Leadership Development

Leadership for mobilizing schools as research engaged communities

Clive Dimmock explores how leadership is vital to developing schools as research engaged communities. Leaders are key to establishing the necessary conditions and structures, as well as tackling barriers. Above all, he argues that by embedding research engagement within the school as a professional learning community, leaders ensure that research knowledge is mobilized to improve practice.

13 Feb

Professional Development

Collaborative School Leadership – new opportunities and challenges

David Middlewood, Ian Abbott and Sue Robinson discover what’s different about leading a group of schools. They identify a range of issues related to scale, school autonomy, trust and effectiveness. In particular the new world of leading across schools raises special implications for leadership development and progression.

19 Nov

Professional Development

Leader development – it’s personal!

Peter Earley and Sara Bubb call for a radical overhaul of leader development which places more focus on opportunities for personal development.

19 Nov

Professional Development

When Leadership Turns Toxic

Ian Craig reflects on the phenomenon of “toxic” leadership in schools and makes connections to accountability pressures, the changing education landscape and the fragmentation of the school system. He identifies the implications this has for leadership development.

19 Nov

Professional Development

How to ensure professional learning and development make a difference

In this article Vivienne Porritt, Karen Spence-Thomas and Carol Taylor discuss what wecurrently know about leading effective professional learning and development in schools.

18 Apr

Professional Development

System leadership and collaboration – a new skillset for leaders?

In this article Toby Greany describes the development of school-to-school support,networks and partnerships, focussing in particular on recent developments in England.He explores the leadership practices associated with these and argues that schoolleaders must become adept at working in an environment that incentivises collaborative competition.

18 Apr

Professional Development

The paradox of policy and the quest for successful leadership

Toby Greany and Peter Earley explore the intriguing tensions between freedom and control which lie at the heart of the English educational system, and consider the implications for school leadership and professional development.

18 Apr

Professional Development

Growing teacher leadership

Christopher Chapman and Kevin Lowden describe how they built teacher leadership through collaborative research and development as part of the School Improvement Partnership Programme1 led by the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change at the University of Glasgow. They report significant gains for both teachers and pupils, together with partnerships helping to close the attainment gap.

13 Mar