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.

In this article we draw on a recent book that we edited (School Leadership and Education System Reform, Earley and Greany, 2017), which draws together perspectives on research, theory and practice in relation to school leadership in England today from a range of contributors. This article pulls together a number of themes from the book, but particularly those that relate to leadership and professional development. It argues that educational policy in England and many other parts of the world currently revolves around two inter-connected challenges: a paradox and a quest.

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      string(376) "33www.teachingtimes.co.uk n Vol 1.1Leading LearningAssessmentSchool Leadership TodayK ingstone School has become very much occupied with the prickly issue of assessment. Its cultural studies curriculum seeks to develop “creativity, collaboration, confidence, caring attitudes andcritical and constructive thinking” and the school has been looking for a way to ..."
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      string(5631) "33www.teachingtimes.co.uk n Vol 1.1Leading LearningAssessmentSchool Leadership TodayK ingstone School has become very much occupied with the prickly issue of assessment. Its cultural studies curriculum seeks to develop “creativity, collaboration, confidence, caring attitudes andcritical and constructive thinking” and the school has been looking for a way to gauge its pupils’ progress that will be similarly in the interests of the child. I would argue that they have created a model which demonstrates that meaningful assessment between an adult, a child and the child’s peers is an ‘act of love’.When a school seeks to find a new way of assessing its pupils, they discover that there isn’t much guidance on assessing ‘human development’, ‘coming to terms with self and others’ or even on some of the other skills which frequently crop up in ‘ideal citizen of the future’ rhetoric,Assessment as an act of love The innovative cultural studies curriculum at one comprehensive school has boosted attainment but it needed a different type of assessment to measure its true worth. Debra Kidd explains“We are seeking to transform the child’s experience in school and create a curriculum and assessmentprocess that genuinely nurtures human development and enables young people to come to terms withwho they are and how they relate to others.”Matthew Milburn, headteacher, Kingstone School, Barnsleysuch as creativity, compassion and entrepreneurialism. There is even less guidance on assessing happiness, or measuring the importance of love in creating a child who is secure and confident in their achievements. There is much talk of a ‘love of learning’ but little on loving a child. As a nation we seem to find discussing the very concepts of happiness and love inappropriate for a classroom context. Yet these are the principles upon which the Greeks developed their concept of education, and on which many European schools of thought such as Reggio Emelio are based.There are, however, several models for assessing ‘creativity’ – an equally difficult thing to measure, but one which is slightly less embarrassing. One such model, CLA, was documented in issue 25 of SLT’s sister publication Teaching Thinking & Creativity, and there are several others34 Vol 1.1 n www.teachingtimes.co.ukLeading Learning Assessmentincluding the Creative Partnerships Creativity Wheel and the 5×5 project. To an extent, these seem to have been successful in allowing teachers to observe, document and recognise creativity, but as the headteacher asks: “Why are we spending so much time and money trying to measure or assess creativity (and in the very act, reducing it to a series of tick boxes), when what we really should be doing is looking at finding a creative way to assess pupils?”It is this creative method of assessment that Kingstone School is trying at the moment. Before staff began, they had to ask three key questions: ‘What are we assessing?’, ‘How can we best gather the evidence to assess it?’ and ‘Who are we doing it for?’These seem obvious questions, but actually, in the education system, there is a tendency to measure only what we can measure and this is not always what we actually value. The values of our policymakers are evident in many recent documents and there is clearly an ideological focus in education policy towards developing the whole child – it sits at the heart of Every Child Matters. There is a much greater recognition of the need to develop holistic skills in children, including thinking skills and creative competencies, but there is little information as to how one might assess these skills. In fact, in pursuing a testing system that focuses only on the core skills, the Government creates a paradox for teachers and it is human nature to focus resources on the area for which you will be publicly held accountable.So while it is clear in both the new Key Stage 3 curriculum and in the Interim Report of the Primary Curriculum Review (Rose, 2008) that the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) are considered to behugely important in designing a curriculum to suit the needs of a modern society – and despite the fact that these have been combined into a fairly comprehensive set of personal learning and thinking skills objectives (QCA 2005) – too many schools are at best paying lip service to them. As one headteacher (who preferred to remain anonymous) said: “If 50 per cent of my kids are jailed for knife crime, no-one comes breathing down my neck, but if that 50 per cent don’t get five GCSEs, I’m in trouble. What am I going to focus on? Their grades or their consciences?”Kingstone School believes it’s possible to do both. Since it began training staff in creative pedagogies, its 5 A*-C GCSE score has risen from 40 to 62 per cent and is expected to rise further. This is quite remarkable in a school with 20 per cent of its roll on free school meals and 18 per cent with a statement of special educational needs. Furthermore, independent research by the local authority and by Dr Elaine Millard of Sheffield University’s Literacy, Language and Culture Research Group suggests that the school is successfully developing the thinking skills and creativity that it hoped to emphasise in developing its new KS3 curriculum models in 2005.“The use of more active learning methods and a focus on the student’s own emotional experiences helps boys in particular to make connections to the world outside the classroom and become more involved,” reports Dr Millard."
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Leadership

