Leveraging Teacher Leadership – Inspiring Creativity and Innovation at ACS Athens

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Leveraging Teacher Leadership – Inspiring Creativity and Innovation at ACS-Athens1 Eleoussa Polyzoi* Professor of Education University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9 e-mail: l.polyzoi@uwinnipeg.ca *Corresponding Author Stefanos Gialamas President of the American Community School of Athens 129 Aghias Paraskevis Ave. Halandri, Athens, Greece 15234 e-mail: gialamas@acs.gr Kristina Cliteur Research Assistant University of Winnipeg University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9 e-mail: kcliteur@shaw.ca Maureen Babb Research Assistant University of Winnipeg 515 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 2E9 e-mail: maureenbabb@gmail.com Abstract: Using a transformative learning lens, based on the work of Mezirow (2000), this study provides insight into the factors that influence excellence and innovative teaching at the American Community School of Athens. Using a case-study methodology, ten one-hour interviews were conducted with teachers and administrative staff of the school to examine their perspectives on the importance of innovation, qualities of teachers as leaders, and factors that facilitate the transformation process as exemplified by their school. Questions included: How do you cultivate innovation and creativity through your teaching? How do you foster an educational climate that values critical reflection? How do you encourage a deeper-level thinking among students that is transformative in nature? The interviews were uniquely positioned to examine innovative change as it occurs and the processes and challenges that emerge when such change is instituted (Fullan, 2016). Three exemplary school programs are described that illustrate innovative practices at this school.

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This study received Ethics Approval (#HE08972) from the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The authors would like to extend their thanks to those who agreed to be interviewed for this study and who generously gave of their time. Their contribution is gratefully appreciated.

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Key Words: international schools, innovation, transformative learning, the change process, teachers as leaders, case study, interviews, thematic analysis, inspiring creativity, teachers as leaders Biographical Notes: Eleoussa Polyzoi, Ph.D., is a Professor and Senior Scholar in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. She has published extensively in the areas of risk and resilience, leadership, transformative learning, educational change, capacity building, and comparative education. Currently, she is involved in a large multidisciplinary research project examining respiratory health, housing conditions, and school absenteeism in First Nations Communities - conducted by a team of researchers from the Faculties of Education, Medicine, and Engineering. She is also the recipient of the University of Winnipeg’s prestigious Erica and Arnold Rogers Award for Excellence in Research Scholarship.

Stefanos Gialamas is the President of the American Community Schools of Athens, Greece. He holds a B.Sc., an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Mathematics. Prior to his arrival at ACS Athens he served as the Provost of the American College of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has also served for several years as Dean of Academic Leadership Development, Dean of the Mathematics and Science Programs, and Dean of Education in several colleges and universities in USA. His professional work includes Leadership Development, Innovative Approaches in Teaching and Learning, Knot Theory, Mathematics and Arts, the History and Philosophy of Mathematics, and Mathematics Education.

Kristina Cliteur has a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and is a recent graduate of the Faculty of Education (B.Ed.) at the University of Winnipeg, in Manitoba, Canada. Kristina is a recipient of a number of awards, including being on the Dean’s Honor Roll for four consecutive years as Student of Highest Distinction. In tandem with her studies, she worked as a senior research assistant on various projects including: Children Facing Deep Poverty in Manitoba Canada: Is Prior Subsidized Childcare Associated with Stronger EDI Ratings of School Readiness? as well as Vulnerability of Pre-school Children in Greece – School Readiness Profiles as Assessed by the Early Development Instrument (EDI). Kristina is passionate about her future as an educator.

Maureen Babb, B.A., MLIS, is the MHIKNE (Manitoba’s Health Information and Knowledge NETwork) Librarian to Manitoba Health, Seniors, and Active Living. A recent graduate of the University of Alberta’s Master of Library and Information Studies program, she completed her thesis, “An Exploration of Academic Librarians as Researchers within a University Setting,” in 2017. Earlier, Maureen obtained a B.A. in Classics and Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has worked at the University of Manitoba’s Elizabeth Dafoe Library as well as at the University of Winnipeg Library as a library assistant. She has published articles in the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership and in the journal, Rural and Remote Health.

