The 2019 International Conference of Curriculum Leadership for Principals, organized by the University of Taipei, is taking place on November 1 at the International Convention Center at National Taiwan University Hospital. Its broad aims are to enhance elementary and secondary schools’ connections with the world, and principals’ curriculum leadership, which, in turn, will facilitate the implementation of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum.

Another is to boost ongoing related communications and exchanges, as a result of conference attendees sharing their experiences of participating in and promoting the development of principals’ and teachers’ professional learning communities. We look forward to developing best-practice models for principals’ curriculum leadership and for professional learning communities.  

The Ministry of Education invited five eminent scholars and principals from Sweden, Finland, and Singapore—all with expertise in the theories and practice of principal leadership—to speak at the conference. This will give local principals an opportunity to learn more about and draw on how principal leadership has developed in Sweden, Finland, and Singapore, as they refine their part in the future direction of curriculum leadership in Taiwan.

The conference has three main components, outlined below.

1. Two keynote speakers will address the conference about the principal leadership related development trends in their own countries. In the morning, Dr. Marjo Kyllönen, Head of the Development Service Unit in Finland, will speak on Sustainable Leadership in a Changing World—How to Lead in a Successful Way the Transformation of Education, and in the afternoon, Dr. Niclas Rönnström, a professor at Stockholm University, will speak on The Growing Institutionalization of Instructional Leadership: Merits, Discontents and Alternatives.

2. Observation Reports by the other overseas experts: two school principals—Dr. Agneta Torsell from Finland, and Dr. Henrik Ljungqvist from Sweden—and Dr. Zoe Boon, from the National Institute of Education at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

In the three days immediately before the conference, they conducted real-time observations of the operations of teachers’ professional learning community (PLC) workshops, and the conversations of the participating teachers, at elementary, and junior, and senior high school level schools in three different parts of Taiwan: 1. in northern Taiwan - Xinzhuang Elementary School, Hongdao Junior High School, and the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, on October 28, 2. in southern Taiwan -  Kaohsiung Oil Refinery Elementary School, Minghua Junior High School, and Rueisiang High School, and 3. in central Taiwan - Ta Keng Elementary School, Shiang Shang Junior High School, and Hui-Wen High School, on October 28, 29, and 30, respectively.

They will give the conference reports on their observations of the workshops and give their appraisals of how PLCs can work in elementary, and junior and senior high schools, and two different PLC formats: single school or cross-school.

3. Experiences of professional learning communities in Taiwan

Twenty-six principals of schools that participate in cross-school PLCs will then share their schools’ experiences of principals’ PLCs and teachers’ PLCs, and of promoting their development (9 giving oral presentations, 17 in poster format). Their focus will be on how their PLCs work and some of the discussions the PLCs have led to and facilitated, particularly on themes related to Taiwan’s 12-Year Basic Education.

The Ministry of Education encourages all elementary and secondary principals to engage in professional development to consolidate their understanding and appreciation of curriculum leadership and enhance their effective school leadership. During the conference certificates will be issued to 89 principals, eligible to receive beginner level Principal Curriculum Leadership Certification, and to another 87 principals, who have each completed all the A+ Navigators Seminars on Principal Instructional Leadership.  The sharing of experiences, conversations, reflections, and learning activities at this conference, and afterwards, will no doubt facilitate this.

International Conference on Curriculum Leadership for Principals Agenda

Date: November 1, 2019

Venue: Conference Room 201, NTUH International Convention Center