New Pedagogy, Reflection and Leadership. Seminar 2

INSIGHTS, PERSONAL REFLECTIONS AND COMMITMENTS

In this second seminar with Dr. Shahrokhi we discussed about the first two chapter of the book "Leading in a culture of change" by Michael Fullan. One of the conclusion of the seminar is that leadership is an important trait for teachers who wants to have essential changes in the schools, communities or countries they are. Besides, "leadership is needed for problems that don't have easy answers". So teachers are needed to generate those changes our society requieres. As a matter of fact, the deep reforms depend on us, no on extraordinary people.

A leader is not a crucial person form history or a person who was murdered to give freedom to his/her community. Being a leader doesn't mean being a superhero. We have many leaders around us who inspires others, who gives ideas to confront hard situations in our daily lives, who can guide a team to find out differents ways to solve a problem, different perspectives of something or supports others.  

A leader not necessarily born with that ability. This one can be developed over the years or depend on the circumstances you are going through. Here is when relationships have lot of relevance, since they can find people who join him/her to achieve a goal or to make it easier. "Students don't learn from teachers they don't like"

In brief, good leaders need to be aware of the change is part of the society, develop good relationships, promote knowledge building,  have goals with a moral purpose defined, and be coherent.

One of the moral purposes in education is to make a difference in our students' lives. My personal moral purpose is to make my students aware of they are part of a global citizenship, doors can be open not just in our community but also in other cities or countries and English is a key to open them.

QUOTES FROM THE BOOKS

"The more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become" (p. v)
"Leaders in business and education face similiar challenges -how to cultivate and sustain learning under conditions of complex, rapid change" (p. vii)
"If relationship improves, things get better" (p. 5)