Introduction The American Community School (ACS) of Athens is a K-12 International school offering an American Diploma (accredited by the Middle States Association Committee on Elementary and Secondary Schools) and is authorized by the International Baccalaureate (IB) Organization to offer the IB Diploma. The school embraces the American educational philosophy, principles, and values and has a student enrollment of about 900. Students represent over 45 different countries,

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including Turkey, the Middle East, Greece, Canada, Africa, the USA, Europe, and the People’s Republic of China. Graduates have a 95% - 100% chance of being accepted into the university of their choice (Polyzoi & Magro, 2015). Staff include approximately 90 teachers, 65 of whom have Master’s degrees and 12 of whom have doctorates. The school maintains a commitment to excellence in teaching and innovative practice with a Middle States Association of Colleges and Universities “Sustaining Excellence” protocol which sees regular employment of action research on behalf of teachers at the school (Pelonis, 2016). Action research involves the process of systematic inquiry by teachers, using a variety of evaluative research methods designed to improve educational practices (Hine, 2013). It promotes reflective teaching and thinking, expands teacher’s pedagogical repertoire, and fosters an openness toward new ideas (Hensen, 1996). The Sustaining Excellence protocol at ACS-Athens is action research-based, with a number of foci, including teaching mathematics and science conceptually, redesigning the Optimal Match model of delivery (matching instruction to better support students with additional learning needs), revisiting the school’s English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program, implementing collaborative learning communities, teaching writing as a way of thinking and learning, and incorporating technology in the classroom. As one school administrator aptly explained, “Think about it [the aggregate of individual teacher action-research projects] as an institution doing a collaborative Ph.D. thesis.” [Scott] ACS-Athens is currently undergoing a transformation intended to enhance the innovative nature of education at the school. In its drive for excellence, the school has created the Institute for Innovation and Creativity (IIC), whose aim is to develop innovative programs and provide unique and enriching learning experiences for its students, faculty, and the community (Medeiros, n.d.). Through partnerships with a number of universities around the world and through input from a variety of experts, the IIC offers a wide variety of programs including the Summer Academic Institute, the Summer Leadership Institute, the Arts Academy, an online Humanities program with a field study component, and an Adult Education Program. The IIC also has organized events such as the TEDxYouth, featuring presentations created and delivered by students from ACS-Athens on topics which ranged from space elevators to digital friendships (TEDxYouth, 2010).

In 2014-15, there was a change in direction at the school, resulting in a series of ongoing adaptations designed to foster innovative teaching and learning practices. As part of this process, the school underwent a re-accreditation process by the U.S.A. Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools. In preparation for this accreditation, a series of interviews, which form the basis for this paper, was conducted with teachers and administrators at the school in order to examine how they view the concept of innovation, what constitutes an effective leader, and which factors helped them through the transition process at ACS-Athens.

Exploring the manner in which innovation occurs at ACS-Athens provides insight into the factors that influence excellence and innovative teaching in educational institutions. Because these interviews were conducted at a time of substantial ongoing change at ACS-Athens and introduced with a view to improving pedagogical practice, they are uniquely positioned to examine innovative change as it occurs (Fullan, 2016) and the processes and challenges that emerge when such change is initiated. Studies that explore change retrospectively are common, but studies exploring change concurrently are relatively rare.

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Since the interviews represent a period of intense change at ACS-Athens, and since the focus of these changes was to create innovative learning experiences for students, this paper is written through a transformative learning lens. Transformative learning is a theory proposed by Mezirow (1981, 1994, 2000) that discusses how learning can fundamentally change individuals.

Transformative Learning Theory According to Mezirow, transformative learning occurs when individuals undergo a perspective transformation, a shift in a person’s frames of reference – a worldview that is based on epistemic assumptions that guide the interpretation of our experiences. In short, “perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our assumptions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; changing these structures of habitual expectations to make possible a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrating perspective; and finally, making choices or otherwise acting upon these new understandings” (Mezirow, 1990, p. 14).

Critical reflection, rational discourse, and trustful relationships are essential components of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991, 1994; Polyzoi & Magro, 2015; Taylor, 2007;). Dirx (in Dirx, Mezirow, & Cranton, 2006) focuses on the centrality of learning experiences that are deeply and personally meaningful in transforming the structures of meaning in one’s life. It is through critical reflection that we become aware of how our assumptions and beliefs shape the way we see the world. Rational discourse is the means by which we justify and validate our beliefs. Relationships with others that encourage dialogue, and trustful relationships are more likely to promote the type of rational discourse that may lead to transformative learning (Taylor, 2007). Those who engage in critical reflection, also tend to display traits associated with emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2004), including empathy, optimism, emotional maturity, and skill in relationship building (Polyzoi & Magro, 2015). Transformative learning is a deeper form of learning that involves more nuanced ways of understanding the world, learning that often empowers and inspires—goals valued by both teachers at ACS-Athens in their pursuit of meaningful professional development and by students in their own unique learning journeys (Mezirow, 2000).

Methodology Interviews for this study were conducted with ten participants from ACS-Athens (two administrators and eight teachers). A small group of teachers were initially nominated by the IIC Director, with additional participants identified through the use of snowball sampling (Berg, 2007). Participants were purposefully selected as leaders in their own right and as individuals who were themselves engaged in innovative practices at the school and directly involved in the change process. Informal interviews were roughly one hour in length and addressed the topics of innovation, creativity, and capacity building at ACS-Athens. They included questions such as: How do the teachers cultivate innovation and creativity through their teaching? How do they foster an educational climate that values critical reflection? How do they encourage a deeper level thinking among students that is transformative in nature? Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and all participants were assigned pseudonyms, in accordance with the University of Winnipeg Ethics Board requirements.

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The transcribed interviews were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Open-coding was employed on the first two interviews, and used to develop a modifiable coding framework, through which the later interviews were coded. Two researchers analyzed the interviews independently, reading them for concepts within the data. The two researchers compared their insights to develop a series of themes they identified within the data (Taylor, Bogdan, & DeVault, 2015). What follows is a summary of the themes and subthemes that emerged. Quotes included below were selected as being most representative of the participants’ experiences.

Findings Conventional content analysis of the interview data led to the identification of eight themes that defined or contributed to the innovative teaching and learning environment present at ACSAthens: The Concept of Innovation – Personal Reflections; Sustaining Excellence; Letting Go of Content; Respect, Risk, and Trust as Fundamental to the Change Process; A Paradigm Shift: Harnessing Information Technology in the Classroom; Collaborative Learning Communities: A Forum for Critical Reflection; Leadership, Vision, and Capacity Building; and a Mirroring of Reflective Practices. Combined, these themes provide an understanding of how innovation at ACS-Athens occurs, and offer insight into how such practices may be developed in other educational environments, particularly international schools located throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Themes are discussed in detail below with supportive excerpts pulled from the interviews interspersed amongst the themes.

1. The Concept of Innovation – Personal Reflections When discussing how innovation was defined, what innovation meant to the teachers, and how innovation occurred at their institution, participants painted a fairly consistent picture.

Innovation was often associated with the concepts of originality and novelty [Marnie] and linked to terms such as change and growth that add value to the teaching and learning process that, in turn, enrich the lives of its learners [Eileen]. At ACS-Athens, innovation also encompassed finding better ways to connect students to course content in order to deepen their understandings of the world around them.

One participant indicated that a key driver of innovation was often the need to address a problem, challenge, or dilemma that emerged in the classroom that could not be resolved typically within the existing institutional framework. [Dan] Another participant noted that ‘new’ does not necessarily mean introducing a concept that had never been seen before [Konstance]. Rather, it may mean a fresh adaptation or “tweaking” (Corinne) of an existing concept, or a bringing together of two seemingly disparate fields of study in novel ways. [Eileen].

Corinne offers an example: [In our grade 9 Combo English-History class] … we examine the idea of ethical leadership by looking at Napoleon’s rise to power as an historical leader in the French Revolution and … at the same time … the fictional leaders, Jack and Ralph, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.” Such historical and literary comparisons in this Combo class, encourage students to weave connections across disciplines and create more complex and layered student understandings of concepts.

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2. Sustaining Excellence ACS-Athens’s commitment to continual growth and improvement is illustrated by its massive two-year school-wide action research work that was initiated in 2014-15 as part of the process of the Middle State Association’s “Sustaining Excellence” re-accreditation protocol. Teachers transformed into active researchers following individual paths of inquiry that were guided by common themes.

