How Might We Tend The Fire Together?

Last week Derek Wenmoth and I spent 3 days in Melbourne facilitating a 3 day retreat for 18 Lutheran educators and leaders to kick off the 20 week Refresh Reconnect Refocus (RRR) programme in Australia.

Derek has already published a post about the 3 day retreat which you can read here. He’s also published another post, What’s Lighting Our Fire?, which emerged from his reflections on the RRR retreat. He wonders, in this post, if we aren’t focusing enough on what’s worth fighting for and perhaps focusing too much on issues to fight against. 

I particularly liked his metaphor of us tending the fire together and his posing of the question:

What if choosing to put our energy into visioning, building, and nurturing the kind of system we believe in is the most strategic and courageous thing we can do right now?

This got me thinking about the importance of doing this together with like-motivated people and creating a movement to keep the fires burning and maintaining the momentum towards a transformed system, rather than merely focusing on individual schools.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the RRR programme Derek and I have been leading over the last 18 months. In that time we have worked with 3 cohorts - 14 primary and secondary school principals from Aotearoa NZ and Rarotonga, 18 primary and secondary assistant and deputy principals from Aotearoa, and 18 principals and senior leaders from New South Wales and Victoria. 

One of the areas we focus on in the programme is on supporting the leaders to dive deeply into their personal why, explore how that can become a moral purpose for them in their work, discover tools to support them in that work and to use a change framework that maintains momentum over a 20 week period.

However, we were determined to support the leaders to realise that they don’t have to be alone in this week, but that it is more important that they see themselves as a network of leaders not only grappling with similar issues but also having similar dreams of how things could be. They each have a buddy with whom they check in with each week, each is teamed up with either Derek or myself for 3 weekly 1-on-1 remote mentoring sessions, we gather together remotely to participate in webinars with international thought leaders and to share our journeys to that point, and then we all come together for a final day of celebration.

We have built these features into our unique programme to emphasise that we’re all in this together. These elements act as accountability mechanisms and have us tending the fire together.

So, what have the participants said about the programme?

“The programme has re-ignited my leadership focus. I feel re-energised, re-focused and ready for action! Not only have I rediscovered my motivation for leadership, but I also gained a support network of like minded people I feel I can call on when needed. I don't particularly have that in my own context, but I've found it here.” 

NZ Principal

“Realistic and relevant, inspiring and helpful, a collaboration that flows and makes sense.”

NZ APDP

“What a terrific opportunity to connect and learn alongside colleagues whilst being led by the very passionate Derek & Maurie. Inspiring, thought provoking and exciting journey to explore over the next 20 weeks and beyond!”

Australian Senior Leader

So, that’s 50 school leaders who’ve delved deeply into their ‘why’, who’ve imagined what might be possible in their schools with the support of those on the programme, who’ve discovered tools that will allow them to maintain momentum, who’ve identified a particular challenge to focus on, who’ve adopted an experimental mindset as they plan next steps within a rigorous change framework and who see themselves as system leaders.

Sounds like the beginnings of a movement to me.

If this is a movement you’d like to be part of send us an email at threersprogramme@gmail.com and we’ll keep you informed about our future programmes.

While I believe our RRR programme is a vital component of any movement, it is part of a wider ecosystem involved in tending the fire. Other key networks include DisruptedNZ and Aotearoa Education Collective (AEC).

There is a real sense of community and momentum developing. AEC is running an impressive UpliftEd conference in October which I highly recommend checking out and the Disrupted Facebook page and X account is a particularly active sharing space.

I challenge education people who want to be part of a movement of school and system transformation to participate in all opportunities such as those above and others still to come. Watch this space.

  

How Might We Maintain Momentum While Leading in Schools?

Derek Wenmoth and I have just reached the half-way point in this year’s Refresh Reconnect Refocus (RRR) programme we have been running with 18 primary and secondary schools Assistant and Deputy Principals.

We began with a 2 day Retreat in Wellington in late January before the start of school where participants were supported through a process of exploring their ‘why’ as leaders, experiencing a range of tools which could be used to bring their ‘why’ to life, imagining what they might be able to achieve and then honing in on an issue to focus on for the following 20 weeks.

