Hafiz M. Saleem

Professional Growth Plan (PGP)--Updated

Ed. Tech Leadership, Ed.D. Program Cohort III

New Jersey City University

Presented to Dr. Chris Carnahan

Summer Institute II, July 31, 2016

 

 

 

                Leaders who empower their followers to realize their untapped potential, not only transform lives of their followers, they also transform their own lives in turn. Although a leader could be an expert in any singular area of expertise, leaders in education cannot thrive on a singular model or style of leadership, as their profession demands of them to swing from one leadership style to another, depending upon the situation at hand. Yet, a set of characteristics and traits may become more pronounced than others, assigning such leaders to a certain category. In this regard, by Northouse definition of leadership styles, I would deem myself situated in the category of Transformational Leaders. According to this definition, "Transformational leaders create something new from something old by changing the basic political and cultural systems (Tichy, Ulrich, 1984). Transformational leaders accomplish this by challenging and transforming individuals' emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals through the process of charismatic and visionary leadership (Northouse, 2007)." In addition to this, I incorporate tenets of Primal Leadership, as defined by Daniel Goleman et al., in their 2004 book, titled Primal Leadership. The authors emphasize emotional intelligence skills and empathy as prime factors for leaders who excel in the art of leading. My pursuit of this doctoral program hinges upon these tenets in advancing new technologies in urban education. And this is how it all started.

 

August 31, 2013--The day I came to an unexpected fork in my career path, and I took the one unfamiliar to me. The one I had no plan and no training for. And now, almost two years since then, I not only have internalized a zeal for this new career path, I also have left a streak of success for others to follow. In August 2013, I was offered a career choice to continue in the comfort zone of a tenured position as an English teacher at an inner-city high school, or move up to a non-tenured administrative position in Business Education and Technology department. I was asked to face the conundrum of moving out of a domain where I was nearing the ultimate degree, into what my superiors thought I would do just fine. I took the wager and moved out of my comfort zone to set up a brand new student career pathway program at the School of Information Technology in Paterson, New Jersey. Two years later, this one is the only program that offers entry-level industry certifications for urban high school graduates in Network Security in the state of New Jersey. In fact, this program has been recognized as the largest Cisco Networking Academy in the country. Here, my professional responsibilities include charting course sequences, designing curriculums, training teachers, developing formative assessments, securing standardized assessments, creating partnerships with IT industry partners and with institutions of higher education, evaluating instructional quality of Technology teachers, and ensuring capstone IT industry certifications alongside high school graduation for students, among many others.

                This new framework of career responsibilities has already shaped an outline for the rest of my educational life. I have learned I would need an expert level knowledge to impart the skills needed for 21st-century careers for my students through education technology. In my daily practice, I observe how the ubiquitous infiltration of technology is mutating brains of our students. I recognize new knowledge and new skills are now acquired through ways that are so different from only a decade ago. I know now what differentiates mindless browsing from authentic engagement with digital content. I also see fewer dollars set aside for traditional resources in school budgets. Chromebooks, iPads, and cell phones are fast replacing textbooks. Course content is being delivered through Google Classroom, and the teachers are being encouraged to adopt the role of facilitators rather than deliverers of knowledge. Students are now expected to become independent learners, making technology the sole medium of interaction with learners. It is in this context that I see my role as an innovator of methods in delivering substantive knowledge by invoking faculties of curiosity and inquiry in students. Technology that engages students as explorers and creators, rather than passive absorbers of information. This is all that motivates me. Through this doctoral program, I need to build the capacity to create educational programs that not only harness the potential of what digital resources have to offer in developing competency in Math, in Science, in Humanities, but that could also match the differences in individual learning abilities. Our students in urban areas vastly vary in their learning abilities, for a variety of developmental and cultural effects. Instructional Technology should be able to deliver educational content that best matches their individual learning processes. Among all others, one particular area of concern for me as an overseer of the Department of Bus. Ed. & Technology at a large urban high school district is the ubiquitous perception that our biggest problem is the lack of technology hardware. Although one-on-one accessibility of technology for all is a noble goal, the problem lies elsewhere. I believe the problem lies in the pedagogical utilization of such resources. I have yet to see authentic technology integration in the content-area curriculums. Technology is still considered as an attribute of CTE courses and the extent of integration in routine instruction is limited to Word processing or to creating Powerpoint presentations. I firmly believe technology can augment learning faculties, in scope and in span, but only when it is integrated with the ways learning happens. Through this program, I intend to effect this pedagogical integration of technology in routine instruction.