“Every September, we are asked to reflect upon our goals for the upcoming year. …These goals transformed themselves into an action research proposal. …This process took my teaching to a whole new level. I, in turn, became a student in my own classroom, learning how to better my teaching. What started with a [research] question evolved into the beginning of something truly formidable” (Rontogiannis, 2016, p. 26).

Professional development opportunities enabled innovative practices at ACS-Athens to thrive and teachers to develop as teacher leaders in their own right. Poppy, for example, describes a workshop she attended in Bangkok, sponsored by ACS-Athens, early in her career. “It just set me on fire! … the speaker was … known as the pied piper of educational technology, and he gave a very inspirational presentation! She adds: “The best thing about working at this school… [is that] there’s scope for initiative and scope for being creative, and … I don’t know of another school that is doing something quite like this”.

3. Letting Go of Content As much as innovation was welcomed at ACS-Athens, there was also some hesitation expressed at the prospect of embracing change [Marnie]. For example, teachers conceded that there was some tension between rigorously covering course content in order to properly prepare their students for the upcoming IB exams and offering students, within a student-centered context, the freedom and flexibility to pursue their own learning journeys. One teacher admitted, “Letting go of content was a challenge…You feel like everything has to flow through you and it if doesn’t … then maybe it hasn’t been done right.” [Poppy] Scott qualifies Poppy’s sentiments, “What we are talking about is not giving up content, [but] … giving up the most trivial part of the content. …[Teachers] need imagination and empathy … to get into somebody else’s head ... “[It’s] all about … getting our students to engage with content in a more deep and profound way.”

Teachers at ACS also acknowledge the importance of placing the needs of their students at the centre of their teaching, enabling students’ sense of personal agency. As one teacher expressed, “…it’s very important … to give students the understanding that they control their learning … that they have the ownership, they have the responsibility, and they have the tools to think about their learning... And that’s really what transforms them… [what] helps them rewrite the story that they’ve written about themselves up until now.” [Poppy] Letting go of content means embracing the need for students to drive their own learning. This reflects an important teacher mindset that supports students’ curiosity, actively involves them in the learning process, and encourages persistence because the questions they pursue matter to them. This mind-shift away from micromanaging instruction top-down, while initially

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challenging for some educators, has given teachers like Marnie, a new-found level of freedom and an unexpected “breath of energy.”

4. Respect, Risk, and Trust as Fundamental to the Change Process Leaders and educators at ACS-Athens identify a number of elements fundamental to the process of innovation. Participants felt strongly that the working environment must be one in which they feel respected and safe enough to attempt to incorporate new techniques, and to make mistakes without criticism. “…underlying all of the innovation, change, and leadership [initiatives] … [is] respect and … trust … If we can create that space, then we can get teachers to take risks, and then we can have real change.” [Scott] Cultivating an environment of trust means that teachers are valued as knowledgeable professionals who are capable of finding new ways to connect students to content and to build better understandings of best practices.

Fully embracing “the zone of risk,” as one teacher [Poppy] expressed it, means going outside of your comfort zone to try new things, but also having structures and supports in place are important pre-requisites to success. It is in the risk-taking and experimentation that innovation is born.

For the teachers interviewed, mistakes were seen as learning opportunities. Without fear of reprisals, students and teachers both were more willing to attempt new approaches or techniques and to view education from different perspectives.

5. A Paradigm Shift: Harnessing Information Technology in the Classroom Participants at ACS-Athens recognized the increasing potential of information and communication technologies to transform the very nature of teaching, freeing educational institutions from the constraints of time and space, and challenging them to rethink how to best reach students in an increasingly technology-rich world.

“The children [we teach these days] … have very different interests and … approaches to learning. They are not willing to sit there and have you teach at them. They want to have control, they want to dictate their own learning path …. And I think that [in part] it’s because … they are the digital natives …I am continually … recreating …my practice … [Keeping up] with … the advent of technology is a challenge; [but] that’s what keeps me in the sweet spot.” [Poppy] ACS Athens’ approach to the incorporation of technology into the curriculum has been a schoolwide restructuring of its classrooms into a blended learning and flipped classroom environment, where class time is repurposed for inquiry and application rather than transmission of content.

