SCRELM
STANDING CONFERENCE ON
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
The 7th International BELMAS Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
8th – 10th July 2004
NEW UNDERSTANDINGS
IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Conference abstracts
St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
The 7th International BELMAS
Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
New Understandings
in Educational Leadership and Management
Conference abstracts
Contents
Abstracts of keynote presentations ………………………………
3
Abstracts of symposia …………………………………………….
6
Abstracts of workshops …………………………………………..
18
Abstracts of papers ……………………………………………….
24
Abstracts are listed in alphabetical order of the surname of the convenor in the
case of symposiums and workshops, and in alphabetical order of the surname
of the lead presenter in the case of papers.
The 7th International BELMAS
Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
New Understandings
in Educational Leadership and Management
Abstracts of keynote presentations
3
Who benefits? New knowledges, identities and technologies as problematics in researching
educational leadership and management
Professor Jill Blackmore
The 'inevitability discourses' of globalisation have constructed education as a matter of intense
national and trans-national interest. New policy fields are emerging that inform the work of
educational researchers, teachers and leaders, amongst them the media and transnational/regional
policy fields such as the OECD and the EU. Together with new institutional formations such as
learning networks and partnerships and new modes of communication and learning online, these
policy fields shape everyday social relations of gender, class and 'race', and the use of resources,
space and time in and between schools, families, the workplace and communities. The disposition
towards uniformity of 'hybrid' education markets and managerialism competes with, and captures
cultural, gender and 'racial' diversity. Discourses of innovative pedagogies ignore the increase in
locational disadvantage. New educational accountabilities focusing on performativity
simultaneously appropriate and undermine teachers' passion. Teacher leadership and evidencebased policy promise empowerment, but principals and teachers (as researchers) have never felt
more controlled. This paper draws on various Australian and international projects to discuss how
policy makers, researchers and practitioners address (or do not address) an increasingly unequal
distribution of risk, responsibility and rights, and identifies new research directions if educational
researchers are to undertake that work.
Reflections on educational leadership today
Professor Tim Brighouse
In this paper will draw in his extensive experience working in education and in educational
leadership to reflect on educational leadership today. Tim Brighouse is presently Commissioner for
London Schools and visiting professor at the Institute of Education at London University. Until
September 2002 he was Chief Education Officer in Birmingham for nearly ten years. Earlier he was
Professor of Education at Keele University (1989-1993) Chief Education Officer of Oxfordshire
(1978-1989) and Deputy Education Officer in the ILEA. He was brought up in East Anglia,
attended state schools and read history at Oxford University before embarking on a career in
education and teaching in grammar and secondary modern schools. He entered the world of
educational administration in what was Monmouthshire and served in Buckinghamshire and with
the Association of County Councils. Tim has written extensively especially on school improvement
and has a number of books and articles to his name. He has also broadcast on radio and television
and has spoken at many national and international conferences.
Tim has received honorary doctorates from The Open University, University of Central England,
Oxford Brookes University, Exeter University, Warwick University, Birmingham University,
University of the West of England and Sheffield Hallam University. He has also contributed
articles to the Political Quarterly and the Oxford Review of Education. Tim is author of ‘What
makes a Good School?’ and ‘How to Improve Your School’.
Leadership Ltd: White elephant or wheelwright?
Professor Keith Grint
Complaints about leaders, and calls for more or better leadership, occur on such a regular basis that
one would be forgiven for assuming that there was a time when good leaders were ubiquitous.
Sadly a trawl through the leadership archives reveals no golden past but nevertheless a pervasive
yearning for such an era. An urban myth like this ‘Romance of Leadership’ – the era when heroic
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leaders were allegedly plentiful and solved all our problems - is not only misconceived but
positively counter-productive because it sets up a model of leadership that few, if any of us, can
ever match and thus it inhibits the development of leadership, warts and all.
The traditional solution to this kind of problem is to demand better recruitment criteria so that the
‘weak’ are selected out, leaving the ‘strong’ to save the day. But this approach, linked to Plato’s
assumptions about leadership, is to reproduce the problem not to solve it. An alternative approach
might be to start from where we are, not where we would like to be: with all leaders – because they
are human - as flawed individuals, not all leaders as the embodiments of all that we merely mortal
and imperfect followers would like them to be: perfect. This approach, linked to Popper’s notions
of working with flaws rather than trying to eliminate them, offers a radically different approach to
the problem of leadership.
Knowing and knowing more about leadership in education:
Reflections on a life in research and a conference on research
Professor Peter Ribbins
In this keynote, at the invitation of the organisers, I will reflect, necessarily selectively, on my life
as a researcher and on the research reported at this conference. To structure my account I will draw
on an approach to knowing and knowledge that Helen Gunter and I have been developing in recent
years in order to chart the field of leadership in education. For this purpose we identify a framework
of six typologies of knowledge production that can be used to enable understanding of the dynamic
interplay between researching, theorising and practising: Producers, Positions, Provinces, Practices,
Processes and Perspectives. At the heart of this framework is the notion of the knowledge province.
Currently we are engaged in drawing together our ideas on this and related matters in a book with
three purposes. First, to establish the rationale for this typology. Second, to explain in detail each of
the eight provinces (the Conceptual, Descriptive, Humanistic, Aesthetic, Axiological, Critical,
Evaluative and Instrumental). Third, to present examples of each of these provinces by drawing on
our work. These examples will be used to show the diverse knowledge claims in the field. Our
intention is to illuminate with examples and to set each example into its research, institutional and
policy context. How we read and engage with these examples will form a core feature of the text, so
that the approach to mapping the field we present is made accessible and usable for field members.
More broadly, our intention is to demonstrate the pluralistic nature of knowledge claims in the field,
and how as field members we can, through our professional practice, engage in a range of forms of
knowledge production. Against this background, my purpose in this keynote is necessarily more
modest. Drawing upon the knowledge provinces, I will attempt two main things. First, to reflect on
my life and work as a researcher. Second, to review the research presented at this conference with a
view, inter alia, to identifying what has been done, what is being done and what needs to be done.
