IN TERMS OF EQUITY Helsinki 2009 Jukka Ahonen

2 CV in short * School teacher 1977, Principal in Comprehensive School in Helsinki 13 years * Principals´ trainer since 1986 * Consultant and supervisor since1986 * Member of ENIRDELM (European Network for Improving Research and Development in Educational Leadership and Management since 1994, chairman of the board * Management consultant since 2006

Jukka Ahonen European – Finnish Pendulum 1. Strictly guided schools 2. Almost unlimited independency 3. Towards centralized system ? 4. New Public Management (NPM)? 3

Jukka Ahonen Towards NPM - Directing Paradigms 1. Progressive Public Administration (PPA) * The public sector is radically different from the private sector and needs different directing * Restricted rules to prohibit directors to use the position improperly (Christoffer Hood, 1995) 4

Jukka Ahonen NPM as a Phenomenon (1) * Increasing pressure for outcome-based assessment * Exposure of school performance to public examination * Assessment of teachers against employer defined competencies * Tighter regulation of the teaching profession 5

Jukka Ahonen NPM as a Phenomenon (2) * Quantitative accountability not qualitative * Paradox: Quality gives reasons to measurement and assessment * Recentralization of curriculum and assessment control ( in Finland we don´t know – yet!) * Limited view instead of grasping the whole picture 6

Jukka Ahonen NPM - by Kraus, 2008 * Suboptimated accountability causes disresponsibility and things can fall between chairs * Measurement and quantitative service and focus on budget reduces the qualitative values * Activities in public sector change towards what is expected rather than what is needed 7

Jukka Ahonen NPM, School and Globalisation * Modern ideas of school management adopted by politicians and leading school administrators (Scherp, 2008) * Dependency on global competition and economy * Money – easy to measure * Education – easy to waste and lose ? 8

Jukka Ahonen Principals’ role * What is the sense of mission? * How to share time between administrative tasks and taking care of pupils and teachers? * How to accept the increasing expectations placed on school? * Where to find support to her-/himself? 9

Jukka Ahonen Professional learning community (PLC) * school culture that emphasises client oriented and knowledge based professionalism * learning by inquiry and reflection * community that expresses personal connection between people (Toole & Louis, 2002) 10

Jukka Ahonen How to influence school culture? * Giving trust to the staff by inviting them in the process of decision making and training and coaching them * Working on the basis of a vision that emphasizes the importance of learning of pupils and teachers Creating supporting conditions like time and room for meeting each other (Hord, 2004) 11

Jukka Ahonen How to d evelop a PLC The school leader´s three roles: * Builder of culture: creating and expressing the common vision in the school * Teacher with two subroles: coach and expert * As an architect: creating structures (E. Verbiest, 2004 ) 12

Jukka Ahonen Challenge to meet multiculturalism * Quite a new reality in Finland – about 20 years * Regional differences are big * Challenge to the teachers´ education: main issues are critical thinking and the concept of caring * The drastic social changes and so called social expectations to school * Unfair and unreasonable demands placed on teachers (Talib, 2004) 13

14 Thank you ! Jukka Ahonen Mestariluokka Oy