Global demands and threats present us with moral challenges in our daily lives. To address them we need leadership that takes us forward. While it does not provide a neat formula of what to do, leadership counts. It can present and nurture meaning, value and purpose. It can also map out what we can do as individuals and organisations to become leaders of the future.

The first international conference on educational leadership held in Malta attracted over 300 delegates, including over 80 participants from 23 other countries and five keynote speakers. Over 75 papers were presented covering areas such as leadership and school improvement, leadership as learning, dimensions of leadership, the professional development of school leaders, distributed leadership, leadership for social justice, governance, mentoring and peer observation.

The conference, run by the Malta Society for Educational Administration and Management with the support of the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, the European Commission's Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning and other institutions and agencies, came at an opportune moment, given the way education is evolving on the island.

Opening the conference, Education Minister Dolores Cristina spoke of a world that supports what she describes as "intense individualism" where selfish and self-servicing means are often used to achieve ends that are hostile to community values and the common good. She observed that educational leaders and teachers have a particular responsibility to ensure that students in their care receive education and learning experiences that help transform their lives so that they can break the bonds imposed by such forces and contribute to the common good.

Educational leaders need to be socially and educationally responsible, to create the conditions within their schools that challenge students to see the bigger picture and to want to make a difference in their own lives and in the larger community. Effective educational leaders have an ethical responsibility to optimise learning opportunities and outcomes for their students by helping create organisational learning environments that are visionary, authentic, ethical, strategic, people-centred and motivational, Minister Cristina concluded.

School heads and leaders are the most important variable in bringing about school improvement. Successful schools are led by successful leaders. Considered to be the key factor to the success of schools, various initiatives are being undertaken around the world to prepare potential and serving school heads to provide increasing development opportunities to empower them to do their job.

What does it take to create and nurture effective schools? While we may seek stability and desire uniformity, especially when a school is doing well, we need a wider range of alternative school models and a change of management to help schools that are facing particular challenges.

Schools everywhere are beginning to break the shackles of traditional management models. Emphasis is on more collegial approaches and ways of working. Instead of focusing on the individual head - as the superman model for development - we tap the potential of other educators. As part of a process of school improvement, staff as well as management, have begun to embrace the idea of 'leadership of the many'.

In Malta, the 2006 Education Act led to the creation of colleges as networks of learning, so that they may identify their own needs and propose a way forward to tackle them. What may be required is new governance and financial structures that would help the school community and equip them with the powers and resources to make a difference. The challenge now is that principals and heads must share power for teachers to lead and learn.

The conference showed how school leaders who support teacher leaders by building positive relationships, distributing power and authority, and aligning teacher leadership with teacher learning have left an impact on teacher, student and community engagement, and student achievement.

Co-leadership, empowerment, and teacher leadership emphasise the need for relationships that are crucial to ensure community, and the conference explored ways of engaging teachers in collaborative practice that leads to improved practice, and enhanced levels of teacher engagement and empowerment.

It is clear that creating an environment that nurtures and supports teacher leaders and leads to their success takes time. But whenever you have people involved in the process of becoming leaders you end up with a better climate, better decisions and more support for decisions.

This conference proved an excellent opportunity for those who have recently read for their Master's degree to present their project or dissertation. We aim to start publishing and disseminating their work and findings which will provide platforms for discussion and debate within our colleges.

Minister Cristina stated educational leaders in the 21st century need to devise new and creative ways of ensuring that teachers and other educators with many years of experience are continuously challenged and actively engaged in their own personal and professional development. Many with long years of experience can become stale and complacent if they are not constantly encouraged and supported to be reflective and creative practitioners.

Both newly-appointed and experienced school leaders need to be engaged in systematic programmes of learning that respect their experience and capabilities, and integrate the needs of the particular college/school, system and context in which they serve.

In his concluding address, Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli argued that while "a love for learning is a personal affair situations can be created that are contagious and others will gladly follow if provided with the opportunities to grow in unthreatening circumstances".

What comes out strongly from this conference, and one that encourages us on in our endeavours, is that effective educational leaders both locally and internationally have an ethical responsibility to optimise learning opportunities and outcomes for their students. They can do so by helping create organisational learning environments that are visionary, authentic, ethical, strategic, people-centred and motivational.

Dr Bezzina is director of the Quality Assurance Department, Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education.Christopher Bezzina.

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