Hi,

welcome to course EDLS310 Foundations of Pedagogic Leadership!

This course is a joint project by professor Jukka Alava, students in the 2007-2009 cohort of our Master's Degree Programme, myself and YOU.

My name is Mika Risku and I work as the assistant director of the Institute of Educational Leadership and as a project researcher conducting a research programme for the Finnish Ministry of education and Culture on educational leadership in the provision of general education in Finnish municipalities.

As for my role as an assistant director, I am involved in almost everything at our institute. Concerning training offered by our institute otherwise, I am mainly involved with the whole Principal Preparation Programme and with pedagogic and shared leadership in all our programmes.

As for the research programme for the Ministry of Education and Culture, I am conducting a national programme that is examining all the levels of educational leadership in the local provisions of general education in Finland. The the scope of the research programme includes the study of the educational leadership of the Finnish education boards, superintendents, principals, teachers and students with the help of questionnaires, and the study of the change leadership at the municipal, school and classroom level with the help of interviews.

I have been involved with our institute form its very beginning in 1996. I have piloted all the programmes we have had and I have been part of the development and teaching group from the start, too. My working experience in school life consists of 15 years as a secondary school school principal and as a teacher of English and Swedish in secondary and community college education for 10 years.

The course EDLS310 Foundations of Pedagogic Leadership you are going to study is aimed at giving you the basics of pedagogic and shared leadership. The MBA course you are studying was realised with the students in the 2008-2010 cohort of our Master's Degree Programme in the autumn term of 2007 when I was still working as a principal as you can notice during the videoed sessions. So, my scope is very genuinely practice-based which I hope will show in the videos. I also hope that you can dive into the athmosphere we had with the wondersful student group and enjoy the lively dialogues we had during the campus course. If you feel like studying as one of the students in the campus cohort we have succeeded. If you feel like not getting the opportunity to express your opinion do not worry. Both the students and the teacher had the same problem from time to time during the campus course because the dialogue could really get intense, Your virtual cohort and the virtual pltaform are to serve you so that you can reflect on your thinking and get feedback for it.

The way we understand for example pedagogic and shared leadership evolves the whole time so the theory you are advised to study and the scopes you are given for your assignments also evolve the whole time. So, that is something that is updated again and again. And, when you and I are at the end of the present course we will both think a little differently. That is how our thinking and theories develop. At this point, there are two things I would like your to dedicate special consideration to.

1. We live in a Newtonian world where everything is interconnected, ambiguous and unclear, and changes the whole time. Pedagogic leadership is definitely an central part of the core mission of the school i.e. learning. But, in today's context pedagogic leadership is also part of the leadership of every organisations. Organisations need to be able to learn to survive in the present and future worlds. So, pedagogic leadership is an essential part of change leadership.
2. The present course concentrates strogly on teacher leadership as a form of shared leadership. I believe we will keep doing that for a few years more after which the emphasis may fall on student leadership Teacher leadership is a concept that is novel and we know very little about it as we see it today. It is important to concentrate on it during the next couple of years. But, it is only a natural form of shared leadership which we will have to remember. And, as our understanding of shared leadership grows we will start to consider that notion as self-evident. Till then, it is important to open teacher leadership as we do in this course.

I hope you will enjoy the course and benefit from your experiences during the course!

Mika Risku