Education leadership is changing, and so must our perception of what it is to be a leader.
My vision for the future of education leadership places leaders in a dynamic environment in which they will find themselves collaborating with other stakeholders. To be effective, future education leaders must understand how they will impact the lives of the people around them, what role technology will play in learning, and their ability to foster meaningful change.
Impact
Making an impact and understanding the implications of that impact are two different things. Future leaders in education will do both.
Educational leaders consistently impact academic achievement, whether through commission or omission. A good leader in education will influence others and create a ripple effect that carries learners far into the world.
In my vision for education leadership, future leaders recognize their impact, and they understand what that impact means for their future.
The role of technology
Educational leaders will rely on edtech for a variety of functions, and they will integrate its use seamlessly in schools.
Having lost their mistrust of digital learning, future leaders will incorporate technology with ease. Edtech will be a common tool in classrooms everywhere. Leaders will integrate digital technology as they prepare for the future.
Students will engage in application based learning – the kind that is hands-on and helps learners connect with their world. You will find a greater number of STEM classes, and the approaches used in STEM will permeate other subjects as well. Social studies and English language arts classes will become more hands-on in response to the demand that instruction becomes more aligned to our findings in neuroscience. For example, students may interact with holistic images of authors and historical figures.
Edtech’s role in this change is to equalize the playing field in the classroom, giving every learner the opportunity to access the individualized learning.
Change agents
Education leaders of the future will be change agents who create disruptive learning. The leadership may come from the classroom or other unlikely areas, but they will all have one thing in common: they will no longer accept the status quo. Ultimately, education leaders of the future will have the capacity as well as the conviction to bring about meaningful change.
In my vision for the future of education leadership, our leaders will come from diverse backgrounds, and they will embrace digital technology as a way to improve learning.