They have named their new methodology the i2Flex, an approach which combines online delivery of content and independent learning with face-to-face discussions and collaborative work in class, centered around guided-student inquiry. The name, i2Flex, reflects its goals: independent and internet-based flexible learning experiences (Avgerinou & Gialamas, 2016).

Students learn interactively both in-class and through remote/on-line environments. This process has involved a major revisioning of the way that information is gained at ACS-Athens, opening more classroom time for richer discussions and connection building.

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This paradigm shift presented faculty at ACS-Athens with opportunities to critically reflect on what content is vital to their course, favoring depth of understanding over breadth of topics while equipping students with the necessary 21st century skills to continue their learning independently.

“I had to decide what century I was going to teach in. What worked before, old-school lecturing… doesn’t work anymore … it’s not the way students learn… they have to be at the centre of their learning.” [Marnie] In this new, more discriminating approach to teaching, the educator’s role changes from deliverer of static information to guide and model for “learning how to learn” in the information age. The flexibility provided by the online learning component at ACS also extends learning opportunities past school hours. Technology is used for content acquisition so that the focus in the classroom can be on fostering deeper understanding and for making and extending connections with the material in more subtle ways. Scott acknowledges that technologyenhanced learning can play an important role in deepening and accelerating the teaching process.

“It’s about …how [to] make the face-to-face time that we have [with students] be really meaningful and not [simply] about the transmission of information…Technology makes that easier...”

6. Collaborative Learning Communities In order to help teachers move away from the isolation of working in silos, Collaborative Learning Communities (CLCs) were developed at ACS-Athens. Through CLCs, teachers are able to work together towards common goals, where leadership is shared, where partnerships are forged, and where teachers co-evolve as they address teaching concerns, discuss solutions, and consider alternate perspectives.

CLCs are teacher-led and teacher-run professional learning communities that meet monthly and follow the National School Reform Faculty’s (NSRF) Critical Friends Group (CFG) protocols (see: “National School Reform Faculty,” n.d.). Throughout the course of the five years since their introduction at ACS-Athens, the CLCs have become a “driving force in professional development” (Kynigou & Nelson, 2016, p. 74). There are currently four different CLC groups that are managed by 13 faculty members who have become trained facilitators. These groups are made up of a heterogeneous group of teachers, spanning various grade levels and subject areas.

This type of grouping means that many different perspectives come together to consider ideas and issues that members put forth. Invovlement is voluntary, and 65% of ACS-Athens faculty members, up to now, have chosen to participate. Teachers initially used the CLC meetings as a forum to identify and refine their individual action research designs (Kynigou & Nelson, 2016).

“Teachers … worked in groups, chose areas that they were most interested in [exploring] – cutting across curriculum and grade levels. Last year, teachers conducted literature reviews, they found current research on best practices and current theory in one of six [broad] areas.

They came back and shared their research … with their CLC group … [By the end of the year] each teacher had identified an action research project for his or her [own] classroom...” [Scott] The processes used in the CLC meetings inspired risk-taking, empathy, and growth; the diverse makeup of the groups generated a high level of creativity; and the focus on inquiry was key to successful problem solving (Kynigou & Nelson, 2016).

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Opportunities for teacher collaboration extended even beyond the CLC. Within the context of sharing lesson plans, resources, and teaching strategies, Dan affirms, “I … open up everything. I give [my fellow teachers] my hard drive and I say ‘take whatever files you need.’”

Helping others develop their practice through the CLC fostered a sense of pride and shared identity among staff. Teachers felt that discussing difficulties that arose in their colleague’s classes, allowed them to take away ideas that, in turn, would help them in their own teaching. In addition, “The teacher learning communities mirrored the ideal conditions for learning in their own classrooms.” (Kynigou & Nelson (2016, p. 104).

The CLC at ACS-Athens helped lay the groundwork for educators to critically reflect on their assumptions about teaching and learning. Teachers were invested in the problem-solving process since there was a shared desire to see the community grow and succeed. The element of inquiry empowered teachers to address concerns that were current, real, and practical in their professional lives. By the end of the 2016 year, collaboration was suffused into the school culture with open sharing of resources among many of the teaching faculty.

