Task Description: Plan for an intervention – synthesising and evaluating leading practice and praxis for socially just purposes in relation to your award major (3000 – 3500 words).
Rationale
This task draws together the learning in weeks 1 to 12 and asks you to apply your learning to a current situation in your award major. This is a complex task which requires you to draw on a range of academic readings as well as data from your own organisation in order to plan an intervention for a select group of students in your environment with diminished learning/social outcomes. All five steps below need to be completed.
Task
Your educational workplace has been increasingly concerned about a group of learners who are consistently displaying diminished learning and/or social outcomes. The executive and all staff have agreed that a planned, strategic intervention to support these learners need to be trialed. You have been given the task of leading this intervention. The 5 steps in undertaking this task are detailed in the below box.
In this assignment, you will be required to draw on (i) educational leadership theories and research covered in weeks 1 to 13, in particular in regard to the social justice implications of leading learning and change; and (ii) specific literature and resources drawn from your award major field.
Additional Information
Step One:
Select a group of learners from your current learning environment and in relation to your award major who are
experiencing diminished learning and/or social outcomes and whom you feel would benefit from a planned intervention in order to enhance their academic and/or social outcomes.
Please select from an equity group such as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, those with disabilities or special needs, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those from an ethnic group other than Anglo-Australian, rurality, gender.
NOTE: If you are doing an educational leadership award major, then select learners from a learning area in which you have the most background and knowledge.
Step Two:
Explain and justify why you have selected this group. As part of your justification/explanation:
- clearly describe the learning context/environment of the award major and overall educational organisation in which you work;
- detail the evidence available that leads you to believe that this group is experiencing diminished social/learning outcomes in your award major (evidence should be drawn from a variety of sources including information such as the teacher assessments, external tests, attendance records, counsellor/incident reports, external reviews, annual reports of your organisation etcetera).
NOTE: For ethical reasons, all evidence needs to be sufficiently general so that the anonymity of the learners, other personnel, your organisation, and any other identifying details are preserved. In other words, we must not be able to identify the organisation, learners or other participants. (approximately 500 words)
Step Three
Drawing on scholarly readings as well as your own observations, identify a program that has had success in improving this group’s social and/or academic outcomes in your award major area. Note the key reasons for its success, along with any pitfalls that you need to be aware of. In particular, critically analyse the role of educational
leadership (positional and informal) in its success, using the readings and literature as evidence to support your case (approximately 500 words).
Step Four
Plan an intervention for your identified group of learners. In your plan you will need to:
provide a brief rationale for your intervention (a lengthier rationale is to be provided in step five below); identified the key stakeholders who would be involved in a process of intervention and explain why you have selected these groups and stakeholders; discuss what policies at the local/State/province level may be relevant to the planned intervention and why; identify the leadership challenges to be met; detail what actions need to be taken to meet these challenges; formulate a data collection plan that includes a range of evidence; and include an evaluation strategy for the program (approximately 1200 words)
Step Five
Argue a case for your intervention, drawing on your knowledge and understanding of educational leadership theories and research covered in weeks 1 to 13, and in particular, leadership for social justice, to substantiate your case. In your rationale, be sure to: draw on an appropriate theoretical leadership for social justice lens to argue your case for intervention; point out the strengths and potential pitfalls in your proposed intervention; note how you will balance the use of data collection with the needs of learners and educators in ways that draw on the assets of the learners, rather than casting them in a deficit position; and conclude with a discussion of the role of leading for social justice in the planned intervention (approximately 800 words).
