Unit rationale, description and aim
Schools exist within multiple systems, each of which impact the work of school leaders. These can be governments and their departments (local, national), diocesan or other wider school authorities, and curriculum authorities. These are situated in wider global systems that impact school leadership and performance discourse (e.g., OECD, UN SDGs, UNESCO, World Economic Forum, World Innovation Summit in Education).
This unit examines how these various systems impact the work of leaders across the school: senior, middle, and emerging. It is an interdisciplinary examination of theories and research on collaborative policy design, stewardship, political philosophy, and policy and system evaluation. It aims to help system leaders consider how their work influences and shapes the mission and experience of school leaders, and to help school leaders identify how to work with, and through, the wider systems through which their work is enacted.
This unit equips students with a range of theoretical and critical perspectives on educational systems and their relationship to leading and learning in schools. It critiques the role and function of systems from the perspectives of Catholic social teaching, stewardship, well-being, and sustainability.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitLearning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Describe and explain features of system and policy...
Learning Outcome 01
Develop ethical and theological understanding of s...
Learning Outcome 02
Evaluate current practices within your sphere of s...
Learning Outcome 03
Design enhancements to the operation and culture o...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- From local to global:
- Defining systems, boundaries, and fields
- Australian education governance and architecture
- Sectors and systems
- Local systems: school-based structures and processes
- Policies and impact: PISA, NAPLAN, local priorities
- System theory, design, performance, and evaluation:
- Models and practices
- Case studies
- Humanity and stewardship
- Systemic vision and mission
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes. Assessment tasks build on each other through a developmental and applied approach and provide students with the opportunity to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes and professional standards and criteria consistent with University assessment requirements.
Assessment 1 invites students to locate their professional practice within a conceptual policy and system map. This provides students with a clear context for their learning across the rest of the unit. Students use evaluative tools to critique a range of policies or system operations (this choice provides for the varying professional contexts in which students work). Having developed skills in using critical analysis tools in Assessment 1, these tools are mobilised in Assessment 2 to identify priorities and a plan for policy or system improvement.
The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are mapped to demonstrate the achievement of the learning outcomes and the related academic and professional standards.
In order to pass this unit, students are required to successfully complete both assessment tasks regardless of their mode of enrolment.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Critical Analysis Critically a...
Assessment Task 1: Critical Analysis
Critically analyse system and policy evaluation tools that are relevant to your context. Include consideration of ethical and ecclesial obligations, as well as perspectives for First Nations peoples.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Strategic Action Plan De...
Assessment Task 2: Strategic Action Plan
Develop key priority actions to enhance the improvement of your contribution to the system in which you work.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit assists students to understand the policy assemblages and system architectures that govern their professional practice. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks are first introduced so that students can locate those policy frameworks and systems which most directly impact their professional work. Critical perspectives on design and operation of systems are then evaluated. Case studies are employed to explore ethical considerations for policy actors and those who are governed by enacted policy. System architecture is critiqued through ethical and Catholic social teaching lenses. Students then consider possible personal actions that seek to critique, improve, transform the system to the extent they have scope to do so.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the teaching period, comprising directed tasks and self-study.
AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - LEAD LEVEL
On successful completion of this unit, students should have gained evidence towards the following standards:
AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARD FOR PRINCIPALS - LEAD LEVEL
In addition to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers this unit addresses the following Professional Practices: