Shifting Roles in the 21st Century

The 2010 special report, A Vision for 21st Century Education, by the Premier's Technology Council of British Columbia highlights what is needed for school systems to transform in order to properly serve the citizens of today's knowledge-based society. Although there are a number of very interesting and thoughtful areas discussed in the report, the one that resonated with me the most was the section on shifting roles.

The report discussed the shift that is currently happening and what needs to further shift regarding the roles of the three main stakeholders in education: students, teachers and parents. It suggests that students need to continue to evolve from that of a passive student to an active learner, taking responsibility and ownership for much of their own learning.  This includes both formal and informal learning. Technology affords this in many ways for students, allowing them access to information at almost any time from almost anywhere. In fact, according to a 2007 Cisco study, school was the place where youth were the most disconnected from technology.

The argument is made that not only are these students capable of using the technology in their learning, but are likely eager to integrate it into their own learning.

The role of the teacher moving from a lecturer to a guide is well underway in many of today's classrooms. Unfortunately, this is more often the case in elementary classrooms than in secondary classrooms. There are a myriad of reasons for this, including the intensity of the curriculum, diploma examinations and university applications to name a few. In my opinion, these are just excuses and the reasons more often lie with the teachers' inabilities to adjust their own teaching. This isn't always a result of a poor teacher. Sometimes, a teacher may be passionate about the subject material and they feel that the best way to get that passion across to their students is to lecture them on the topics. Often, the curriculum itself is one of the main culprits. As new curricula is being developed and rolled out, there becomes less of a focus on specific knowledge and more focus on skills and understandings of concepts. Technology plays a part in this role transformation by providing teachers more tools to help students learn and to differentiate their learning to the benefit of all students. The role of the teacher focuses less on direction and instruction and more on the learning coach or guide.

However, the one that stood out as being a bit different from much of the other literature is that of the changing role of the parent. The Premier's Technology Council points out that parents are (and need to continue) moving from strictly supporters of their child's education to an active participant in it. Technology allows for greater access to information about their child's attendance, assignments, and progress. Whether this be through online portals of the school division's school information system (SIS) or simply through email contact with their child's teacher. When I was teaching in the classroom five years ago, I saw firsthand the impact that email contact with parents could have, as it is quick and non-intrusive. The role of parents outside of the school walls is also recognized, as students are only in school for a portion of the time and learning can occur anywhere and at anytime.

As leaders, we need to embrace these changing roles in our own systems and encourage and support our stakeholders so that they can begin to make this shift or move further to completing this shift.

Of these three shifting roles, which do you see as the most difficult one to make? Why?

Cisco Systems Inc. (2007). Equipping every learner for the 21st century. Retreived Oct. 8, 2011 from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socio-economic/docs/GlobalEdWP.pdf.

Premier's Technology Council. (2010). A vision for 21st century education. Vancouver, BC: Premier's Technology Council.

School Leadership in the 21st Century

The role of administration in schools is changing, as students and schools themselves are changing. It was not too long ago, that the role of school administrator was primarily a managerial job, in charge of the day to day business of the school. The principal was in charge of the school’s budget, discipline and the hiring of teachers an other staff. Although this is still a part of the position, it has become a small part, with a more important focus being that of an instructional leader. This alone is not entirely new, as Stonge wrote in 1993 about the role of administrator is that of an educational leader, a combination of manager and instructional leader. What is changing, however, is what an instructional leader looks like, in a 21st century school.


What is important to understand is that the majority of our schools, although they are all in the 21st century, have not adopted the principles of 21st century teaching, as outlined by Friesen & Lock (2010). A 21st century leader combines the skills and competencies of 21st century learning with digital technologies. Either of these alone is not effective to be an educational leader with today’s students. As a leader, administrators must model and encourage (for both their teachers and their students) such things as creativity, collaboration and ethical citizenship. They must foster and use effective assessment techniques. They must build and maintain structures (both physical and the way classes are set up) that not only allow for but encourage teaching and learning to follow 21st century competencies.


This is a difficult feat in the current situation in Alberta schools. The economic situation is causing teacher layoffs and larger class sizes, yet the demands are being put on the principal to give students greater access to digital technologies, often requiring heavy investments. Adding to this, is the mindshift that is required by teachers to change the way that they are teaching (or how their students are learning) and for parents to accept that this shift from the way that they were taught and are familiar with (“It worked for me, why change it?”) is okay and better for their children, as they learn differently than their parents.


Regardless of the obstacles that make this difficult, as school leaders, we owe it to our students to lead our schools in their transformations to 21st century schools.

Friesen, S., & Lock, J. (2010). High Performing Districts in the Application of 21st Century Learning Technologies. Edmonton, AB. College of Alberta School Superintendents.
Stronge, J.H. (1993). Defining the principalship: Instructional leader or middle manager?NASSP Bulletin, 77(553), 1-7