Leading from the middle

Middle LeadershipRegional Network Event 19th September 2016

Standards for Leadership and Management

GTCS (2012). Standards for Leadership and Management: p4

Leadership is central to educational quality. Leadership is the ability to:

• develop a vision for change, which leads to improvements in outcomes for learners and is based on shared values and robust evaluation of evidence of current practice and outcomes;

• mobilise, enable and support others to develop and follow through on strategies for achieving that change

Middle Leaders“In taking their particular areas of responsibility forward, middle leaders will work and contribute to the school improvement agenda, particularly in building a culture of teaching and learning to address the needs of all learners, while also contributing to the development of capability more generally”.

Academic research on educational leadership• Transformative• Pedagogical • Achieving a balance

Transformational Leadership

Elmore (2004) describes transformational leadership as providing guidance and direction to achieve goals – using influence to improve schools.

Elmore, R.F. (2004). School Reform from the Inside Out: Policy, Practice, and Performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Power and Influence in Transformational Leadership

Powernoun1. the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way.“the power of speech”

2. the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.“a political process that offers people power over their own lives”

Influencenoun1. the capacity to have an effect on the character, development or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.“the influence of television violence”

2. PHYSICS archaic electrical or magnetic induction.

Creating transformational change

5 Bases of Power (Raven, 2008).

• Legitimate

• Reward

• Expert

• Referent

• Coercive

• Informational

Raven, B.H. (2008). The Bases of Power and the Power/Interaction Model of Interpersonal Influence, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol 8, No 1, pp. 1-22.

HMIE 2006-7

Key messages:-

• Leaders matter: exerting influence and making a difference

• Vision, values and aims: sharing a common purpose

• Leadership and direction: focusing upon what's important

• Developing people and partnerships: building leadership capacity

• Leadership of change and improvement

Teaching Scotland's Future Donaldson, G. (2010)

• Recommendation 1: Education policy in Scotland should give the highest priority to further strengthening the quality of its teachers and of its educational leadership

• Recommendation 35: The Professional Standards need to create a coherent overarching framework. This overall framework should reflect a reconceptualised model of teacher professionalism’

• Recommendation 46: A clear progressive educational pathway should be developed which embodies the responsibility of all leaders to build the professional capacity of staff and ensure a positive impact on young people’s learning

Reflection question:

1. Is this the kind of leadership approach that operates in schools? Discuss.

Views from some academics…

Mourshed et al., (2010).• Increased resources in education across a range of OECD countries did not fully

realise the expected gains – thus several strategies are required to increase the quality of education (including effective leadership)

• CLPL for teachers is one of the key interventions in improving systems.

Leithwood et al., 2006. • Leadership is second only to classroom teaching in securing improvements in

student outcomes (about one quarter of the effect of improvement). • Leadership is multi layered and the connectedness across these layers is crucial. • Leadership impact is largest where most needed –in schools facing challenging

circumstances.

Darling-Hammond et al., (2008:8) Success in Finland, Ontario and Singapore is predicated on well established teacher and leadership development.

Leithwood, K., Seashore, K., Anderson, S. and Wahlstrom, K. (2006a) Review of Research: How Leadership ,QÀXHQFHV6WXGHQW/HDUQLQJ USA and Canada: University of Minnesota, University of Toronto and The Wallace Foundation.

Mourshed, M., Chijoke, C. and Barber, M. (2010) How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. Mckinsey, Available from, http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/Social_Sector/our_practices/Education/Knowledge_Highlights/How%20School%20Systems%20Get%20Better.aspx (accessed 5/6/2011).

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is central to educational improvement and effecting change. Such leadership focuses on the ability to:

• develop a vision for change, which leads to improvements in outcomes for learners and is based on shared values and robust evaluation of evidence of current practice and outcomes;

• mobilise, enable and support others to develop and follow through on strategies for achieving that change;

Pedagogical Leadership

“Part of the role of the pedagogical leader is to create systems and structures that support the values and vision they have for growing a quality learning environment. Decisions that are made around how to spend money, organize time, set up environments and support the success of others come from the greater vision that they have for children, families and themselves.”

(Baird & Coughlan, 2016)

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/Baird_Coughlin.pdf accessed 17.9.16

Pedagogical Leadership for Learning …

Forde, C., McMahon M., and Dickson, B. (2011). Leadership Development in Scotland: after Donaldson, Scottish Educational Review, 43 (2), 55-69.

“The term ‘leadership for learning’ has a great deal of currency in Scotland. It helps to place teaching and learning as the central concern of those in management posts in schools.”