Over the next 20 weeks we remain connected in the following ways as a group to foster both a sense of ‘being-in-this-together’ and being accountable so that there is the best chance to maintain momentum:

• Each participant is allocated a buddy from the group and commit to making contact with each other on a weekly basis to check on progress

• Derek and I meet on line with each participant every 3 weeks where we support them to make progress with their focus area, problem-solve together and plan next steps

• Specialist webinars are scheduled with national and global education thinkers to expose participants to up-to-date thinking and trends

• On line whole group hui to share progress

We’re currently at the halfway point and have just had a whole group hui where each participant briefly shared their experience with their focus area. They were all asked to name the dominant emotion they were experiencing at this point in the year, specifically in relation to their particular focus area.

All of the participants are very busy APDPs in schools and are having to manage a range of demanding situations on a day-to-day basis, whether that be an ERO visit, overcrowding, increased pastoral issues, high levels of neuro-diverse students, rapidly changing curriculum and assessment and any number of other issues. Sometimes they have felt overwhelmed.

I was extremely impressed by the momentum they were all able to maintain within that demanding environment. There is no doubt that the accountability measures within our programme have supported that momentum, but most of it has come from within themselves as they set about leading, confident in their ‘why’ and using newly acquired tools.

What blew me away the most was the list of emotions they identified they were experiencing as a result of maintaining momentum within these demanding situations. They were feeling Proud, Inspired, Challenged, Heartened, Productive, Ready, Satisfied, Hopeful, Assured, Motivated, Excited and Humbled.

As we approach the last week of term, what better emotions would we want our school leaders to be experiencing?

Derek and I were able to express our pride in their work and the way in which they were all maintaining momentum. We also felt proud of the programme we were delivering and how it had contributed to those positive emotions revealed above.

In summing up our hui, Derek identified 2 strong themes that were evident from their sharing. The first was that while they were all working on quite different focus areas they were all working on developing coherence, through their focus area, across the school.

The second was that they were all demonstrating leadership in ways that impacted beyond the area they were working on. Several commented that through involvement in the programme and applying new insights they were thinking about their own leadership in different ways.

When asked to sum up, participants spoke of the common thread of perseverance that they were noticing from fellow participants and of the leading through humanity, based on a strong understanding of their ‘why’, that surfaced throughout the sharing.

These participants all displayed a clear moral purpose, that they were open to learning and, above all, that they had the courage to take action.

Feeling proud.

How Might We Reimagine Learning Design and Support More Students to Become ‘Explorers’?

 My last post was a response to my reading of  Disengaged Teen by Anderson and Winthrop (which I have still not yet fully read) and particularly to their claim that:

“A shocking number of young people don’t see the point of school anymore.”

This post sets out to share how we might go about creating the conditions that will make school more relevant for these young people.

We simply have to find ways to help young people link what they are learning to the futures they are imagining for themselves.

In today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, we face a fundamental question: How do we design learning experiences that truly prepare students for their future? As I've observed classrooms and engaged with educational research, I've become convinced that effective learning design must move beyond traditional approaches toward something more dynamic, connected, and student-centered.

By doing so we will have more chance of moving more students into the Explorer mode:

The Power of Inquiry-Based Learning

Shifting to inquiry-based learning offers several compelling advantages. First, it amplifies student voice and choice, giving learners greater ownership over their educational journey—which naturally increases engagement and commitment. Second, it transforms classroom dynamics from passive schooling to active learning. Third, and perhaps most importantly, developing inquiry skills equips students with lifelong tools for tackling new learning opportunities in an ever-changing world.

However, making this transition isn't without challenges. Perhaps the most difficult aspect is the fundamental shift in classroom power dynamics. As educators, we're accustomed to being in control, to being the content experts, to delivering information in ways we determine best. Inquiry-based approaches require us to embrace partnership, joint ownership, and a certain level of unpredictability.

Foundation Principles for Effective Learning Design

Through my exploration of educational research and classroom practice, I've identified several core principles that should underpin effective learning design if we wish to move more students into Explorer mode (high engagement and high agency):

1. Learning Needs to Be Connected

When we teach subjects in isolation, we dramatically reduce opportunities for students to form meaningful connections across disciplines. The OECD's publication "The Nature of Learning" emphasizes "Building Horizontal Connections" across knowledge areas, subjects, communities, and the wider world. This integrated approach deepens understanding and increases relevance for learners.

2. Learning Needs to Be Co-constructed

For genuine engagement, students must feel connected to their learning—not like they're on an educational assembly line where timing, pace, and context are predetermined without their input. This doesn't mean abandoning our responsibility to cover important concepts and skills; rather, it means inviting students into meaningful conversations about how that learning unfolds.

