Turning the Rural School Teacher into an Agent of Change,

Innovation and Local Development

Pavlos Koulouris & Sofoklis Sotiriou, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece

NEMED – Network of Multigrade Education Pre-Conference Workshop

2006 EDEN Annual Conference ‘E-Competences For Life, Employment And Innovation:

“E” is more! – E-learning Enabling Education in Evolving Europe’Vienna, Austria, 14-17 June 2006

• Presenting ideas reflected upon within the NEMED Working Group on ‘Society and Cultures’

• ‘Society and Cultures’ is:• Challenging the ideas of isolation and decline of

the remote multigrade school• Investigating ways in which multigrade education

is interweaved with issues relating to the societal and cultural characteristics of the local communities in which multigrade schools operate

• Proposing relevant teacher training and student learning activities for multigrade schools in Europe.

Our focus here• On the multiple leadership roles

which a multigrade school teacher may play as a change agent within the school and the surrounding rural community.

• Region of reference: Greece

Remote small rural schools in Greece

• Providing a valuable service to the nation:– Securing access to education for all

children– Keeping small remote and aging

communities ‘alive’• Albeit not without problems:

• facing the consequences of the socioeconomic gap between urban and rural regions; an aspect of this is the digital divide.

New leadership roles for the rural multigrade school teacher• A crucial role in the development and

implementation of a culture conducive to lifelong learning and innovation, not only in the school, but also beyond it

• Linking school life with the school’s external environment, helping the school interact with its environments creating communities of learning

The prerequisite•‘E-Competences For Life,

Employment And Innovation’– i.e. teacher training in ICT,

innovation, local development…

The result• The teacher recognizes a new role

for themselves:– A change agent catalysing innovation

and development in the school AND the local community

– An innovator turning the waning school into a lively community node supporting lifelong learning for everyone.

A case study• Satellite broadband connectivity is

made available to the school and through it to the local community (RURAL WINGS project):– equal opportunities for lifelong learning– economic and social development – a more democratic access to the

Information Society

The teacher is encouraged:• To turn this into advantage and

opportunity for all• To promote the development of a

new culture among local citizens• To disseminate the new potential

offered by ICTs and encourage its uptake by the local population

Teachers in charge of driving change in the communities

• Diagnosing and understanding the context and stakeholders

• Convincing them and tackling scepticism• Turning the rural school and its

technological infrastructure into a Learning Hub supporting the whole community:– Supporting the community to produce their own

local information and content based services – Offering them lifelong learning opportunities

harmonised with local and individual needs– Eventually, local citizens will be knowledgeable

and willing enough to develop their own further projects.

Multiple roles of the teacher• Already acting probably as the

head of the small school• A prominent member of the

isolated community– Significance and prestige of the

school as one of the few public establishments

Additional informal roles as a leader

• Instructional leader of the school exploring new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning– The teacher can explore the opportunities

offered by new technologies and innovative pedagogical approaches aiming to improve the teaching and learning that takes place in the remote small rural school, thus having an impact on the quality of learning and the results of the school.

Additional informal roles as a leader

• Developer of links and synergies between the school, the community and maybe other schools in the area

• Facilitator of communities of learning in, around, and outside, the school

• Manager of change in an informal local ‘reform’

• Former and implementer of innovation matching local needs.

Questions arising• The need for corresponding

professional development:– e-competences– pedagogical competences– local development knowledge– innovation generation and change

management skills

Questions arising• The need for corresponding professional

development; focus point:• The change agent:

– Challenges the status quo by comparing it to an ideal or a vision of change

– Defines and initiates change; translates the vision into a specific change initiative

– Accepts, communicates and defends the need for change.

– Leads and manages change– Understands the cultural dynamics of change.

Questions arising• Possible conflicts with the provisions of a

highly centralized educational system • The teacher is encouraged to initiate and

implement an informal local ‘educational reform’

• However little decentralisation and autonomy of school units a source of tension?

• Possible conflicts between formal and informal leadership roles of the teacher.