Assessment as an act of love

7 May 2009

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      string(5941) "OpenUniversity Press: Buckingham. Conger, J. & Kanungo, R. (1998). Charismaticleadership in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Copland, M. A. (2003). Leadership of inquiry: building and sustaining capacity for school improvement.Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25(4), 375-396. Corbin, J. and Strauss,A. (2008) Basics of qualitative research, 3e. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA. Cunliffe, A.(2009). A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about management.London: SAGE Publications Ltd. d’Arbon, T., Duignan, P., Duncan, D. J., &Goodwin, K. (2001) Planning for Future Leadership of Catholic Schools in NSW.Paper presented at the BERA Annual Conference, Leeds, UK, 13 – 15 September2001. Department of Education, Victoria (2007). The developmental learningframework for school leaders. Melbourne, Victoria: Department of Education. Glaser,B. and Strauss, A. (1967) The discovery of grounded theory. 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MacBeath, J., Oduro, GKT.and Waterhouse, J. (2006). Distributed leadership in action: a study of current practicein schools. National College of School Leadership: Nottingham, UK. MacBeath, J.(2009). Distributed leadership: paradigms, policy and paradox. In Leithwood, K.,Mascall, B. & Strauss, T. (Eds.) Distributed leadership according to the evidence.New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 41-58. McManus, G. & Jean, P. (2008) FailingSchools May Go. In the Herald Sun, 28 August, 2008. Northouse, P. G. (2007).Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Reid, A. (2009) Is thisreally a revolution? A critical analysis of the Rudd government’s national educationagenda. Curriculum Perspectives, 9(3): 1-13. Silins, H. & Mulford, B. (2001).Reframing Schools: The Case for System, Teacher and Student Learning. Paperpresented at the Eighth International Literacy and Education Research NetworkConference on Learning, Spetses, Greece, 4 – 8 July, 2001. Paper: SIL01398. Alsoavailable at: www.aare.edu.au/01pap/sil01398.htm Sinclair, A. (2007). Leadership forthe disillusioned: Moving beyond myths and heroes to leading that liberates. CrowsNest, NSW: Allen and Unwin. Spillane, J. (2004). Distributed leadership: What’s all the hoopla? Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. Spillane, J.(2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 14 Starr, Karen (2007d)Principal ‘Disengagement’: Are the Solutions Addressing the Problem? In Donahoo,Saran & Hunter, Richard C. (Eds) Teaching Leaders to Lead Teachers: EducationalAdministration in the Era of Constant Change. Elsevier Science: Oxford, UK, pp. 335-352. Starr, K. (2011). ‘Distributed’ leadership off to a bad start. Perspectives onEducational Leadership, No. 7: 2011, October 2011. Starr, K. (2012). Above andbeyond the bottom line: the extraordinary evolution of the education businessmanager. Camberwell, Vic: ACER Press. Starr, K. (2012a). 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Leadership