This aligns with what many of us know as "Learner Agency" - giving students the power and choices to take meaningful action and witness the results of their decisions.

3. Learning Needs to Be Collaborative

The ability to work effectively in diverse teams with strong interpersonal skills is vital in today's workforce. Our classrooms should reflect this reality by making collaborative learning the norm, not the exception. Collaboration (whether student-student, teacher-teacher, school-school, or school-community) prepares students for an increasingly complex world.

Additional Key Principles

Beyond these foundational elements, effective learning design should also embrace:

• Personalization: Recognizing and accommodating the unique needs, interests, and learning paths of individual students

• Authenticity: Creating learning experiences connected to real-world challenges and opportunities

• Dispositional Development: Cultivating the mindsets, attitudes, and approaches that support lifelong learning

Putting It All Together: A Vision for Modern Learning

When we integrate these principles, we arrive at a powerful vision for education: 

Learning that is personalised, authentic, and connected locally and globally prepares students for their lives in the 21st century. It is centred on co-constructed high-interest projects, drawing on a range of specialist subjects, with opportunities for hands-on application and partnering with the community. There is a genuine outcome from the learning and students are partners in designing the learning.

Implications:

What could schools do to reflect the key principles above?

• Explore models of Project-based learning. In Future Directions in New Zealand schooling: The case for transformation (Centre for Strategic Education, 2017), McIntosh argues that project-based learning is a model that meets the requirements needed to transform teaching and learning (p.14). A clear model that all staff understand and commit to and through which students are scaffolded is essential to provide rigour and prevent low quality experiences and outcomes. The following links could be a good place to start:

• Best brief introduction to current thinking I’ve seen for a while

• Buck Institute for Education is very useful not only with the ‘why’ but awesome for the ‘how?’ - great, easy to use tools

• Wiggins’ model of Understanding by Design used by the Science Leadership Academy

• Make every effort to provide opportunities for learning to be connected across subjects. Even with a traditional, single-subject timetable it’s not difficult to change mindsets and school practices to enable students to establish connections. 

• Schools could start by determining common themes that could drive learning contexts across the whole school or particular year levels. This would, at least, allow all subjects to connect to the common theme. 

• Meeting structures could be turned on their head and regular meetings for the common teachers of each class to discuss how learning could be connected across more than one subject. Students could work on high-interest projects which they have had a say in creating in classes timetabled for 2 or 3 of their subjects. Completing one piece of work, drawing on several subjects and being supported by several teachers will not only result in a quality outcome and deeper learning, but reduce workload for students and for  teachers. Perhaps Departments could be required to find times to run their meetings when necessary, rather than having them scheduled.

• Teachers in all classes could share with their students the responsibility of determining the context in which learning could take place. Teachers would still take responsibility for developing the important learning/achievement objectives but invite students to be design partners in determining the context.

• Rather than informing a class that they are studying Migration and that they would do this by learning about Victorian English people and their migration to and settling in New Zealand, a Social Studies teacher could explore with students the concept of Migration and establish its worthiness of study. They could then invite students to suggest which example of migration from across history, or in the present, they (individuals, small groups) would like to explore to increase their understanding of this concept. Teachers and students would design activities together which allow the important learning objectives to be met.

• Wherever possible, provide multiple opportunities for students to provide evidence of their learning (UDL). 

• If all students have to write an essay to show their understanding of an important science concept, then those who are poor essay writers will not do well, despite perhaps having a high level of understanding of the science concept. As long as the learning objectives can be met allow students to show their understanding, whether it be by essay, piece of art, spoken word.

• Include some contact or experience with the community or expertise from beyond the school in all planning of learning programmes.

• At the very least, this could be a guest speaker/facilitator but can include off-site visits, individual/small group mentor relationships, on-line communication and connection with expertise, or a client relationship.

• Encourage the public exhibition and discussion of student work.

• At the very least, this could be presenting findings back to the class with high expectations of how to make a quality presentation and how to provide quality feedback but can include presenting to students from outside the class or at another school, parents, and mentors and clients who have been involved in the learning.

• Think about where these presentations should take place. The school might be appropriate but so might a community space (library, parks, malls), a conference or place of work.