Research, knowledge and improvement in educational leadership
Professor Geoff Southworth
This presentation will begin with an overview of the National College for School Leadership’s role
and the current priorities and foci of its Research Group. Given this standpoint the speaker will
reflect on four perspectives about school leadership and research: 1. the papers about National
College for School Leadership in the forthcoming Educational Management, Administration and
Leadership journal; 2. the nature and quality of the evidence-base about school leadership and its
implications for future work; 3. the research – policy interface; 4. international work and thinking
about leadership research and the management of the knowledge base. Throughout the speaker will
try to identify the key questions and issues which he believes the research community needs to
consider to advance its standing and contribution.
5
The 7th International BELMAS
Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
New Understandings
in Educational Leadership and Management
Abstracts of Symposiums
6
Effective professional learning communities
Convenor: Ray Bolam (University of Bath UK)
Ray Bolam (University of Bath UK)
Angela Greenwood (University of Bristol UK)
Kate Hawkey (University of Bath UK)
Malcolm Ingram (University of Bath UK)
Agnes McMahon (University of Bristol UK)
Louise Stoll (University of London UK)
Sally Thomas (University of Bristol UK)
Mike Wallace (University of Bath UK)
This paper will report on the Effective Professional Learning Communities (EPLCs) project, funded
by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the General Teaching Council England
(GTCE) and the NCSL from 2002-2004. The idea of a professional learning community is now
central to the NCSL’s revised National Standards for Headteachers and the DfES’s Core Principles
for raising standards in teaching and learning. This paper will provide evidence about the processes
and factors associated with the creation, sustenance and impact of an EPLC and will be presented
under four headings.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The literature review and the framework based on five broad EPLC characteristics - shared
values and vision, collective responsibility for pupils’ learning, reflective professional
inquiry, collaboration and the promotion of group and individual learning;
A questionnaire survey of 390 schools in which headteacher/continuing professional
development coordinator respondents characterised their school as being at one of three
stages of EPLC development: starter, developer or mature. Key EPLC process indicators will
be compared and contrasted with pupil National curriculum assessments and ‘value added’
measures to examine the impact on student outcomes.
Case study data from 16 school sites exploring key internal and external processes and factors
in creating and sustaining EPLCs.
The implications for practice, policy and theory.
Agnes McMahon
Project Coordinator
Graduate School of Education
University of Bristol
35 Berkeley Square
Bristol BS8 1JA
Email: agnes.mcmahon@bristol.ac.uk
Discourses of leadership, power, and creativity in social, institutional and policy contexts:
Negotiating curriculum change in primary and secondary schools
Convenor: Hugh Busher (University of Leicester UK)
Lynne Croft (Primary School UK)
Linda Hammersley-Fletcher (Staffordshire University UK)
Penny McKeown (Queens University, Belfast UK)
Alison Taysum (Wolverhampton University UK)
Chris Turner (Swansea University UK)
These papers explore the processes of change in schools, because change is endemic and affects the
core (technical) process of schools, the curriculum, by subtly altering their organisational cultures
and sub-cultures, created by the agency of staff and students, through which it is constructed. The
curriculum is conceived as all that is taught and learnt in schools formally and informally,
7
intentionally and unintentionally and, like the school as institution, is constructed by its members:
teachers, other staff, students, governors, parents and carers working in asymmetrical power
relationships with each other and with formally designated senior and middle leaders in schools.
Teachers are perceived as leaders / managers of students / pupils who exercise power to help them
to engage with an intentional intellectual, moral, social and creative curriculum in order to help
them develop as people. Such processes are heavily value-laden, representing not only the social
and educational values formally projected by the policies of government and other bodies external
to a school, but also the educational, personal and professional values of leaders at all levels in a
school’s hierarchy, those of the support staff, those of the students and, at least by proxy, those of
students’ parents and carers, too. Consequently leadership and management in schools in England,
UK, can be understood as an exercise in negotiation with staff and students to sustain personal
creativity and development through facilitating particular institutional cultures and sub-cultures and
access to knowledge in ways that are meaningful to each participant.
This symposium is presented by members of the British Educational Research Association (BERA)
Special Interest Group (SIG) on Leading and Managing Schools and Colleges (LMSC).
Hugh Busher
School of Education
University of Leicester
21 University Road
Leicester, LE1 7RF
Tel: 0116 252 3688
Email: hugh.busher@le.ac.uk
New understandings in leading and managing networks
Convenor: Megan Crawford (University of Warwick UK)
Tracey Allen (University of Warwick UK)
Christopher Chapman (University of Warwick UK)
Samantha Gorse (University of Warwick UK)
Judith Gunraj (University of Warwick UK)
Alma Harris (University of Warwick UK)
Daniel Muijs (University of Warwick UK)
Members of the Leadership, Policy and Development Unit at the University of Warwick will focus
on looking at ways in which the research agenda in the field is moving in England, and identify
some of the key challenges and opportunities for research, not only at the present time, but over the
next few years. This will be discussed in the context of some of the research projects that the Unit is
currently involved with, or recently completed.
1.
2.
3.
Evaluation projects - the London Leadership Challenge, CPD, LEA evaluations.
Issues around researching into challenging and very challenging circumstances.
Teacher Leadership.
The symposium will involve brief presentations from the researchers and then a discussion of the
key issues arising.
Megan Crawford
Institute of Education
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
Email: m.p.crawford@warwick.ac.uk
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Headteacher socialisation
Convenors: Gary M. Crow (University of Utah USA)
and Dick Weindling (Create Consultants, London UK)
This symposium will explore and analyse the socialisation of headteachers. The session will focus
on two aspects, the first of which will deal with headteacher socialisation in the contexts of school
reform and the broader issues relating to the selection of headteachers and organisational
socialisation. There will be two papers presented by the joint convenors after which there will be
discussion of the issues raised.
The professional and organizational socialization of new UK headteachers in school reform
contexts (Gary M. Crow). The critical role of the school administrator has received considerable
attention in the school reform agenda over the last several years (Bolam et al., 1993; Mortimer &
Mortimer, 1991; Southworth, 1998). Recently UK headteachers have encountered increased
scrutiny and increasingly complex jobs as greater accountability has been emphasized (Bredeson,
1993; Crow & Peterson, 1994; Murphy and Louis, 1994; Southworth, 1998; Weindling, 1992a).
The emphasis on the administrator's role for school improvement and the changing nature of the