7. Leadership, Vision, and Capacity Building Effective leadership is central to sustainable educational change and innovation. Leaders who successfully help others navigate through the change process are present at all levels within the school (e.g., principals, department heads, institute directors, and individual teachers).

Although participants acknowledged the benefits associated with innovation, many cautioned that the process of introducing school-wide change must be unhurried. “… [innovation] is about going slowly and not pushing people … like students, we …have to figure it out for ourselves."

[Scott] Administrators understood that attempting to enforce innovation top-down without garnering teacher ownership would only hinder the possibility of its success. Innovative change cannot be commoditized in order to be effective; it must be something that the educators themselves care about. For this reason, participants discussed the importance of having a competent, capable, and visionary leader, of the sort that was in charge of ACS-Athens at the time the interviews took place – a leader whose vision they felt inclined to share.

The school’s president is a transformational leader who has catalyzed staff support around this new vision of the school, of the importance of innovation, and of large-scale educational change.

This vision serves as an anchor that provides clear purpose and direction for the teaching faculty.

“The president … brought this dynamism, this energy, and this focus that … got us to … think positively about our future… In lots of ways, the new administrative structure gave voice to all of us.” [Scott] Administrative support gave teachers the unrestrained courage to move ahead. “Knowing that there’s … support from the administration, makes it possible for … teachers to … try something new and different, and be a … bit more risk-taking in their approach.” [Corinne] The promise of protected vulnerability must also be assured when ushering in innovation. In the daily life of the classroom, innovation often encompasses “a real willingness to explore, to learn new things, and to try… [them]… out. But it also involves the freedom to fail if they don’t work.” [Marnie].

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Scott also emphasizes that an indispensable quality of a leader is the recognition of teachers’ potential and the ability to strategically use teachers’ expertise to improve the school’s programs.

A first step was to encourage teachers to re-examine their practices through engagement in selfdesigned action research projects. “That kind of real rigorous re-examination of everything we were doing through the two-year application of the “Sustaining Excellence protocol” was an incredibly powerful motivating, painfully positive force!” Scott also confirmed the value of acknowledging, from the outset, the wealth of information that teaching staff have as they started their action research plans. “… we need to respect the difficulty of teachers’ work… I start by saying to them that there is craft knowledge and expertise that you possess…”

Participants felt that administration empowered teachers to collectively lead the change process, and created the energy that successfully leveraged the school’s human and professional capital (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012) towards increasing alignment with the school’s vision.

A school undergoing educational change requires capacity building for any transformation to be successful. Resources must be mobilized, teacher buy-in must be evident, and strong leadership must be present. Leadership at ACS-Athens develops and empowers other teacher leaders. In addition, systems must exist at an institutional level for the sustainability of program initiatives.

If there is no sustainability built into these programs, participants noted, much of the innovation that occurs at an institution is liable to collapse when a competent leader departs. [Poppy] 8. A Mirroring of Reflective Practices Throughout these themes, which describe innovative projects at ACS-Athens, a concept of mirroring began to emerge, i.e., what was beneficial for any one group (teachers, administrators, students) to facilitate innovation was beneficial for all groups. Where creativity was important for students to be able to engage in, so too was the option for teachers to engage in creativity in their teaching and lesson designs. Where teachers must provide students with an environment where they are free to make mistakes and to learn from them rather than fear failure, so too must teachers be provided with such an environment by their administrators. Communication must occur regularly between students and teachers, as well as between teachers and administrators.

Where students may find their world enlightened by a new experience, so too may teachers find their teaching transformed by incorporating new elements into their teaching, and being open to feedback from students, administrators, and their fellow teachers, inspired by professional development opportunities made available to them.

Eileen effectively captures the concept of mirroring: “As educators, transformative teaching really begins with us, and who we are, inspiring students to reach their fullest potential. But at the same time, we must model that – [we must] be open … to every opportunity before us to grow [ourselves] … that has to be at the core of what we do.”