        Another factor that impacts the proper adoption and implementation of technology programs in education is the lack of professional development for the content area teachers. There is a resistance to creative uses of the innovative software applications for the learning curve education professionals, veteran professionals, in particular, have to go through. Most professional development for such software is conducted by commercial vendors, whose perspectives are often at variance to those of practitioners and teachers. I believe an in-the-trenches educator can better help develop software applications that take into account all the encumbrances on the daily routine of a teacher practitioner. Through this program, I would like to be able to impart professional development that is effective towards the pedagogical use of innovations in technology.

           Then, there are factors of gender and economic inequities in the provision of technological resources. Even today, we have to entice female students through Hours of Code initiatives, only to bring awareness of the potential of careers in technology for them. This still is a predominantly male career pathway. There is such an urgent need to overcome this gender inequity for female students in technology. Along these lines, there is also the factor of economic inequity, where the prohibitive cost of accessing information online via cable and ISPs automatically excludes large poor urban areas from competing with their suburban peers for college admissions. I would want to be a force for advocating net neutrality and cost regulation of information access. Suburban students can take advantage of continuing their classroom education beyond school time using internet resources, while urban students would wait until they get back to school for internet access. Through this program, I would like to know how I could help bridge these inequities. And the timeline to accomplish this goal is within two years of completing this Ed. Tech Leadership program at NJCU in May 2018.

I bring with me a strong academic and practice background to experiment and implement what I would learn in the Technology Education Leadership program at NJCU. My graduate degree in Language and Literacy (UMass, Lowell) has equipped me with the knowledge of how new learning takes place and how to maximize individual learning potentials. My professional position as the Technology leader at a large urban New Jersey school district would allow me to share with my cohort colleagues the feedback I would receive from my students and teachers upon implementing the learnings from this program.

In summary, I foresee myself at the forefront of leading technological instruction in urban education by advocating the unheard voices of the inarticulate and the unready urban youth.

 

 

Short-term and Long-term Goals

2015-2016 Goals

• Attend ISTE Conference for the 1st time--Completed

• Present at NJECC Conference--Completed

• Establish Cisco Networking Academy in Paterson--Completed

• Extensive review of research theories on memorization techniques--On-going

• Upgrade the entire School of Information Technology in Paterson, NJ to Google Classroom--Completed

• Introduce CCENT and CompTIA technology certification programs at the School of Information Technology--Completed

2016-2017 Goals

• Present Google Maps Memorization Technique at two conferences, NJEdge and ISTE

• Set up a content-rich website on memorization strategies using the purchased domain, www.productivityalliance.org

• Network with organizations of instructional designers: ASTD and ISPI--Spring, 2017

• Learn more about ADDIE, SAM, and Bloom design models—Summer, 2016

• Learn more about prototyping with Agile and Lean models—Fall, 2016

• Learn more about eLearning tools, like Captivate, Articulate Studio/Storyline, Camtasia, and/or Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator—Spring, 2017

• Promote Google Maps memorization strategy among professional organizations and school districts

2017-2018

• Complete Ed Tech dissertation in the Spring of 2018

• Graduate as an Ed. D. in the Summer of 2018

• Set up a part-time consultancy as an expert on memorization techniques

• Present at least two more conferences

• Conduct free memorization training seminars for teachers of struggling school districts in New Jersey

• Conduct seminars on productivity losses at work due to loss of memory

• Offer memorization workshops at adult day-care centers

 

References

 

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

Goleman, D. A Boyatzis, R.E., A McKee, A. (2004) Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead

with Emotional Intelligence, Harvard Business Press