Working with parents, entrepreneurship education and professional development – we have held a webinar of the Academy of Effective School Management

Interaction with students’ parents/guardians and stakeholders is an integral part of each school’s activities. How to work with them as efficiently as possible in order to provide for high-quality student education and develop the institution? This issue as well as the issues of entrepreneurship education at school and teacher professional development were covered during the 4^th webinar of the 3^d module of the Academy of Effective School Management held by Ari Pokka on 30 June.

This article contains key ideas of each topic discussed during the webinar. 

Working with parents/guardians: opportunities and challenges

According to Ari Pokka, it is often challenging to work with parents/guardians as they carry memories of their own school time with them, superimposing them on their children’s experiences. It is therefore important to explain to parents/guardians that the school as a whole as well as some school culture approaches have been changing. The same applies to teachers: if they are «stuck» in their own perception of the school, it will be hard for them to perceive the reality and develop. 

In Finland, parents/guardians are partners of the school in many processes. Home-school cooperation is based on open and equal interaction and mutual respect. It is diverse. Together with parents/guardians, a local curriculum is drawn up. The cooperation also takes into account the diversity and individuality of families.

At the primary school level in Finland, the key elements of the interaction between the school and parents/guardians can be summarized as follows:

• most of the communication is implemented through a web-based system Wilma;
• assessment discussions are mandatory;
• parents’ evenings are usually held 1-2 times a year;
• the principal informs parents/guardians about school events and possible incidents;
• most of primary schools have a guardians’ board, it’s a non-political advisory group that helps school organize events and sometimes a fundraising.

At the high school level, the situation is a bit different: 

• parents/guardians are widely used as experts of working-life, non-govenrmental activities etc.;
• parents’/guardians’ information evenings are part of annual practices;
• a parents’/guardians’ board is optional, but some schools invite parent/guardian representatives to take a part in schools working groups;
• parents/guardians can be asked easily to support school development or help in critical situations.

Ari Pokka emphasizes that it is worth clarifying the roles of parents/guardians – to support their children. They are not specialists in education and are not trained to become such. When communicating with parents/guardians, teachers should also talk about positive aspects and situations at school and avoid focusing on the negative ones. 

Working with stakeholders

When working with stakeholders (partners, organizations, companies, other educational institutions, etc.), the school must offer equal opportunities to different organizations, advises Ari Pokka. It is unethical to favor organizations or collaborators. At the same time, the activities of third parties must support the realization of the objectives of the curriculum.

For example, in Finland, during national or local elections, high schools organize political discussions. However, representatives of all parties are invited to participate in them – there could be no favourite system.

In addition, in Finland, cooperation between schools and stakeholders outside the school is always carried out without financial agreements – this is regulated by ethics regulations of the Finnish National Agency. 

When working with stakeholders, it is important to decide together the ways and limits of collaboration. Such activities expand teachers and students’ understanding of learning environments and deepen their motivation. The school is always responsible for operations, while stakeholders take care of the content. Working with out-of-school stakeholders could be also an excellent in-service training for teachers and principals.

Today, most of the students do not need any more theoretical knowledge-based information. Because of that, these out-of-school programs should be practical. Ari Pokka encourages teachers to be innovative and use local, national and international networks, the collaboration with which can help students learn new things and develop school activities. 

Entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship studies at school have become one of the symbols of the Finnish education system development. This new direction for schools focused on the need to train entrepreneurs, especially in high school. With each step, teachers realized that the study of entrepreneurship is a question of the general attitude that students can express in everything they do. 

In accordance with the Finnish core curriculum, when studying entrepreneurship, a student of grades 1-9 must:

• develop skills that promote interest and a positive attitude towards work and working life;
• gain experiences that help them understand the importance of work and entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship opportunities, and their own responsibilities as members of the community and society;
• increase their knowledge of working life, become aware of the entrepreneurial approach and realize the importance of their skills for their own career;
• receive support in identifying their own professional interests and choosing postgraduate studies. 

Ari Pokka advises to create a school team that will develop entrepreneurial projects and programs. You can invite local companies to a planning session – they are usually willing to participate. It is worth making a detailed plan and thinking about how it will be implemented in different classes. Local cooperation between schools plays an important role, as the ability of enterprises to accommodate students is limited.

Here are some general ideas that are usual in Finland:

• collaborative learning and entrepreneurial attitude to school activities;
• small project-based learning inside and outside of school;
• visiting of local companies;
• teachers’ working life presentations;
• mothers and fathers’ working life experience.

In high school, you can provide for a career guidance week and organize classes so that students learn about opportunities and trends in the professional life development, its international and global prospects. This will allow them to imagine their own future and further training, to form an idea of what skills they will need in the future.

In particular, it is worth attracting consultants. Professional life and entrepreneurship are closely linked to career counseling. One of the main ideas is to encourage students to better understand their capacities and build their own vision of higher education studies and working life.

Here are some high school practices that Ari Pokka told us about:

• participation in the national entrepreneurial contest, thematic conferences and events;
• continuous visits to schools and businesses;
• summer jobs for students as part of the curriculum;
• school own mentor program.

Teachers also need training to successfully teach entrepreneurship. With this in mind, opportunities could be offered for teachers to attend local companies as part of in-service teacher training courses.

Ari Pokka is sure that studying entrepreneurship at school creates additional benefits. This includes a positive school climate, active life, interesting new contacts and learning content, and sometimes even additional funding.

Professional development

Professional development is important both at the school and personal levels. 

At the school level, you can collect all the ideas for the development of your institution and create working groups in order to work on them together. It is worth making a list of a maximum of 5 areas of development and trying to find several other schools that would like to join the development program.

At the level of personal development, the first step is to make its plan. It is important to remember that development consists not only in strengthening the weakest components, but also in increasing the potential of the strong ones. Working on own development is a personal matter for everyone, but it is recommended to work in pairs so that after a certain time you can get together and share your experience.

About the Academy 

The Academy of Effective School Management is a course for newly appointed principals of general secondary schools (GSS), the key objective of which is to provide for systemic changes in education at the management level. It was developed by the Learning Together project in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Institute of Education Content Modernization, the Ukrainian Institute for Education Development and the State Service of Education Quality.

The program of the course, which was launched in December 2021, is based on the research and modern standards of education management as well as the author’s model for building a successful school developed by Ari Pokka – one of the best-known teachers in Finland, an international educational consultant, the President of the Finnish Association of Principals and the International Confederation of Principals.