Head of Leadership and Theology

The Head of Leadership and Theology is responsible for providing academic leadership of the Institute’s staff and students in teaching and learning in the discipline’s courses and units. This discipline Head will engage with teachers, clients and Institute partners concerning curriculum development, content, and relevant industry standards. They will advise the Associate Dean (Academic) and the Associate Dean (Courses) concerning the allocation of sessional and full-time/fractional lecturers to the teaching of particular discipline units, ensuring that they are appropriately qualified in the discipline area that they are teaching in.

POSITION TITLE: Head of Leadership and Theology

REMUNERATION: Level C Senior Lecturer

FULL TIME EQUIVALENT: 0.4

WORKSITE: BBI-TAITE has a Remote Workplace Policy, with staff and faculty working remotely from across Australia

COMMENCEMENT DATE: 3 January 2022 (or negotiated)

APPLICATIONS CLOSE: 17 September 2021

HOW TO APPLY: Please address the Skills and Qualifications below, outlining how you meet the selection criteria for this position. Please send your application to Professor Gerard Moore by email, gerard.moore@bbi.catholic.edu.au.

For further information on this position, or to discuss your application, please contact Professor Gerard Moore on 0491 201 214.

Key duties:

• Coordinate the courses offered by the Institute in the discipline of Leadership and Theology
• Assist in the development of new and revised courses and units of study to meet internal and external requirements, legislation, and standards
• Mentor academic staff in the development and delivery of their allocated teaching units of study
• In conjunction with the Library Manager, ensure unit reading materials are available in a timely manner on the Institute’s LMS, and that they meet copyright legislative requirements
• Ensure unit content, delivery and assessment tasks align with student learning outcomes for each course.
• Maintain academic quality by ensuring the moderation of work submitted by students in each unit of study
• Assist in the preparation of submissions to TEQSA concerning course accreditation and reaccreditation
• Advise the Associate Dean (Academic) and the Registrar concerning admission of students, including assessment of credit and recognition of prior learning
• In conjunction with the Marketing and Events Manager, present information to prospective students, partner institutions, and clients concerning unit content, course structure etc.
• Represent the discipline on the Institute’s Academic Board, Academic Board Standing Committee, and the Executive Team
• Maintain a research profile appropriate for the level of the position.

Skills and qualifications

• Qualifications at doctorate level in a discipline taught by the Institute
• At least 5 years’ experience in a senior leadership role or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience in teaching in relevant discipline(s) at tertiary level
• Desirable: Demonstrated experience in developing online learning material, and experience in academic quality assurance.

LEADERSHIP AND THEOLOGY PROGRAM

Leadership and Theology

The aim of the program is to bring the best insights of leadership studies together with the theological reflection that has been developed in leading faith-based groups within the Christian tradition. For this reason, the program has an ecumenical focus drawing on insights from Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical traditions.

A decade of experience has shown that when it comes to leadership, people tend to call on the practices of current society and culture almost reflexively. They usually do not put a high value on their own experiences, and typically do not see their own story and faith as an important influence shaping their personal worldview. It requires a conscious effort on their part to include perspectives based on faith. Theological reflection makes it possible to bring culture, faith and story together in providing well rounded leadership in faith-based organizations and for addressing pastoral issues.

At present, the cohort undertaking the ‘Leadership and Theology’ program is comprised primarily of Catholic educators (80%) and includes a significant cohort of women.  However, there is scope to work with leaders in Catholic health, aged care, parish ministry, and others to develop specialised units of study.

The programs

The Institute offers three nested awards in Leadership and Theology

• Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Theology
• Graduate Diploma in Leadership and Theology
• Masters in Leadership and Theology

https://www.bbi.catholic.edu.au/learn-with-us/our-disciplines/leadership-and-theology/#banner-title

Background

This suite of programs has its genesis in two sources. The first was a program for school leaders in the Broken Bay Diocese sponsored by the then Director, Br Tony Whelan, for principals and system leaders. The content of this series is covered in the first book in the Mission and Education Series entitled Explorers, Guides and Meaning Makers: A Mission Theology for Catholic Educators. The second source was a Masters’ unit at BBI, originally devised and taught by Bishop David Walker, entitled Spirituality for Leaders which Jim D’Orsa was asked to rework. The revised unit was called Leading for Mission and ran from 2008 to 2015.

Leading for Mission was a praxis-oriented program with three major emphases:

• developing the skills of leaders to engage in theological reflection using models developed in the field of practical theology – also known as “doing theology” and “grass roots theology”
• locating theological reflection within the Scriptural tradition
• setting theological reflection within a missiological framework.

The consequence of this orientation was that participants reflected on the leadership issues that grew out of their day-to-day experiences of leading and being led in a particular context.

In 2015, based largely on the uptake of Leading for Mission, BBI took the decision to expand the Leadership program to the Masters level. Units in the program were developed against the experience of running Leading for Mission across the previous eight years. The underlying design model draws on the work of Tom Sergiovanni and his suggestion that school leadership can be analysed in terms of competencies that fall into a number of “dimensions’:  technical, human educational, symbolic and cultural.  This framework has since been adapted to suit a variety of ministries as: ‘technical, human, professional, cultural, ethical and hermeneutical.’ The latter two categories giving a particular emphasis to the “religious” dimension of leadership.

Breadth of the Degree

The core of the Leadership and Theology program is composed of seven units, with five additional units, taken as electives or research-based units, round out the degree.

The core unit are:

LEAD 800 Scriptural Foundations of Leadership introduces participants to the basic skill of theological reflection setting this within the Scriptural tradition of community leadership.

LEAD 801 Community, Mission and Identity deals with the issues confronting people in leading faith-based groups. It covers the communal dimension of leadership setting this within a missiological framework.

LEAD 900 Models of Church Leadership explores the nature of leadership and the models used to conceptualise ‘what works’ in effective leadership. The unit covers both empirical and theoretical models as they apply to faith-based groups.

LEAD 901 Cultural Leadership and Pluralism examines the cultural dimension of leadership and how leaders understand and deal with difference and diversity within the communities they lead.

LEAD 902 Explorers Guides and Meaning-Makers addresses the hermeneutical dimension of leadership – how leaders make sense of life for those they lead and how they communicate a sense of purpose to others as the context in which they work continues to evolve rapidly.

LEAD 903 Leading Self-Leading Others deals with the challenges of spirituality and formation. This unit is concerned with what leaders bring to the task of leading others, how leaders grow in the job, and how they help colleagues develop. The unit covers the human dimension of leadership.

LEAD 904 Ethical Leadership examines the ethical dimension of leading a faith-based group. This program investigates the moral vision of leaders, its sources, and the ways in which it translates into practical decision-making.

LEAD 905 Capstone Unit provides students with the chance to bring together what they have learned in the course of the program by carrying out either a research project or a professional practice change project. While the timeframe for the unit is one semester, some students opt to begin their project in the semester prior to being formally enrolled in the unit. Most students opt for a professional practice change project.