role suggests the need to investigate how new school administrators learn their jobs, i.e., their
socialization to the administrator role. This study will: (1) identify the content and tactics used in
the professional and organizational socialization experiences of new UK headteachers; and (2)
examine how headteachers perceive that these socialization processes impact their roles as
headteachers. A qualitative design using multiple case studies was used to investigate these
socialization experiences of headteachers. The study focused on four headteachers who began their
second year in the fall of 2001 and were all current headteachers of primary schools in England.
Data were collected using standard qualitative methods of interviewing, observing, and document
analysis. A series of three on-site interviews with each headteacher were conducted during the first
year of interviewing, i.e., second year of headteacher experience, to explore their perceptions of the
tactics and content of socialization. A year later another on-site interview was conducted to follow
up on the headteachers’ experiences. Along with interviews, observations of each headteacher's
behaviour in faculty meetings; impromptu conversations with faculty, students and parents; and a
board of governor’s meeting. Documents, including job notices and descriptions and curriculum
from the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and the Headteacher Leadership
and Management Programme (HEADLAMP) programs were collected to investigate more formal
socialization content and tactics. The data collected from interviews, observations, and documents
were analyzed using content analysis methods to identify the content and tactics of socialization.
Findings from the study included the importance of several themes: the strength of organizational
socialization, the influence of the deputy experience—especially the role of the previous
headteacher, the role of staff and parents in the socialization, the role of mentoring, and career
aspirations.
Headteacher selection and organisational socialization (Dick Weindling Create
Consultants, London). The appointment of a new headteacher is a major event in the history of a
school and is a crucial decision for the governors. However, the last piece of research on this topic
was conducted 20 years ago, so in 2003 the National College for School Leadership commissioned
a pilot study to explore the process. This paper reports the findings of the study and explores
selection as the first stage of organisational socialisation, when the new head begins to learn about
the norms and expectations of the governors and the LEA, and they begin to find out about the new
head’s values and beliefs. Twenty schools which had appointed a new headteacher in the last year
were chosen as case studies (seven secondary, eleven primary and two special schools in 20
different LEAs). Semi-structured interviews, lasting about 1-2 hours, were conducted separately
with the Chair of Governors and the newly appointed head. The main elements of the process were:
the school context; the perceived need for change or continuity; the production of the advert, and
the job and person specifications; long listing and short listing; various types of exercises and
9
activities for the appointment process; and final decision making. The research showed the
importance of the ‘degree of fit’ – how the selectors perceived the qualities, values, skills and
experience of the candidates against the ‘ideal type’ of headteacher for ‘their’ school. The project
has revealed a number of significant issues which require further in-depth study.
Gary M. Crow
University of Utah
Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy
1705 E. Campus Center Drive, Room 339
Salt Lake City, UT 84105-9254 USA
Email: gcrow@ed.utah.edu
Dick Weindling
Create Consultants
109 West End Lane
London NW6 4SY
Email: dweindling@blueyonder.co.uk
Advances in research methodology
Convenor: Brian Fidler (University of Reading UK)
Les Bell (University of Leicester UK)
Gunnar Einarsson (University of Reading UK)
Brian Fidler (University of Reading UK)
Rosalind Levacic (London University UK)
This symposium will bring together a range of recent developments in research methodology.
These include a systematic approach to critically reviewing and synthesising existing research
findings, theorising how cause and effect could be investigated, and the use of new technology to
collect data.
Presentations will include: the theory and practice of systematic literature reviews to identify ‘what
works’; investigating the relationship between cause and effect; the theory and practice of
collecting survey data by the internet and e-mail; and using web-based diaries to investigate the
work of headteachers.
Systematic reviews of the literature
Understanding cause and effect
Surveys using the World Wide Web and E-mail
Web-based diaries to investigate the work of headteachers
Les Bell and Brian Fidler
Ros Levacic
Brian Fidler
Gunnar Einarsson
Brian Fidler
School Improvement and Leadership Centre
University of Reading
Bulmershe Court
Reading RG6 1HY
Tel: 01183788632
Email: f.b.fidler@rdg.ac.uk
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Reforms-as-experiments: Distributed research in schools and colleges
Convenor: Mervyn Flecknoe (Leeds Metropolitan University UK)
Jeremy Airey (Leeds Metropolitan University UK)
Jason Drewett-Gray (Leeds Metropolitan University UK)
Geoff Cooper
David Elsom
Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon (University of Durham UK)
Mervyn Flecknoe (Leeds Metropolitan University UK)
Sam Gaymond
Jill Sheedy
This seminar explores home-grown evidence, and uses of evidence, generated within schools and
colleges to inform effective teaching and learning, leadership and management. The individual
papers will comprise the following.
The careful use of indicators in managing a school and its staff. Data can be misleading and
potentially damaging. Using genuine school data, Geoff Cooper will discuss the many implications
of the Critchlow-Rogers effect.
Controlled experiment investigates cross-age tutoring. Sam Gaymond and Jill Sheedy report
increases in reading age over one month in the ratio 13:1. They are using the knowledge to
promote peer assisted learning throughout the school and in other schools in the networked learning
community.
The Brick in the Cistern. David Elsom illustrates how schools can now compare the apparent
ability of their intake with other schools over time; how they can talk to students and parents about
possible performance in terms of chances of success; and can review departmental performance
sensitively.
Since counseling does harm we must look at ecological approaches to behaviour management.
Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon discusses the increasing body of research showing that counseling,
mentoring and other forms of well-intentioned help-giving can actually do more harm than good.
Changes to the instructional context, the ecology of the classroom, can produce the affective,
behavioural and cognitive outcomes we hope to create by the process of schooling.
A pilot crossover trial to establish grounds for supposing that different teaching styles have
differential effects on achievement. In this experiment, a crossover trial involved 50 pupils in two
groups studying two science modules with two teachers using first formal teaching and second
democratic learning techniques. Achievement, agency and teaching styles were monitored. Results
will be published for the first time at this meeting.
Mervyn Flecknoe
School of Education & Professional Development
Carnegie Hall 214
Leeds Metropolitan University
Beckett Park Campus
Leeds LS6 3QS
Tel: 0113 283 1772 (Direct Line)
Fax: 0113 283 7410 or 3181
E mail: m.flecknoe@leedsmet.ac.uk
11
Rezolv Ltd enables schools, local authorities and other agencies to create value by identifying
and reconfiguring around their core purpose and value - placing the child at the centre
