From 27th March to 29th March 2021, The University of Manchester (UoM) China Centre welcomed the students of MA Educational Leadership in Practice first Asia Cohort with a blended welcome event and 3-day conference, which marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter for 23 professionals from educational sectors.

Ahead of their 24-months study journey, Ms. Sherry Fu, UoM China Centre Director, welcomed the students both online and offline with inspiring remarks: “Education has been considered as one of the most important and influential professions for the development of civilization and humanity - which makes educational leaders a crucial role. It is our intention to empower educational leaders to tackle tough challenges in globalizing educational environment with compassion and competency. "

UoM China Centre Director, Ms. Sherry Fu

Mr. Mark Upton, the record holder of the youngest headmaster in the UK, CEO of upto u education service with an extensive and impressive career in educational leadership for over 40 years, was invited to deliver a keynote speech to the new students. The speech was focused on an insight into educational leadership from the Region, which received heated discussion during the session. Mark proposed that education was all about how we could inspire the passion of students.  

Mr. Mark Upton and one of the new students

Arguments about how education should reform often leads to intractable disagreements, but it is a fair observation that schools have not been substantially rethought since the industrial era. With his rich experience in international education, Mark led a brainstorm with students and shared his ideas about how to transform schools towards the future as an educational leader.

After Mark’s keynote speech, Dr. Paul Armstrong from Manchester Institute of Education led the new students for a virtual live breakout session with a short introduction on "different ways the leadership is presented" and badged and how this influences our understanding of it.

He also shared how leaders should use institutional structures as vehicles for their practice with cases from UK and Hong Kong. Students were involved in group-work and activities with selected literature linked to practice. In the evening, our Course Director Dr. Alex Gardner-McTaggart talked about professional orientations and aims.

On 28th March, Dr. Steve Courtney introduced the opportunities and limitations of functional leadership. Dr. Stephen Rayner, then, led the panel discussion with the students focusing on how leadership identities and dispositions were influenced by policy direction, educational context and the reflective cycle.

MA Educational Leadership in Practice Course Director,

Dr. Alex Gardner-McTaggart

On 29th March, students were re-grouped to build a sociological perspective on educational leadership with the guidance from Dr. Alex Gardner-McTaggart. Also, Dr. Belinda Hughes led the groups to introduce peer-reviewed articles, models of transformational leadership and the hybrid - system leadership, attached with an original-research based-case study of the executive leader. At the end of the 3-day conference, Dr. Drew Whitworth shared his understanding on the digital learning environment and showcased educational leadership in the digital future.

This 3-day blended conference provided education professionals a chance to discuss with leading academics, networking with peers, forming a truly international and diversified community. Through tackling real-world case studies and working together to formulate solutions, students are being transformed into versatile educational leaders with the ability to apply their learnings and leadership skills directly to their workplace as well as being better prepared to cope with the current uncertainty in the global education sector.