 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
You
are here:
Returning to Cambodia
Oct. 2005
From October, 2003 through August, 2004, I conducted leadership development workshops for school principals in Cambodia. My wife and I spent the year in Cambodia as volunteers, and I worked with about 60+ principals from three provinces and Phnom Penh. During that year, the World Bank worked with the Ministry of Education Youth and Sports (MOEYS) to create a comprehensive 5 year education strategic plan. Leadership development for school principals originally was not part of that plan. But, by April of 2004, the WB had sent representatives to the workshops that I was conducting and had determined that including school principals in the reform effort made sense. By December of that year a $30 million grant was awarded to the country to begin implementing the strategic plan. School leadership development was awarded a three year grant.
In January, 2005, the WB and MOEYS sent out "job announcements" for international advisors for a variety of different projects, including school leadership development. It also sought national consultants to be the real leaders of the respective projects. I applied for the position of international advisor and Iv Sarik, the amazing Khmer educator I wrote about in previous journal entries, applied for the position of national consultant. Amazingly, we both were selected. It has taken several months of on again, off again communication, but, finally, by September of this year, Sarik and I began our work. Below, is my first journal entry of our new endeavor.
Greetings from Cambodia. I have been here over a month and it feels like only a few days. Kathy arrived on Oct.3rd so now things feel normal again…well, except for her broken arm. I stayed in a small guest house for the first three weeks and then stumbled upon a little apartment that works very well for us. It is similar to the one we had when we were here for a year.
This new, World Bank funded, multi year, multi million dollar education renewal project that is just getting started here is challenging. Our school principals'leadership development component is just one very small part of the whole endeavor and I feel delighted one minute to be part of the start up and frustrated the next at how difficult it all is to navigate the tricky waters. I won't go into all of the confounding politics laced with corruption that is part and parcel of it all. But as I watch the "leaders" of the country behave in the most "unleader-like" ways, I am convinced more than ever of the need for the development of real visionary leaders.
Iv Sarik is my Khmer counterpart, colleague and friend. We are doing this work very much together.
When I was conducting leadership training for school principals here in Cambodia in 2003-2004, Sarik was deputy director of the Takeo Provincial Office for Education. He participated in every workshop that I offered and traveled with me on many school visits.
He has written several articles on school leadership (one of the very few education writers in Cambodia) and published four children's books. He is brilliant, an avid learner, speaks fluent French and English and loves school principals as much as I do. His story of courage and survival during the Khmer Rouge time is chilling and inspiring. And in 1979, after the Vietnamese invaded and stopped the killing, Sarik, with one other teacher and two pencils, started a high school under a tree. Today, that is the main high school in the town of Takeo with 2000 students. I consider it a profound privilege to do this work with him.
We are currently designing a three year leadership development program for 600 school principals in the ten poorest provinces. And, we must think and plan wisely enough so that, in three years, when the project is over, leadership development will continue and flourish. We feel compelled to ensure depth of learning and sustainability of growth. Phew, makes my head swim!!
Given our history of working together with school principals, Sarik and I are very clear about what we want to teach and how we want to teach it and how we will know if the principals have learned it. We also have a "theory of action" about sustainability. We want the roots to take hold and grow deep. But, if I write all of those ideas in this journal entry, I may well have to change it in my next. We have a lot more government hurdles to overcome before we can be certain of our direction. Understanding this before we even began, however, means that neither of us is discouraged. Sarik is an optimist through and through. I can't believe his hope for the future and his deep belief that he can and must sow the seeds of leadership for a future that he will never see. You see how lucky I am to be working with him? The next update that I send, I am sure, will contain the outline of our plan and our strategy.
Kathy's left arm was broken near the shoulder just before she came to Cambodia, so her activities are a bit limited right now. But she is an indomitable spirit and nothing really keeps her down. She can't ride a moto, so she is using tuk tuks and soon will be going to teach English every day with her arm strapped in a sling. Amazing!
We really are glad to be here. We both love it very much. I will write again in a few weeks when it becomes clear just how we will implement the leadership training.
--Peace and very best regards, John
John Morefield was previously Principal of Hawthorne Elementary School in Seattle, Washington. He has worked with the Danforth Program at the University of Washington on programs for school principals. He is a cofounder and board member of Powerful Schools. He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of New Horizons for Learning.
You may email John Morefield at jmore44@yahoo.com.
© October 2005 New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
info@newhorizons.orgFor permission to redistribute, please go to:
New Horizons for Learning Copyright and Permission Information