Convenor: Mark Fowler (Rezolv Ltd UK)
Hilary Thomas (Rezolv Ltd UK
Robert Thomas (Rezolv Ltd UK)
Rezolv team members will present papers and lead discussion on three related themes in childcentred leadership.
1. Leadership for schools as hubs of social and economic regeneration
School improvement efforts have focused on improvements within institutions. After initial
impact, results peak; proven strategies are reapplied, yet impact diminishes. Levers beyond the
school are needed. Schools can become hubs of social and economic regeneration, reversing
intergenerational disaffection and low expectation, creating local skill sets, building community
self-confidence and attracting business. These require new understandings of leadership.
2. Leadership for employability
Recent UK educational practice and policy have been driven by examination outcomes.
Professional understandings have also predominated in the search for solutions to intractable
problems of low achievement, reflected in numerous governmental initiatives. Unconstrained by
professional mindsets, children and employers have their own views which pose a challenge for
school leadership. An employability initiative in Wales in 2003 – originating from outside teaching
- sponsored by CBI Wales and SHA may shift understandings of achievement and improvement.
3. Leading to let children be heard
Models of leadership that vaunt the charismatic leader and team justify the powerful. In professions,
they confirm specialist knowledge and professional power. In many contexts, children’s voices are
mediated for others by parents, the media, pressure groups, professionals. By listening to children
themselves, new understandings can be obtained.
Rezolv’s background in market research has enabled it to devise processes that give voice to
children – and prepare schools to be able to hear.
Mark Fowler
Rezolv Ltd
Howton
Pontrilas
Hereford HR2 0BG
Tel: 01981 241200
Fax: 07967 352295
Email: mark.fowler@rezolv.co.uk
12
Partnerships and collaboration: Emerging ideas and evidence
Convenor: Ron Glatter (The Open University UK)
Lesley Anderson (The Open University UK)
Nigel Bennett (The Open University UK)
Deborah Cooper (The Open University UK)
Ron Glatter (The Open University UK)
Frances Castle (The Open University UK)
Peter Earley (The Open University UK)
Jennifer Evans (The Open University UK)
Rosalind Levacic (London University UK)
Philip A. Woods (University of the West of England UK)
Many current policies and initiatives are founded on the principle of separate organisations working
collaboratively, yet the conceptual analysis and evidence base underlying this development are very
limited. The symposium will present reports from three current projects investigating different
aspects of organisational partnership in education with a view to assessing current knowledge and
promoting further research in this increasingly important area.
Paper A ‘Identifying innovation arising from collaborative schemes’. This paper will report on
the evaluation of the Diversity Pathfinders initiative, which aims to promote both school diversity
and collaboration in six LEAs. The evaluation, which is sponsored by the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES), is being conducted by the Institute of Education, University of
London and The Open University. The paper will focus on the challenge of identifying innovation
resulting from this pilot venture and related issues of transferability implicit in the concept of
pathfinding.
Paper B ‘Schools and headteachers working in partnership: headteachers’ views’. This paper
will report data generated from the Control, Autonomy and Partnership in Local Education
(CAPLE) project, being conducted at The Open University. It is investigating relationships
between schools and local education authorities under Labour governments. The focus will be on
the headteachers’ views relating to the role of the LEA in school effectiveness and improvement.
Paper C ‘Collaboration for school improvement in London’. This paper will present some
provisional findings from an evaluation of the London Leadership Strategy by a team at the
Institute of Education, University of London and the University of Warwick. Several strands of the
strategy involve collaborative relationships, for example ‘Collegiates’ and ‘School to School’. The
paper will explore the processes involved in such collaborations from a number of perspectives.
Ron Glatter
Tel: 01908 652605
Email: r.glatter@open.ac.uk
Transforming the School Workforce Pathfinder Evaluation Project
Convenor: Helen Gunter (University of Birmingham UK)
Hywel Thomas and Helen Gunter
Graham Butt and Ann Lance
Antony Fielding
Steve Rayner and Helen Gunter
Chris Szwed
Ian Selwood and Rachel Pilkington
In spring 2002, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) launched an initiative called the
‘Transforming School Workforce Pathfinder Project’ (TSW Project). It is a pilot project in 32
schools with a further nine comparator schools. The Project aims to: first, secure significant
reductions in the current weekly hours worked by teachers; and second, increase the proportion of
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teachers’ working week that is spent teaching or on tasks directly related to teaching. These aims
are to be secured through supporting change in schools and others providing resources to initiate
new working practices regarding the use of ICT and support staff. A team of 11 at the School of
Education and one from the School of Social Sciences, University of Birmingham, under the
leadership of Professor Hywel Thomas, was contracted to evaluate these interventions.
All staff were surveyed and a sample of staff were interviewed prior to the project beginning and at
the end. We have data from over 800 teachers and over 600 support staff, and we are able to show
change by comparing responses at the baseline with the post intervention data. Eight schools were
visited during the project for more intense investigation in order to produce case studies that
illuminate the context of change. This symposium will consist of a broad introduction to the work
of the team followed by a range of papers that focus on particular aspects of the data. The papers
are:
Modernising the school workforce: an overview of the TSW Evaluation Project.
Hywel Thomas and Helen Gunter
Modernising the roles of support staff: changing focus, changing function.
Graham Butt and Ann Lance
Variations in changes in teacher workload and proportion directly involving teaching: the role of
multilevel analysis.
Antony Fielding
Remodelling Distributed Leadership: stories from the Pathfinder Project.
Steve Rayner and Helen Gunter
Re- considering the role of the primary school SENCO.
Chris Szwed
Transforming the School Workforce – The Role of Information and Communications
Technology.
Ian Selwood and Rachel Pilkington
Dr Helen Gunter
School of Education
University of Birmingham
Tel: 0121 414 3805
Email: H.M.Gunter@bham.ac.uk
Evaluating leadership development programmes:
Experiences in the evaluation of National College for School Leadership programmes
Convenor: Tim Simkins (Sheffield Hallam University UK)
Tony Bush (Lincoln University UK)
Derek Colquhoun and Nigel Wright (University of Hull UK)
Peter Earley (London University UK)
Discussant: Colin Conner (National College for School Leadership UK)
Evaluation is recognised as one of the major aspects of the research programme of the National
College for School Leadership (NCSL). The College invests a considerable resource in the
evaluation of its own programmes and commissions a wide range of organisations to undertake
evaluations on its behalf. The aim of this symposium is to reflect on the experience of undertaking
14
evaluations of this kind. The symposium will draw on the experience and findings of specific
studies, but its prime purpose will be to address broader questions such as the following:

What kinds of questions is it reasonable to expect commissioned evaluations of leadership
development programmes to address?

What considerations affect the design of evaluations? How far, and in what ways, do
constraints of time and funding restrict the methodological possibilities?



What ethical issues are raised by such evaluations?


How can we ensure that the findings of evaluations contribute to the improvement of
leadership development programmes and of leadership practice?
What are the possibilities of such evaluations contributing cumulatively to a wider critical
understanding of school leadership and of the development of school leaders?
Participants in the symposium are all engaged in evaluations for the NCSL. Colin Conner from the
College will act a respondent.
Professor Tim Simkins
School of Education
Sheffield Hallam University
Collegiate Crescent
Sheffield S10 2BP
Tel: 0114 225 2325
Fax: 0114 225 2323
Email: t.j.simkins@shu.ac.uk
Cultural diversity: identifying the implications for school leadership
Convenor: Howard Stevenson (University of Leicester UK)
Clive Dimmock (University of Leicester UK)
Saeeda Shah (University of Leicester UK)
Brenda Bignold (University of Leicester UK)
David Middlewood (University of Leicester UK)
Cultural diversity has long been a feature of British society, and many of those working in schools
are not new to the issues raised by working in ethnically diverse communities. However, the
accelerating pace of global developments – shifting populations, changing labour markets and the
consequences of regional conflicts are constantly re-shaping the issues raised by cultural diversity.
Schools face the challenge of continually having to respond to this changing context, and in
particular, the importance of school leadership in this process.
This symposium will draw on work from two research projects, located in ten case-study schools,
(funded by the National College for School Leadership and the East Midlands Leadership Centre)
that sought to explore a range of issues relating to school leadership in culturally diverse
communities.
The projects were driven by two main research questions: What are the specific leadership
challenges in schools with substantial multi-ethnic student populations, and what can we learn from
schools that appear to create ethnically inclusive learning communities? How are leadership
15
capacities developed within such schools and how can those who take on leadership roles be
supported more effectively?
In addition to reports from the research projects there will be contributions from school leaders of
the case-study schools and an opportunity for symposium participants to discuss and add insights to
the issues raised.
Howard Stevenson
CELM University Centre
Barrack Road
Northampton NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 251805
Fax: 01604 231136
Email: hps2@le.ac.uk
Taking a BLHL at the work of schools and head-teachers
Convener: Pat Thomson (University of Nottingham UK)
Helen Gunter (University of Birmingham UK)
Jill Blackmore (Deakin University Australia)
Australian comedians Roy and H.G. invented the acronym BLHL. It means Big Long Hard Look
and it has entered the popular vernacular down under. We mobilize it here because it aptly
summarises our purpose in this symposium: to not only take a BLHL at school leadership and
management, but to propose that more of it is necessary.
We set our sights on the modernist ideas that riddle the work of head teachers and the task of school
reform. We take modernism to mean the pursuit of universal laws and truths, the notion of
untrammelled progress, the superiority of technical-rational thought and practice, the individual as
separate from the social, the possibility of total control over external events, the linear development
of learning, the separation of mind from body.
We take managerialism to be one manifestation of modernism in education policy, but we will
show that there are others, equally toxic. Drawing on data from England and Australia, we present
four examples of thoroughly modern management in action: the current interest in teacher
leadership, the conceptualisation of the headship that underpins discussions of shortages, the notion
of continuous school improvement and risk management in the form of police safety checks for
staff.
We suggest that the field of educational administration scholarship must take up theorizations from
other areas of scholarship in order to interrogate ways of arguing which have become commonsense
and natural.
Professor Pat Thomson
School of Education
The Dearing Building
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham NG8 1BB
Tel: 44 115 8467 248
Fax 44 115 846 6600
Email: Patricia.Thomson@nottingham.ac.uk
16
Writing about education management in managerialist times:
A conversation about textual apologism
Convenor: Martin Thrupp (London University UK)
Jill Blackmore (Deakin University Australia)
Geoff Southworth (National College for School Leadership UK)
Ron Glatter (The Open University UK)
Helen Gunter (University of Birmingham UK)
Nick Foskett (University of Southampton UK)
This symposium follows the recent publication of Educational Management in Managerialist
Times: Beyond the Textual Apologists (Open University Press). In this book Thrupp and Willmott
point to education management writers not doing enough to encourage school leaders and teachers
to challenge social inequality or the market and managerial reforms of the last decade. They
demonstrate the problem through detailed analyses of texts in the areas of educational marketing,
school improvement, development planning and strategic human resource management, school
leadership and school change. The intention of this symposium is to provide a forum for discussion
of the criticisms of education management texts raised by the book and to look at whether or not
there is a case for redefining educational management along more socially and politically informed
lines. The presenters will each briefly give their own perspective on the book’s concerns followed
by a general panel discussion around the issues it raises.
Martin Thrupp
Institute of Education
58 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0NU
New Labour policy and progressive school leadership: Room to manoeuvre?
Convenor: Martin Thrupp (London University UK)
Peter Earley (London University UK)
Nigel Wright (University of Hull UK)
Mike Bottery (University of Hull UK)
A number of recent studies have emphasised the willingness and ability of school leaders to retain a
progressive educational outlook and approach whilst accommodating New Labour's market,
managerialist and performative education policies. From this perspective school heads are seen as
neither subcontractors nor subversives but people who skilfully mediate external changes so that
they integrate with the more progressive educational vision and values that schools want to pursue.
However other researchers have suggested that in fact heads and teachers are caught within
powerful processes of audit and surveillance which leave little room for manoeuvre. In an attempt
to move beyond what sometimes seem like just more and less hopeful perspectives on this issue, the
papers in this session will re-examine theoretical and empirically-based arguments for and against
the mediation of policy and consider what kinds of empirical findings would really count as
substantive evidence that school leaders are willing and able to mediate New Labour policy.
Martin Thrupp
Institute of Education
58 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0NU
17
The 7th International BELMAS
Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
New Understandings
in Educational Leadership and Management
Abstracts of Workshops
18
Leading informal learning: A contradiction in terms?
Convenor: Nigel Bennett (The Open University UK)
Christine Wise (The Open University UK)
Two important developments have occurred since the late 1990s in relationship to educational
leadership and leadership development. The first is the simultaneous development within
educational organizations, and particularly in higher education, of strong centralised leadership and
their appropriate support structures alongside an emphasis in the literature on capacity building and
distributed leadership, with (in a delightful oxymoron), “the leader leaving their status outside the
door”. Alongside this, and associated with the ideas surrounding capacity building, is a take-up of
concepts of informal learning and work-based learning drawn from the fields of adult and lifelong
learning.
However, informal learning implies a lack of external control or direction in the learning process,
whereas formal learning, such as training courses, higher degrees, or GCSE and key stage
syllabuses, implies externally created predetermined goals and a testing system to go with it in
order to validate the learning. Arrangements intended to generate formal learning are relatively
easily set up and controlled, although it is arguable that what is controlled is the teaching rather than
the learning – hence the need to test what has been learned at the end of the programme. But can
arrangements for informal learning be made similarly? And what is involved in exercising a
leadership role in relation to them, and their consequences?
This workshop will set out to examine the extent to which the exercise of leadership is compatible
with achieving informal learning. An initial paper by the organisers will explore current
conceptualisations of leadership, and draw on data from their recently completed research projects
on leadership development, distributed leadership, the understanding of leadership roles by school
“middle leaders”, and judgements on what makes “good” leadership practice to pose questions
about the extent to which leadership itself needs to be reconceptualised in order to be reconciled
with concepts of informal leadership. The outcome of the workshop, it is hoped, will be a set of
possible research questions for participants to pursue.
Dr Nigel Bennett
Centre for Educational Policy, Leadership and Lifelong Learning
The Open University
Email: n.d.bennett@open.ac.uk
The Rotherham (UK) Partnership for Learning:
New understandings in school and education service leadership
Convenor: David Light (Rotherham Local Education Authority UK)
Nick Whittaker (Rotherham Partnership for Learning UK)
The Rotherham Partnership for Learning represents the Primary, Special and Secondary schools in
the Borough and Rotherham Local Education Authority (LEA) in England. The Partnership is
currently exploring radical and innovative forms of collaborative working which have the potential
to transform educational and other provision in the context of Department for Education and Skills
(DfES) initiatives and the movement towards children’s services.
Secondary schools are organised in four collaboratives of four schools and are promoting a range of
collaborative programmes including self-review, curriculum development, continuous professional
development and research and development. National strategies, notably the Key Stage 3
programme, have been reconstructed as collaborative projects, supported by LEA personnel
allocated to school clusters. The core focus is on learning, understood in relation to the three
19
definitions of “capital” outlined in Hargreaves’s “Education Epidemic”. The Partnership is building
the culture and structures, e.g. a virtual learning environment, to enable the lateral transfer of
knowledge Hargreaves describes. Secondary headteachers, zone directors and LEA personnel are
defining new approaches to community leadership in a pilot initiative for the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES) and National College for School Leadership, England. This team will
lead the introduction of children’s services in the Borough and is now working alongside primary
headteachers and colleagues from social services, health and the voluntary sector in preparing the
pilot phase.
This process radically redefines school and service leadership in a demanding and rapidly
developing context which is at the cutting edge for all local authorities and school systems. The
purpose of the paper is to share our experience and insights, to test our ideas with colleagues and to
explore the ways in which our work contributes to new understandings of educational leadership.
David Light
Tel: 01709 822592
Email: david.light@rotherham.gov.uk
Preparing potential principals
Convenor: Jan Martin (University of Waikato New Zealand)
Darryn Gray (University of Waikato New Zealand)
Martin Turner (Auckland College of Education New Zealand)
The initial New Zealand pilot programme for potential and aspiring principals is now underway.
The project is a Ministry of Education funded initiative and is based on an action research model.
The central intended outcome of the pilot is to prepare a pool of primary and secondary teachers
who, after taking part in the programme, feel confident and able to apply for principals’ positions.
The programme is designed to enable participants to:

gain a deeper and broader understanding about the nature of principalship and the role of the
principal

explore current theoretical and practical aspects of school leadership

understand the range of qualification and career pathways that can lead to obtaining a
principal’s position

