Ep56: Dr Joanne Casey, Research Practitioner and Author

Today my guest is Dr Joanne Casey, a Research Practitioner and Author. In this episode, Joanne reflects on her experiences as a classroom teacher working in three sectors of education - Government, Catholic and Independent - and trying to make sense of the decisions being made in schools, and their potential impact on students. We also explore Joanne’s further professional work and her PhD based around classroom teaching, leadership and teacher professional learning. In her research, Joanne made use of the collective wisdom found in schools as she talked to teachers and leaders and collected evidence of teachers connecting and collaborating with colleagues and students. The research uncovered a range of similar issues across various school contexts: a lack of time, ever-increasing complexity of tasks, and teachers generally feeling undervalued and overwhelmed. Her findings led to the recently published book, “Leading with the Social Brain in Mind: Cognition, Complexity and Collaboration in Schools”. Joanne shares insights into the cognitive load of both teachers and school leaders in their day-to-day tasks and how this often relates to time, place, and space within a school workday. We chat about current school organisational structures that might be based on outdated models, and what some leaders ask of teachers not always being reasonable. We also explore silos, that is, a psychological workplace construct that usually ends up blocking communication and stops getting things done. With an acknowledgment that relationships are at the heart of schools, Joanne offers some research-informed practical strategies to better navigate these complex systems in order to support change and improvement in schools. Links: https://jmceducation.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-casey-panoramicleadership/ https://ambapress.com.au/products/leading-with-the-social-brain-in-mind