The pandemic has emphasised the importance of social-emotional learning and emotional intelligence for educators. As a result, Matthew Borg’s institution has established three main principles around empowerment leadership: self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and doing the right work.
Creating a positive space for students to learn and grow
Nick: This is really inspiring when you first told me that, I think you've recorded video, and you've taken photos for me, and I'm like, wow, this is someone who's really made an effort to, rather than just being inspired by the idea, you've taken this knowledge, you've tested it, you've put it into your school system, and you're getting your educators to identify their ikigai, share it.
So I guess that's also a reminder every day, they see that it might offer some comfort or inspiration every time they see it. So let's let's dive deeper into how you've integrated ikigai into your professional life as a principal and leader, do you want to go a bit deeper on how you've done all that?
Matthew: So over the past four years, and particularly through the pandemic, where social emotional learning and emotional intelligence has been a real priority for our whole community of educators across the globe, really. What we've done is tried to flip the script on learning innovation and education settings, to be able to ensure that everyone has skin in the game as a leader of learning within our environment. And that goes for our wonderful staff, and amazing students, and also our parents.
So really empowering everyone within our community to understand that they can take charge to lead learning for themselves and for others within our positive environment. So we do that by establishing three main principles around empowerment leadership, and they are self efficacy, which is the first one so it's actually understanding and realization of self and this is where ikigai can come in, and really aids in the concept of understanding self.
The second one is collective efficacy. So being able to collectively be positive and understanding that every day we come to school to make a positive impact on the lives of others, and be able to serve them and empower them to be the very best people they can be in the world moving forward, regardless of what that world looks like.
And then the third one is really about doing the right work. So you need the first two to be able to understand and actually funnel down into what is most important at that particular point in time for every single learner in our environment. So we can do the right work in supporting and scaffolding learning experiences for our students.
But also as much as as an educational leader and a system leader in education, I need to be able to do that for the adults as well in the rooms that the teachers that support staff, the administration staff, to be able to scaffold a concept of empowerment of how that actually looks within our school.
And then how do we measure that, so put in place different sort of checkpoints for measurement, both informal and formal, that can actually curate an environment of nurturing and curiosity and real positive space for students to learn and grow.