Educational Leadership (LOL) Course: Lex Kaper

Pick a project where your role is needed

The implementation of the vision document “The strength of FNWI in education” focused on five themes: 1. Strengthening support for training and education directors; 2. Organizational change, including finances: splitting up the College of Science; 3. Personnel policy (profiles, promotion criteria, evaluation of education including remuneration, DOP); 4. Embedding lecturers; 5. Culture change: education at the FNWI on a higher plane. “The intake moment with lecturers Klaas Visser & Joyce Brouwer was the moment when I made the choice on which point of the vision document I was going to focus during the programme. So it was a useful conversation in which my project was given direction. Through the intake interview, it became clear that I needed to pick something where my role was needed and not something that could also be accomplished without me. The embedding of lecturers needed my role par excellence; hence my project for the LOL ended up focusing on that, with the premise that lecturers play an important complementary role in the highly research-oriented education at the FNWI.”  

“The education director IIS had said to me before, ‘Isn’t the LOL what for you?’ I kept thinking, I don’t actually have time for this: the vice deanship is half a job, in addition my professorship is another job, so my schedule was already packed. Still, I decided to start with the LOL and have no regrets. Since I was a vice dean myself, I more or less nominated myself for the programme.”  

TLC’s estimated time investment is 160 hours per year. “TLC made a realistic estimate. I had set aside 1 half-day per week for it. For me, that was Monday mornings. Much of that time also goes into the meetings and the work trip. In the end, I found this program manageable alongside my other jobs. I experienced it as a good investment of my time. Unfortunately, one person quit along the way because they found it no longer compatible with their other jobs. But then that’s actually not too bad in such a group of about 15 people.” 

24-hour sessions at an outdoor location: coming to new insights outside your familiar surroundings

“Our course started in the middle of the corona pandemic in 2021 and took longer than planned due to the corona measures. As a result, our batch completed the pathway delayed in November 2022. For example, the work trip had to be postponed because of the corona measures. We were forced to follow a number of meetings online and remotely, but fortunately there were also plenty of live meetings, such as 24-hour sessions (theme days) held in Amsterdam or at another location including Zandvoort and Bloemendaal, with an overnight stay. You are then really fully present for 24 hours both mentally and physically without the distraction of doing something else. It is always good to be out of your own environment for a while to come to other insights.” 

4-day study trip

“This track also includes a 4-day study trip. Our postponed trip took place in June 2022. We went to Belfast and Dublin. Belfast made a huge impression on me because I hadn’t realized that the division between Catholics and Protestants is still sometimes literally so physical with meters-high fences somewhat reminiscent of the Berlin Wall. That this is still a reality today only then dawned on me. We visited the border of Ireland with Northern Ireland and got a tour at University College Dublin. There they have a Maker Space, a teaching space with all kinds of facilities such as 3D laser printers where scientific experiments can be performed. I really liked that because at FNWI we were also developing Maker Spaces and I was able to get ideas. In Dublin, the Maker Space is widely applicable: not only for students, but also for employees who are in a reintegration process, for example. Very inspiring how they allow people there to work together and be more broadly employable. I was able to link contacts there with contacts at FNWI. The first Maker Space at FNWI is now in use. This in itself was not very directly related to my trajectory for the LOL, but through this visit I was able to give something I was also involved in a boost to move forward. During the trip you also spar further with the guides about your own course.” 

You build a new network with this programme

“Networking is an important part of this course. You get to know people from outside your own faculty both through your own group, but you also get to know the UvA educational network in the broad sense. People from outside the UvA from, for example, the NVAO, people who have knowledge of both university and national education issues. But also, for example, the contact I was able to make with the Maker Space in Dublin. It is an added value that you build a new network through this course. I was in a group of about 15 people consisting of people from different sections of different faculties. Among them were professors and training & education directors. Some, like me, were already at the end of their careers, others in the middle or fairly at the beginning. Both the different positions and the differences in age and where you are in your career, differences in hierarchy, made the group interesting. The app group we created at the time is still used occasionally. And we get nice invitations from each other and from TLC Central for activities and meetings. We also had a return day from the track. We went out to dinner and caught up.” 

“The LOL programme helped me in the new position of vice dean. I gained more knowledge about education, learned more about the educational side. I received good guidance, which helps you build more and broader knowledge. You become more familiar with the allocation model, the funding of programs. The University Board attends one of the theme days which gives you more insight into how the UvA works and the influence of national rules and organizations such as the NVAO on the ins and outs of a University. This made me look broader than just wanting to do it my own way. 

It was very pleasant to be able to spar with my supervisors Klaas Visser and Joyce Brouwer. Their recommendations for embedding teachers, which is quite a difficult issue, led to very concrete points. I was also able to implement the solutions I found during this process in practice. All the recommendations have been acted upon: I have initiated and brought about a culture change in which teaching does take priority and more appreciation is expressed for teaching and for what teachers do in teaching. Not only do research achievements weigh in the evaluation, but also the efforts for university teaching.   

Furthermore, I learned how to make decisions in other ways. Sometimes it is good to negotiate in a certain way where you try to find a position that most are comfortable with.   

For the final symposium, the participants made a poster with the main points of their project and presented it to all the participants and other interested parties. You use this to reflect on your project in conversation with course mates and facilitators. The poster is in fact a summary of your project.”   

Organic group dynamics and feedback

“The group and everyone’s contribution to the group process went naturally organic. Roles changed for each activity without being pre-arranged. Because you can observe how people operate, you can sometimes predict who will take on what task. Sometimes we had to decide as a group what topic we would pay attention to during a session. You also talk as a group about each other’s topics and give each other feedback. Each participant gives you a different perspective. That can be quite confronting at times, but I learned a lot from it. Although being able to speak well in front of a group is one of my strengths, I still learned more in that area. About the way you come across and how others react to that. That I can use even shorter and clearer words when I want to make a point. And that speaking more softly can make people listen more attentively.   

It’s also fun to help others with your feedback. Young people are often afraid that they are not “good enough,” and I have been able to put that into perspective. Really everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It’s also nice to experience that.” 

Added value of the LOL programme

“The added value of this programme encompasses many facets. The role and contribution of the supervisors and teachers: the insights and feedback I received in the conversations with them. The coaching conversations that you can request yourself. I had one or two leadership-focused development conversations with an outside coach. I think the fact that it is not someone from the UvA is an advantage, because then you really feel you can say anything you want and it remains more personal. You feel freer to talk about social safety discussions or how people function, for example. The conversations definitely gave me some tools.   

The contact with my course mates was also very valuable. The peer feedback you get and give. The knowledge you gain about how things are at other faculties, which at the same time provides a reappraisal of how things are at your own faculty. You learn how you might avoid certain problems or that the problems you encounter are actually not as big as thought. Your starting point is always calibration and then ‘how do I proceed.'”