Citizen Leader Lab

Vision: 

Leadership that builds a better future for ALL

Mission:

• Develop leaders who can catalyse positive change in their institutions, communities, and broader society
• Facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration to strengthen connections and partnerships across boundaries
• Create opportunities for active citizenship
• Engage with key public sectors, with education being a critical focus area.  

Purpose:

To develop conscious leadership that builds social cohesion, uplifts communities, and works towards achieving a just society

Values: 

• We have Quality Relationships as the foundation for Trust
• We have Energizing adult to adult relationships
• We take Personal Accountability for everything we do
• We show Radical Respect to our colleagues and clients
• We have a culture of Abundance and Generosity
• We are Professional in everything we do

The team leader is the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Lead of the organisation. She is involved in the design of the MERL for all the products/programmes of the organisation as well as for conducting research in the organisation. Her role entails:

• Guiding and overseeing the work of MERL staff and monitoring their progress, productivity and achievements. 
• Leading the preparation of funder reports and writing annual reports.
• Leading the updating of the theory of change for all the programmes in the organisation. 
• Leading internal and external evaluations and ensuring timely and accurate input. 
• Updating the MERL tools (surveys/questionnaires) and overseeing the data collection process and data analysis. 
• Writing research funding proposals.
• Publishing journal articles and presenting research data at national and international conferences.

Research and impact studies are part of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) team`s core focus and the LEAP project falls within the MERL role. The team regularly conducts nationwide impact evaluation studies to measure the efficacy of the PfP programme and the LEAP Project will be another aspect of this.  

Additionally, the MERL team members have previous research experience and are dedicated to improving the programme to ensure that we add value to the people we serve. The MERL team have published articles in the field of education and leadership development, and have presented the outcomes of the programme at various national and international conferences. The MERL Lead is part of a learning cooperative with members from various organisations employed in various roles who connect weekly to share challenges, skills and best practices.

The MERL team primarily works remotely with flexible schedules for meetings and collaboration sessions. The LEAP project will be an extension of these collaboration sessions.

Transformational leadership development and support for school principals in under-resourced communities in South Africa 

The success of every school depends on effective leadership by school principals as well as parental and community involvement in the school. Effective leadership contributes to an improved education system, in which principals are key change agents.

Transformational leadership in schools is pivotal and is associated with setting the vision and direction of the school. Transformational leaders are change-orientated; form collaborations; build relationships; inspire others; foster mutual support; are good communicators and listeners; are considerate, are supportive and participatory in their leadership; and have a high regard for teamwork. All of these are important for forming positive relationships with teachers, students and parents and achieving school improvement. 

Many South African public schools experience challenges in the classroom that are amplified by the socio-economic realities of the community. Challenges such as poverty, malnutrition, child-headed households, limited access to healthcare, crime, and violence, all negatively impact a child’s ability to learn. Principals need skills, tools, networks and support to deal with these challenges and to mobilise educators, parents and community members to better support learners to be successful.   

To address the needs that South African principals have, Citizen Leader Lab facilitates the Partners for Possibility (PfP) programme to provide transformational leadership development and support to school principals serving under-resourced communities in South Africa.

The Partners for Possibility programme was initiated in 2010 to provide transformational leadership development and support to principals. Members of the business community are invited to partner with a principal over a 12-month period and are supported through the experience of applying new skills and knowledge in their individual schools.

Underpinning the PfP programme is Asset Based Community Development, which empowers community leaders - namely principals - to drive the work needed to transform schools. The PfP programme is an effective framework wherein the principal brings his/her deep knowledge of education and the specific challenges of the surrounding community, and experienced business leaders lend their skills, social capital and hands-on input to develop and support schools in tackling these challenges.

Partnerships (dyads consisting of a school principal and a business leader) are grouped into clusters of 8-10 schools to allow for peer and co-learning. Unlike many leadership development programmes, the PfP programme offers peer learning as opposed to mentoring, which is normally a one-way learning process. The peer learning enables principals to learn from each other as well as from business partners in the circle.

Each circle is supported by an experienced Learning Process Facilitator (a trained and experienced coach), who facilitates regular meetings in which both partners share knowledge, experiences and good practice. Learning Process Facilitators (LPFs) support the growth of each individual and partnership through professional coaching. The LPFs help principals to unlock new possibilities and allow them to find their own solutions, rather than being told what to do. Furthermore, coaching has been shown to be a significant element of continuing professional development for principals and teachers.

