Transformational Leadership in Research and Practice, Generating Impact to Create a More Just and Sustainable Future

How do you navigate the complexity of inter-disciplinary problems, projects, and ways of working to understand and address global environmental issues? How can your work have transformational impact on those in the University and on society at large? How can students and staff use their capacities and knowledge to enhance the impact of their individual work and align their work for greater collective impact?

These and other questions will be addressed in a 2-day workshop on transformational leadership in research and practice.

This workshop is open to PGRs, PGTs and all Staff – we have 20 fully-funded places!

Dates/times: The workshop will run over two days: Wed 24th April and Wed 1st May 2024, the sessions will run 10am - 3pm (lunch provided). Please only sign up if you are able to attend both days.

Facilitators: The workshops will be run by Professor Alf Coles, Dr Alison Oldfield, Michael Rumbelow (PGR) and Fiona Sharpe (PGR), from the School of Education’s Research Centre for Teaching, Learning and Curriculum. This team collaborated with the organisation cChange, in developing some of the original ideas for the workshop. The team have been supported in running and adapting the workshops by Enhancing Research Culture grants in 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. Following the workshops this year, we will be making the tools and resources we use freely available.

About the workshop

Join us for a 2-day workshop, taking place on 24th April and 1st May 2024, that will focus on enhancing the impact of your work, particularly as it relates to themes of living sustainably within our environment, adapting to environmental change and social and ecological justice. The aim of this workshop is to explore and build individual leadership, to enhance our collective capacity and plan for ways of moving from individual to system change.

Following the workshops, you will be invited to join a peer support network to continue developing your leadership practice and maintain a sense of community.

The workshop will focus on:

• Opening up a space for participants to explore what leadership means to them.
• Engaging with leadership through a range of lenses, to identify how individual and collective values and purposes inform action.
• Building your leadership capacity in relation to your roles, projects, initiatives, and work.
• Identifying opportunities for system and cultural shifts.
• Creating a space for reflection and envisioning what the wider University can and should be.

During the workshop, participants will gain:

• Insights into their individual and collective capacity to lead.
• Knowledge of select tools for enhancing their leadership capacity and ability to contribute to systemic and cultural shifts.
• Experience of how to align purposes, projects, and collaborations for greater impact.

Follow-up: As part of the grant that has funded the workshops, we would like to run a 20-minute post-workshop interview with each participant. Feedback has been crucial to reviewing and enhancing what we do. We will also provide an electronic space for continued collaboration, for those who want.