A quiet revolution has taken place in a southeastern school district in New Brunswick, Canada. The leadership team came to realize they had to redefine the mindset, structure, and culture of their organization in order to redesign the learning, teaching and leading experiences. By shifting the education culture from an Ego-System to an Eco-Community, the project called "Intr'Appreneur: Tomorrow's Education Today" is transforming the schools into "Innovative Learning Community Centres" addressing the needs of the community. This was not a leap of faith but a leap of leadership. The project is supported by a world-renowned research team with the overarching research question: What impact, in terms of measurable effect, does the Intr'Appreneur project have on addressing the mismatch between the formal education system and the challenges of the innovative society? This session will share the story, the three phases of transformation and findings on the six specific research topics.

Learning Objectives:

1. The industry transformation gave rise to new types of workspaces, a new innovative approach, and a new context of working. This session will share the story of how a school district started to achieved innovation and performance through a system transformation that shifted the school system from a directive to a personalized, collaborative, and innovative culture. This was not a leap of faith but a leap of leadership. We will also learn: 1- why the school system has not been capable of evolving at the same pace as society since the ‘80s, 2- understand the mismatch between the delivery system of the formal education and the skills and qualifications needed of the new labour force and 3- share the five evolutions (5E) explaining this mismatch.
2. In this session, we will describe the process of transforming a school in a “Innovative Learning Community Centres” in three phases of transition. The first phase is called “Merge” where the students, teachers and supporting staff of the same grade level are together in one environment called a “Learning Community'' (LC). The second phase is called “Converge” where the convergence of all grade levels takes place. At this phase, the school is becoming the LC. The third phase is “Transform.” As stated previously, the school is being rebranded as an “Innovative Learning Community Center.” At this stage of transformation, the community is the classroom, and the school is an Innovative Learning Community Center where the learning and the teaching are authentically addressing the needs of the community.
3. This project is supported by a world-renowned research team with the overarching research question: What impact, in terms of measurable effect, does the Intr’Appreneur project have on addressing the mismatch between the formal education system and the challenges of the innovative society? The concept of learning and teaching in spaces described as Learning Community has been defined by six research topic areas which are Leadership, Engagement, Well-Being, Environments, Outcome & Competencies, and Inclusion. Even though the project is at its infancy, the preliminary results demonstrate that students and teachers are more engaged. These learning communities environments seem to be developing the confidence of students, teachers and school principals. The data also shows they are more efficient and effective with their management skills, thus developing the autonomy of students (self-manage), teachers (LC management) and school principals (LC & school management).