The Story begins
The prelude to a professional development programme for headteachers was to engage a group of committed professionals - Professional Development Leaders, who, as insiders with a deep sensitivity to cultural conventions, would spearhead the programme. They were chosen by George Oduro (Head of Department of International Planning and Development at the University of Cape Coast). This group of 15 have been the critical ingredient in both initiating and sustaining developments not only for heads but in subsequent programmes for circuit supervisors and District Directors.
In the early stages of the initiative it was essential to ascertain the current situation and to consider the context in which the development was to take place. These issues are explored in a paper given at the 23rd International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement in Kuala Lumpur in January 2010. It focused on the Professional Development Leaders’ perceptions of the opportunities and challenges for developing Leadership for Learning in Ghanaian basic schools. Developing Leadership for Learning in Ghana: opportunities and challenges. These 15 PDLs who met for the first time in May 2009 in Manna Heights, south- west of the capital city of Accra, were prepared to be taught by Cambridge academics, but from the outset were engaged as partners, working together in sharing, critiquing and challenging practice and testing its against the five principles of Leadership for Learning which we wished to put to the test in the Ghanaian context. Working together in interactive sessions was a way of modeling the process which, it was hoped, they would be comfortable with using in their later workshop sessions with headteachers. Sessions with the PDLs in Ghana were followed by a summer school in Cambridge at which, working in teams of three, they took over the management of workshop sessions for their colleagues, an opportunity to rehearse with them what they would do with the 120 plus heads for whom they would be responsible in the three week August workshop in Ajumako. This dry run enabled them to test out ideas with the opportunity to receive feedback from their colleagues, from the Cambridge team and from two critical friends who also participated – Lester Taylor from New Zealand and Madeez Adamu-Issah from UNICEF in Accra. Two months on, the exercise of leadership by the PDLs during a highly intensive three week workshop in the training centre at Ajumako was rewarded by highly encouraging positive feedback from the 124 headteachers who attended, rising to the challenge to effect change on return to their schools. The two week recall event in Saltpond six months later was a time for headteachers to share experiences of the interim period in their schools, to offer advice, mutual support and critique to their colleagues. The participation of 33 Circuit Supervisors in this second headteacher workshop enriched the dialogue, allowed for sharing of opportunities and obstacles encountered, providing common ground for taking forward of the LfL principles into practice. The professionalism and total commitment of the 15 PDLs who led these workshops could not be faulted. After the workshops they continued to offer support to schools around the country. All fifteen have remained faithful to the programme and have always been willing to engage in further professional development sessions, in some cases traveling halfway across the country to attend a half day catch-up meeting with the Cambridge team in Cape Coast.
The Salptond workshop in April 2010 was preceded by a day with eight national and regional directors, rehearsing with them the principles on which the programme rested, familiarising them with what had gone before and what was still to come. Their support was crucial and especially that of the Director for Basic Education who not only embraced the principles but visited the Saltpond headteacher workshop and later, together with the Chair of Council of Directors (CODE), joined the February 2011 two day workshop for 60 District Directors, held in Winneba. For some Directors who attended this involved a twelve hours plus drive from their districts in the north of country. The involvement of nearly half of the District Directors in the country was a vital piece in the jig saw being progressively assembled to bring an alignment of intent and understanding at every level of the system.