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What does it mean to cultivate connected student leadership?

The second pillar of the Ecosystem of Belonging and Welcome framework focuses on connection and support and how these elements of belonging are strengthened when students feel heard and understood. In the 2022 World Happiness Report, researchers investigated harmony and balance as elements of happiness, discovering that a need for harmony through connection is a universally accepted element of happiness. Students I talked to in Greece shared the same concerns as American students. They feel pressured, overwhelmed, and anxious about school. Helping them see many ways to lead and many ways to find support and be supportive can help alleviate these feelings.

What is connected leadership for students?

Connected leadership creates belonging because it focuses on the commonalities that are the foundation of relationships.
What do we have in common? What concerns do we share? What brings us joy?
This concept is key to empowering students to lead in their own way while connecting to a supportive network.
They are leading because there is a need and because they want to improve the community because their community cares for them.
Connected learning in Greek classrooms looks like a child whose family is seeking refuge explaining math concepts to a child from another country at an intercultural school.  
It also looks like women from various backgrounds sharing their experiences breaking the glass ceiling in a WoMentors program from Lambrakis Foundation.
Children are naturally connected learners. They observe each other and, by nature, will step in to help. Curiosity drives connection, and connection inspires further curiosity.
Reflection Question: How is your curiosity supported? Do you thrive by having many connections or a few strong connections?
Visual reflection option: Draw a person holding up a building.

Background of Connected, Collective Change 

Connected leadership fits into the ecosystem of belonging and welcoming but also finds roots in connectivism, collective leadership, school connectedness, and social change. In 1977 Bronfenbrenner proposed the five ecological systems essential to understanding a child, from family and school to environmental changes. The idea of connectedness, therefore, is not new, but a redefinition of school connectedness emerged from research into school climate and student engagement. Extensive studies by the Search Institute and others beginning in 1998 provided empirical evidence that school connectedness lowers at-risk behavior and improves academic success.
As early as 2006, Whitlock identified critical elements of school connectedness such as having a voice in decisions, feeling safe, being creative, and having engaging work. Over the next sixteen years, education leaders focused on the role of teachers in fostering a connected environment in the classroom. However, belonging for students, especially in adolescence, has declined dramatically since 2000 in most of the world. Many factors likely contribute to this decline, but an increase in assessment and a decrease in achievement correlated to a reduction in belonging in a Swedish longitudinal study (Hogberg et al., 2021). This evidence asks us to re-examine the world of the digital natives in our classrooms today.

In 2005 Siemens introduced a learning theory based on networked learning. His idea of connectivism envisions learning as a collaborative effort that involves connecting people and information. Twenty-first-century learners seek a diversity of opinions, value the ability to learn more instead of leaning on what they already know and want to decide how to make meaning from what they learn. A network empowers you to see that working to master ideas or skills is a strength. Striving to improve encourages growth rather than competition to be the best. To access a learning network, making many connections is essential.
Reflection: In what ways do you connect with colleagues each week? How do you connect to knowledge of your school team?
Visual reflection option: ​Add more people helping hold up the building to your original drawing. 

cultivating connectedness

Communities of practice, introduced by Lave and Wenger in 1991, help us understand how learning creates belonging. Iyer's Ecosystem of Social Change puts community leadership in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and social justice movements so we can help students see a network of connected learners not as a tool to get ahead but as a supportive web to cradle, uplift, and inspire.
​“We thrive as leaders when we recognize that we’re part of a broader ecosystem. It helps check our ego, it requires us to be accountable to others, and it supports us when we feel depleted or disconnected.“– Deepa Iyer
Cultivating connected leaders requires that we teach children to rely on each other. In a global society there is not just one solution to a problem, but many. Leading is not about making all the decisions and taking action on your own. It is about listening first and taking collective action. 
"We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it's never a question of 'critical mass.' It's always about critical connections." - Grace Lee Boggs 
Reflection Question: How do you know you are being uplifted or cradled and protected?
Visual reflection option: In your drawing, find a way for the people holding up the building to also support each other

A Note on teachers as
​connected leaders

Throughout this project, I've thought of the caryatid as a metaphor for a teacher. The weight of the world is supported by her strong, uplifted head. For too long, the weight of creating belonging has fallen on teachers who are implored to "build relationships!" and be a support network for each and every student.
As I think about caryatids again, they are never alone. No single caryatid column can support the whole weight of a temple of learning. They share that weight, so no one column crumbles. Collectively they do the work. Ecosystems of belonging and welcome must also ensure the principles of connectivism support educators. Let's all be caryatids, celebrating the way our connectedness helps us to support each other and add strength to what we do.

"We are heroes" a self-portrait project from the 49th Primary School. Sixth graders connected the concepts learned about heroism during the 1821 Greek Revolution to themselves.

Artwork from the 87th Intercultural School in Gazi. "I am a child. I have rights." For World Rights of the Child Day, November 20

At the Athens Experimental school students created posters about inclusion. This one reads, "Yes to eqauality. No to patriarchy. No to sexism.. We are all equal."

At 47th Primary in Patras preschoolers are shooting for the stars together.

Caryatids support the Temple of Athena at the Acropolis, Athens.

how does connected student leadership create belonging?

When I spoke to Greek students, many saw leadership as an official position or structure, like the school council. This is not surprising given the bureaucratic nature of Greece. In the birthplace of democracy, however, the idea of collective decision was not inherent. School, as students see it, is where they go and what they do. The belong because their friends are there and their teachers care. These elements of their definition of belonging show connectedness but also show a need to find and redefine connected leadership. Many of the elements are in place already, as illustrated by the strategies.

Click here to access strategies for cultivating connected student leaders

Sources:

Aspen Global Leadership Network. (2021) Exploring your social change ecosystem. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/exploring-your-social-change-ecosystem/
Benson, P., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the 'village' rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2(3), 138-159
Blum, R. (2005). A case for school connectedness. Educational leadership, 62(7), 16-20.
Bower, J., van Kraayenoord, C., Carroll, A. (2015) Building social connectedness in schools: Australian teachers’ perspectives, International Journal of Educational Research (70), 101-109.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513. 
Corbett, F. Spinello, E. (2020) Connectivism and leadership: harnessing a learning theory for the digital age to redefine leadership in the twenty-first century, Heliyon, (6) 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03250.
Corbett, F. et al., (2018). The Rise of Connectivist Leadership. The IAFOR Research Archive (2018)
Garcia, E., et al., (2015).The implications of a connectivist learning blog model and the changing role of teaching and learning. Br. J. Educ. Technol. 
Högberg, B., Petersen, S., Strandh, M. et al. (2021) Determinants of Declining School Belonging 2000–2018: The Case of Sweden. Soc Indic Res 157, 783–802. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02662-2
Iyer, D. (2020.)“Mapping our roles in social change ecosystems.” http://deepaiyer.com/2020/07/mapping-our-social-change-roles-in-times-of-crisis/
Ogden, C. (2017). "It's about critical connections not critical mass." Daily Good. http://www.dailygood.org/story/1496/it-s-about-critical-connections-not-critical-mass-curtis-ogden/
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: Learning as network-creation. ASTD Learning News, 10(1), 1-28.
Whitlock, J. L. (2006). Youth perceptions of life at school: Contextual correlates of school connectedness in adolescence. Applied Developmental Science, 10(1), 13–29.
Yuen, M., Lau, P.S.Y., Lee, Q.A.Y. et al. Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents’ perspectives. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 13, 55–63 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-011-9176-7