Christian Schools Australia

Picking up where Episode 3 left off, this latest installment calls us to ask ourselves, and the teams that we lead, how we work to sustain vision in our contexts.

In this episode we, once again, talk with Dr Brian Harris (Director) and Jennifer Argue (Executive Consultant) from AVENIR Leadership Institute continue to share from their personal experiences as leaders in education. We are reminded that leadership does not come without challenge and are encouraged to consider how hope and vision is instilled and sustained. We are called to carve out time and space to trust and listen, and have the courage to keep moving forward when times are difficult as leaders.

The challenge: 

What’s the calling of your organisation within the community and the time within which it’s called to serve? 

How will you render this imperative to be worthy of the calling you have received, and be actively involved in giving the world a better name, anticipating the world to come until Jesus returns and introducing people to him? 

Where Episode 2 caused us to consider the question of legacy and the importance of knowing when to pass the baton, Episode 3 takes a dive into the place of Hope in one's leadership and calling.

In this episode we talk with Dr Brian Harris (Director) and Jennifer Argue (Executive Consultant) from AVENIR Leadership Institute as they share their theology and journey of leadership in education. Together, they challenge us to think about the generational impact of leadership and the place of instilling hope in our schools and their communities. 

This episode will also ask the question of how the vision and hope that is instilled through godly leadership makes a difference for now and the long term.

Episode 1 provided an overview of the Framework as a whole. In Episode 2 we begin our discussion of the twelve characteristics of leadership that are embedded in the Framework: Inspiring Imagination. Leaders of vision inspire imagination and paint a picture of the future to which others aspire. 

We hear from Framework author Dr Daren Iselin and a leading architect and artist, Ian McGilvray. 

As a senior architect, inspiration for Ian’s many projects came from his Christian faith, the aspirations of his clients and a desire to create spaces in which they would flourish. To get the best from his team he also inspired them to be creative in design and problem solving. 

Approaching 60 this awarded architect left behind a partnership in an internationally renowned firm to complete a Masters degree in fine art. Far from being a retreat into a private passion, Ian saw the career change as an advance into a different form of cultural leadership, using art as a medium to express and inspire redemptive change, seeing and representing Godly hope at work in the subjects of his art. His insights are fascinating for all who seek to inspire and lead positive change. 

This episode will also pose questions about legacy, and the importance of knowing when to pass the baton. 

Leadership is a journey.

Welcome to the CSA Leadership Development Podcast series. This series is being developed throughout our 20th Anniversary year as a resource to accompany the CSA Leadership Framework, launched in 2021.

With our host, Stephen O’Doherty, this series will be a collection of conversations that look at leadership in a broad way.

“It’s about helping people find their place of flourishing in a world in which they are enabled to lead by God, who puts us in positions, and wants us to do well.”

In this introductory episode, Stephen talks with co-author of the CSA Leadership Framework, and CSA’s Director of Research & Innovation, Dr Darren Iselin. Together they discuss the issues of:

The CSA Leadership Development Framework was birthed out of an imperative to seek to reimagine what leadership development might look like to help position school leaders, at every level, to take up the mantle into the future and beyond.

FIND OUT MORE about the CSA Leadership Development Framework

In this episode, Mark Spencer, Director of Public Policy with Christian Schools Australia, has a heart-to-heart conversation with Leah Gray and her personal experience of gender identity.

Leah grew up in a Christian home, went to church, was actively involved with her faith, but always felt a little different. She didn’t fit the traditional stereotypes for a girl and once at university began to ‘explore’.

Through lots of support, prayer and the grace of God, Leah has turned her life around and is now happily married with a little daughter of her own born earlier this year.

On this podcast we share a little of Leah’s story and how legislation like the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act 2021 passed by the Victorian Parliament on 4 February 2021 impacts people looking to live an authentic Christian life.

Re-imagining Leadership Development for Christian Schools: The CSA Leadership Framework and the Partnership with the Church of England Foundation for Educational Leadership in the United Kingdom

On this episode of the CSA Podcast series, Dr Darren Iselin talks with Andy Wolfe, Executive Director of Education for the Church of England in the United Kingdom. Andy and Darren discuss leadership development within schools and the work Andy has done co-authoring a Church of England leadership development resource with Professor David Ford from Cambridge University. Andy and Darren also discuss the recent collaboration between the Church of England and CSA on an exciting new CSA leadership framework which is due for release on the 14th October at the upcoming 2021 NLS Leadership Symposium.

Join Andrew Taylor, QLD EO and School Improvement national portfolio leader, in a conversation with Andrew Stone from Stone Creative. Andrew serves as a leadership development and communications consultant for the education sector, faith-based communities, universities, leadership colleges and not-for-profit organisations in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and USA. Both Andrews will discuss the importance of effective communication in an organisation and explore that when you can clearly think about your outcomes and what you want to communicate, understand who in your organisation needs to know, and rollout with a relational and team building tone, you are well on the way to building a ‘culture of communication’.

Download: CORE Framework PDF

It’s a tough time to be leader. With so much uncertainty and change, the wellbeing of leaders is certainly a hot topic. We’re also seeing leaders with great ability and charisma burn out or fall from grace, not from a lack of skill, but perhaps from a lack of attention to their own formation.

In this podcast we are joined by Jeff Nagle from Heritage Leaders, who will help us explore what it is that brings leaders unstuck and how we can be intentional in our spiritual and philosophical formation – rather than just focus on the “doing” of leadership. Jeff has many years of experience in the international development and not-for-profit space, is heavily invested in supporting teachers and school leaders, and has some sage advice for leading in these challenging times.

Mark Spencer, CSA Director of Public Policy, talks with Professor Nicholas Aroney, Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Queensland and a member of the Expert Panel on Religious Freedom established by the Commonwealth Government in 2017.

Existing protections for religious freedom in Australia are discussed, and some myths about claimed protections are busted, no section 116 does not provide individual rights to religious freedom. Professor Aroney outlines simply, and in an easy to understand manner, the protections for religious freedom in international law and highlights where existing protections in Australian law fall short. He also identifies some key traps in Australian law that might not be evident to the casual reader.

This podcast is an essential primer for anybody wanting to understand the law around religious freedom in Australia.

This podcast explores how we understand and positively influence school culture. There is often a tension between what a leadership team might suggest is the destination culture of a school and what, in reality, one experiences when you ask everyone else – what we might call the shadow culture or cultures. When we don’t engage sufficiently with those shadow cultures it creates a level of HR risk which, experience suggests, schools are not, currently, managing. The first time we realise there is an issue is usually when something goes wrong.

So how do we understand that culture better? How do we reveal that culture effectively? And how do we engage with it more dynamically?

26mins you won’t regret giving up!

*Suggested link: Pandemic as Portal