Artefact 4 - Exploring Trends and Changes in Inclusive Leadership and Education

Having to keep a weekly journal, shared with an instructor and accordingly be graded as an assignment, was a requirement I had never had experienced before. As such, trying to figure out how to more successfully do so, I decided to look for some examples of extensive reflective writing, as to respond to the assignment rubrics (1.1, 1.4). I had the opportunity to review articles, videos, blogs, which, though time-consuming, proved to have "a good return on investment" (1.5, 1.6)! I knew that I could start my very first draft and I decided on doing that every Sunday so as to avoid procrastination as I had a very busy schedule that semester (6.5). The first two weeks kept me quite busy, as I had to study materials, take part in the forum discussions, and attend the Adobe Connect session. Nevertheless, the third week of my course coincided with my having to attend and participate in a conference, representing the association, which involved preparation of my presentation, travelling, and participation. Ryan's (2006) book Inclusive Leadership, my course textbook, was in my handbag throughout the trip and so was my smartphone, keeping me up-to-date with my peers' posts  and responding to them. At that time, I had an "a-ha" moment as I recalled and deeply reflected on the contributions of mobile devices and new technologies--as discussed in MDDE 623 course--providing on-demand learnable moments, either formal, non-formal, or informal, allowing for flexibility and ubiquitous learning opportunities (3.2, 3.3). Sharing what and when needed in the forum discussions and keeping track of the course progress, my journal started to take a new form, a style that complied with the assignment rubrics, especially after Dr Bainbridge's meaningful feedback on my first draft (4.1). 

How I Learned

My participation in a number of group course activities, demonstrated my instructors' inclusive practices which worked as an inspirational model while reflecting on the course materials and building on my own prior knowledge and how this informs my practices. I felt that she taught and led by example! She was the discreet but vigilant observer, always present when her intervention was needed, and always willing to respond to any question or even worry. Some examples shared in the journal include her inviting us to reflect on the word ‘inclusiveness’, thus ‘including’ me in the creation of a word cloud on AnswerGarden, and a Padlet activity to post and share my recollections of a case of exclusion that I had experienced (3.1, 4.8). This activity led me to deep introspection while building my journal, as the following excerpt illustrates...

Analyzing course assignments, our interaction with the content and our take-aways was another important part of my learning while reflecting on the process and writing down my thoughts in the journal. My first assignment involved deciding on which leadership theory "speaks to me", having to choose from a wide variety of Dr Bainbridge's (2015) LiveBinder collection and the second one involved our collaborative presentation of a case study that involves inclusive practices, and if they have been successfully applied. The latter involved the preparation, presentation, and moderation of forum discussions, based on questions that we had to design and deliver as to instigate  participants' interest and engagement.

Both assignments offered so deep introspection on my practices as an educator and the association's president that enriched my journal to a considerable extent. First and foremost, they helped me "find the leader inside me" before proceeding to other leadership roles I may assume. My delving  into theories was a quite demanding process and hard to decide. I felt that I shared characteristics of more than one type. After much introspection, and while balancing my actions between the servant and transformational type, I decided on the latter, as closer to my visions and missions (5.4, 1.7). The following excerpt from my journal elaborates on that. 

With Whom I learned

With regards to the collaborative assignment, it was the one that brought about my own transformation and reflection on this learning journey. Dr Bainbridge suggested our working in groups close to time zones as to facilitate the process and she brought together three Greek students, Maria, Anna, and me to build on a case study relevant to their own context. This unexpected coincidence allowed me to suggest my sharing experiences of my IVLP program and the follow up project implementations with regards to the migrant and refugee population inclusive practices. When I asked Dr Bainbridge's permission to do so and shared some authentic photos of my presentations of disseminating knowledge and experiences from my projects with my colleagues, she was delighted and so were my group members. It would be a great opportunity, based on the course content to share authentic experiences with my peers as well as with the rest of the learning community when presenting the case and moderating the forum discussions (4.3, 4.4) based on the questions we had formulated as to instigate engagement and interest (4.6). The final product was the creation of a video, with the recording of the case study. I was very pleased that I had the opportunity to make good use of a very important part of my personal and professional life, share it with my peers, and further support their practices when time came (4.4, 4.5). Being informed that Maria was recently appointed to a multicultural school and had the opportunity to implement what we had shared, and even provide her colleagues with tips was a valuable moment that filled me with satisfaction and joy!

