Abstract:

“If God fairness, impartiality and equity are his essence, that should become dominant in any society”
― Sunday Adelaja

The purpose of this case study is to highlight the insights of an innovation that took place in at urban elementary school, in Arabic sector in Israel aiming at building school inclusive culture. AT the Corona pandemic, as the world undermines more than ever, the importance of inclusive society and concern for individuals with different needs and different culture is stressed. Leaders are required to treat diversity of all people and provide a tailored response. Organizational leaders are committed to the create a culture of inclusiveness and tolerance for different needs of workers, as people were asked to stay home. On the same time, workers are required to tolerate other workers, working remotely or within the building.

Schools are the mirror of society, an ecosystem in which individuals interact in a given environment. The entrepreneurial leadership aimed at developing an inclusive culture of well-being and thriving at school for all stakeholders: student, parent and colleague, while achieving educational goals. Program, developed by first author, was conducted during academic year including "corona" time. 27 teachers were implementing "Ambitious Target" (AT) tool based on the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Strategic Plan (SP) tool in class and addressed a questionnaire that examined inclusive perception and outcomes of intervention.

AT tool served as intervention tool during an academic year of professional development training as well as data collection. Setting group or personal AT helps to move out of the comfort zone into new areas of experience and gain awareness about environmental conditions. AT tool main parts include setting an ambitious target, raising obstacles that block target achievement and setting each obstacle as an objective. SP tool- strategic action plan, outlines the actions to be taken and schedule to achieve the goal. Action plan and time line, helps monitoring progress and assess performance.

Findings indicate that open dialog during training, and small group discussions enabled teachers to express themselves and be supported by Colleagues. Most teachers (94%) declare that inclusion professional development program helped them to cope better with their own frustration, improve ability to handle effectively heterogeneous class and better addressing diversity of students and parents needs. A raise in students' academic achievements was obtained as well as improvement of student's emotional skills including improved self-perception, social skills and tolerance to other students in class. Detailed usage of the tools and outcomes will be discussed at presentation.

The theoretical contribution of this study lies in the knowledge it highlights about the importance of school leaders' awareness and action taken for inclusiveness as a culture, at all times. The practical contribution of the research is manifested by proposed Inclusive professional development program using the AT and SP practices for school leadership and staff building an inclusive society from childhood of students. As strength of society is as the strength of the "weakest link", then we have to harness the whole society for inclusive culture, now and in the future.

Keywords:

Leadership, Innovation, Theory of Constraints, Ambitious Target, Corona pandemic, Inclusiveness, Strategic Plan, weakest link.