TOOLS, TEAM, TASK: THE BUILDING LEADERS, BUILDING
COMMUNITY PROJECT
Two heads are only better than one when they belong to people
who are working collaboratively. One of a principal’s greatest assets
can be the school’s Indigenous Education Worker (IEW). Likewise,
a switched-on and supportive principal is enormously beneficial for an
IEW.
Harnessing the power of effective principal-IEW partnerships and upskilling
IEWs to help forge closer community connections is the focus of Building
Leaders, Building Community. This is a joint project of Dare to Lead
and Dusseldorp Skills Forum and builds on the work undertaken in the
previous joint project, Same Kids, Same Goals.
One of the first events for the new project was held on Bindal and Wulgurukaba
land in Townsville at the start of June 2008. Eleven participants attended
from the following schools: The Willows State School, Ayr State School,
Garbutt State School, Cranbrook State School, Heatley State School and
Weir State School.
Peter O’Beirne, Dare to Lead Queensland State Coordinator, led
the workshop. It explored the general role of the IEW and the broad concept
of community. However the focus rapidly narrowed, with a close examination
of ‘community’ in the individual school situations.
Representatives from each school identified the strengths and needs
of their own school. The principal-IEW pairs also compared thoughts on
the strengths and gaps in experience/knowledge for each IEW.
These two strands – school needs; IEW strengths and needs – were
then married. Each school identified a project that will be undertaken
and led by the IEW. The requirements of making this project work were
compared to the skillset of the IEW. This process identified areas of
need for upskilling or further training.
“Building Leaders, Building Community is not a deficit model,” Mr
O’Beirne explained. “It is about enhancing skills and experiences
IEWs already possess, building on what you already do, and creating an
opportunity to use these skills.
“This is not about adding on something else that IEWs have to
do; it is about developing the IEW in a collaborative way. It is also
hoped that Building Leaders, Building Community will help the principal
become better connected to the local community.”
A sketch map was made of Programs, Activities, Strategies in each school.
From this list, activities in which the IEW is directly involved were
highlighted; and then activities in which the community is involved were
highlighted.
Aspects of the community were analysed including proportion of Aboriginal
students, Torres Strait Islander students, and both Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students; students from other significant groupings such
as South Sea Islander, Maori, Cook Islander; Elder support; parental
involvement in school through P & C or tuck shop etc; male versus
female involvement. There was a close look at what was working well,
and discussion around preferred scenarios.
For example, Louise Wilkinson, principal of Heatley SS, said that they
would like to ‘soften the edges’ of their school, a term
referring to the difficulties of getting parents and extended family
members through the school gate.
Ray Armit, principal of Cranbrook SS, said that there was good communication
within the school but communication had to be improved between the school
and the community. He also wanted to see an increase in Indigenous perspectives
across the Cranbrook SS curriculum.
It was suggested by Willows SS that they could try profiling students
to assess what their individual strengths are, while all schools said
that they would like to increase Indigenous family involvement.
Each school summarised its proposed project: Volunteer engagement (Weir
SS); Student profiling (Willows PS); More participation (Cranbrook SS);
Elder bank (Heatley SS); Parent/staff relationships (Ayr SS); Training
for Indigenous staff (Garbutt SS). From there, the group looked at the
areas of future learning that all IEWs and projects had in common. Assertiveness
training, effective communication, cultural protocols, and computer skills
including desktop publishing were posited. Collectively, it was determined
that the next session of the project in Townsville will feature assertiveness
training and effective communication. There will be a third and final
meeting of the group later in the year to look at what has been achieved
via the project.
“What I really liked about this workshop was the information and
knowledge I gained around the community and the other schools,” said
David Williams, an IEW from Cranbrook SS. Formerly a truck driver in
Mt Isa, David has had a lifestyle change and started working in the school
two years ago. “It is interesting to look at all the things we
are trying to achieve as a community, not just as a single school. I
want to communicate to our community the benefits of getting involved.
When you look at the targets we are trying to achieve, the perspectives
of our school and the other schools are the same.”
Cranbrook SS principal Ray Armit also found the day valuable. “To
make community connections you have to go in layers,” he said. “The
first layer is employing Indigenous staff. The next layer is to connect
deeper with community. I believe that the structure of an IEW and principal
together works well, and this group was a good working group.”
Patty Burns attended Heatley SS as a child and is now back there as
an IEW. “We want to get more Elders in the school and keep them,” she
said. “We can make this happen because Louise (Wilkinson, principal)
will make sure it happens.” By the time the session had finished
she had jotted down a list of people to approach and ideas for ways in
which Elders might be engaged.
“This is very timely for us because we are going through a process
of reviewing our school’s strategic plan which was instigated two
years ago,” Ms Wilkinson said. “The area I have a strong
agenda for is community partnerships. This dovetails in beautifully.
“I like the process that Peter used – to list programs and
activities, then highlight which involve community and which involve
the IEW. This worked well as a way to identify where are the gaps and
where we can incorporate some parent involvement. It will be interesting
to see how this goes over time and to see how we travel – it is
like a mini action research project. For me, strategically it is great.
We have a lot in common with the other schools.
“I think that the principal working with the IEW is really valuable,” Ms
Wilkinson said. “At the end of the day the quality of programs
in school is reflected in the quality of the relationships between people
who have to work together. If the principal and IEW can’t even
get on, how will you ever get community involved?”
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