Professional experience
For the past two years, Sarah has worked for CORE education as part of the Learning with Digital Technologies project, supporting schools and clusters to enhance their evaluative capability. She has also been part of tailored professional learning services to support leaders and teachers in re-thinking learning and teaching in innovative, transformative ways that are personalised to their context.
Over the past year, Sarah has also been part of the GROW Waitaha school in which she has worked with schools to develop their education briefs prior to Master Planning and co-developed and delivered a community of practice to support schools to build connections through collaborative practice.
Throughout Sarah’s career, she has been committed to enhancing personalised learning, learner agency and transitions to school. She takes her own in-school experiences, as a teacher and leader, alongside research to mentor educators in building their own understanding and capability for the improved outcomes for all learners.
Prior to working at CORE, Sarah worked in a variety of schools both in the UK and in NZ. Her most recent experience being five years spent at Clarkville School, where she worked as the junior team leader and co-leader of the pedagogy team. These roles involved developing cohesive collaborative practice across the school as well as a personalised curriculum. She also developed a personalised learning programme to support learners in leading their own learning independently.
Expertise
Sarah has expertise in the following areas:
Change leadership
Successfully supported learning communities and LCC clusters to:
- use research and specific context data to establish areas of change
- identify and develop a personalised pathway for implementing change
- redevelop schools/clusters vision, values and personalised curriculum to reflect their context and community
- enhance pedagogy and practices to ensure they reflect future-focused education and responsive practices
- support leadership of change within the whole school community
- establish and utilise ways of involving all community members in the change process
Digital fluency
Successfully supported learning communities and LCC clusters to:
- use the eLearning Planning frameworks to self-review e-learning practices and capabilities to identify and target areas for improvement
- understand and implement changes in practices that enhance engagement and achievement through the use of digital technologies
- build practitioner digital fluency confidence and capability to effective use in their teaching and learning.
Culturally responsive and bicultural practice
Successfully supporting learning communities and LCC to:
- conduct a cultural audit of their current practices and develop possibilities for improvement
- establishing ways of building and maintaining purposeful relationships with whānau
- build learner identity to support wellbeing and achievement as Māori
Future-focused education
Successfully supported learning communities and LCC clusters to:
- evaluate current practices and identify future-focused goals
- establish what future focused practices mean and look like to their community
- develop action plans that include future-focused pedagogies, effectively use modern learning environments that reflect the culture, context and community of the school
- support staff to make effective changes in their practice to support the direction of the community.
Evaluative capability
Successfully supported learning communities and LCC clusters to:
- identify target students from analysis of achievement data
- collect, use and delve deeper into data to plan for effective change
- use change frameworks such as spirals of inquiry and design thinking to make meaningful and personalised changes in practice.
Conference presentations, keynotes, seminars, workshops
- 2016: DEANZ, Engagement and retention in an online community of learners
- 2016: CPPA Conference, in association with with Massey University - Microhacks in education
- 2016: Marlborough EdVenture, Getting your agency on! What it really means and how we can utilise it in education
- 2015: Ulearn, Hack-schooling and Collaboration
- 2014-16: CORE workshops on building and leading collaborative teams, learner agency and modern learning practice
Publications
- DEANZ Conference Practice Paper: “All’s well that ends better”: Engagement and retention in a collaborative online community Lachlan McLaren, Joanne Robson & Sarah Whiting, pg 195 (PDF, 4.4 MB)
- The contribution of teacher effectiveness maps and the TACTICS framework to teacher leader professional learning James G. O’Meara, Sarah Whiting & Thomas Steele-Maley
Personal statement
I have a passion for agency and providing opportunities for all stakeholders to have choice and voice in education. In line with this, I advocate for school being the nest within communities from which all can be nurtured and flourish. I am currently writing a book about learner agency - part of this is tapping into experts around the globe in this area.
I enjoy mentoring and coaching leaders and teachers, listening and responding to their needs and supporting them to find their own transformational journeys. I get a real sense of achievement out of working alongside people, enabling them to identify their outcomes and support them to achieve this. I love being able to show teachers that change doesn’t have to mean hard work or be something to fear by supporting them in breaking down the barriers that might get in the way of change. Watching people grow and sparkle is what I love most about my job!
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