TRENDS, PERSPECTIVES AND CHANGING ROLES IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

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TRENDS, PERSPECTIVES AND CHANGING ROLES IN
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
Peter Matthews
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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

• Management is about producing order and
  consistency
• Leadership is about generating constructive
  change (improvement)
• (Kotter 1990)

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

• Management is about producing order and
  consistency
• Minimum operating standards?
• Leadership is about generating constructive
  change
• Raising expectations improving quality and
  effectiveness

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A TAXONOMY OF LEADERSHIP

• Leaders as managers administering assuring
  compliance taking responsibility for buildings
  and day to day organisation
• Leaders as leaders of people the school
  community
• Pedagogical leaders, taking responsibility for
  pedagogy and shaping the curriculum
• Accountable leaders, taking responsibility for
  the educational performance of the school and
  standards reached by students
• Community leaders, working with and involving
  parents, other agencies and the community
• Distributive and developmental leaders,
  delegating responsibility and accountability,
  challenging and supporting, and developing
  leadership potential
• Leaders of learning, developing the skills of
  staff and students and parents as a learning
  community and networking with other schools to
  share good practice
• Executive leaders, taking responsibility for more
  than one school
• System leaders schools leading schools caring
  for the education and well-being of students in
  other schools as well as ones own

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IMPLICATIONS
Building capacity
Professionalism
Prescription
National prescription
C
B
A
Schools leading reform
Central leadership Heavy bureaucracy Focus on
system compliance Principals as managers
Local and distributed leadership Greater
autonomy Focus on personalised learning Principals
as leaders of learning
(Adapted from Hopkins)
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THE THREE THING THAT MATTER MOST IN HIGH
PERFORMING SCHOOL SYSTEMS

• 1) Getting the right people to become teachers
• 2) Developing them into effective instructors
• 3) Ensuring that the system is able to deliver
  the best possible instruction for every child
• (McKinsey 2007)
• The only way to achieve this
• is through effective and determined
• school and system leadership.

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THE EFFECT OF TEACHER QUALITY
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THE EFFECT OF CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT ROLES OF THE PRINCIPAL IN
RAISING PUPILS ACHIEVEMENT ARE

• Promoting and participating in teacher learning
  and development through leadership that not
  only promotes, but directly participates with
  teachers in, formal or informal professional
  learning.
• Planning, coordinating and evaluating teaching
  and the curriculum through direct involvement
  in the support and evaluation of teaching through
  regular classroom visits and the provision of
  formative and summative feedback to teachers.
  Direct oversight of curriculum through
  school-wide coordination across classes and year
  levels and alignment to school goals.
  Robinson 2007

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1. CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE FIRST

• Re-professionalising teaching
• sharing good practice,
• monitoring and evaluation,
• opening classrooms to other teachers
• Personalising learning
• relevant and enriched curriculum
• formative assessment, progress monitoring,
  target-setting, support and intervention
• independent learning
• Linking education and care
• Removing barriers to learning

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2. WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY

• Community representatives on school boards
• Raising parental aspirations and involving
  parents in learning
• Reducing barriers to learning
• Co-operating with other services health, social,
  police, community organisations, religious
  leaders etc.
• Public accountability for for the educational
  performance of the school and standards reached
  by students
• Using the community as a resource for learning,
  e.g. Education-business partnerships
• Opening the school as a community resource

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3. THE BENEFITS OF INTER-SCHOOL NETWORKS

• Schools sharing expertise
• Joint planning
• Inter-school visits
• Across school collaboration
• Advanced skills teachers
• Joint projects
• Broader experience
• Peer mentoring
• Web-based links

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4. EXECUTIVE AND SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

• Executive principals
• Take responsibility for more than one school
• Inject effective leadership
• Build leadership capacity
• System leaders
• Feel responsibility for pupils in the system, not
  just their own
• Use the resources of their school to help improve
  less effective schools
• Schools leading schools

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5. PORTUGAL REFORMS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION

• Closed 50 small primary schools
• All primary schools in clusters
• Cluster boards appoint principals
• Schools have co-ordinators
• School day extended with curriculum enrichment
  activities
• Removing two-shift schools
• Retraining a primary teachers in mathematics,
  science, Portuguese
• Building well-equipped school centres in every
  district
• Lap-top computers for all children

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6. SWEDEN DIVERSITY OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS

• Students have vouchers to buy education
• Range of providers including municipalities,
  parents groups and commercial businesses
• Parents can chose schools
• Some organisations have chains of schools
• School principals appointed by the school board
  from open competition

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7. ENGLAND LEADERSHIP OF AUTONOMOUS SCHOOLS

• Schools can appoint their own staff
• Fully delegated budgets
• Powers to innovate
• Responsibility and accountability through
  performance tables and published inspection
  reports
• Leaders set the direction for the school
• Leaders leadership capacity and develop
  leadership talent
• Leaders ensure quality of teaching and learning
• Educators do not do basic administraton
• Leaders are trained and supported by National
  College of School and Children Leadership

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8. NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR HEADTEACHERS

• Six areas
• Shaping the future (strategic vision)
• Leading learning and teaching
• Developing self and working with others
• Managing the organisation
• Securing accountability
• Strengthening community

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9. LEADING LEARNING

• Two political aims
• World class schools
• Raising achievement and closing the gap

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10. WORKFORCE REFORM

• Allow educators to educate by
• Giving planning and preparation time to class
  teachers
• Supporting teaching with teaching assistants
• Removing administration from teachers
• Identify leaders of learning rather than middle
  managers
• Create school business managers

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LEADERSHIP IS NECESSARY TO

• Ensure focus on the progress and development of
  individual students
• Identify and reduce barriers to learning
• Assure the quality of learning and teaching
• Get the best from teachers
• Create a learning culture
• Build a relationship with the community
• Provide vision, inspiration and strategic
  coherence
• Raise expectations

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Characteristics of outstanding headteachers as
school leaders

• Clear vision and purpose , very high expectations
• Gets the best out of people Motivating Providing
  opportunity Promoting professional development
  Encouraging initiative Showing interest and
  being generous with praise Building teams and
  empowering them.
• Leading by example
• Approachable
• Innovative
• Enthusiastic
• Determined and decisiveness
• A focus on quality Matthews 2006

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CHALLENGES

• Good teachers must be good learners
• Good school leaders must be good teachers (and
  lead by example)
• Good school leaders must be good learners
• Leaders who are reluctant learners
• will never inspire others

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THE EXCITEMENT OF INDEPENDENT LEARNING
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4. WHAT THE MOST EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS DO
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i.To procure high quality teachers

• Schools have autonomy to recruit teachers
• They advertise for and appoint the best
• They train their own, where they can, in
  partnership with higher education
• They induct, mentor and support new teachers
• They provide professional development pathways
  and career opportunities

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ii.To improve instruction, the best schools

• Provide a stimulating learning environment
• Provide rich, well-planned curriculum
• Have high expectations of teaching and learning
• Monitor quality of learning and performance of
  teachers
• Focus professional development on constantly
  improving teaching
• Seek the views of students and parents

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iii. Success for every child? The best schools

• Create a culture of expecting success
• Personalise learning
• Assess and track the progress of every child,
  with targets for learning and support or
  intervention where needed
• Continuously evaluate the quality and
  effectiveness of everything the school does
• Work as a consistent team
• Learn from others

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