The PfP programme design is based on the 70:20:10 model, where about 10% of learning comes from formal training in the form of three workshops with transformational leadership elements. Twenty percent of learning takes place through social learning – whereby participants gain new knowledge and insights through their engagement with other leaders from their cluster. Most of the learning that occurs (around 70%) is experiential learning, which happens as the participants work together to identify, prioritise and tackle challenges in their respective schools. It is well-known that people learn best from experiences. Principals and their business partners implement projects that generate tangible and intangible benefits such as infrastructure and equipment upgrades, as well as staff development.

Citizen Leader Lab provides additional support to school principals through the School Leadership Forum which offers monthly interactive talks and panel discussions by well-known speakers on a wide range of education and leadership-related topics. These sessions consist of topics such as instructional leadership, functional literacy and information and communication technology.  Principals also have the opportunity to engage on the online platform where they share knowledge, successes and challenges; and collaborate around best practices. 

School principals leading schools in under-resourced communities

1. Foundational research (literature reviews, desktop research)

• Ten academic research studies were conducted by postgraduate students on the efficacy and impact of the PfP programme. 
• A retrospective study by an independent organisation was conducted in 2014.
• Two independent external evaluations that involved desktop research were conducted. The first external evaluation was conducted in 2016 as part of an independent validation of the PfP programme and its effectiveness. The second external evaluation was a 3-year longitudinal evaluation from 2018 - 2021. This was done to study the outcomes of the PfP programme, the effects of the programme on student outcomes as well as the cost-effectiveness of the programme.
• Citizen Leader Lab writes annual reports which also involve reviewing existing literature and doing desktop research.

2. Formative research (feasibility studies; case studies; user interviews; implementation studies; pre-post research)

• As part of a feasibility study, interviews were conducted at the start of the PfP programme in 2010 to gauge the level of need for and interest in the programme.
• Mid-way through the PfP journey of each cluster, evaluation is done by administering surveys to measure the quality of the implementation of the programme.
• A case study on behalf of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) was conducted in 2019.
• Periodically, detailed case studies of various partnerships that represent a range of socio-economic and demographic scenarios are conducted.  
• Interviews were conducted with participants for Citizen Leader Lab's pilot programme called School for Community. School for Community is the second year programme of PfP.
• A feasibility study was conducted in 2022 for a new funder. Focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted. 
• At the end of the 12-month facilitated PfP programme, participants in each cluster are asked to complete an evaluation survey and take part in a closing interview to measure changes in their leadership styles before and after the programme. 

3. Summative research (e.g. correlational studies; randomized control studies; longitudinal study)

• In 2014, JET Education Services conducted a retrospective study of the programme.
• An independent evaluator conducted interviews to study the effectiveness of PfP.
• JET Education Services conducted a 3-year longitudinal study (2018-2021) and used randomised control methodology to study the influence of the programme on student outcomes. 

Two independent external evaluations and a few academic research studies concluded that the PfP programme was well implemented and well received by the school principals and schools. These studies showed that PfP significantly improved the principals’ confidence, skills and competence. This in turn led to more cohesive and effective school management teams and an increase in teacher motivation and engagement at school. 

The studies also reported that the principals are involving the parents and community more often in the activities of the school. This leads to greater community involvement and more parental engagement in the school, e.g. more parents are attending parent-teacher meetings and other school events. Community members avail themselves to be part of school committees and are volunteering at the school, including being involved in the maintenance of the school and guarding the school to prevent burglaries. This has resulted in a reduction in school vandalism. Furthermore, there is more social capital at the school through partnership with the business leaders and other principals in the cluster. 

The retrospective evaluation in 2014 carried out in a cohort of PfP schools in one of the nine provinces in South Africa found evidence that student academic outcomes were higher in PfP schools compared to the control schools. The research team hypothesised that this may be due to the implementation of reading programmes in the PfP schools as a result of the participation of business leaders. 

As part of a 3-year external longitudinal evaluation (2018- 2021), student outcomes were again reviewed. However, the comparison of student outcomes at baseline to endline was constrained because the student testing was conducted in a small number of schools that were involved in the PfP programme, and the same students were not followed-up over time. Moreover, COVID-19 had a significant impact on student outcomes and the ability of researchers to follow-up on the students. This evaluation gave us an indication that we need more evidence to prove a correlation between the programme and student academic outcomes.

