Leadership for creativity

Abstract

Educational systems, schools and school leaders are caught in the global crossfire between two sets of political expectations: students’ academic outcomes must be at the top of league tables, and students must acquire excellent innovative and creative competencies. It is timely to reflect on the effect of this dilemma. We need to find out if basic skills and knowledge, needed for the tests, are taught and learned in the same ways as creativity competencies. This encompasses reflections on learning and teaching in our schools. But forming the context for this are the ways education is organized in schools, so there is a need to develop a comprehensive perspective on school development in contemporary societies. Empirical case study data from successful Danish schools is analysed in order to find out if there is any room for manoeuvre among managers and teachers, and thus for constructing school life in ways that support the students in acquiring both democratic and creative competencies and academic competencies.

Notes

1. ISSPP with Christopher Day, University of Nottingham (England); Ken Leithwood, OISE/University of Toronto (Canada); Jorunn Møller, University of Oslo, (Norway); Olof Johansson, University of Umea (Sweden); David Gurr, University of Melbourne (Australia); and Bill Mulford, University of Tasmania (Australia) (Day & Leithwood, 2007).

2. (Foucault, 1972, 1991).

3. For instance, WTO: World Trade Organization, OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, GATT: General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, IMF: International Monetary Fund, EU: European Union (especially the Inner Market and the Europe 2020 statement), and the World Bank.

4. From the Danish part (with John B. Krejsler and Klaus Kasper Kofod) of the ISSPP.

5. One was situated in a very affluent area (the North School), the second was a middle-class school (the Commuter School) and the third a suburban school (the West School). They were all Danish state schools (primary and lower secondary schools, grades 1–9), of approximately the same size (500–700 students and 70–80 teachers).

6. With the purpose of school being changed explicitly from particiaptory democracy in favour of employability and readiness for further education.

7. The data is taken from the Danish part (with John B. Krejsler and Klaus Kasper Kofod) of the ISSPP (Moos, Krejsler, & Kofod, 2007).

8. The general agreement on working conditions between the local government and the teachers’ union, as confirmed in (Finances, 1999).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lejf Moos

Lejf Moos is a professor in the Department of Education (DPU) at Aarhus University, Copenhagen, NV. Email: [email protected]. He has for many years taught and studied education, school development and school leadership in Danish and international research projects, like the International Successful School Principal Project. On the basis of the research, he has produced a number of books and journal articles in Danish and in English. He is also the president of the ‘European Educational Research.