Other groups' case studies further enriched my journal, as forum discussions in tandem with course materials helped me communicate information and analyze cases in different contexts (5.7). My reflection and metacognition from this process was a source of inspiration that led to my creating a number of materials, such as Prezi presentations on Dyslexia, videos, lesson plans, and a concept map on UDL principles, all shared in the Inclusive Educators' Toolbox, after Dr Bainbridge's encouragement, as aforementioned, and even a course in Canvas that I am still working on, enriching it in content, with regards to my colleagues professional development on the principles for the successful creation of an inclusive lesson plan.

On completion of my 13-week journey and reflection, all in one paper, I felt the need to complete my journal with an introductory and conclusive paragraph, conveying as much as I could of this wonderful learning experience. I could open my journal with nothing less than a hearty welcome and close it with another creation, a schema and a prezi presentation displaying all core values discussed throughout the course. 

This artefact, completed at a very good time of my studies in this program along with my instructor's support, thoughtfulness, and favorable comments throughout the process were very influential in my progress in this program. Some time before the completion of the course, Dr Bainbridge posted an announcement sharing the deadlines for submitting an abstract for the AU Graduate Student Research Conference 2018. Having received all these favorable comments on our case study from the learning community and the instructor, it did not take me much to think it through and I promptly asked her if she believed that our case study was good enough to proceed with the process. Her response was more than encouraging, as she shared that she hoped that we would do so and that this was the reason she shared the link!

We submitted the abstract, it was accepted, and, not being able to travel to Canada at that time of the year, we presented virtually on October 14th! Needless to say that our enthusiasm and wonderful collaboration for our presentation, though not required and quite dispersely located throughout the country, led me to the decision to invite, meet, and co-present with my online peers, Maria and Anna, so that he had the pleasure to meet and share this experience in person!

This is a printscreen from the post that the Faculty of Graduate Studies of Athabasca University shared in social media--Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/fgs.athabascau.ca/

And this was just the beginning. Our collaboration was further enhanced as we had the pleasure to be encouraged by Dr Aga Palalas to present in the WCBL 2019, an experience I will thoroughly elaborate on in Artefact 5.

Being close to my graduation and reflecting on all worth-mentioning takeaways from this artefact, I would say that my participation in all courses taken after this one was much influenced by the knowledge and metacognition gained from this Artefact. More specifically, it had a grounded influence on my choice of creating open modules as part of my instructional design training for the MDDE 604 and MDDE 622 requirements, and it helped me thoroughly study MOOCs and their benefits with regards to Education for All opportunities. Last but not least, it took me to further study MDDE 651 Gender Issues in DE, a course with Dr Bainbridge, that provided me with the opportunity to collaboratively work with Maria once again and a new peer, Amal, and enthusiastically conduct a new survey in a Greek blended learning environment supported by the National Kapodistrian University of Athens that involved our designing questionnaires, conducting interviews, translations into and from both languages--English and Greek--as to share results, recordings (5.10), a paper that presented our research results and limitations (5.6), and the creation of a video!

This is a screenshot of our video presentation.

My reflection on this course materials and my implementations of its core principles never cease to find a new audience. My most recent experience of its implementation took place in March, when a U. S. visitor professor in the Department of Business Administration of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology asked me to help him during his sessions with his quite diverse audience, as it consisted of both Greek and Erasmus students, with mixed abilities and skills in language level as well as cultural awareness. 

All in all, regardless of the paths this experience may lead me to in my professional life, it had a permanent influence on my heart and my mind, asking both of them to find new balances in my educational and personal attitudes and practices.

"Otherness" and "diversity" are an indispensable part of pluralism and innovation.

The following image and the quote by Pablo Casak, a Spanish cellist and conductor, depict my reflections as shared in my journal (Retrieved and adapted from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002325/232555e.pdf)