The Centre for Research in Education in Asia (CREA), part of the University of Bath's Department of Education, is delivering Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training to Senior educational leaders and policy implementers across India, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), and the British Council in India.
Funded by the British Council in India as a global partnership initiative, the CPD project is titled Leading Change Management in Educational Systems.
Aims of the project
The CPD project, led by Dr Meng Tian (the Principal Investigator), Prof Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen (Director of CREA) and Professor Andrea Abbas (Co-Director), brings together educational leadership specialists from India’s Department of Education and the British Educational Leadership Management & Administration Society (BELMAS).
The aim is to build a project with key learning outcomes for developing competence in setting change strategies, designing change processes, leading professionals, managing emotions and resistance, institutionalising change in organisational cultures and assessing change effectiveness. The project started on 26 August 2021 and will end by December 2022.
Learning outcomes will also include the creation and compilation of a learning portfolio with training materials, learning diaries, action research along with school visit materials. Participants will have professional networking opportunities with trainers, UK educational leaders and policy implementers.
A strong start
In her opening session with the various groups of specialists, Dr Tian emphasised that the training project “is not a one-dimensional delivery course, but a collaborative endeavour with local specialists to understand changes in different geopolitical settings. We are committed to decolonising curricula and aligning training to participants’ professional development needs”.
Continuing, Dr Tian added that “we respect participants’ expertise as education leaders and policy implementers in their local contexts. Using our extensive local networks with hospitality, local education authorities, schools, and professional associations, we aim to deliver the most cost-effective and impactful programme”.
The training project will conclude with an action research project from each participant. This will enable the participants to obtain a CPD certificate issued by CREA.