Collectively, these studies also made us realise that we need to start incorporating input from other members of the school community in our programme evaluations, i.e. school management team (SMT) members and school governing body (SGB), educators, parents and community members. 

Many studies have shown that leadership behaviour is essential for positive school outcomes. A few studies have shown that transformational leadership has indirect effects on student academic achievement, while meta-analysis studies that were conducted by Chin (2007) in Taiwan and the USA, as well as Ertem (2021) in Turkey found that transformational leadership had a positive effect on school effectiveness, teacher satisfaction, and student academic outcomes. 

The recent study conducted by Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2021 revealed that 81% of South African children aged 9 to 10 years (Grade 4) cannot read for meaning. This distressing finding highlights the need for more interventions to improve literacy among children, to introduce more reading programmes at school as well as to support students to improve their academic outcomes.

Over its thirteen years of existence, internal and external evaluations of the PfP programme have shown that it has a significant impact on school leadership and the overall effective functioning of schools. During internal evaluations of the PfP programme, participants indicate a link between the programme and student academic outcomes. However, PfP's impact on student academic outcomes has not conclusively been shown during external evaluations. The three-year longitudinal study (2018-2021) conducted by JET Educational Services to investigate the correlation between the PfP programme and student academic outcomes was hampered by COVID-19 restrictions and the sample size of the study. Therefore, currently there is a need to further explore the influence of the PfP programme on student academic outcomes. 

Furthermore, given the fact that PfP participants focus on implementing literacy and reading programmes, and that Citizen Leader Lab provides instructional leadership and functional literacy sessions to support principals in improving literacy rates, the need to expand and scale up the PfP programme is imperative. 

1. What is the impact of the Partners for Possibility (PfP) programme for school principals on the academic outcomes of students?

2. How does the PfP programme for school principals influence teachers` approach to teaching and learning in the classroom?

3. How does the PfP programme for school principals influence parents’ engagement in their children’s learning?

A literature review that can assist in developing, informing and enhancing our theory of change.

A conceptual framework to demonstrate the link between the PfP programme for effective school leadership and student learning outcomes.

An impact study design which will include a quasi-experimental study design involving a select number of PfP and non-PfP schools to test the hypothesis.  

A data collection plan that will include interviews with principals, teachers, students and parents. We have chosen this group of participants because previous literature reviews, as well as internal and external PfP programme evaluations have shown that students perform better academically when teachers are motivated and enthusiastic about their work, and when parents play an active role by helping with school homework and attending meetings with teachers about the progress of the child. School principals are also key in fostering good academic results by ensuring that the school environment is clean, safe and conducive to teaching and learning. 

A data analysis plan which provides recommendations on how the data collected can be analysed.

The organisation will use these outputs to conduct an impact study on the correlation between the PfP programme for school leaders and student academic outcomes. In 2024, we will start launching leadership clusters (cohorts) that consist of eight to ten different schools from different provinces throughout South Africa. We will identify non-PfP programme schools in the same provinces with the same demographics and similar academic records. We will design interview schedules, a field plan and draft a budget. A suitable data analysis plan will be identified. After conducting the impact study, we will write a report and disseminate it to the organisation, funders, participants and other partner organisations. 

If a positive correlation is found between student academic outcomes and the PfP programme, then the findings will be used to enhance our theory of change with the ultimate aim of testing academic outcomes for students in future.

Short-term: 

We will conduct an impact study and revise our theory of change. We will raise awareness of our findings - particularly if there is a positive correlation between student academic outcomes and the PfP programme. 

We will present the findings at national and international conferences. We will also publish the findings in national and international academic journals. We will write newspaper articles, and share the findings on blogs and on our social media platforms. 

Long-term: 

The findings of the impact study will assist to facilitate scaling in more rural areas of South Africa as well as across the African continent. We will recommend that transformational leadership development training becomes mandatory for all South African school principals and that they take part in the PfP programme. The impact study will support Citizen Leader Lab`s partnership with the education department in South Africa as well as with other organisations who seek to understand the impact of the programme on student learning outcomes.

We will collaborate with international organisations that do similar work, especially African-based organisations such as VVOB and the African Centre for School Leadership. 

The findings of the impact study will be used to further increase the credibility of the PfP programme and we will use it to mobilise government, business and other organisations` financial and human resources to support programme expansion.

As part of Citizen Leader Lab's internal evaluation, we aim to test academic outcomes for students in future and also update our internal evaluation tools.