Interrogating School Leaders' Conceptions of Leadership and Accountability

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5696) "teacher. Similarly senior leaderslearn from their staff and from their pupils, too. ‘Show mehow to do that’, says the primary head to a nine year oldwhose computer skills are superior to those of her teacher orhead teacher.In a London secondary school the head teacher removedthe sign from her door, which announced her as ‘Headteacher’ and replaced it with a sign that read ‘Head Learner’.In a Scottish school a Modern Languages teacher invited thehead teacher to come into her first year beginners Frenchclass so that they could ask him a question in French. ‘But Icannot speak a word of French’, the head replied, ‘That’s whyI want you to come in to the class’, was her reply. The headteacher confessed later of the embarrassment felt whenoutsmarted by twelve year olds. However, the languageteacher reported it had not only enhanced the children’s selfconfidence and motivation but, ironically perhaps, enhancedthe reputation of the head teacher who was prepared tolearn from children.In an information age where knowledge is so easilyaccessible, the authority of the teacher or school leadercan no longer come from knowing more than others. Itsgenius lies in knowing how to question, challenge and turnknowledge into wisdom.“Learning is of course, a dangerous thing.The fate of Socrates, and indeed manythinkers throughout history, reminds us justhow powerful and dangerous thinking foryourself can be”49www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 3.4/5Leadership SkillsLeadership DilemmasThe talent enigmaSome years ago McKinsey wrote about a ‘war for talent’.Here ‘talent’ is clearly cast as an individual attribute. Itis obviously rare as it requires a ‘war’ to find it, and ‘war’presupposes an aggressive competitive engagementto win. When Malcolm Gladwell took issue with thepremise that ‘talented leaders create great organisations’he countered with ‘great organisations create talentedpeople’. He also saw talent as something arising out of acollective endeavour. Similarly, Greenleaf (1997) referred tothe concept of ‘servant leadership’, a self-effacing desire tobe of service to others. In Collins (2001) seminal, and muchquoted, study Good to Great, the corporate leaders singledout for praise were often surprised to be so honoured.Some of Collins’ leaders were quiet, unassuming, modestpeople. Their passion expressed itself in the peoplethey appointed and whose passion they nourished.It was manifested in their hopes and dreams for theirorganisations.Those prescient leaders also recognised wherethe hidden talent lay and how it might be nurtured.Katzenmeyer and Moller’s book Awakening the SleepingGiant (2001) subtitled, Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders,preceded the fashion for ‘distributed leadership’ and arguedfor a recognition of incipient leadership of teachers and forthe link to be made between professional autonomy, thesharing of power and the creation of professional learningcommunities.In a study for the National College of Leadership in2002 (MacBeath, Oduro and Waterhouse), which set outto explore what ‘distributed leadership’ meant to schoolheads and teachers and what concrete forms it took ‘on theground’, six differing forms of distribution were identified,leadership as occurring formally, pragmatically, strategically,incrementally, opportunistically and culturally. While eachof these different manifestations of leadership may beappropriate at a given time and in a given context, it wasargued that the most successful leadership would conveyan understanding of all of these different expressions of‘distribution’ and would be able to operate in each mode asappropriate to the situation and to the stage of developmentof the school.1. Distribution formallyThis form of distribution describes the process ofdistribution as ‘handing out’ roles or responsibilitieswithin the hierarchy. It has the advantage of lending ahigh degree of security not only for staff who occupythose formal roles but also for other staff who knowwhere they stand. As a result parents know whom itis they should speak to on any given issue. One headteacher who had recently taken over a ‘failing school’spoke of the need for a ‘hero leader’, bringing tight andclearly demarcated structures into a chaotic situationwhere students and staff were unclear of the boundaries.It was, he believed, an essential precondition for a more50 Vol 3.4/5 n www.teachingtimes.comLeadership Skills Leadership Dilemmasradical developmental process, which the school mayembark upon in the future.2. Pragmatic distributionCharacterised by its ad hoc quality, pragmatic distribution isoften a reaction to external events. In these circumstancesa head teacher may ask people to take on responsibility toease the long jam and to spread the workload. Decisionsas to who is given leadership responsibility are made inresponse to demands from government, the local authority,to neighborhood events or parental pressures. Distributionin this ad hoc sense plays an increasingly large part aspressures on schools mount and initiatives multiply. Theessence of pragmatic distribution is captured by a memberof staff in a primary school:‘I think only one person can take so much. Only oneperson can do so much. So therefore, distributing it to theright people helps everybody – helps the children, helpsthe teachers, helps everyone. It helps everybody.’ (NurseryNurse)In an environment of increasing demands, decisionsabout the ‘right people’ is often a pragmatic one, informedby a knowledge of staff capable of sharing the"
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Leadership

