9 minute read
Leadership and fostering a sense of community in an IB school: Creating
Leadership and fostering a sense of community in an IB school: Creating comfort as well as purpose during uncertain times
By Francesco Banchini
Since early 2020, many of us have learnt new skills and adapted ourselves, as we have never done before and in a very short period of time. There has been a dramatic shift in the direction and purpose of our lives. We are still in a phase of transition, where the past is known, but our daily lives contain an unprecedented level of uncertainty. As CEO and Director of an International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Azerbaijan, one of the private schools in Baku, I will share here some personal reflections on this recent period of both disruption and opportunity. Our learning community has a strong sense of purpose in changing the standard educational path from a traditional approach to a skill development approach. Our school is a place where students, parents and teachers can learn and improve their abilities and skills as part of a strong community, while also sharing these as part of the larger community here in Azerbaijan.
As time has gone by and uncertainty has continued over this last year and more, opportunities have been created. Our first major change and opportunity, as for many schools, was moving to distance learning. This has increased our skills enormously and given us the motivation to rethink how we relate to our students. As we moved from a more familiar learning path, albeit one where a vision of moving forward and keeping the community safe was our motivational drive, we approached distance learning as a new horizon, unknown territory. At our school it has been an opportunity to develop our skills and engage our students in an enhanced digital educational era. We have been able to introduce a range of different platforms to engage our learners, although significant investment in training was needed to ensure that teachers felt confident to embrace the new technology.
After a few months of distance learning we made two clear observations. Firstly we realised that this approach to learning developed different and new ways to communicate, focused on an increased level of dependence on devices. Secondly, not only families living in forced lockdown, but also teachers, developed increased levels of anxiety, and we felt that the well-being of our
community was in significant danger. Isolation from others and communication using devices created a challenging side effect to this new learning path, and transformed this new experience into one of fear, affecting our feelings, emotions and well-being.
As a leader, it was useful for me at this point to reflect upon the work of Cozolino (2002), who explores the idea that humans are governed by two neural pathways. The first takes us from a state of high physiological stimulation, often manifested as anger, fear and anxiety, and governed by the chemical cortisol, down to a place of comfort, typically produced by the calming hormone serotonin. The second pathway moves us from a state of low physiological stimulation expressed as boredom or apathy. If the brain is experiencing highly physiologically arousing emotions associated with stress, then our first
instinct will be to stay away from excitement and seek comfort instead. So as leaders of a community, it was imperative firstly to create comfort for our community. It was important, too, to address the feelings of apathy and boredom that were also being noted. As the challenge of distance At our school it has learning continued, we developed support across been an opportunity our two campuses, creating to develop our meetings to discuss with students, parents, and teachers skills and engage the issues and challenges which they were facing. This was vital our students in an in order to establish effective communication across all enhanced digital stakeholders. At the same time as we were fostering effective educational era. communication pathways, the IB took the decision to delay deadlines for submitting documentation, and later decided to cancel the external examinations, stating that the decision was “based on compassion for students and teachers and fairness for the difficult circumstances” (IBO, 2020). Whilst we welcomed the IB’s desire to show compassion and fairness, on the ground we were left dealing with parents and students demanding more information about how the overall grades would be calculated. Stress levels at this point were high, and again we employed an approach which relied heavily on clear, open and honest communication to foster feelings of comfort. Later in the year, our stakeholders found more comfort when the IB was responsive to altering grades after feedback, and it was felt that the situation became fairer to all involved. Summer in Azerbaijan went by in strict lockdown, again meeting parents online to reassure and comfort them that we were investing important planning into all the necessary procedures, in order to establish a safe return when we were given the go ahead to do so. Infection rates were moderately low, so when in the second week of September the government informed us that we could resume school, all our community were very happy with the news. We rehearsed the opening, and through doing so became confident in how to act to ensure the safety of our students and wider community. With the resumption of on-site learning, it was felt that things were returning to a state closer to normality. On the evening of 27 September in Baku, gazing at the flame towers in the distance, shining in the dark overlooking the gulf and the calm of the night, little did we know that there were even more
challenges ahead. News of the war in the Nagorno Karabakh region was shared that evening, and the already tenuous feelings of return to some level of normality were shaken as the situation became even more uncertain. We resumed school on site but, at the same time, some of our community members were called to go to the front. The news and the images received about the atrocity triggered a psychological anger that is impossible to describe. As an IB school we promote and believe in fostering international mindedness, and encouraging diversity. However, this war created many challenges for us as a school. We were then closed as schools became targets, which heightened feelings of uncertainty and anger.