become familiar with what being a principal means in a range of school contexts

feel that, at the end of the programme, the learning and experiences they have undertaken
have ‘moved’ them professionally and personally further along their career pathway.
Phase One of the project involved a literature review and analysis of principal vacancies across
New Zealand. It highlighted the difficulty in attracting principals to schools in rural areas,
particularly those very small schools which have teaching principals. The selection process
therefore focused on identifying participants with interest and experience in education outside large
urban areas. This paper outlines how the project team is implementing the findings of the research
group and discusses the progress of the pilot programme and its innovative approach to principal
preparation.
Jan Martin
School Support Services
School of Education, University of Waikato
P.Bag 3105
Hamilton
New Zealand
Email j.martin@waikato.ac.nz
20
Networked Learning Communities: What are we learning about leadership?
Convenor: Jane McGregor (National College for School Leadership UK)
Michelle Anderson, Maggie Farrar, David Jackson, Jane McGregor
and representatives from Networked Learning Communities
(National College for School Leadership UK)
The Networked Learning Communities (NLC) programme (National College for School
Leadership) is one of the largest school-to-school network-based programmes in the world. It is a
co-ordinated reform initiative currently involving 110 Networks (1,200 schools) in England. Each
Networked Learning Community (NLC) comprises a group or cluster of schools working in
partnership to develop leadership for learning by harnessing the leadership potential of a wider
range of people, by supporting school-to-school learning and by building capacity for growth
through enquiry-based practices and a commitment to ‘learning from, with and on behalf of others’,
an underpinning value of the programme. Networks thus seek to foster innovations in pedagogy;
build learning community; develop collaborative leadership learning programmes; embrace
innovation in organisational design; and establish lateral learning and mutual accountability norms.
Two years into what is a four year programme, this interactive workshop provides the opportunity
to share early research findings and understandings particularly in the areas of the relationship
between leadership and facilitation and the recognition and mobilisation of teacher and student
leadership. The NLC programme is committed to learning in real time, i.e. making information
available to the system when it is useful, about the effects of providing incentives for collaborative
leadership learning on this scale. The key operational manifestation of these principles is the
framework of enquiry and research questions and agreed protocols and methodologies for working
collaboratively with practitioners and the research community.
Jane McGregor
Researcher
Networked Learning Group
Derwent House
Cranfield University Technology Park
Cranfield
MK430AZ
Jane.Mcgregor@ncsl.org.uk
Reshaping the landscape of leadership learning
Convenor: Fred Paterson (National College for School Leadership UK)
Jane Creasy, Jill Ireson, Fred Paterson, Jasbir Mann, Katy Patrick
(National College for School Leadership UK)
A common task of headteachers is to manage complex and sometimes competing interests that
often demand short term solutions. However, evidence suggests that lasting and meaningful
organisational development arises from a longer-term commitment to deep and sustained leadership
learning.
In their approach to this dilemma, a number of National College for School Leadership (NCSL)
initiatives have turned towards social constructivist approaches. The emerging design concepts
emphasise the importance of addressing learners’ context, and using their personal practical
knowledge, in collaborative approaches that develop understanding.
21
The design concepts are translated into specific methodologies that aim to deepen personal learning
and support organisational development. Studies at National College For School Leadership
highlight the value of close attention to process and the importance, and challenge, of holding
enquiry at the heart of leadership learning initiatives.
This workshop draws on evidence emerging from a number of National College For School
Leadership initiatives and describes common threads between a variety of methods designed to
develop greater understanding of educational leadership. It will employ some of these methods to
provide an interactive forum for dialogue and critique:

Appreciative enquiry

Action learning sets

Study group processes

School enquiry visits

Protocols for collaborative leadership learning

Networked learning groups

Enquiry within on-line learning communities
The importance of fostering habits of leadership learning is also explored.
Dr Fred Paterson
Senior Research Officer
National College for School Leadership
Triumph Road
Nottingham NG8 1DH
Tel: 0115 872 2044
Email: fred.paterson@ncsl.org.uk
‘Teacher leadership': Rhetoric or reality?
Convener: Lesley Saunders (General Teaching Council, England UK)
Alma Harris (University of Warwick UK)
This session will be grounded in the findings from a General Teaching Council England
(GTCE)/National Union of Teachers (NUT) sponsored research project which explored the idea of
teacher leadership from both conceptual and empirical standpoints. Generated with the help of a
framework developed by the existing literature, evidence from the eight case study school sites
provides insights into teacher leadership in action. The evidence indicates that teacher leadership is
a form of professional collaborative working that may, under certain conditions, contribute to
improved teacher morale and retention as well as to enhanced teaching and learning. The session
will begin by presenting the main findings from the study and by considering the implications for
practitioners, policy makers and researchers. The presenters will go on to facilitate an interactive
session which will encourage participants to address the following questions:
1. How widespread is (i) the idea; (ii) the practice of 'teacher leadership' in UK schools? With what
other initiatives and approaches can it be usefully aligned?
2. What are the main barriers to the development of teacher leadership, for example:
a. teachers' own skills, knowledge and/or values?
b. time and other resources for teachers and for colleagues providing external support?
c. school (senior management) culture?
d. particular national policies?
3. Which body/bodies could offer further leadership, stimulus, resources and synergy in this area?
22
4. What further evidence do we need to try to collect about how 'teacher leadership' influences:

teachers' knowledge and practice?

teachers' self-identity as professionals?