(Forde, McMahon and Dickson, 2011: 64)

Views from some academics …

Darling-Hammond, L. and Rothman, R. (2011) Teacher and Leader Effectiveness in High-Performing Education Systems, USA, Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education and Stanford, CA: Stanford Centre for Opportunity Policy in EducationRobinson, V., Hohepa, M. and Lloyd, C. (2009) School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why, Best Synthesis Iteration (BES), Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of EducationTimperley, H. (2009) Distributing Leadership to Improve Outcomes for Students, in K. Leithwood, B. Mascall and T. Strauss, T (Eds.) Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence,

Timperely (2009) warns against consequences of dominance of transformational leadership where processes of influencing are seen as central aspects of leadership and favours pedagogical leadership.

Robinson et al. (2009). • Caution that there are variations in the concept of pedagogical leadership • Found that Pedagogical leadership has four times greater impact than

transformational leadership in improving outcomes for learners.• Propose that school leaders should have close involvement in

1. establishing an academic mission,2. providing feedback on teaching and learning 3. promoting professional development.

Darling-Hammond et al. (2007: 8) argue that we must “align all schooling towards the goal of improving instruction so that it is successful for children”.

Leadership Development in Scotland after Donaldson

Forde and Reeves (2011)

“We need to be careful that leadership is not reduced to narrow understandings of the exercise of power and influence ... That the term ‘leadership for learning’ in both policy and programmes for leadership development explicitly points to practice that is founded on and enhances expertise in pedagogy.

Forde, C., McMahon M., and Dickson, B. (2011). Leadership Development in Scotland: after Donaldson, Scottish Educational Review, 43 (2), 55-69.

Career Long Professional Learning

Dempster, N., Lovett, S. and Fluckiger, B. (2011) Strategies to Develop School Leadership: A select literature review, Melbourne: Australia Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.

Dempster et al (2011) propose that Middle leaders need

1. rich and coherent programmes of different learning activities in and beyond school:

2. materials and ideas grounded in research and translated into the working context.

3. Learning that is collaborative rather than solitary.

Professional learning in leadership should have a focus upon dual aims 4. school improvement 5. improvement in pupil learning and achievement.

Forde and Reeves (2011) promote a blended approach to professional learning for leadership including reflection, critique and enquiry into professional practice.

Reflection question:

2. Discuss the relationship between pedagogical and transformational leadership in Scottish education.

Culture

Drivers of school and system wide improvement (Fullan and Boyle 2010)

• Work on a small number of key priorities in a dynamic environment to challenge the status quo while using data intelligently to create a shared sense of urgency and provide accountability

• Have resolute leadership at all levels (including pupils) that sets out a clear strategic direction, and deepens learning

• Foster collective capacity by cultivating a collaborative culture underpinning improvement

• Teach precision in pedagogy not prescription.

Boyle, A. and Fullan, M. 2010 Reflections on the Change Leadership Landscape http://michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Untitled_Document_9.pdf accessed 17.9.16

Culture

Hargreaves and Shirley (2012) in the ‘Global Fourth Way’ write about improvement in education practice being based on:

professional capital, social relations and collaborative enquiry.

– Professional capital is a trilateral form of capital incorporating human capital, social capital and decisional capital (Hargreaves and Fullan 2012).

– All three forms of capital are dependent on relationships between individual and communities and necessitate collaboration at a number of different levels including between teachers, and other educators working within schools, local authorities and other agencies within the wider system.

Daly 2010, Moolenaar et al 2011; Penuel 2009 • Emphasises the importance of ‘social network theory’ in making effective change. • Social network theory frames the learning of education professionals as a flow of

information through network ties. The development of both social and decisional capital is directly dependent on these social interactions.

Hargreaves, A. and Shirley, D. (2011) The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Reflection question:

3. Give examples of how you, as a middle leader, implement effective leadership within your school.

Management

“Management is the operational implementation and maintenance of the practices and systems required to achieve this change”.

GTCS (2012). The Standards for Leadership and Management. p4

Management

Administration

Leadership

Management

Administration

Leadership

Changing Educational Landscape

• National Improvement Framework and ‘Closing the Gap’

• Reduction in capacity of many local authorities to support schools in professional learning

• Increased direction on policy from Scottish Government e.g. ‘increased school autonomy’ and direct allocation of funding for improvement (£100milion)

Reflection question:

4. Reflect on the changing educational environment and consider how SCEL can support school leaders at this time.

SCEL MissionTo bring clarity and coherence to educational leadership in Scotland, ensuring all teachers and early years practitioners engage with the most relevant, meaningful and inspiring professional learning and development.

The work of SCEL• Framework for Educational Leadership including a

range of programmes at teacher/middle/school and system level

• Into Headship and Fellowship programmes

• Endorsement of leadership programmes

• Engaging with the education community: events, scoping, seminars.

• Links with national and international leadership organisations

The Framework for Educational Leadership

Thank you