8 minute read
The Centre for Transformative
BY SANDRA HERBST, CHIEF STRATEGIC OFFICER
Transformative. Transformational. Transforming. At the base of these three words is the verb “transform,” meaning “to change the nature, condition or function of” or “to change in nature, disposition, heart or character.” It seems to me that in its truest sense, “transform” refers to something of great significance, import and consequence. And so I wonder, what can serve as the catalyst to change the nature of something? Might it be a cumulation of things, or an acute event? Must it be only one or could it be both?
This takes me to a point early in my life as a leader, almost 22 years ago. The memory is vivid – the room I found myself in, what I was wearing, the meeting I was attending, the people sitting near to me. I was, yet again, grumbling about the teachers on my staff and what they were or were not doing. This had become a common refrain for me, and those who knew me at the time would have expected it to surface at some point during the day. And then the unexpected happened – at least for me it was unexpected. A colleague, a principal from a school just down the road from mine, turned to me and said (probably out of sheer exasperation), “I wonder, Sandra, the degree to which your leadership is contributing to the situation that you are complaining about?” (By the way, this is not a paraphrase; I know this because I wrote down the exact words on a piece of paper that I still carry with me.)
That question stopped me in my tracks, and those words have since transformed my leadership. That single moment served to launch a self-imposed journey to perpetually transform the nature, disposition, heart and character of my leadership.
As you consider my account, maybe you can easily relate this to your own life, or perhaps you have a very different narrative. Maybe for you there was no distinct point in time that triggered the need for change. It might have been a slow cumulation of events that led you there, or possibly the need to transform something has not yet been part of your experience. For me, though, the opportunity to transform, to be deeply altered, has become an aspiration – something to strongly desire to achieve.
We are at a time that transformation in education cannot be ignored. I am not referring to a mere tinkering of schedules or physical spaces or curriculum, but rather a change in the nature, condition, and disposition of our models of quality education. The worldwide pandemic that, as I write this article, continues to grip our country at an increasingly alarming rate has been a driver of transformation in this regard. However, even prior to the pandemic, global organizations were calling loudly for a re-examination of the status quo.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its paper The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030 (2018) argues that “in the face of an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, education can make the difference as to whether people embrace the challenges they are confronted with or whether they are defeated by them. And in an era characterised by a new explosion of scientific knowledge and a growing array of complex societal problems, it is appropriate that curricula should continue to evolve, perhaps in radical ways.”
In its white paper Schools of the Future: Defining New Models of Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2020), the World Economic Forum asserts that “primary and secondary school systems have a critical role to play in preparing the global citizens and workforces of the future. Education models must adapt to equip children with the skills to create a more inclusive, cohesive and productive world.” I could continue to refer to research and the positions of leading global and business organizations, but the patterns and trends are clear. No one is referring to trifling with the edges of education. Rather, what is being sought out is a transformation – a fundamental shift.
HTS’s Vision for Learning calls for surprisingly similar things: “The purpose of an education is to prepare students for life. A rapidly evolving world needs confident, driven, intellectually agile and empathetic citizens.” This statement, along with the rest of the Vision for Learning, drives the very essence of what it means to work and to learn at HTS – not only to transform oneself, but to be an active participant in transforming others and the school itself.
The newly created HTS Centre for Transformative Learning and Leadership will be a partner in guiding that transformation and serving the school in meeting its aspirations. Right in its title, we find the word “transformative.” This signals that its work will not be confined to the “shallow water” of change. Its purpose is rooted in a desire to examine and change the nature of learning and leading both within and outside HTS.
To accomplish this, we are currently planning to direct the work of the Centre in the following two ways:
HTS ONLINE GLOBAL ACADEMY
The Centre will lead the development and implementation of the HTS Online Global Academy, which will extend the HTS brand globally. This academy will have the capacity to deliver the excellent academic and experiential learning experience that people have come to expect from HTS beyond Canadian borders, filling a gap that currently exists in the educational landscape.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING HUB
The Centre will operate as a Professional Learning Hub to serve both HTS and partner schools and systems. Its purpose in this regard will be to research, champion and align practices that will grow HTS’s Vision for Learning, allowing it to flourish and thrive.
Internally, the Centre will have oversight of the HTS professional development portfolio: • Coaching and mentorship of HTS faculty • Supporting the advancement of the HTS leadership competencies • Organizing and facilitating school-wide professional learning for faculty • Coaching, organizing and facilitating training and professional development for alumni, families of
current students and families of alumni • Curating, archiving, writing about and publishing the work being done at HTS • Contributing to the body of educational research Externally, the Centre will provide services to educational systems and partners: • Coaching, consulting and mentorship • Facilitating professional learning • Coordinating outside organizations that come to HTS to tour the school and learn about the instructional, leadership and integration practices that are taking place This work with external systems and organizations will allow the Centre to become self-sustaining and also extend the scope and reach of HTS. We are on our way. By that I do not mean with the Centre itself; though we have already begun rounds of coaching, writing and leading professional learning, the Centre is very much in its infancy. What I do mean is that HTS is on its way to transformation and, quite frankly, always has been. HTS, from its inception by its founding members, has sought to transform the educational experience for its students, families, staff and community. HTS has heeded the call to respond to a world that is transforming around it. Not unlike the path followed after my own transformative moment described above, HTS will continue on another leg of its journey to perpetually transform the nature, disposition, heart and character of the learning that both students and adults experience. How simultaneously exciting, unsettling, energizing and exhilarating this is going to be!
OECD “The Future of Education and Skills: Education 2030,” 2018. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf World Economic Forum “Schools of the Future: Defining New Models of Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” January 14, 2020. https://www.weforum.org/reports/schools-of-the-future-defining-new-models-of-education-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution
Ella Kanetos
Grade 5 How does HTS help you grow as a person and as a learner?
Friends and teachers at HTS help us along our journey to make us better people. They are there for us if we are struggling with something, and we always have someone to share things with. This helps us take risks – you know, like when you try something that is hard to do. But we learn never to give up and to do our best. This is how you can accomplish the goals that you want to achieve. At HTS, we also grow by giving back to our community. We can do that by making donations to help others or by being role models for younger students. This means that I can be part of something bigger.
Melanie van de Water
Dean of Students In what ways has this global pandemic accelerated the transformation of education in your area?
The pandemic has accelerated how HTS schedules and runs many aspects of the student life program. The pivot to virtual activities has created an increase in opportunities for students to create balance in their lives. Design technology experiences such as Fashion Forward and Robotics run into the evenings, allowing students to also participate in athletic co-curriculars.
Safely in cohorts by grade and class, students have been able to explore both new and familiar activities, indoors and outside. One of the biggest areas of acceleration has been with student leaders creating new virtual clubs, including the TED-Ed Club, which amalgamates academic and co-curricular opportunities. We even had clubs, like Model UN and DECA, attend virtual conferences and competitions. Most importantly, running clubs virtually throughout a widened time frame has eliminated scheduling conflicts, thereby giving older students the opportunity to participate in all the HTS co-curricular program has to offer.