pupils' engagement with learning?
Lesley Saunders (Professor)
Policy Adviser for Research
General Teaching Council
344-354 Gray's Inn Road
London WC1X 8BP
Tel: (020) 7841 2929
Fax: (020) 7841 2909
Email: lesley.saunders@gtce.org.uk
National Association of Head Teachers/Gatsby Technical Education Projects Interpersonal
Leadership Project
Convenor: John Yates (National Association of Head Teachers UK)
Mike Parkhouse (National Association of Head Teachers UK)
For the past year the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) in partnership with Gatsby
Technical Education Projects (GTEP) has been working on a programme of training and individual
school consultancy, designed to develop interpersonal leadership in 50 schools. This is the first
stage of a developmental initiative, which will, initially, involve 150 schools, primary, secondary
and special, nationwide. The programme aims to provide high quality training and focused support
to enable school leaders to develop interpersonal, learning-centred leadership throughout the school
so that a culture of achievement is promoted for children and staff alike. Key objectives of the
programme include the development of knowledge and understanding of interpersonal leadership
and intelligence; the increase of self-awareness in relation to leadership strengths; the development
of shared leadership; and the development of behaviours that will improve interpersonal
relationships and team performance and link interpersonal leadership to leading learning.
Development work in schools has taken the form of a wide variety of small-scale action research
projects which, taken together, are beginning to describe and define the concept of interpersonal
leadership, to challenge assumptions about leadership relationships and to give examples of how
schools can move forward on their improvement agendas through the building of productive,
learning-centred relationships.
The workshop will outline the project, describe some of its outcomes to date and give participants
the opportunity to reflect for themselves on some of the key issues raised for school leaders.
Dr John Yates
John Yates International
27 Upper Park Road
Kingston-upon-Thames
Surrey KT2 5LB
Tel: 020 8546 2299
Fax: 020 8546 2255
Email: john.yates@johnyatesinternational.com
23
The 7th International BELMAS
Research Conference
in partnership with SCRELM
New Understandings
in Educational Leadership and Management
Abstracts of Papers
24
School choice and competition:
Managerial reflections ten years on from the Parental and School Choice Interaction Study
Carl Bagley (University of Durham UK)
As choice, competition and diversity continue to feature in government educational discourse, the
research focus relates to the present situation and current experiences of senior managers in six
secondary schools. These schools, three in a semi-rural and three in an urban setting were first
visited ten years ago as part of an Economic and Social Research Council- funded Parental and
School Choice Interaction (PASCI) Study, conducted by the author with Philip Woods and Ron
Glatter from the Open University. The findings from this research highlighted both the localised
and complex nature of markets as senior managers adopted a variety of strategies to respond to the
local competitive arena in which they found themselves. The research reported here considers the
dimension of time in the process of marketisation and revisits two of those arenas to explore the
situation experienced by senior managers in those schools today.
Dr Carl Bagley
School of Education
University of Durham
Leazes Road
Durham DH1 1TA
Tel: 0191 374 8422
Email: c.a.bagley@durham.ac.uk
Can leadership training make a difference?
Bernard Barker (UK)
This paper explores the claim that appropriately trained heads can motivate teachers and students to
achieve ever more challenging targets and so transform the education and prospects of future
generations. Theory derived from the leadership literature is tested against the experience of
headteachers in the field. Case study evidence is used to examine how two schools were improved.
Applying recommended styles, the heads enhanced the performance of their colleagues and created
a resilient culture for continued progress, despite adverse circumstances that included social
disadvantage. Although OFSTED inspections found the schools to be effective, step changes in
student outcomes were not achieved. Closer enquiry reveals the theoretical and practical limitations
of the human relations model adopted by many training and consultancy firms. Those designing and
delivering leadership training tend to under-estimate the extent to which members of the school
community are motivated by beliefs, values and micro-political concerns, rather than the
interpersonal styles adopted by their headteachers. Variations in the combination of context, leaders
and followers seem more significant than the common elements emphasised by trainers and their
all-purpose programmes. Recent studies based on large data sets suggest that the pupil intake mix
may have a greater impact on test and examination results than the organizational characteristics
influenced by headteachers. The paper concludes that leadership training is unlikely to have the
desired impact on results, and that the psychological models implicit in most programmes provide
an inadequate foundation for serious school improvement.
Dr Bernard Barker
2 Earlswood
Orton Brimbles
Peterborough, PE2 5UG.
Email: bernardbarker@waitrose.com
25
New roles for educational leaders:
An inquiry into best practice models of US university preparation programs
Patricia A. Bauch (The University of Alabama USA)
The purpose of this paper is to assess key university leadership preparation programs that have
improved their efforts to develop educational leaders under new US national standards and
subsequently, to determine best practice models that lead to preparing successful school leaders.
The demands of the current culture of high-stakes testing and accountability for improving student
performance and the “No Child Left Behind” national agenda, require principals who can promote
student achievement. To ensure this outcome, US accreditation agencies, particularly the National
Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education mandate the use of national assessment systems
for the admission and preparation of the new educational leader. To what extent are these
requirements effective in the preparation of these leaders?
Based on findings from this study, the paper demonstrates that effective programs place the
integration of school renewal, democratic community, and social justice at the heart of programs in
ensuring the success of school principals. These programs connect principals directly to the core
purposes of schooling, teaching and learning. Principals play new roles in schools as: instructional
leaders who promote high expectations for student achievement and translate these expectations
into daily practice; ethical organizational leaders who are collaborative builders of relationships
and structures in the process of creating a learning community focused on transformative school
reform through participative problem solving; public leaders who build partnerships with other
schools, parents, and the wider community; reflective practitioners who are open to change in the
ongoing process of examining one’s actions; and advocates for social justice who insert themselves
into situations where oppression, suffering, and exclusion are a part of the daily experiences of
human beings.
Patricia A. Bauch
The University of Alabama
P. O. Box 870302
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
205-556-1559
Email: pbauch@bamaed.ua.edu pbauch@comcast.net
Strategic planning in primary schools
Les Bell (University of Leicester UK)
Strategic planning, in the form of school improvement planning, has become the dominant
approach to school management in English schools. This paper examines the role of strategic
planning in primary schools drawing on interview data collected from five primary schools in the
Midlands over a two-year period. The sample of schools includes two which have successfully
emerged from special measures, one that received a poor Ofsted Report but was not placed in
special measures and two that received good Ofsted Reports.
It is argued that while school improvement planning has evolved from earlier forms of strategic
planning and has some beneficial effects, it also has significant inherent weaknesses that undermine
the extent to which school improvement planning can contribute to the effective management of
schools. The concept of school improvement, the legacy of school effectiveness and improvement
research, implied models of school management and leadership, and the role of the head teachers
are considered.
26
Based on this analysis, an alternative approach to planning in schools and to school organisation
and a more flexible approach to school organisation and leadership is proposed that is grounded in a
shorter planning time scale and the development of structures that facilitate involvement,
cooperation and collaboration.
Professor Les Bell
CELM
University of Leicester
Barrack Road
Northampton, NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 630180 Mobile 07770 362529
Fax: 01604 231136
Email: lab19@le.ac.uk
National College for School Leadership (NCSL) Dissemination for Impact Project.
Why, how and in what conditions do school leaders engage in or with research and how do
they support their teacher colleagues in doing so?
Miranda Bell, Philippa Cordingley, Gillian Crawford and Donald Evans (CUREE UK)
Quite a lot of research has focused both on school leadership and raising standards in schools and
on teachers’ use of research in improving their practice. Yet there has been comparatively little
work on school leaders’ use of research. This review was sponsored by the National College for
School Leadership to find out why and how school leaders use research and support their
colleagues in doing so. The project team examined 2549 titles and abstracts and 190 full reports to
identify 35 core studies. In addition to synthesising the studies the project created 35 user
summaries and 4 case studies to illustrate key findings. The project found that leaders used research
to help them tackle specific challenges and for their own professional development needs. Key
conditions contributing to successful engagement in research by leaders and teachers were
highlighted. These included collaborative working through professional networks and partnerships
and specific targeting of teachers’ professional needs in providing access to research resources. The
project also discussed the need to encompass the role of practitioners as learners when
communicating research by, for example, increasing the dialogue between researchers and teachers
in order to address teachers’ real concerns. The review compared approaches within and beyond
education and identified striking similarities.
Miranda Bell
CUREE & the PACCTS Consultancy Ltd.
4 Copthall House
Station Square
Coventry CV1 2FL
Tel: +44 024 7652 4036
Fax: +44 024 7663 0377
Leadership in context: Island states as points of comparison within global trends
Jennie Billot (UNITEC Institute of Technology New Zealand)
Leadership studies flourish in an academic environment searching for trends, commonalities and
new understandings as to how leadership functions effectively within the context of educational
reform. In many instances leadership is viewed through the lens of the observer which filters
characteristics and activity so that the concept can conveniently be located within a framework or
within a model and thereby be more easily evaluated and applied.
27
The challenge is to acknowledge the different forms of leadership particularly those that are
positioned within communities of difference. Islands can be viewed as well-bounded communities,
often with an identity that seeks to be one step removed from being the politically dependent
neighbour. Recent studies brought together by Pashiardis and Ribbins (2003), have illustrated the
special nature of school leadership in island societies. This paper builds on previous research
(Billot, 2002, 2003, Cranston, Ehrich and Billot, 2003) and seeks to add to that contribution by
reflecting on a northern hemisphere island, namely Jersey (Channel Islands), one that exemplifies
difference from Western societies that are so well addressed in current leadership literature. Using
research from Jersey and the island of Tonga in the South Pacific, comparisons will shed light on
the significance of ‘being an island leader’ whether it be Western or not. Context is an important
dimension in most studies, but is particularly important in terms of ‘bounded’ island communities
which are more easily definable. Whilst social leadership mediates at the interface of the political
and social environment, it is also constrained by the particular nature and culture of how the island
communities socially construct this important role.
Dr Jennie Billot
Centre for Educational Research and Development
UNITEC Institute of Technology
Private Bag 92025
Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: 64 9 815 4321 ext 7465
Fax: 64 9 815 4310
Email: jbillot@unitec.ac.nz
Innovation in initial teacher education: Partnership with business
Sonia Blandford (Canterbury Christ Church University College UK)
This paper describes the origins of the Teach First programme and argues that corporate
involvement in initial teacher training and continuing professional development in schools will
provide new opportunities for those academics and practitioners engaged in school practice. For a
higher education institute to consider involvement Teach First would need to provide an
opportunity for innovation that would enhance professional practice. Schools would also need to be
convinced that young, part-trained teachers would be an asset rather than a burden to their already
over stretched teaching resources. As will be discussed in this paper both practical and ideological
issues would prove to be a challenge to those involved. The research questions encompass these
issues:

