Lining Up the Ducks: Personalising Education and the Challenges it Poses for a School’s Leadership

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In Australia, Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has encouraged educational institutions and systems to respond to the global movement of personalising learning in ways – both pedagogically and organisationally – that support the diverse personal aspirations of learners.

An evaluation of the leadership structure of a large, regional independent school came at a time when the school was initiating some ideas in relation to personalising learning; ideas that also coincided with innovations that the school had already made with its middle years students. Conducted using focus group discussions and a Web-based survey to explore the ideas further with all staff, in the research, staff members highlighted the challenges and tensions arising from the seemingly constant introduction of innovations without any parallel processes to ensure organisational and curriculum coherency across the school. In this paper, the research design will be described and the responses from staff will be discussed. The paper concludes with a consideration of the organisational and curriculum issues confronting the school’s leadership in order for the school to become the vibrant learning community to which it aspires.

Stream: Educational Leadership and Management

Paper: , Lining Up the Ducks

Kim is Campus Co-ordinator for the Centre for Regional Education at the Albury-Wodonga Campus of La Trobe University, having previously taught in a variety of educational settings that include primary education, physical education, drama, special education, prison education, adult education and Aboriginal education. As well as teaching in pre-service teacher education programs, Kim convenes a number of adult education programs and is the Postgraduate Research Co-ordinator, supervising masters and doctoral candidates. Kim's research interests are in the areas of educational leadership; pedagogy; middle years of schooling, and personalising education.