Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration

Welcome to EDU E825 Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration, a 20-credit, post-graduate level course. The course materials have been adapted from the course E856 of the same name, which is a module in the MEd/MA in Education programmes at the Open University in the United Kingdom.

Aims and learning outcomes

Aims

This course aims to develop your knowledge of leadership and changing contextual factors influencing educational organizations, and to help you apply this knowledge in developing your professional thinking and practice in educational leadership.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• synthesize, analyse and evaluate different theories in educational leadership;
• apply theories to enhance effective management for organizational development;
• critically review changes in different contexts, and reflect on personal experience in leadership and management;
• design strategies to improve practice in providing leadership and managing change in light of current theories; and
• implement strategic planning for sustainable school development.

Course themes and structure: A brief overview

EDU E825 covers a range of themes related to educational leadership and management, the four most important of which are:

• leadership in context (Theme 1, comprising Units 2–4);
• leadership theories and values (Theme 2, comprising Units 5–8);
• strategic leadership and managing change (Theme 3, comprising Units 9–12); and
• partnership and collaboration (Theme 4, comprising Units 13–16).

Five key questions, which are interrelated, are used as organizing devices to structure the Study Guide:

• Where? — the contexts of and influences on educational leadership and management (covered in Theme 1 and associated readings)
• What? — the meanings of educational leadership and management (covered in Theme 2 and associated readings)
• Why? — questions related to values, ethics, and educational purposes (covered in Theme 2 and associated readings)
• How? — the major tasks of educational leaders, focusing on changes and strategic concerns (covered in Theme 3 and associated readings)
• Who? — establishing successful partnerships and networks (covered in Theme 4 and associated readings)

Finally, Unit 17 helps you review some of the key ideas and contrasting perspectives in leadership and management you will have encountered in EDU E825.

Throughout the course, frequent tasks and activities related to the AV materials and readings ask you to relate the ideas raised to your own organizational setting, or to one with which you are familiar.

The course materials for EDU E825 consist of this Course Guide and Project and Assignment Guide, a Study Guide, a course reader, numerous audio-visual (AV) materials, and journal articles, many of which are chosen as readings for Hong Kong students. All of these materials will be provided by HKMU.

Course Guide

This Course Guide tells you briefly what the course is about, what it contains, and how you can work your way through it. It also gives you information about your tutor and the course's face-to-face sessions, the Online Learning Environment, and assessment. Remember to refer to this Course Guide throughout the course to help clarify important points about EDU E825.

Study Guide

The Study Guide leads you through the course, indicating when to use the other course materials (described below). As you work through the Study Guide, you will come across activities designed to deepen your understanding of the themes and issues in the course. Sometimes these activities ask you to relate the issues you have been studying to your own experience of, and involvement in, educational leadership and management. More often they ask you to read chapters from the course reader or journal articles. Within the activities, there are questions that will help you think critically about your own experience and/or about the content of the readings.

We strongly recommend that you keep a learning journal as you work through the course, as a vehicle for reflecting on the relationship between your thinking and practice as a leader/ manager. (A detailed account of the value and nature of the journal is included in the Project and Assignment Guide.)

Other materials

Course reader

There is one course reader (Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration) which was edited by academics at the Open University of the United Kingdom. It will be provided to you as a PDF document located in the course's study resources section on the OLE. It contains specially selected papers by leading writers in the field of educational leadership, drawing on UK-based and international studies.

You are encouraged to expand your reading, particularly when you are developing your project. The references cited in the Study Guide will provide useful sources.

Audio-visual materials

The AV materials for this course come from a range of international settings. The differences and similarities between the leadership contexts will give you rich data to use in your assignments and for discussion.

To make the most of the educational case studies, the online activities will sometimes require you to watch a video clip — a short, selected piece from one of the films — and then comment on it or consider a particular aspect of it. You will find that all AV materials for EDU E825 are embedded in the iBookcase version of the study materials, and you will simply need to press the play button.

Readings

In addition to the chapters from the course reader, you will be asked to read articles from education journals.

The course team has chosen a number of readings specifically aimed at Hong Kong students in an effort to relate some of the course themes directly to the Hong Kong context. You should read the readings at the points indicated in the Study Guide.

All readings for EDU E825 will be available via the HKMU E-Library and/or the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Project and Assignment Guide

The Project and Assignment Guide provides an overview of the nature and requirements of course assignments, including the Project Report. You should scan this Project and Assignment Guide before beginning your detailed study of EDU E825, and refer to it throughout your study of the course.

Course organizer

The following table suggests the amount of time it may take to complete each section of the course. However, we all have our own pace of learning and approaches to study, so this schedule is only a guide. You can adjust it to fit your own personal needs more closely.

