Quest for innovative political and strategic leadership of Thai education system reform
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Have we ever had trustworthy and truly capable education leadership? By this, I mean the type of leader who has a great vision, a solid knowledge and a practical approach to changing the country's educational services for the better.
If the answer is yes, I’d like to know who the person is.
Looking at the country’s educational quality and improvement, I personally think that Thailand has never seen a hero championing education for a long time. What we’ve received are conventional scholars and policymakers who think inside the box.
The country is in need of political and strategic leadership to drive new and better alternatives for education.
New strategic leaders may come from within the educational system or from another field. It’s their vision and their ability to drive effective change that counts. A background in education may be an advantage, but not a must.
I would like to challenge you to find an outstanding strategic leader for education. Accordingly, please help me answer the following questions:
Who can become a strategic leader for education?
What kind of people are they?
What are the attributes and characteristics of strategic leadership in education?
Why is strategic leadership so crucial for educational reform?
During the past two decades, we have seen rapid education reform across the globe and not all of it has proved successful. Nevertheless, global evidence has shown that successful reform relies on new, energetic and visionary political or strategic leaders.
System stability can come from either a political or a strategic leader, according to McKinsey’s “How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better” report by Mona Mourshed, Chinezi Chijioke, and Michael Barber.
The report examined the common attributes of high-performing school systems in identifying what the best transformative and successful reforms have in common.
The researchers affirmed “The role of new leadership is a common and particularly important pattern in igniting school-system reforms” as well as “The political leader is understandably motivated to bring in a new strategic leader to jump-start a reform process”.
It does not matter who these new leaders are and where they come from, but they must systematically drive progress in reform.
Strategic leadership is a long-term planner who establishes a systematic problem-solving procedure, maintains effective systems, allocates reasonable budgets and resources, and effectively communicates their vision.
According to the Ontario Leadership Framework, successful school-system reforms are driven by political and strategic leaders who have good problem-solving skills, identify problems, articulate principles and values to clearly identify goals and obstacles, develop efficient work processes, and stay calm and confident in the face of challenges.
Moreover, a leader should have knowledge about school and classroom conditions that directly affect learning such as technical, rational, emotional, organisational and family conditions.
To execute nationwide reform, the strategic leader should be proactive in being able to stimulate and effectively manage change on a large scale under complex circumstances as well as show initiative and perseverance in bringing about meaningful change.
While the McKinsey report states “The stability of reform direction is critical to achieving the quick gains in student outcomes outlined above”, it also suggests the leaders take advantage of changing circumstances – such as a socio-economic crisis – to ignite reform.
Thailand has been struggling with political and economic crises. So, opportunities have emerged for strategic leaders to step forward and sell their vision.
Also, it is time to engage the public or all stakeholders in the efforts to change education for the better. In doing so, there are three key aspects that system leaders must incorporate into their roadmap for reform.
First, they must identify “the point where the system currently stands according to student outcomes” – what the report calls the performance stage.
Then there is the intervention cluster – the set of necessary interventions that improve student outcomes.
Finally, there is the contextualisation of these interventions, when system leaders must take into account “the history, culture, politics, and structure of the school system and the nation”.
But first and foremost, we must find energetic and visionary leaders who will drive education for a better future.
Priyakorn Pusawiro, Dr - Ing.
Learning scientist, Computer Engineering Department
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