The Leadership Paradox

23 Dec 2011

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      string(4879) "➜How to…26…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..■■ Strong claims about leadershipThe introduction emphasised that leadership matters,that it is a key factor in improving schools and thatit makes a difference to pupil outcomes. So given itssignificance, are there things that we can say aboutwhat constitutes effective leadership? This HOW TOcontribution looks at some significant claims that havebeen made about leadership. Leithwood and colleagues(2006) identified a set of seven such strong claims aboutsuccessful school leadership, and these are listed below.This was used to inform a three year investigation intothe impact of leadership into student outcomes whichin turn confirmed and built on this original list togenerate ten strong claims (Day, Sammons, Hopkins,Harris, Leithwood, Gu and Brown, 2010). From thisresearch it was clear that leaders of successful schoolsdefined success not just in terms of test and examinationresults but also in relation to personal and socialoutcomes, pupil and staff motivation, engagement andwell-being, the quality of teaching and learning and theschool’s contribution to the community. The practiceof successful leaders, particularly headteachers, wasreflected in strategies outlined in these strong claims,but their success lay not just in what they did. It alsodepended on how they went about it, how they adaptedthe strategies to their own specific context, and most ofall on who they were – their values, virtues, dispositions,attributes and competences.How to… understand theingredients of successfulleadershipWhat are the ingredients of leadership which bring about transformation and how canthese be developed? Graham Handscomb provides some key guidance.27understandthe ingredients of successful leadership……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………➜ How to…■■ Professional learning task: Strong claims about leadershipA list of the original seven claims is given below. Reflect on these and choose three which you think arecompelling and significant. Then access the full publication in the link below and read the sections related tothe claims you have chosen. From your experience explain why these are particularly relevant and powerful.Seven strong claims1. School leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning.2. Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of basic leadership practices.3. The ways in which leaders apply these basic leadership practices – not the practices themselves –demonstrate responsiveness to, rather than dictation by, the contexts in which they work.4. School leaders improve teaching and learning indirectly and most powerfully through their influenceon staff motivation, commitment and working conditions.5. School leadership has a greater influence on schools and students when it is widely distributed.6. Some patterns of distribution are more effective than others.7. A small handful of personal traits explains a high proportion of the variation in leadershipeffectiveness.(Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris and Hopkins, 2006)Access the following website for the full publication: Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris and Hopkins, 2006:www.aede-france.org/Seven-strong-claims.html■■ The moral imperative of leadershipLeadership is not a value neutral activity. A core featureof successful school leaders is that they have a keensense of moral purpose and this is closely associatedwith key educational principles, particularly a sense ofservice and advocacy for children. This often involvesheadteachers and other leaders balancing the demandsof accountability, especially that of the external politicalkind, with what they perceive as being the overarchingmoral imperative of leadership.So, for instance, Day (2005) reported on researchacross many countries which showed that despitethe pressures from multiple policy implementationaccountabilities, successful headteachers are thosewho place as much emphasis upon people andprocesses as they do upon outcomes. Headteacherswere, therefore, aware of the tensions in their rolesin mediating government policies. They"
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Professional Development

How to... understand the ingredients of successful leadership

24 Oct 2014

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