OUR CURRENT LEADERSHIP CONTEXT

As DGs of a school service center or school board, we exercise our leadership primarily with and in collaboration with the following internal and external stakeholders:

OUR ORGANIZATION’S INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS
  • Other members of management; Director generals Assistant Director Generals
  • Service department(s)
  • School or center management
  • Aspiring school or center manager
  • CSS or CS staff
  • Members of the Board of Directors
  • Members of the Council of Commissioners
  • Members of statutory committees
  • Members of foundations linked to one or more CSS or CS organizational units
  • Union and association partners
EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS AT REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELS
  • Community partners: mayors of cities and municipalities, members of parliament, community organizations
  • Partners from other CSS or CS
  • Association des directions générales scolaires du Québec (ADGSQ)
  • Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA)
  • Branch associations from other provinces
  • Fédération des centers de services scolaires du Québec (FCSSQ)
  • Quebec Ministry of Education
  • Other ministries including Health, Family and Immigration
  • Higher Education Council (CSE)
  • Education Canada (EdCan)
  • Regroupement national des directions générales de l’éducation (RNDGÉ)
  • Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones (FNCSF)
  • Center de transfert pour la réussite éducative du Québec (CTREQ)
  • Universities and university researchers
  • Media
As a Director General, we exercise our leadership in the following main contexts:
  • DG team meetings
  • Meetings with senior management and department heads
  • Meetings with general management, department managers and school or center management
  • Meetings of the Board of Directors or Board of Commissioners
  • Legislated committee meetings: Commitment to Success Committee, Parents’ Committee, Resource Allocation Committee, Management Advisory Committee, Human Resources Committee, Audit Committee, Governance and Ethics Committee, Transportation Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee on Services for Special Needs Children, Labour Relations Committees
  • Committee meetings related to certain priority organizational projects
  • Meetings with external stakeholders such as MPs, mayors, prefects of MRCs
  • Meetings with socio-economic and community partners
  • Meetings with other ministries
  • Meetings at regional branch tables
  • Meetings with the media
  • ADGSQ Annual General meeting
  • FCSSQ study and expertise commissions
  • Community of practice or other form of professional development activity

CURRENT TRENDS are having a tangible impact on education and the context in which we exercise our leadership as DGs, which are proving to be increasingly complex and volatile, i.e. :

  • Students, young people and adults, with characteristics and prerequisites that are increasingly specific and diversified in terms of social status and success;
  • A significant renewal of the various players in the education system in a context of shortage of labor shortage and specialized resources, including a tangible transformation of the DG community;
  • Major developments in digital technologies, which are transforming society and the work environment;
  • high social, economic and parental expectations toward the school system, which are often politicized and litigated in the context of citizen participation, accentuated by social media relaying momentary or short-term concerns;
  • tangible disparities in issues between large and small English and French language school boards and service centers, including, for example, declining versus hyper-growth clienteles and close ties with certain minority communities;
  • a transformation/evolution of school governance in Quebec that redefines the mandates and responsibilities of the Ministère de l’Éducation, the Fédération des centres de services scolaires, the centres de services scolaires, the school boards and the schools, and modifies the specific roles of the French and English DGs and the way they exercise, together and respectively, their current and future power in education;
  • numerous operational management challenges arising from emerging societal issues (e.g. pandemics, water and air quality and infrastructure, inclusion of diversity, mental health issues, etc.);
  • the need to mobilize data and theoretical and professional knowledge in education to guide informed and rigorous reflection and action in the service of educational success;
  • Table 1 below summarizes the progressive broadening of branch leadership perspectives over recent decades.
As a community of DGs, we see in the current context a historic opportunity to make centers of services and school boards as major contributors to Quebec’s education of today and tomorrow. The following section specifies our intentions as a community of leaders.
APPENDIXES LEXICON REFERENCES
Association des directions générales scolaires du Québec (ADGSQ), Marie-Hélène Guay et Brigitte Gagnon