Scott comments on those moments of inspiration created by teachers at ACS-Athens that reflects the school’s focus on personal growth and success. “[This year’s grade-11 IB theatre production] …was an exposition of brilliant, profound teaching; all the kind of teaching I’d like to see go on [here at ACS]. You provide a space and time and maybe an ear … [to teachers] as they work through [an idea] that allows them to … steal the moment. Talk about reflective practice…if you can find ways to allow your colleagues to have those moments of inspiration…

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there is strength and support for that kind of change here [at ACS]. The new administrative structure in lots of ways has given voice to all of us.

Scott emphasizes that authentic learning experiences like this transform classrooms at ACSAthens “… in all kinds of trivial and profound ways.” They prompt a fundamental shift in teachers’ perception about how to engage students in the classroom. As Justine states, I no [longer] think about what I do [in the classroom], I think more about what the students need to do].”

This mirroring that goes on in the school creates an upwards spiral of positive school and selftransformation, i.e., what was beneficial for teachers to facilitate innovation, to inspire creativity, to embrace risk, and to transform lives was also beneficial for students. Teachers effectively bring these tools and growth mindset into their classroom and serve as models for student success and innovation.

In summary, the results of this study indicate that implementing innovative teaching practices within a school setting requires: respecting the faculty as professionals and valuing their expertize; nurturing a culture of trust and collaboration where ideas are shared, alternative perspectives considered, and possible solutions discussed; empowering faculty members to critically reflect on their teaching; offering teachers the freedom to try new things and enjoy the safety of being able to make mistakes without penalty; providing professional development opportunities to encourage innovative practices to flourish; cultivating new learning experiences that are meaningful to both teachers and students; building the capacity for sustainable change so that it is not abandoned when a leader who is its champion leaves; and, finally, creating a learning environment of inquiry, creativity, and problem-based learning for students that mirrors the environment that inspired teachers to transform their teaching practices and generate the kind of successes seen at an innovative school such as ACS-Athens.

What follows are three brief examples of innovative practices at ACS-Athens that exemplify the elements of the school’s culture of creativity, innovation, and change—integrating elements of the themes addressed above.

Three Brief Examples of Innovative Practices The Institute for Innovation and Creativity. The institute’s two-week Summer Academy for highschool students was designed to challenge participants to pursue different ways of learning through collaborative inquiry, community building, creative problem solving, and guidance from experts in their fields.

“Our learning community was introduced to an amazing range of artifacts and ideas: the art of Mark Rothko as a meditation on the concept of infinity, a psychological approach to the issue of managing change, the idea of a map as a metaphor for and theory of how we interpret the world, the poetry of Emily Dickinson set to the musical forms of Protestant hymns, knot theory and its relation to the structure of DNA and the science of cloning, a 12th century Muslim philosopher’s interpretation of Plato, the Indian mathematician Chandra Sheka’s meditation on the White Dwarf and the clash of old and new ideas in the field of Physics, exploring African chants and rhythms through voice and movement as a means of creating theater, the elegant and profound simplicity of the movement of a pendulum and what it tells us about the way the universe works,

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and the paradoxical mathematical concept that there are different sizes of infinity. And all of this before students and teachers moved on to class!” (Medeiros, 2007, p. 20).

Newscoop Leadership and Journalism Project. The Newscoop project at ACS-Athens offered grade-10 journalism students the opportunity to write, edit and produce news documentaries in collaboration with other students throughout the world. Newscoop is an organization founded by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2009, ACS students produced their first piece, a 26-minute documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was covered nationally by the country’s television media, with exceptional reviews (Kelly, 2009). As a follow-up to the mini-documentary, four students, accompanied by staff and parent-volunteers, travelled to Israel and Palestine to conduct research for a new production. On this trip, the students collected over 15 hours of video and 1,500 pictures, and gained a much deeper understanding of the conflict (Papakakis, 2010; Student-Led Programs, n.d.).

A Canadian Education student intern from the University of Winnipeg, who visited the school at the time the students’ first documentary was aired, commented, “Today, the entire school was invited to watch the premiere of the students’ documentary in the large theatre of ACS-Athens.

Along with students, teachers, parents, and the national media, the Israeli, Palestinian, and United States of America ambassadors were present. I was blown away by the complexity of the issues and how well and unbiased the documentary was presented. When the students were asked to sit on a panel and answer difficult questions from audience members, I was impressed with how eloquently and coherently they were able to answer these questions!” (See Polyzoi & Magro, 2015.)

