INTRODUCTION
This chapter contains exercises to reach a shared vision across the institution: the basis for
supported and sustainable policy. Based on this, policy options can be elaborated. Whether or not
these policy options are realistic, depends on the contexts. The context may vary per vocational
course and sector.
Experience shows that generating support is vital. Many hands make light work and each colleague
brings a valuable perspective on internationalisation based on their own role within the
organisation.
The QIS 2020 context scan helps stakeholders interpret the cultural context together, making
ambitions more realistic and easier to transform into concrete action plans.
2.1 STRATEGIC POLICY MAKING AT AN INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL
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What does internationalisation mean for our students?
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What does internationalisation mean for our teachers, staff and managers?
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Which skills do our students need to learn to be successful in tomorrow's international labour market?
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How can internationalisation contribute to the realization of our educational policy?
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What are our existing good practices associated with internationalisation?
As a coordinator, you cannot answer these questions alone. You will need to find out who see themselves as co-owners of the theme, as they are or want to
be working on it one way or another.
WHO WILL ELABORATE POLICY?
This varies per vocational education institution. Generally speaking it is a good sign when you as a coordinator involve:
●
the internationalisation contact persons per course/vocational field in your policy making (=horizontl dialogue);
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their directors, educational managers, teachers and students (=vertical dialogue).
Internationalisation does not only serve the students and the quality of education, but also offers opportunities to businesses and the region:
when you actively involve regional partners, such as the municipality, SMEs and pre-vocational and high vocational educational institutions,
●
you will discover shared interests and you can pro-actively anticipate international developments together.
EXERCISE B: CONNECTING WITH CO-CREATORS >>
EXERCISE C: DIALOGUE ABOUT INTERNATIONALISATION >>
TIPS FOR A GOOD DIALOGUE
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Be genuine: share your personal experience; not just your opinion.
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Be concise: speak honestly and in-depth without taking too much time.
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Be inquisitive, go for new insights. In doing so, postpone your judgment for as long as possible.
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Link ideas with each other.
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Try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Strive for mutual understanding, not persuasion.
Clarify your objective by using a powerful question. A powerful question:
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●
●
❍
is simple and clear;
❍
makes one think;
❍
energises;
❍
focuses exploration;
❍
challenges subconscious assumptions;
❍
creates new possibilities.
Dialogue requires a different attitude than debate and discussion:
Dialogue
Debate & discussion
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meeting, exchange of perspectives.
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battle with arguments.
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not being afraid to expose oneself.
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striving for victory.
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pro-active; not worrying about nog (yet) knowing the answer.
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reactive, input largely prepration-based.
Creative dialogue-based working methods
Exercise B is a basic exercise. You are of course free to fill in your own details. We will give you a couple of frequently used dialogue-based working methods
as inspiration. You may recognise some aspects from previous activities organised by the NA.
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Appreciative inquiry
World café
an approach to organisational development
working method where one can build on
where good practice is the starting-point;
each other's insights in a structured
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Open space technology
working method where participants join to focus
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focusing on what works rather than on what
●
with the freedom to connect with a (sub)theme
goes wrong generates energy and involvement.
Website
on a question that does not yet have an answer;
manner.
●
Website
also comes the responsibility for the results.
Website
EXERCISE D: INTERPRETING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE>>
CONTEXT SCAN
There is no such thing as one ideal way to shape internationalisation. Each upper secondary vocational institution has its own context and associated
challenges. Finding a connection with the (im)possibilities of the own organisational context determines for a large part the effect of your internationalisation
strategy. The context of your upper secondary vocational institution determines among other things which organisational form of internationalisation fits best.
An important part of that context concerns the organisational culture. Short online context scans, with digital reports, help you and your colleagues identify the
cultural context together. This context becomes apparent in themes such as culture of decision-making and quality assurance. You can do this at a team,
course and institutional level.
The QIS 2020 context scan helps you:
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discuss your organisational culture;
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shape a realistic developmental perspective;
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understand and appreciate various perspectives of internationalisation;
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make use of your colleagues’ qualities.
As the context scan makes a distinction between the CURRENT and DESIRED situation, you can identify the potential level of support for development and
internationalisation. It is possible for a director, teacher and quality assurance staff member to have the same personal ambitions, while the current
institutional policy may make it seem as though they are supporting opposing sides.
