My guest this episode, Dr. Joanne Casey, shares her journey in education, her passion and interest in how the brain works and how schools are organised to foster and support collaboration, and supporting leaders to understand the cognitive and social complexities of the work teachers do.
Joanne's inspirational, influential and impactful recommendations:
People - Educational leaders who resonate with, and also challenge, your topics of interest
Books - Picture books - Jackie French, Shaun Tan, Jeannie Baker; Anything that brings you joy
Podcast - EduSalon
Cause - Any that supports a more peace filled humanity
Dream Travel Destination - Anywhere snow falls at Christmas
Connect with Joanne:
Linkedin - Dr. Joanne Casey
Joanne is an education practitioner and researcher. She has been working in a range of school contexts to support the implementation of system and school based improvement initiatives. She is a curriculum and pedagogy nerd!
As an advocate for contextual, flexible and research-based approaches, Joanne draws on her extensive experience of teaching in primary, secondary and tertiary settings when bridging and boundary crossing research, policy, and practice. It helps that she has also worked across our three education sectors - Government, Catholic and Independent.
Previous studies in organisations, change and education lead to Joanne’s doctoral studies - exploring associations among cognitive limitations for interactions, collaboration as an improvement strategy, and silo mentality.
Findings from this research affirm that collaboration is important work but is underestimated and undervalued in its cognitive and social complexity. With the social brain in mind, Joanne works with school leaders and teachers to create and refine environments where collaboration addresses the changing and evolving nature of an educator's work, usually among multiple demands vying for attention, often simultaneously, in the time available.
Determining what is reasonable is not always a straightforward exercise. Without additional and different types of knowledge, training, and professional experience, school leaders can inadvertently contribute to further barriers to collaboration within their contexts. Joanne’s research provides an alternative framework to provide structure for a team’s planning and decision making. School leaders, in considering the nature of the relationship between human cognition and sociality, from an evolutionary point of view, can explore ways to address problems of practice that are based on their own context, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
If you missed one of our previous episodes, you can hear the inspiring, influential and impactful guests below (they are worth the listen!)
#4 - Fi Morrison: STEM-spirational
#5 - Craig Ladek: The Impact of Service
#6 - Dr, Stephanie Smith: Empowering Young People
#7 - Barbara Gruener: Connecting By Heart
I’d be honoured if you shared the podcast with friends and colleagues, and would greatly appreciate it if you could show your support by subscribing to Inspiration, Influence and Impact: The Podcast and leaving a review and rating for the podcast. Please connect with me on social media at @kcasw1 on Twitter, and @authenticity_in_edu on Instagram. I hope you join me next episode.