"When I was nominated to participate in the Educational Leadership Course, I was initially a bit surprised. Isn't this course only meant for education directors and education deans? Am I senior enough for this? However, the brochure and the pleasant matching interview with the programme supervisors quickly convinced me that with my broad teaching experience, University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) and new role as programme chair of the master's programmes Communication and Influence and Global Communication and Diversity, I had sufficient teaching baggage for the course. Moreover, it seemed like a great opportunity to further develop and professionalise my competences in educational leadership."
Leading change processes from an educational perspective
"In the course, various aspects of leadership come up. In these, we as participants have a lot of say. For instance, we talked about developing an educational vision (not only in general, but also for our own courses) and about leading change processes. Think of using appreciative inquiry, where you ask critical questions from an appraising approach. We also reflected on educational themes such as different ways of giving effective feedback and different ways of testing: what works well, what works less well and why? Which way should we go with our programme, our faculty, our university?
In revising the curriculum of our Dutch-language master's specialisation in Communication and Influence, I had the difficult task of not only mapping, but above all bringing together the sometimes quite divergent suggestions from lecturers, professors and expert group leaders about this programme. You also want to listen carefully to students in the programme committee, on open days and in national student/alumni surveys. The course taught me more about how to lead such a change process, how to make a force field analysis and how to enthuse others about your change plans. This proved to be very useful.
What this course has brought me is more confidence in myself as an (emerging) educational leader. For now as an education chair, but who knows in what role after that. One of the themes we discussed in the apprenticeship is Recognition & Appreciation: how the university should not only recognise and reward results in the field of research, but certainly just as much efforts and achievements in the field of education.
What this course has also brought me is more confidence in myself as an (emerging) educational leader. For now as an education chair, but who knows in what role after that. One of the themes we discuss in the apprenticeship is Recognition & Appreciation: how the university should not only recognise and reward results in the field of research, but certainly just as much efforts and achievements in the field of education. We brainstorm on how the university can move towards a learning culture that focuses on and actively encourages learning, growth and knowledge sharing. That means encouraging teaching careers alongside research careers, development paths to grow both horizontally and vertically in the field of education, and appointing professors specialising in education. These seem like wonderful goals to pursue."
Working on your own practical assignment
"What I find extremely valuable is the combination of well-known guest speakers, educational books and leadership literature, colleagues from different faculties who are also passionate about education and regular peer review on educational or leadership issues we encounter. You gain so many insights that you can immediately apply in concrete terms. In fact, all participants carry out an individual innovative educational project - in my case, the revision of our master's curriculum. The continuous interaction between theory and practice ensures that the course offers both a lot of substantive depth and also transcends the theoretical.
For me, having a directing role in education is about not just about having a leading role, but about taking that role. That you develop an educational vision. In doing so, it is crucial that you reflect on the education you oversee. Especially on the match between the goals and attainment levels of your curriculum, the content and coherence of the courses you offer, the expertise and competences of the teachers you have in house, as well as the wishes and expectations of students.
I would recommend the course to anyone. Although it is an intensive programme that requires quite some time (not only because of the eight two-day meetings, but also because of the preparatory work and your ongoing educational innovation project), you get so much in return. New insights, new connections and even an international study trip to see what is happening across borders in university education! For me, it was already more than worth the time investment - and we are only halfway there."