Forty-five days later when the war ended, there was relief throughout Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, for many families there was much sadness, anger and loneliness from the loss of loved ones, livelihoods, homes and the psychological sense of immense loss. It was natural for us to respond to those in need by organising a trip to provide support for the families of two villages in Barda and Agdam who, as others, had been particularly affected by the war. All our community was involved, and wanted to be involved, in assisting these families and we provided, and still provide, them with ongoing care. Although this felt very much to be a natural response, it is interesting to return to Cozolino and his comments about apathy. We had seen apathy in our learning community, but the need to support others dispelled those feelings and gave us a sense of purpose. Even before the end of the war, I was reflecting on the fact that our community needed to regain its sense of purpose, by looking outwards, rather than inwards, and to turn away from feelings of apathy and boredom. I developed the idea of providing educational support to students who were living in the war zone. We are in such a privileged position in our learning community, compared with what these students faced during the conflict, and with the hardships they continue to face today. As educators we have the moral duty to make a difference, to share knowledge and develop educational strategies which benefit all. So, with the
idea of this educational project in mind, I arranged a meeting with my colleagues and asked for their thoughts and availability, as teachers would provide their time and support for the project voluntarily. I received amazingly positive feedback and more than half of the teachers volunteered without hesitation. I then contacted the Ministry of Education, and discussed the plan to create and develop dialogue with local schools and local municipalities to provide educational help for students and professional development for teachers.
Thankfully the project was approved, and since 18 December we have been providing online lessons to Barda and Agdam schools, supporting 350 students and providing professional development for 57 teachers. This is all happening at the same time as normal lessons are taking place on our two campuses. Throughout the project lessons, we provide students with the experience of attending lessons that are held in an international school. By developing multidisciplinary approaches, with subject-integrated problem-based-reality lessons and
hands-on learning, we provide them with a different learning experience. With the teachers, we provide pedagogical support and professional development, based on the most up-to-date educational practices. Our sessions are focused on developing studentcentered approaches, inquiry-based, skills acquisition learning, in an authentic context. We hope to further develop the project in future, to explore how we can support other schools in different regions. Our teachers and coordinators are motivated to help the students and the teachers in developing ‘seeds of light’ to enable them to embrace being lifelong learners. We are an IB school because we firmly believe that we are working to become active and compassionate learners, understanding other people and their differences. The founder of our school had been an IB student. We demonstrate and share our passion to live this mission, and put it into practice, in our daily lives – to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. We know that COVID-19 has negatively affected many people’s mental health around the world, and adversely impacted young adults’ wellbeing, creating difficulties in sleeping, eating and stress, experiencing isolation and alienation (Panchal et al, 2021). As educators we need to look after all our community, We need to manage and actively address feelings of discomfort, anger and apathy. As uncertainty, a leader I have responsibility for being proactive in these matters. share values, and We need to manage uncertainty, understand the share values, and understand the impact that our current situation impact that our has on the entire community. We are focused on finding solutions current situation to minimise the negative impact, has on the entire develop clear communication with colleagues, parents and community. students, and learn to react and adapt to improve the agility of our thinking and our actions. This is a journey, and one which is certainly not smooth. It is, however, one that I feel proud and motivated to be sharing with those inspirational individuals around me. ◆ Francesco Banchini is CEO and Director of the European Azerbaijan School, Baku, Azerbaijan. ✉ Francesco.Banchini@eas.az
References
• Cozolino L (2002) The neuroscience of psychotherapy: Building and rebuilding the human brain. London: WW Norton & Co.
• Panchal N, Kamal R, Cox C and Garfield R (2021) The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use. Available from https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/
