The context of this project entitled Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools (CReLES) relates to the increased immigration into countries of Europe with the consequent range of diversity of cultures among students in schools. In line with the current influx of migrants and refugees to Europe and the international Sustainable Development Goal of inclusive and equitable education for all, this project aims to prioritise the inclusive education of migrant students and the school leadership that facilitates that inclusive education. This project focuses on the support and strategies needed in all levels of school leadership in order to facilitate the needs of a diverse multicultural classroom and a diverse multicultural school. The main objective of the project is the enhanced school inclusion of students with a migration background through the identification and dissemination of innovative practice in culturally responsive school leadership, the development of frameworks for the evaluation of culturally responsive leadership as well as the provision of high-quality training resources in the form of leader training and the development of a MOOC for school leaders and those interested stakeholder groups outside of the project. Improving the educational achievement of migrant students can involve a serious, demanding challenge for classroom teachers. In this staff challenge, the exercise of school leadership at all levels of the school is crucial in addressing the needs of staff for professional learning and in providing direction and support for staff. For students with a migration background, the school can be the first place of belonging within a new country and culture. The participants in the project are academic staff from Dublin City University, Ireland; Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria; University of Salamanca, Spain; and Moscow City University in the Federation of Russia. Each partner brings interest, knowledge, experience and infrastructure to the project. Each partner has students with a migration background in their school system and therefore they are interested in school leadership that addresses the inclusion of the migrant students in order to promote academic achievement, language development, and personal development of the migrant students. Each partner has been involved previously in a Strategic Partnership so each knows what the commitment involves. The participant staff from each of the four universities has considerable experience in education, in working with school personnel, and in a range of skills in research methodologies. The four staffs are experienced in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis and have published both nationally and internationally on core issues relevant to the project in the areas of migration studies, leadership, professional learning and school evaluation. Activities will include: - Dissemination of the project through the Project Website - A Comparative Analysis and publication on National and Transnational Policies and supports for Culturally Responsive Leadership and culturally responsive evaluation practices in Schools. - A questionnaire and publication of CReLEs challenges, supports and practice in partner countries - A series of Case Studies on CReLEs in partner countries - A Conceptual Map and publication on CReLEs - An Interim Report summarising: the Comparative Analysis of National and Transnational Policies and supports; Questionnaire, Case Studies and Conceptual Map. - Development and Evaluation of The CReLEs Framework - Development and Evaluation of the CReLEs Learning Environment - Development and Evaluation of the CReLEs Training Programme and Evaluation MOOC - Evaluation of all CReLEs activities and the impact of the project - The Final Report - Multiplier events to highlight, present, evaluate and develop awareness of the outcomes of the project. Evaluation of the project outcomes will be through the collection of quantitative and qualitative data, as the four partner countries will investigate the extent of use and the effectiveness of all outputs. This investigation will seek evidence in terms of frequency of use and evaluative comments on effectiveness in implementing culturally responsive leadership. Evidence of the inclusion of students with a migration background will also be sought in terms of benefits in academic achievement, attendance and participation in schooling. The potential long-term benefits of the project are invested in the sustained availability of the outputs which will provide on-going free access and the availability of publications that provide insight into the theory and practice of culturally responsive leadership. The envisaged outcome is that this project can have a beneficial impact on the school experience of students with a refugee and/or migration background for years to come.
For students with a migration background, the school can be the first place of belonging within a new country and culture. While migrant students are engaged in forming their individual identity, the school is a crucial environment where they reverence their culture of origin and learn the customs and practices of their adopted culture. Their holistic development as a human being is forged during their participation in the whole school community. School leadership is also central to the school ethos, climate, priorities and resourcing that impact on the whole school experience of migrant students: education, sense of community, participation in decision-making, well-being. The overarching objective of the project related to that of: (1) achieving a greater awareness of the challenges and opportuntites for culturally responsive leadership; (2) the enhancement of culturally responsive competencies required of school leaders to enhance the life chances of migration background students. To achieve this objective, the project aimed to develop resources and support strategies needed in school leadership in order to facilitate the needs of a diverse multicultural classroom and a diverse multicultural school. Far reaching what what was intially envisage for the project, this was achieved through: (1) the development of a project web site with narratives, conceptual map, literature review, evidence of impact, and survey and protocols for data collection in the partner languages; (2) the analysis and reporting of National and Transnational Policies and supports for CReLES practices Schools; (3) the systematic analysis and report of international literature on CReLES strategies and supports for Schools; (4) Survey and report of CReLEs practices in Schools; (5) Case Study and report of CReLEs practices in Schools; (6) Development of a CReLEs map; (7) Development of a CReLEs Evaluation Framework; (8) Development of a CReLEs Learning Environment; (9) Development of a CReLEs Training Programme; Development of a CReLEs MOOC; Interim and Final Reports; (10) Dissemination of all CReLES otuputs and the provision of tranining to a wide range of stakeholders. A link to all of these concrete outputs, disseminations and workshops is available at: www.keyskills.ie
The context of this project entitled Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools (CReLES) relates to increased immigration into countries of Europe with the consequent range of diversity of cultures among students in schools. In line with the current influx of migrants and refugees to Europe and the international Sustainable Development Goal of inclusive and equitable education for all, this project aimed to address the adress the needs of migration background students for the purpose of providing more inclusive and equalitable educational experience for migrant students via school leadership that has a siginificant impact towards the facilitations of inclusive, exuitable learning envoroments.Indeed, improving the educational achievement of migrant students can involve a serious, demanding challenge for classroom teachers. In this staff challenge, the exercise of school leadership at all levels of the school is crucial in addressing the needs of staff for professional learning and in providing direction and support for staff. The needs addressed by this project related to the needs of students with a migration background for inclusion in their school experience and the leadership training and resources to inculcate such a process. This need has been identified through literature review and case studies conducted in previous research. The varied needs of students with a migrant background are documented: high instances of early school leaving (Bonizzoni, Romito & Cavallo, 2014; Darmody et al., 2014), language needs (European Commission, 2013; Lyons & Little, 2009), school engagement (Brown-Jeffy & Cooper, 2011, p. 75), and general school performance (OECD, 2015). This need can be addressed by enhancing the knowledge and skills of school leaders in terms of the exercise of culturally responsive leadership, that is, leadership that takes cognisance of the dimensions of cultural difference impacting on student development, inclusion and learning. Students who live in an adopted culture and who have a different culture of origin have specific needs as they negotiate their developing identity, acquire a new language, negotiate different ways of learning and thinking, adapt to an educational system, and adapt attitudes to teachers (www.acras.eu). In a classroom where many students do not have the dominant language as a first language requires new ways of pedagogy from teachers. The spectrum of needs of migrant students both in the classroom and in the whole school environment requires much learning for school staffs and this needs to be led, modeled, enabled and supported by school leadership. As schools in different European countries are confronted with the challenges of students from multicultural backgrounds, school personnel in different countries are experimenting with ways of addressing the significant challenges. Investigating the literature and the ways that schools are trialing and finding practices in leadership that address the needs of migrant students is best conducted within four countries that are different but have similar challenges in the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. This challenge is current and there is at present very little literature on good practice in school leadership that benefits students with a migration background. Nor are there siginificant resources that can be used by school leaders to lead cultural responsivity in classroom practice.