In 2017, VVOB set its five-year goal for the Rwandan education system: ‘Leading, Teaching and Learning Together’. In partnership with other valued education institutions in the country, such as the University of Rwanda – College of Education and Rwanda Education Board, VVOB offers relevant professional development opportunities to primary and secondary school leaders, mentor teachers and science teachers. They, in turn, then provide their learners with the best learning conditions. In secondary schools, professional development programmes are part of the Mastercard Foundation’s Leaders in Teaching initiative.
To stimulate lifelong learning among teachers and school leaders, they partake in professional learning communities (PLCs) to exchange experiences about and solutions for shared challenges. Head teacher Father Theophile Harerimana and PLC facilitator Claudine Niyonagira share how VVOB’s support to their daily activities has transformed their leadership skills.
Vital involvement
International research agrees on the importance of quality leadership in schools. School leaders play a vital role in creating the conditions necessary for teachers to teach effectively, and for learners to learn deeply. A school can only improve the quality of its education if it is headed by a competent and responsible school leader. That’s why VVOB invests heavily in their continuous professional development (CPD) in Rwanda.
Father Harerimana is the leader of a primary school in Eastern Province that caters to roughly 3,000 students and a teacher’s staff of fifty. He is one of hundreds of school leaders to have successfully completed VVOB’s diploma course in Effective School Leadership: “Even though I had been leading the school for a while already, I had never been trained in doing so. I am definitely more organised now, and have been incorporating some crucial aspects of school leadership in my daily work. For example, I used to organise workshops to develop a school improvement plan without involving important partners such as those of the school feeding programme. They need to be on board the planning meetings too if they are to really understand the school’s challenges.”
True participation
VVOB’s ultimate goal of investing in CPD programmes is, of course, the improvement of learning outcomes. School leaders not only have to involve other partners, but their students too, in every step and aspect of school life. Father Harerimana already listened to students when they expressed their educational needs, but did not really give true student participation any thought. The course in Effective School Leadership taught him the importance of building relationships – both inside and outside of the school community:
“My meetings with students were already in place, but it was not until the course that I really understood their relevance. Students have very valuable ideas and feedback for the process of improving our school. I lead people who reason and who challenge me. Just like parents and teachers do. I would be apprehensive about my meetings with them: those meetings were the time and place for issues to be raised. I would plan my answers in advance. But now I consider those meetings as a platform for sharing ideas, discussing issues and identifying solutions together.”
Bridging the gap with PLCs
VVOB’s experience has shown that CPD trainings alone are insufficient for real and sustainable change to occur. Even effective trainings need to be complemented by strategies that provide continuous support after they have finished, and that involve the trainees themselves. Professional learning communities are a proven effective instrument that bridge the gap between the theory of a CPD training and putting that theory into practice. They provide the opportunity for participants to break out of their professional isolation, create a forum for sharing and even increase the levels of job satisfaction and motivation.
VVOB works with local government staff called sector education officers (SEOs) to organise PLCs for school leaders in their jurisdictions. SEOs benefit from a training in Educational Mentorship and Coaching that enables them to support their participants in leading their schools effectively. Ms Claudine Niyonagira has been an SEO in Eastern Province since 2012, but she did not learn about PLCs until she enrolled in the certificate course in 2018: “I already had meetings with school leaders, but PLCs are something different. They are more focussed and interactive. You meet, discuss issues and identify a way forward together.”
Listening, not imposing
The training opened Ms Niyonagira’s eyes about her attitude towards and relationship with school leaders: “SEOs are supposed to mentor and coach school leaders, but I started to understand that that was not what I was doing. I was coaching them in a rather disorganised way. That did not help school leaders to find a solution to the problems they were facing – at all. We, SEOs, were giving out instructions: ‘You did this wrong, you should do it this way…’. That is how I would talk to a school leader. That is not coaching. I learnt how I can facilitate school leaders to identify their own solutions to problems, without necessarily imposing mine.”
“Our old approach was affecting schools’ improvement processes. We imposed measures and instructions on school leaders and asked them to implement them without their input. Now, I listen to school leaders. Oftentimes, school leaders already have the solutions to the problems they face, but someone just needs to guide him or her through the process of understanding and analysing the situation until the solution is identified. I used to be like a policewoman. But now I understand that educational coaching is the best approach to improving school leadership overall.”
School leaders inspire
Ms Niyonagira believes that PLCs have increased collaboration with and among school leaders. They share good practices and lessons learnt in the PLC, so their peers can use similar approaches to deal with the issues in their own schools. She shares a good example: “During one PLC in my sector, a school leader shared that the learning objectives were not being met in his school. The students were unable to read or write Kinyarwanda, the local language, after completing the first year of primary education. But this is a precondition to be able to follow the other subjects. Coincidentally, other school leaders had faced the same issue and gave advice about how to deal with it: identify the struggling students and organise additional classes so they can catch up. The first school leader was inspired and addressed the problem in a similar way.”
Evidence-based programming
VVOB and partners developed a diploma course ‘Effective School Leadership’ and regularly organise professional learning communities (PLCs) with facilitation from sector education officers (SEOs). The aim is to support (deputy) school leaders to develop and/or strengthen the competences needed to create a stimulating and supportive school environment that enables effective teaching and
facilitates deep learning.
To assess the delivery, relevance, impact and sustainability of the diploma course and complementary PLCs, VVOB has set up a large-scale mixed methods study together with The Research Base. Key questions include: (1) What, if any, is the impact of the diploma course and/or PLCs on (deputy) school leaders’ competencies in leading their schools effectively? (2) What, if any, is the impact of the course on SEOs’ competencies in coaching school leaders in PLCs? (3) What are the challenges for implementation? How can they be addressed?
By mid-2019, a baseline study will have been conducted and analysed among a sample of approximately 265 schools, including 168 schools of which the school leader is currently enrolled in the diploma course and 97 unexposed schools. Throughout the course of the programme, this sample will be followed over time, and a mid- and end-line study conducted.
This story is featured in our 2018 annual report 'Unlocking the potential of teachers and school leaders for SDG 4'. Read more stories here.