Game On! Embark On Educational Transformation

Growing up, board games have always been a classic favourite in almost every household.Dice, tokens, chips, and cards have been seamlessly integrated into the very fabric of our childhood memories. At a cursory glance, they may be categorized as nothing more than “a good time pass”. But if you stop for a moment, elicit and think rationally, you realize that they impart valuable lessons as well. For instance: strategies are needed to take advantage. This is completely true for most board games as well as in real life.

“We may get the right numbers but strategically, if we do not make the right move, we
move towards the losing end”

The same happens in every walk of life where we devise strategies for our success and if there are faults in strategies, there is a likelihood that we do not attain the objective at the right point. The possibility of acquiring our vision and flourishing as a leader depends on the choices and decisions we make.

Consider your path to becoming an educator. Think back to the experiences that come to mind when you think about your first day as teacher, coordinator, or even as a principal. Use all your senses as you recall the sights, smells, sounds during those moments. Recall how your body felt and what emotions you felt during those experiences. Think about the exact moment when you realized you wanted to become an educator and how all those sensations impacted you. Consider what you want to take from mentors from your past? How will you bring about desired changes and how do you want to make schooling better for students with your unique talents? Have your gamification strategies worked?

At EDLAB Pakistan, we observe that teachers and the management teams in schools are concerned about the changes and transformations of our educational institutions. We have conducted a myriad of training sessions, workshops, and webinars where we have been able to pan out all the concepts and ingredients that come together in this complex and exciting recipe of educational transformation. If you have been acquainted with us and incorporated our design and methodology into your change process, you have undoubtedly appreciated having a powerful tool and the direct support of EDLAB’s consultancy. Regardless, for sure, the path of educational change is complex for teachers, academic managers and school directors.

To profoundly transform the educational organization, we need to see it as a living organism. We have to put in motion, at the right time and place, each of the elements that configure the complex educational institution and all the people and sectors that comprise it. It is no longer just about transforming what happens within the classroom, but about changing everything that has so far constituted internal culture: how to do things and the beliefs, customs, values, horizons, decision-making, and relationships of collaborative teams. This requires firm conviction and leadership to transform and mobilize all the protagonists toward the shared dream of change.

All this puts on the game table a fundamental recognition to ensure change: From where do I want to transform and focus change?

“It is no longer that only the WHAT and HOW are essential; now, FROM WHERE becomes very relevant”

And more so after COVID-19's impact on education and the unforeseen rise in digital pedagogy. Educational transformation requires self-knowledge, internal learning, and actions that lead us to change. Only then can we inspire others to change.

This is where our OSTAD program comes in, which we launched as a CSR initiative when we began this journey in 2015. This program is not leadership training. Instead, it is a path, a harmonic process that proceeds from the full consciousness of “Me” to identify my potential areas of growth and the examining, questioning of my context, and begin with the end in mind (where I am and where I want to go), establishing an internal diagnosis.

Stop, withdraw momentarily from the front line of activism to ask the big question: from where do I want to change? As Xavier Aragay & Jonquera Arnó said: “It is no longer that only the WHAT and HOW are essential; now, FROM WHERE becomes very relevant” Question everything, dare to ask yourself powerful questions, learn, forgive, rest, express yourself from who you are and what you feel, appreciate, prioritize taking care of yourself (leading transformation should not cost your lives), write, meditate, collaborate with others to design the future.

Let’s lead with excitement mingled with uncertainty. Let's lead from who we are, from the resonance of our values, beliefs, fears, convictions, and priorities. Not from a manual. Let’s lead from our being, together with the beings who accompany us, toward what we want to build for our students, for their world, their lives, their vital projects.

Moreover, in our Signature Training Programs, and EDLeaders Program all this is personalized. We share the path in a group,generating a community of like minded educators,managers and directors who learn, where each becomes an accomplice and source of inspiration.Do we genuinely believe that we can lead the educational transformation without reflecting on WHERE in the current context and complexity? Can we direct and inspire others toward change without entering the inner space where all our relationships, beliefs, and perspectives are built? To reimagine education, we must have the courage to reimagine ourselves as a person, an educator and ask the critical questions linked to our vital projects; otherwise, it will be challenging to mobilize our environment for this great dream.

When we have acquired the technical knowledge, when we have already internalized the methodology that will lead us to change, when we have played with all the chips and tokens on the board of this educational transformation, when we have experienced what it means to lose and win, then we only have the most critical game left: the one that each individual plays.