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people together , espousing a team approach , where the team as a whole move forward , with rules being crossfunctional and shared ( Ocamb , 2013 ). Agile de-emphasises specialised roles , encouraging equality of team members , creating great synergy with the concepts of shared and servant leadership . It aims to create environments where boundaries between disciplines are blurred , emphasising the work of the team as opposed to a group of specialised individuals . The Agile Methodology , using Scrum techniques , ( various Agile methodologies exist ), utilises an empirical process of control , projects are deconstructed , using a similar process to ‘ backwards by design ’ ( Wiggins and McTighe , 2011 ) and employs an iterative action-research style approach ( Gray , 2009 ).
With a major focus on developing highly efficient collaborative teams , Agile aims to deliver projects in a cohesive and timely manner . The formation of ad hoc teams consisting of highly empowered individuals , creates the potential conditions for leadership and agency to emerge ( Cohn , 2010 ). Its strategic focus on peer- to- peer learning ( Boud , 1999 ), professional development by doing , co-leading , sharing and coconstruction .
A ‘ Pandemic of Change ’.
As Agile thinking , particularly embodied in the foundational structure of the PLC movement within the school , begins to permeate through both conscious and unconscious thought , the school was well placed to absorb the shock of the massive ‘ freight train strike ’, the unforeseeable change to education that was wrought by the COVID 19 pandemic .
With Professional Learning Teams already in place , Agile thinking in preparation for the predicted changes became action . It became very clear , having followed the China experience of city , followed by nationwide closure that there was a very real potential that the UAE , and Dubai would follow suit . At the Executive level the decision was made to begin researching
what eLearning may look like should schools close and the nation shut down … in fact , they know that it was not so much eLearning , it , in fact was the development of a Remote Emergency Teaching strategy .
Using Scrum methods to enhance and enact the Agile process , they , over a series of closely linked and timely meetings of determining , ( in Scrum speech ), Backlogs , Release Backlogs and Sprints , supported by constant debugging through stand up meets … ( basically , they brainstormed , prioritised , developed actions based on SMART Goals , tested , retested their thoughts and actions ), a full two weeks prior to the announcement to shut down , they had decided on the curriculum changes required , ( a focus on power , enduring , and leverage standards ), what a day looked like , ( truncated , focussed with a view to screen-time v personal study time , synchronous / asynchronous learning ), screen free days and of course , which platform to use to deliver their classes . ( Zoom v Teams v Schoology … Schoology was chosen , live tested over the two weeks as they approached the Spring Break ).
Much of this work was researched and carried out by their teachers ( they truly did become , teacher leaders / researchers ), in their PLTs …
This method and way of leading , continues today … and helped inform the hybrid model of education that the school is currently delivering .
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Term 2 Jan - Mar 2021 Class Time