Collaborative Leadership !

by Dave Mansell and Dawn Ellis-Mobbs!

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As an arts educator, every time I step into either a teaching environment or a

facilitation role, I venture into the unknown. Not in the sense that I dont know what Im doing, but that I cant anticipate the result of my inuence. As someone who produces and directs complex music and lm projects, this conicts with my natural instinct toward conception and direction. Oddly, I am comfortably outside my comfort zone in these scenarios. Perhaps its because I have a couple safety nets beneath me, which for me are experience and, as a result of experience, condence in my abilities. What I do know for certain is that Im looking for those epiphanies when a student or participant experiences a moment of discovery and deep engagement. ! ! I think all educators have a built-in desire to witness transformative moments in their classes; however, it is almost always in this area of uncharted waters that these moments occur, making it all the more difcult to achieve them, and risky to attempt. This process is what Lee Higgins calls boundary walking, although the imagery of a distant boundary for me seems antithetical to this process. A boundary is an obstacle either outside or between and in this type of activity, it only works if you jump into the middle and really engage with the participants on a human-to-human level. ! ! When Dawn Ellis-Mobbs invited me to work with her students at Cardinal Carter Catholic High School in Aurora, I said yes enthusiastically and without hesitation. An opportunity to share leadership and education with another teacher is not only an honour, it is an amazing opportunity to collaborate, share ideas and demonstrate passion for the art form to students without shoving it in their faces. It is also an opportunity to learn from another educator and expand my own repertoire as an educator.! ! ! ! The goal of the workshop was to introduce chord theory and songwriting

techniques into an environment which Dawn had already created where the students were writing their own songs. The songwriting assignment was attached to a cause relating to PTSD awareness, so there was a wellness and mental health vibe already

present when I arrived on scene, and some of the students had already written things. We started with some sharing which, to my surprise, was the rst time many of the classmates had heard each others compositions. The only part of the activity which had me at the front of the class a technical lesson I provided for the class in diatonic chords was brief but necessary to bring tools into the equation. Dawn, herself, was taking notes from my brief lecture and then off we went into the unknown part creating. On my end, I was making mental notes of her interaction with the class and following her lead so as to better connect with the students. We were essentially educating and facilitating community music on the y. It was exciting and always is a truly unique experience. ! ! ! The resulting songs were about what we expected, but what was really tangible and inspiring to witness were the semi-engaged students who, having just seen a light go on, were now coming forward with more and more questions and ideas. Dawn, rifng off that enthusiasm, offered to extend some of the class into more isolated workshops which was a bonus treat for both us and them. Of course, not every student in the class was at the most heightened level of engagement, but many were nonetheless elevated beyond their own expectations. Some even had transformative moments and saw potential in themselves. ! ! ! I cant think of a better experience to relate to the class than this one since it

embodied every paradigm of community music and education to which we aspire. It was a performance of sort, and certainly outside our comfort zones, as the unknown almost always is. But most importantly, every time we do this, we get better at doing it and closer to those golden moments as facilitators and educators. We arent walking boundaries, were ignoring them and jumping in.!