Hopefully, this very small idea will develop and grow to become a 'must follow' hashtag for any colleague who is currently working within a leadership role, whether aspiring, middle leader or senior leader, in an educational setting both UK and international.
What is #EdLdrs?
This new chat stream is mainly aimed at school leaders who have a genuine desire to collaborate, share good leadership practice and gradually build up their own PLN (personal learning network) via the Twitter webface. Although primarily intended for leaders in education, leadership related contributions from non-educational backgrounds are very welcome to develop practice.
When will #EdLrds meet?
#EdLdrs will meet 'officially' via Twitter once a week but people can post throughout the week. I am initially proposing Monday 23rd May from 8-9pm (BST) for the first session and will post a poll to the #EdLdrs hashtag to allow people to choose a theme for the discussion.
A leadership poll will allow contributors to have a focus, encourage contributors to open up and talk to others to build up their leadership personal learning networks. I am not proposing that anyone will be an 'expert' in school leadership within this forum but rather to view it as a professional learning network to develop practice through sharing, collaborating and informal conversation.
Why #EdLdrs?
In the context of my initial research findings and also from informal conversations with middle/senior leaders in schools who have participated in my research, a majority have indicated that if such a group existed with a view to collaborate and share practice then they would be interested in taking part. Many talked about not having dedicated time, without interruptions, for 'leadership development' or being 'isolated' from other leaders in other schools and enthused that they would relish the chance to collaborate with other leaders...if only they knew where to meet and find them to be share their expertise, just have a chat or let off steam (respectfully, within a professional context). All posts to this chat stream are intended to be personal thinking of contributing leaders and not affiliated to any organisation or employer.
I anticipate that this group will start off very similarly to the #phdchat forum, a very small number of people joining in for the first few sessions, which may then rapidly increase in numbers contributing each week as word spreads and people start to join in.
My aim in setting up this forum is to bring together aspects of good school leadership practice, a 'blue sky thinking' forum for everyone to share leadership related ideas that work in practice, networking, collaborate on school leadership initiatives, enable people to connect with and find other school leaders who are working on similar projects or just to have an informal chat after a long day with like minded people who just ‘get it’.
Nasima Riazat
Doctoral Researcher - Educational Leadership.
Centre for Research into Education and Educational Technology
The Open University
The Open University
Please comment and let me know your thoughts via the #Edldrs hashtag...is there any interest in such a group? What sorts of school leadership things would you like to discuss with other school leaders e.g. how do leaders make initiatives sustainable in their schools, conducting good meetings, managing workload, addressing issues of accountability without conflict, the changing curriculum etc...
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