Important: a scan cannot describe the entire reality. Just as a map cannot replace the journey. The scan provides an indication and helps you start up the
conversation with your colleagues about internationalisation. The more colleagues share their context scan output, the more valid the culture identification will
be.
HINTS FOR STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
For making a strategic decision, ask yourself the question:
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Do we want internationalisation within our institution to:
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fit the context; or
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function as a catalyst for change and innovation; or
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remain low profile and therefore not use the possibilities offered by the context.
In the development towards more complex organisational forms for internationalisation, old qualities still have their value in support of the desired
development. In practice various subcultures are at work.
Synthese
Structure
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
Stage 3:
Stage 4:
International office
Platform internationalisation
Community of professionals
International organisation
Family
-
x
x
x
Authoritarian
-
-
x
x
Bureaucracy
*
-
-
x
Performance
+
*
-
-
Professional
+
+
*
-
Open
+
+
+
*
Sustainable
+
+
+
+
Culture
x
in this context, it is almost impossible to realise this organisational structure.
-
the context creates resistance: be aware of this.
*
context and organisational strucure fit each other well.
+
the context makes more possible than just the organisational structure. You can use this in your strategic considerations.
“We wish to (maintain, change, wish) within a __________________ culture supported by a __________________ structure.”
Example:
If a vocational education institution has everything in order procedurally and organisationally (blue) and scores satisfactory as to the parameters and
benchmarks of the educational inspection (orange), fertile ground is created to involve teams of teachers in continuous professional development (green).
Zoom into the theme of quality assurance. And compare your answers concerning the CURRENT and DESIRED situation.
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What do you notice when you compare the answers of teachers, management, directors and the quality assurance department?
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Can you relate potential differences between answers to the content of their jobs?
Can you place potential differences in answers in a broader context, such as (inter)national policy, the cooperation with
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the educational inspection, cooperation with regional partners, etc.?
Interpretation of your scan results
Valuing system
Culture
Tradition-oriented
Family culture
- social safety & security
Power-orientied
Authoritative culture
- willpower & direct action
Control-oriented
Bureaucratic culture
- stability & security
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Archetypical structure
Succes-oriented
Performance culture
- self-actualisation & entrepreneurship
Participation-oriented
Professional culture
- human-oriented & dialogue
Innovation-oriented
Open culture
- synergy & break throughs
Sutainability-driven
Holistic culture
- worldly & inspiring
Valuing system
Quality
Pitfall
Tradition-
Being part of a group, binding, identity, we-ness, rituals (such as
Fear of not belonging, traditions and group culture can have
oriented
birthday celebrations).
a constricting effect: 'this is how we do it here'.
Power-oriented
Decisiveness, swiftness, working hard.
Greed, abuse of power, randomness.
Control-oriented
Goal-orientedness, stability, clear structures, managing,
Oppressive rules, distance between the staff and
arranging and organising, deal = deal.
management, inability to anticipate a changing
environment.
Succes-oriented
Seeing opportunities and taking them, entrepreneurship,
Profit at the expense of drop-outs, the end justifies the
challenge, improvement, client-focus, result-focus and
means, quantity instaed of quality: 'not everything that
effectiveness.
counts, can be counted'.
Participation-
Human-orientedness, creating room for involved professionals,
Low agility due to long deliberations, conflict avoindance,
oriented
team work, equal opportunities, power of diversity.
too quick to seek consensus; gray compromise.
Innovation-
Integral solutions: the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
By analysing instead of action, unnecessary complication.
oriented
networks. Being able to flexibly anticipate changes in the
environment together.
Sustainability-
'Think global, act local', sustainable and organic ways of
driven
organising, attention to flow and inspiration in the classroom, ...?
Unpractical, unclear.
EXERCISE E: ELABORATION POLICY OPTIONS >>
BACKGROUND: WALT DISNEY STRATEGY
Walt Disney used three different stages to realize a creative idea. Participants played a different role in each stage: the Dreamer, the Realist and the Critic.
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The Dreamer is necessary to generate creative and new ideas.
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The Realist is needed to explore how those ideas can be implemented in practice.
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The Critic is needed to evaluate the ideas, filter and refine them.
Creativity consists of the right combination of these three positions.
Rol 1: Dreamer
Imagine
Imagine...
Rol 2: Realist
Implementation
How will we realise it?
Rol 3: Critic
Evaluation
What's the use?
What is missing?
Exercise C in this workbook is a typical dream exercise. Exercise D helps to make your ambitions realistic. The role of the critic is crucial in exercise E.