The important point is to plan your study schedule carefully. The estimated time, on average, that you need to spend on this course is about 15 hours per week. This estimate includes time for reading the Study Guide and all associated readings, completing the activities, writing your assignments, attending tutorials and day schools, and reviewing the study material.

To supplement your self-study, there are 12 two-hour tutorials, two three-hour day schools, and two surgeries throughout the year. In addition, at the beginning of the semester, there will be a student orientation and a talk on the HKMU Library for new students.

In the tutorials and day schools, your tutor will answer your questions about any problems you might face during self-study and hold other activities, such as small-group discussions, to facilitate your learning. Surgeries are sessions in which you can consult a tutor individually. In addition to these face-to-face sessions, you can also have telephone tutoring with your tutor.

As soon as your tutorial group is confirmed, we will give you the name and phone number of your tutor and notify you of the dates, times, and location of the face-to-face sessions. You should prepare for each session and participate actively in these sessions. You are strongly recommended to go through the relevant parts of the Study Guide and associated readings before each tutorial or day school. All face-to-face sessions are optional, but attendance and active participation in them will enhance your learning.

In addition to supporting you through the face-to-face sessions and telephone tutoring, your tutor marks and comments on your assignments, and keeps a watch on your progress. When your assignments are returned, pay particular attention to the comments your tutor has written on the assignment.

Online Learning Environment

HKMU has developed a web-based online delivery system — the Online Learning Environment (OLE) — to enhance students' learning experience. It creates an interactive learning environment for communication among students, tutors and the Course Coordinator. For EDU E825, you can access the following components online:

• News — mostly letters to students
• Course materials — course reader, AV materials, web links and other readings
• Interactive tools — course discussion board
• Schedules — course schedules, calendar

The following is the recommended strategy for working through the course.

1. Organize a study schedule with reference to the section 'Course organizer' in this Course Guide and the Study Schedule. Note the time suggested for you to spend on each theme and how the assignments relate to the themes. You will receive details of the face- to-face sessions and, later in the year, your examination. Once you have decided on your own study schedule, do everything you can to stick to it. The major reason that students fail is that they fall behind with their course work and fail to submit their assignments. If you get into difficulties with your schedule, please let your tutor know before it is too late to help you.
2. Work on your course by reading through the Study Guide. When you come to an activity, follow the instructions and read the assigned reading(s) and/or answer the questions and post your ideas on the OLE discussion board. Then return to the Study Guide. You will also be directed to the relevant readings for Hong Kong students.
3. In reading materials from the readers, try to focus on the main points and avoid getting bogged down in the details. Also, read carefully any commentaries in the Study Guide on the readings to guide or reinforce your learning.
4. Use the Project and Assignment Guide to identify the pieces of work you are required to submit for assessment during the course of the year, and to ensure that your pattern of study will allow you to meet the criteria listed there.
5. Review your work at the end of each session. When you have completed Assignment 4, review the course and prepare yourself for the final examination. Read the Specimen Examination Paper, which you will receive later in the year, to see what kinds of questions you will be expected to answer in the examination.

EDU E825 has two methods of assessing your progress: continuous assessment (assignments), and a final examination.

Assignments

There are four assignments for continuous assessment purposes in the course. All assignments will be counted; the assignments will contribute 60% to your final course result.

The assignment details for this course — such as the weighting of each assignment, suggestions on how to approach them, and guidelines on their submission — can be found in the Project and Assignment Guide.

Please note that participation in web activities and the use of online communication are an important, integral component of EDU E825. You are required to show evidence of individual/group web work or online discussion in your assignments (see the Project and Assignment Guide for details).

Examination

The examination for EDU E825 will last for three hours and have a value of 40% of the total course result. You might find it useful to review also your marked assignments and the comments on them in addition to the course materials before the examination.

Later, you will be provided with a Specimen Examination Paper that is similar in format to the final examination, although the questions will be different.

To earn a pass for the course, you must pass in both the continuous assessment (assignments) and the final examination.

We hope that studying EDU E825 Educational Leadership: Context, Strategy and Collaboration will help you to develop your knowledge and understanding of educational leadership and management, and to build up and enhance your own practices on the basis of critical reflection on literature in the area.

We wish you every success in the course.

Chan Chi-wai received his BSocSc(Hons), PgDipEd, MEd, MA, and EdD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is an Associate Professor of the School of Education and Languages at Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU). Before joining HKMU, Dr Chan was the principal of a secondary school in Hong Kong, and a School Development Officer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has also been a trainer of aspiring primary and secondary school principals and school managers, and has served as the Quality Monitor for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA-Hong Kong) in 2009 and 2015.