Improving School Leadership:
Contexts and Success
“For them, conventional wisdom is
not convenient truth.”
Keynote for OECD Workshop
Brussels, February 1-2, 2007
Key questions in
leadership improvement
• What do we do which is good for the children in
our schools?
• What do we do which is good for the society we
would like to have?
Improving school leadership:
a common objective
• To align intentions to develop and support
leaders who combine excellence and equity with
policies and policy implementation strategies
which work
• At present, in many countries, there is a focus
on policy and systems development but not
enough attention to the management of
implementation processes
Improving school leadership:
a common objective
To develop ‘benchmarks’/national leadership
standards (functional and personal) which reflect
the realities of policy objectives and leadership
contexts
Improving school leadership:
contexts of change
• Declining birth rate
• Greater mix of students, greater range of needs
• Increased external accountabilities (the new
institutional paradigm)
• Alienation of students
• Increased range and intensity of tasks and
relationships
• Results driven
• Teacher turnover in some schools
• Problems with teacher morale in many others
• Fewer career teachers
• Fewer who wish to become principals
• Little or no succession planning
Reciprocal Accountability
• Acknowledge that contexts in which many
principals work mean that achieving success on
several fronts (personal, social, academic,
vocational) is becoming a more complex task.
• Acknowledge that whilst principal preparation is
important, sustained and targeted support for
principals in service is crucial.
• Acknowledge that in many countries where the
largest cohort of principals is over 50 years old,
for reasons of life and work change, this is likely
to be at risk of under-performing and needs to be
designated as high priority.
What we know (from research)
about successful leadership
• School leadership is second only to classroom
teaching as an influence on pupil learning
• Almost all successful leaders draw on the same
repertoire of basic leadership practices
• The ways in which leaders apply these basic
leadership practices – not practices themselves –
demonstrate responsiveness to, rather than
dictation by, the contexts in which they work
• School leaders improve teaching and learning
indirectly and most powerfully through their
influence on staff motivation, commitment and
working conditions
What we know (from research)
about successful leadership
• School leadership has a greater influence on
schools and students when it is widely distributed
• Some patterns of distribution are more effective
than others
• A small handful of personal traits explains a high
proportion of the variation in leadership
effectiveness
Managing knowledge creation,
dissemination and use: what
we know about successful
principals in action
What ISSPP tells us about successful principals at
work – pedagogical and transformational (1)
• All have ambitions for both the achievement and welfare of
staff and students, they promote individual and collective
efficacy
• All focus on the functional for the sake of the personal
• All work in contexts of forms of contractual accountability
but some require more resilience, courage and strengths
of values than others
What ISSPP tells us about successful principals at
work – pedagogical and transformational (1)
•
All exercise core sets of qualities, skills, strategies which are
differentiated according to context
•
All have high levels of diagnostic and problem solving skills
•
All combine clusters of interpersonal skills and organisational
strategies to achieve their ends
•
All have clear moral and ethical purposes
•
All manage conflicting expectations
What ISSPP tells us about successful principals at
work – pedagogical and transformational (2)
•
All are strongly learner focused and their schools are data
rich
•
All have a strong appreciation of the importance of
emotional understanding and have high levels of self
knowledge
•
All manage a number of tensions and dilemmas;
•
All have CPD and professional learning at the centre of
their improvement strategies
•
All prioritize genuine care for all in the community
•
All recalibrate contextualised conditions and constraints to
create conditions for improvement
What ISSPP tells us about successful principals at
work – pedagogical and transformational (3)
• All have a strong sense of agency and a lot of hope;
• All have a vision of their school as a learning
organisation and microcosm of a democratic society
(though democracy has different meanings);
• All are at different stages of their own development;
• All work in schools which are in different improvement
phases;
• All exercise embryonic or advanced forms of
distributed leadership
• All are passionate about their work.
Policy Implementation Challenges
•
Problems of sustainability, resilience and succession – building
intrinsic motivation
•
Leadership of complexity and ambiguity – capacity building
•
Embedding organizational commitment and trust
•
Raising standards whilst promoting equity
•
Creating work conditions which support both the emotional
health/well-being and measurable attainments of staff and students
•
A mandate for leading the learning
•
National performance standards for all leaders (an holistic
perspective)
•
Application of strategies appropriate to local need and reflective of
centralist effective agendas
•
Preparation, training and development for quality retention
•
Celebrating success
Leadership for learning:
training and development (1)
•
Internal core training agendas
–
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–
–
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–
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Pedagogical leadership
Personal values (self knowledge)
Combining the functional and personal
Emotions leadership
Combination of skills and strategies (for restructuring and
re-culturing)
Inter and intra personal skills
Vision/values in changing contexts
Data and belief driven decisions
Capacity building: distributing authority with responsibility
Futures training
Training and development (2)
• External core training agendas
– Systems leadership
– Knowledge of leadership in different contexts
– Knowledge of teachers in different professional
life phases
– Knowledge of organizational life phases
– Knowledge of change processes
– Knowledge of change leadership
Framing the report: the issues
•
Key changes in social, economic and policy contexts
•
Implications for schools (purposes, working
conditions, professionalism)
•
The role of leaders: excellence with equity
•
Leading for learning and achievement: successful
practices
– Country case studies
– Training and development: forms and functions
•
Future directions and possibilities