to describe coaching and mentoring experiences in their own country, as they take part in the online discussions. Participants are also welcome to address any, or all, of the key questions above. Online discussion contributions from all countries, from Chile, South Africa, the Netherlands, China, New Zealand, England, Malaysia, Hong Kong to Australia, and many others, are eagerly sought.

This conference seeks to recognise the importance of building deep relationships in professional development, leadership and learning. It offers the opportunity for school leaders and educators to dialogue around the theme of coaching and mentoring and focus on key papers and questions that have been written to stimulate discussion and debate.

References

Hargreaves, D. (2006). Personalising Learning. England: Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.
Robertson, J. (2005). Coaching Leadership: Building educational leadership capacity through coaching partnerships. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research Press.

Associate Professor Jan Robertson
University of Waikato
Hamilton, New Zealand

Welcome to the fourth, and last, of the Series 2 iNet online conferences. This week we are focusing on ‘The 24/7 School: Deep Support and Mentoring and Coaching'. We are fortunate enough to have secured over 30 papers on this topic.

A warm thank you to those who invested their precious spare time writing a paper for education colleagues around the world. From the rest of us, please know that your time and reflective thought is most appreciated. Thank you also to our Online Discussion Hosts, for their advance preparation and the time they will give to leading our discussions this week.

There are too many excellent papers for me to mention all of them individually. However, be assured that this is going to be a fantastic week.

Please create the time in your week to join us in our daily (24 hours a day) online discussions. They are a central feature of this professional development opportunity. Reading the papers is only just a start. If you didn't have time to write a paper but you wish to share your ideas about this topic, please share them with us in this forum.

Professional sharing is vital to getting the most you can out of these online conferences. Please, after reading some of the papers each day, express your opinion, ask a few questions, and share your own knowledge with other educators. In this way, we can all say ‘thank you' to those who spent many hours of their precious spare time preparing a paper.

In response to the demand from educators to contextualise the online conference discussions, our discussion on mentoring and coaching this week will be discussed in the context of 24/7 schooling.

The main conference theme will be mentoring and coaching, and papers from a range of authors will highlight the excellent work being done in this area. In addition to this, a separate strand to the conference will run, which will place mentoring and coaching in a context that allows us to think more freely about future schooling and education in the 21st century.

Unless we understand the future agenda of 24/7 schooling and a form of learning that is unconstrained by time and place, we are in danger of replicating existing models, rather than transforming them.

Along with discussions on the mentoring and coaching papers, there will also be the following strands:

• The Challenge: written by Sue Williamson, Director of Leadership and Affiliation Networks, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust;
• Principals' Perspectives - a selection of papers written by principals on the implications of 24/7 schooling. What does this really mean for a school?;
• How do we make this happen? A set of questions to encourage debate.

This is the final Series 2 conference and details of the next series will be published shortly.

I look forward to meeting all of you online this week!

Debra Brydon
iNet Online Conference Manager
brydon@cybertext.net.au