Creative Theatre. The 2015 Senior IB theatre production involved crafting a play guided by the word “home”. “The process initially involved grade-11 students “brainstorming” and discussing their “personal notions of home,” and talking with “parents and grandparents” about their experiences … “Interesting stories” began to surface: “families who had fled the Soviet regime, grandparents who eloped, love stories with broaches and letters unread, and grandmothers who boarded a boat alone to go to America …” These stories then “widened” into discussions of “others’ notions of home” and different experiences with “immigration” including … “Syrian refugees” seeking safety for their families. This part of the process became very animated and “politically driven” for the students, who each had diverse opinions on the subject. From here, students engaged in extensive “research,” looking at statistics, “political” contexts, and “testimonials. It was heart-breaking, soul-wrenching, and nerve-wracking; the more we read, the more we realized how little we knew” … the whole experience was deeply “humbling” …

Students were then tasked with “translating this enormous amount of information into theatrical moments” that represented the questions they had asked at the start of the project. “This was a painful process … but what came together was a genuine, mixture of heartfelt learning and serious, profound art making … In the end, these students became real artists … they were astounded by the answers to their own questions and astounded by the response of others who watched [the final production]” (Thanopoulou, 2015, pp. 67-68).

Discussion ACS-Athens exemplifies what Fullan (2015) outlines as fundamental whole-system change: a strong commitment for improvement, as echoed in the participants’ discussions of teacherinitiated innovations as well as the examples of the capacity provided for these initiatives to

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continue. Fullan (2009, 2016) reminds us that change is a process, not an event and that this process must be purposeful, the teachers committed, and the guiding vision compelling.

This exploratory study has found that teacher voices at ACS are empowered by respecting the faculty as professionals and valuing their ideas. Collaboration helps build trust and promotes creativity and genuine problem-solving. Leaders within administration encourage teachers to develop their skills and take risks. Teacher-leaders work with their colleagues to improve student learning. They also model innovation for students. The result is a mirroring of empowerment, inquiry, and creativity through all levels of administration, teachers, and students. The school culture and teachers/leaders in the school create an environment in which teachers are inspired to transform themselves and their practice, where they are supported by respect and trust while they explore different approaches. Ideas are honored and students take charge of their own learning experiences, and are guided by teachers to connect their learning to the real world. The use of technology facilitates the extension of learning beyond the classroom. McCluskey (2008) also emphasizes the importance of setting the right tone, providing teachers with flexibility, and ensuring idea time in order to cultivate a creative learning environment. It is natural for some teachers, administrators, and students to experience tension or resistance towards new innovations, and it is part of the “growing pains” of change.

The CLCs at ACS-Athens provide the foundational support for educators to reflect on their assumptions and current frames of reference as they navigate the change process. According to Cranton (2006), discourse is central to the process of transformative learning. The diversity of the CLC groups allows teachers to engage in conversation with others to secure clarity on issues.

Educators from all grade levels and with different years of experience come together to contribute new perspectives on the topics brought to the group. CLCs provide a forum for sharing collective insights and knowledge. Having such a large degree of diversity generates new innovations that draw on the expertise of many different fields, and promote high-level, creative solutions. The variety of viewpoints allows for teachers with different specialties and years of experience to question the way that things are done.

The April 2016 school-wide colloquium, where teachers’ action research projects were presented to the broader academic and research community, was the culmination of the school’s shared vision (Pelonis, 2016). ACS-Athens had established a “learning culture” through the use of Collaborative Learning Communities, an ecosystem of cooperation, that introduced a stream of innovative practices, but they also created a culture of change to support progress. A culture of change is about building the capacity to seek, critically assess, and selectively incorporate innovative ideas and practices over time (Fullan, 2004). Through a thematic analysis of the interviews, we were able to identify that effective school-wide change can be supported by fostering a capacity for innovation and passionate engagement, creating a safe space for critical reflection and rational discourse, and institutionalizing innovation for long-term effectiveness.

Together, these factors help leverage teacher leadership at ACS-Athens and transform the lives of educators as well as their students.

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