It is tempting to criticise dreams right away, but that is not effective. An idea needs fertile, protective soil to germinate, just as a seed. And: the Critic does not
criticise the Dreamer or the Realist in person, they criticise the Plan.
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2.2 INTERNATIONALISATION OF COURSES
The core message of the QIS 2020 is to have an open approach to internationalisation, integrating it into the educational policy of the institution and the
courses. Teachers have a vital role in this respect. How do they see internationalisation, both individually and in teams? The European agenda for
professionalisation of teachers and trainers in vocational education underlines the link between individual professionalisation and the school as a learning
organisation.
In order to determine internationalisation objectives within educational teams, we invite you to:
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learn from each other’s experiences;
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gain insight into existing knowledge, (inter)national relations & good practice: the building blocks for follow-up activities in a team context;
give meaning to internationalisation at course level; what is the added value for your students, for yourself as a professional, and in view of
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developments within the profession?;
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align individual wishes and shared ambition;
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synchronise activities in a team context with policy at the institutional level.
The QIS 2020 teacher scan can be used as an aid, as it contains statements with common views on internationalisation. The scan can help start up the
conversation about internationalisation within the educational teams. Completing it only takes several minutes. Every teacher receives their own digital output
report per e-mail.
EXEERCISE F: GOAL SETTING IN EDUCATIONAL TEAMS >>
TEACHER SCAN
The KIS 2020 teacher scan is meant as a tool to start up the discussion about internationalisation within the educational teams. You can ask your colleagues
to complete the scan online.
They will receive a personal output report by e-mail.
Interpretation of your teachers scan results
The statements show some common perspectives on internationalisation. The scan results support the process of signification. No instrument can capture
the full reality. We advise you to keep the output reporting at hand, when you start working with exercise F.
The graphs in the output report of the teachers scan have the same color interpretation as the KIS 2020 context scan. The statements are also identified from
the perspective of the different value systems (see Exercise D). So if you fill in the teachers scan with a team and scan and compare your scores, you get an
indication of the team culture.
TIPS FOR ACTIVITIES IN A TEAM CONTEXT
If internationalisation is a new theme on the agenda of an educational team, we advise you to take your time for the process of infusing meaning. Then it is a
challenge to have the theme of internationalisation recur structurally, giving it a chance to last. This can be accomplished by integrating it into existing
deliberation and professionalising structures, such as team discussions and intervision groups.
The main feature of development stage 3 of internationalisation, Community of Professionals, is the generation of ownership within educational teams. The
QIS 2020 inventory scan statements (refer to part 1 of this workbook) can provide you with the leverage to accomplish this.
BACKGROUND: DESIGN VERSUS DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
Traditional forms of organisational change appear to lose effectiveness within increasingly complex environments. The static, structured character once again
is in the way of innovation. This is due to the fact that the plan of attack is usually used to determine the outcome. This does not work, as innovation does not
follow a linear path; or a pre-determined plan.
Design approach
Development approach
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start from shortcomings (problem solving thinking).
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start from what is going well and connects.
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lineair process (unfreeze-chang-refreeze).
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exploiting diversity of perspectives;
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interested parties can ongoing join to give substance.
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outcomes are known beforehand;
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co-creation;
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approach is focused on repeating old patterns and correcting errors.
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space to experiment in practice.
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The Instituut Nederlandse Kwaliteit (INK) has introduced an outer circle to supplement the PDCA cycle. This approach assumes that employees play a vital
role in the development of the organisation: Inspire (stimulating the mind), “Mobilise’ (use inspiration and develop qualities of those involved),
‘Value’ (determine what is valuable and recognise) and ‘Reflect’ (take time to reflect). Part 2 and 3 of the QIS also follow this line.
Tip:
A good example of the development approach concerns the NLQAVET project, where a large number of stakeholders, including upper secondary vocational
institutions, have elaborated a practical approach to strengthen the quality structure in educational teams. Have a look at www.nlqavet.nl.
BACKGROUND: COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
In view of the EU 2020 policy framework Cedefop – the research institute of the European Committee concerning vocational education – a transformation of
schools to Learning Communities.
As opposed to the professional competencies, these ‘soft skills’ are not or barely measured or recognised. It often takes a while before (ex) participants
become aware of their personal growth.
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Source: Cedefop
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T 073 6800 762
E [email protected]
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