Moving Forward

Implementing this vision requires courage - the courage to relinquish some control, to embrace messiness, to build strong relationships with our students, and to be transparent about learning expectations while inviting co-design of learning tasks.

The journey toward this kind of learning design isn't always smooth or linear. There will be growing pains. But when we see our students engaged, empowered, and developing the skills they truly need for their futures, we'll know we're on the right path.

What steps are you taking to reimagine learning design in your educational context? I'd love to hear your thoughts and what you are attempting.

How Might We Promote an Explorer Mindset?

I’ve been enjoying making my way slowly through Disengaged Teen by Anderson and Winthrop.

Engaging young people in school is a worthy aspiration and it has been focusing our attention for many years.

Many of us have hunches that young people are less engaged than they may have been in the past. Sometimes there is clear evidence to support these hunches:

• Our government tells us kids are disengaged because of PISA results evidence

• Our government tells us kids are disengaged because of attendance statistics

• Parents tell us kids are disengaged because, especially in their teens, they often seem reluctant to go to school or to give it their very best while there

• Teachers tell us that students seem more difficult to engage and often put this down to the pandemic experience

These beliefs then set us off in the direction of measuring engagement and the impact of any interventions on things like achievement data and attendance data. But might we be looking at this incorrectly.

What do the students say?

Well, the authors, on the 3rd page of their book, report:

“A shocking number of young people don’t see the point of school anymore.”

They produce evidence that the decline in achievement and engagement has been occurring around the world for at least 10 years, well before the pandemic.

Their years of research led them to develop this framework which identifies 4 modes of engagement:

Their work describes the importance of agency in achieving meaningful engagement; a type of engagement that enhances their ability to learn and adapt, which the authors argue:

“is not a nice-to-have but a must-have. It is the price of entry for a meaningful life.”

They certainly have sympathy for teachers who, “are sandwiched between a system that demands preparation for tests, restrictive accountability standards, and parents who insist their kids excel in a system not serving them well.”  But they report that, “In classrooms where teachers encourage agency, kids who explore get better grades.” 

Whenever I talk with adults about how they learn best in their current lives they often talk about needing to feel some level of control in how they go about the learning, that they are stretched to reach a goal but also have support to get there, that something is challenging but achievable.

The authors claim that this is also true for young people:

“The magic place for learning lies between challenge and support.”  and:

“Rigorous research across multiple countries shows that in classrooms where teachers support students’ agentic engagement, kids get better grades and do better on tests.”

The book delves deeply into the 4 modes of engagement identified in the above framework.

The 4 modes of engagement they identify are Resister, Passenger, Achiever, and Explorer. Resisters use their agency to let you know school is not working for them. Passengers coast in low gear (scarily they suggest this may be 50% of kids). Achievers work hard and 'do well' but are often fragile as it's all about the grades. Explorers are deeply involved and engaged in their own learning.

Passengers

"They don't see the relevance of what's being taught to their life and ability to solve problems in the world. Math becomes a series of formulas to memorize instead of tools to use to build new technology to solve climate change. History becomes a  series of dates to remember rather than the forces that shape our current politics."

We can move students out of the Passenger zone (disengaged and coasting) by linking learning to what the student is interested in.

Achievers

Being in Achiever mode may seem to be the ideal place to be.

“Young people in Achiever mode have internalized that doing well at school is important, and it has become a central motivation for them. Thus they build excellent work habits and real-life skills : time management, getting things done, doing things well.”

But, the authors found that many kids in Achiever mode are not enjoying school even though they are performing well:

“These students in unhappy Achiever mode are often plagued by perfectionism and haunted by fear of failure. They have the worst mental health outcomes of all students, even those who are deeply engaged.”

We can move students out of the Achiever zone by supporting them to practice trying things, falling down, reflecting on why they fell, and getting back up and trying again.

Resisters

Resisters show they have agency but point it away from learning because they are not engaged. They show this by avoiding going to school, or by quietly avoiding work and missing deadlines, or by disrupting class.

We can engage them simply by linking learning to their interests. In fact, one of the easiest shifts through the zones is from Resister to Explorer zone simply by linking learning in such a way.

Explorers

Explorers have agentic engagement:

"[Explorers] connect their interests to what's being taught...they make suggestions about how to do the work they are asked to complete...they seek help to investigate things they are interested in...they express their preferences."

I’m only halfway through the book and plan to post on how we move students into the Explorer zone (engaged and agentic) and how we keep them there.