Building strategic and transformative leadership capability is essential to harnessing the opportunities and managing the challenges facing institutions in an age of rapid change. More than ever we need to invest in leadership development, especially given unprecedented change forces reshaping the complexity of the higher education eco-system. However, the challenge is that ‘most leaders of learning and teaching report being unsure about how to lead successfully when faced with rapid and significant change’ (Scott, Coates & Anderson, 2008, p. xvii). The question is what type of leadership for teaching and learning is required in the digital-era?
In exploring this question the paper reports on the experience of the Empower Online Learning Leadership Academy (EOLLA), which was launched in 2016 in partnership with The European Association of Distance Teaching Universities[i] (EADTU) and European Consortium of Innovative Universities [ii](ECIU). The EOLLA initiative, under the wider umbrella of the EMPOWER[iii] project, is an innovative and challenging professional development programme specifically designed for higher educators in the European context.
While EOLLA explores different approaches to positional and hierarchical leadership a strong focus is placed on building and understanding the importance of distributed models of leadership. The value of middle-out approaches to fostering innovation (Cummings, Phillips, Tilbrook & Lowe, 2005) and enabling micro-leaders is emphasised in promoting sustainable teaching and learning transformations. The basic premise is that learning leadership is enabled through professional networks and by the large and small actions of many people working individually and collectively in relationship to change (Childs, Brown, Keppell, Nicholas, Hunter & Hard, 2013).
Framed within this conception of leadership, the EOLLA programme is unique for the way it contextualizes strategic thinking and leadership development in a number of authentic challenge scenarios. The paper describes how working in inter-disciplinary groups participants from different countries collaborate to investigate their chosen scenarios and some of the wicked problems facing institutions—now and in the future.
References
Childs, M., Brown, M., Keppell, M., Nicholas, Z., Hunter, C. and Hard, N. (2013). Managing institutional change through distributive leadership approaches: Engaging academics and teaching staff in blended and flexible learning. Report Series 2013, Armidale NSW, Australia: University of New England.
Cummings, R., Phillips, R., Tilbrook, R., & Lowe, K. (2005). Middle-out approaches to reform of university teaching and learning: Championing striding between the “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 6 (1), 1-18.
Scott, G., Coates, H., & Anderson, M. (2008). Learning leaders in times of change: Academic leadership capabilities of Australian higher education. Sydney: University of Western Sydney and Australian Council of Educational Research.
[i] See http://eadtu.eu
[ii] http://www.eciu.org
[iii] See http://empower.eadtu.eu
Topics: Global challenges in Higher & Further Education , Topics: TEL Policy & Strategy
