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If I had to sum up this podcast in one word it would be ‘wisdom’. Viviane Robinson, in discussing her book Reduce Change to Increase Improvement* shares such depth of experience from her many years in education, and her engagement approach cuts to the heart of effective school improvement, and indeed effective improvement in any sphere, more than perhaps any approach I’ve come across to date.
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There is great depth to this discussion, during which Viviane and I begin with broad principles and frameworks and drill down to the level of detail of conversations, exploring what it really takes to effectively lead improvement within schools. And, in a first for the Education Research Reading Room, we even did a few role-plays in order to see Vivian’s Engagement approach in action!
I’m so grateful to have come across Viviane’s work because it’s opened me up to a new vocabulary, and a way of thinking about change management that I will know will stay with me for life, and that will help me to have a more positive and sustainable impact on the schools and institutions in which I work from now on. And I hope that after you’ve finished listening to this discussion with Viviane, you feel the same way too.
About Distinguished Professor Emeritus Viviane Robinson
Viviane is the Academic Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership within the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland and has a long and illustrious career in education.
Viviane specialises in school improvement, leadership and the relationship between research and the improvement of practice. She is the author of five books and numerous chapters and journal articles and has consulted on leadership development and research to government agencies and organisations in England, Singapore, Chile, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Viviane has received awards from national and international professional organisations including the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and the New Zealand Secondary Principals Association. She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association for sustained excellence in educational research, and has also been appointed by the New Zealand Minister of Education as an expert adviser to the OECD conference on the education profession.
Links mentioned in the show
- The Practical Promise of Critical Theory
- For leadership, Vivian enjoys the work of Michael Mumford and Joanne Ciulla
- For a helpful summary of the Engage vs. Bypass approach see this blog from the newly established edu-blog, Thinking about Teaching.
Listen to all past episodes of the ERRR podcast here.
*If you buy through these links (and if you buy from the Amazon Australia store) I will receive a very small commission that will be used to support the ongoing production of the ERRR podcast. You will pay the same price as if you searched for the product on Amazon yourself.