Commonwealth Council of Educational Administration and Management (CCEAM) Youth Leadership Special Interest Group (SIG)
Our Vision: Our vision is to inspire and empower a new cohort of effective, ethical young educational leaders by equipping them with leadership knowledge, skills, attitudes, and effective social networking skills as they develop into active and vocal contributors to the social, economic and cultural well-being of their community.
Our Mission: Through our CCEAM Youth Leadership Special Interest Group initiatives, we will provide Commonwealth pre-service teachers, early-career teachers and youth educational leadership leaders with administrative, management and leadership opportunities to develop their resilience in overcoming barriers to progression and by equipping them with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and opportunities to speak out about community issues, and challenge inequalities and inequities within their local educational settings.
We will aim to do this by:
- Bringing Commonwealth youth leaders together by cultivating an inclusive, encouraging, and supportive community of learning through partnership with higher education institutions within CCEAM member nations or with members of their in-country professional teacher association/ youth educational leadership organisations.
- Offering these CCEAM youth leaders unique opportunities to build their administrative, management and leadership experience to lead effectively
- Helping these CCEAM youth leaders become active participants in developing civic sensitivity and building civil society, governance and decision-making processes within their local settings.
- Creating potential pathways for these CCEAM youth leaders to actively participate in policy reformation as well as collaborate with CCEAM leaders in their jurisdiction to create intentional settings such as advisory groups where they work alongside CCEAM leaders by uniting together, co-sharing positions of authority, working as colleagues and sharing accountability in achieving common social and educational goals for improvement in their society.
- Creating a community of young leaders who will go on to deliver change within Commonwealth countries who are members of CCEAM.
Our Objectives: Through this program, CCEAM youth leaders have the opportunity to:
- Belong to an inclusive, encouraging, and supportive community of learning
- Build their administrative, management and leadership skills in community with other like-minded CCEAM youth leaders.
- Acquire the skills, knowledge and attitude to develop civic sensitivity and participate in building civil society, governance and decision-making by actively participating in youth advocacy and engagement.
- Gain work experience by participating in policy reformation as well as collaborating with CCEAM leaders and sharing accountability for shared goals to bring about social change and improvement within their local settings
- Belong to a community of CCEAM youth leaders who will go on to deliver change in the world by practising a glocal mindset of thinking geared at acting locally while contributing globally through this social platform offered through CCEAM for youth leaders.
What are the three CCEAM – Youth Leadership themes to explore and develop across each CCEAM member nation:
- Youth and Food Insecurity,
- Youth and Climate Change and
- Youth amidst the World at War/Peace.
Who can join our country-based CCEAM youth leader teams?
At least four (or more but not more than ten), young preservice teachers (18 to 30-year-old) enrolled in under-graduate/post-graduate degrees in education or early-career teachers who are members of their in-country professional teacher association/ youth educational leadership organisation are encouraged to enlist as CCEAM youth leaders within their country by contacting their local representative CCEAM leader(s) and submitting a two-page resume with their application and two respective referees from the higher education institution they are enrolled in or their professional teacher association/ youth educational leadership organisation. They may be enrolled in this program for the duration of their under-graduate/ post-graduate degree and, if interested, join as CCEAM independent members once working as professionals.
In addition to this, we also encourage early-career teachers (up to 30-year olds) who may want to join us through their in-country professional teacher association or youth educational leadership organisation. These associations will need to be affiliates of CCEAM.
How often will we meet?
At the CCEAM Country level
- A CCEAM Country Youth Leader will need to be a member of the CCEAM. This will be organised through their respective higher education institution or in-country professional teacher association/ youth educational leadership organisation and CCEAM through its registration as an Affliated Member of CCEAM. More information on CCEAM Membership: https://cceam.info/apply-for-membership/ Contact the CCEAM Business Manager, Dr Patricia Briscoe for more details at cceamfuture@gmail.com.
- There may be more than one CCEAM Country Youth Leader, in which case they will liaise together and with the CCEAM Youth Leadership Chair and Committee.
- Each country’s CCEAM Country Youth Leader(s) will organise two business meetings per year with their group of CCEAM young leaders to work towards a country youth leadership agenda that will involve the mentoring and developing of educational leadership, administration and management skills as well as their participation in local advisory groups organised through CCEAM local leaders. This agenda will be chalked out in consultation with the CCEAM Youth Leadership Committee before any actions are sought towards it at the country level.
- In any given year/two years, the CCEAM young leaders will engage in a capstone leadership project, choosing any of the three themes given above and under the guidance of their CCEAM Country Youth Leader(s). They will be able to choose all three themes or any combination of themes, with at least one theme being the most important theme being focused upon. As guided by their CCEAM Country Youth Leader(s), the CCEAM young leaders may work together or separately on a capstone leadership project chosen to fit the above-mentioned themes. They will present the findings/work-in-progress reports from their projects through participation either in an annual symposium or through the submission of essays.
- A brief country report on the overall work done in any given year at the local level will be submitted to the CCEAM Youth Leadership Committee in December each year by the CCEAM Country Leader. The CCEAM Youth Leadership SIG Chair will share a format for this report with all Country Youth Leaders.
At the CCEAM SIG level
- The CCEAM Youth Leadership SIG Chair will call for two business meetings with the representative CCEAM Country leaders.
- The CCEAM Youth Leadership SIG Chair will call for two network meetings in a year with all local representative CCEAM Country leaders and their respective CCEAM youth leaders to receive updates on their capstone projects and the work being done at their respective country level.
- A topical youth leadership seminar will be organised through the CCEAM Youth Leadership Committee in June/July each year/biannually (commencing in 2025) to mentor and grow this community of CCEAM youth leaders.
More details about the 2025 Youth Leadership seminar will be shared with respective CCEAM Youth Country Leaders early January 2025. The focus is on Circular Economy and its impact across the Youth themes for this SIG. - The CCEAM Youth Leadership SIG Chair, in consultation with the CCEAM Youth Leadership Committee and its local CCEAM Country Leaders, will organise an annual/biannual online symposium within the CCEAM conference or another international conference for CCEAM youth leaders/Country Youth Leaders to have an opportunity to participate in and present their views on glocal youth issues and actions being taken at the youth level towards addressing these issues and highlighting the work they are doing within their annual/biannual capstone leadership projects.
In 2024, this takes place at the NZEALs conference in Christchurch, New Zealand with only Country Youth Leaders participating (where possible). For more information: https://nzeals.org.nz/conference-2024/ - CCEAM Youth leaders will be advised to submit essays to an annual collection of essays that will be available on the CCEAM Youth Leadership webpage. These essays will need to be focused on their Capstone Leadership projects. These essays will be prepared under the guidance of their respective CCEAM Country Youth Leader(s).
For 2024, these essays can be submitted in December 2024. More details will be shared in September 2024.
Prepared by:
Dr Venesser Fernandes
CCEAM Youth Leadership SIG Chair
September 2024
cc. Dr Patricia Briscoe CCEAM Business Manager