Can teachers become effective practitioners without the theoretical underpinning provided by
more conventional full-time programmes?

Can partnerships with global businesses and management consultants enhance initial teacher
education?
This paper focuses the authors consideration of the above using evaluative data gathered from
participants and staff involved in the inaugural Summer Institute. The outcomes, whilst tentative
reflect the paradox between theory and practice that is evident in training and classroom practice.
Participants’ reflections on the emerging partnership also provide an invaluable insight into the
cultural differences between business and education organisations.
Professor Sonia Blandford
Canterbury Christ Church University College
North Holmes Road
Canterbury Kent CT1 1QU
Tel: 01227 750590
Email: Sb100@canterbury.ac.uk
28
Revisiting trust: Its importance for education at societal, institutional, and personal levels
Michael Bottery (University of Hull UK)
Interest in trust is not only current but vital. At the societal level, it is essential in building better
relationships between governments and public sector workers. At the institutional level, it is
essential in building better relationships within teams in a knowledge economy, in building
relationships within a learning community in which knowledge is socially created and shared, and
in building the kinds of group relationships that boost student achievement. At the interpersonal
level, it is a central to perceptions of an individual’s integrity, and therefore critical to good
leadership; it is also essential in building the kind of student-teacher relationships fundamental to
good teaching. Finally, at the purely personal level, trust is essential to individual morale, in raising
self-esteem, and in feelings of self-worth, and is central to any attempt to deal with uncertainty,
unpredictability, and risk.
This paper will therefore examine its varied and complex nature and show how trust is a theme
which needs to run through all educational leadership management.
Michael Bottery
Centre for Educational Studies
University of Hull
Cottingham Road
Hull HU6 7RX
Email: M.P.Bottery@hull.ac.uk
Middle managers in further education colleges: The ‘new professionals’
Ann R.J. Briggs (University of Leicester UK)
The findings reported here are part of a larger study of the role of middle managers in English
further education colleges (Briggs, 2003), conducted through case study at four colleges. The study
proposed and discussed a typology for the middle manager role, analysed factors which facilitate
and impede managers in role, and modelled the interaction of the college environment with the role.
This process gave insight into emerging concepts of professionalism, which are discussed here in
relation to the literature of managerialism and ‘new’ professionalism.
The paper discusses what manifestations of new professionalism can be observed in the colleges,
how perceptions of professionalism differ from role to role and from college to college, and how
professionalism can be modelled and further understood.
Dr Ann R.J. Briggs
Centre for Educational Leadership and Management,
University of Leicester
Northampton Centre
Barrack Road,
Northampton, NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 821400
Email: ann.briggs@le.ac.uk
29
Research strategy development in a modern Welsh higher education institution
Louise Bright, Leanne Richards, John T. O’Shea, Michael Connolly, Paul V. D. Ryall, and
Dai B. Smith (University of Glamorgan UK)
The United Kingdom has experienced considerable change within its higher education system,
including the emergence of new types of institutions, changes both to the funding structure and to
tuition fees, a move from an elite to a mass system, technological advances, e-learning, curriculum
developments, research concentration and changes to the sustainability of funding. Patterns of
demand and competition for higher education have changed substantially and are likely to change
again with the introduction of the Government policies and performance targets for higher
education. In this rapidly evolving environment it is likely that those institutions that are not willing
or able to change to meet such challenges may risk failure or gradual decline. Thus the question of
how higher education may change over the short and medium terms has become a key issue for
those involved in delivering and managing higher education. Institutions can no longer afford to sit
back and react to, still less ignore external influences. There is a growing realism that organisations
will need to re-think and re-shape if they are to improve, develop and compete within the changing
HE environment. In this context it is clear that higher education institutions today operate in an
environment characterised by larger scale, more complex and systematically woven problems than
at any time in the past. In response to this, some higher education organisations are attempting to
develop strategic and scenario planning techniques to shape strategic development.
This paper examines the adoption by a modern Welsh university of such techniques in the
development of its strategic research framework in order to deliver a portfolio of successful,
sustainable research over the medium to long term.
Dr Louise Bright
Academic Office
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd, CF37 1DL
Email: lbright@glam.ac.uk
Coyote tales: Transferring American Indian knowledge, culture, and tradition
Kenneth H. Brinson, Jnr (North Carolina State University USA)
Linda Sue Warner (Tennessee Board of Regents USA)
Our paper presentation is grounded by the authors’ prior research on Research Methods for
Indigenous Peoples, specifically American Indians. It is, and has been, our contention that
indigenous peoples’ research relies on cultural relevance, relationships, and “ways of knowing” that
are as unique as the individuals themselves. Indigenous research does not look like traditional
research and the methods and meanings should not be reported out in the same way. Our
contention is interpreted as a “New Understanding” in Educational Leadership and Management,
and adds to the corpus of knowledge specifically as it relates to educational leadership in
indigenous people’s education.
Educational leaders have long wrestled with indigenous “ways of knowing” and information
transference in educational settings. We seek to share insights with educational leaders on
indigenous peoples’ knowledge and culture transference, tools that should be utilized in educational
settings. Indigenous people have historically shared their knowledge, culture, traditions, and
language through storytelling, song and dance, and oral histories. Coyote tales are time honored
and revered stories, although many anthropologists have labelled them folklore, myth, and legend.
Coyote tales are, at their root, a means of transferring knowledge, culture, and tradition to
30
successive generations. They should be analyzed through a cultural lens indicative of indigenous
peoples’ research methods of inquiry and appreciated and utilized by educational leaders.
Our paper presentation will offer examples of Coyote tales, their history and importance, and
compare and contrast them with historic morality lessons.
Dr. Kenneth H. Brinson Jnr
Assistant Professor of Educational Research and Leadership
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 7801
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7801 USA
Email: ken_brinson@ncsu.edu
‘Less heat, more light’:
Leading Local Education Authority renewal through partnership working
Carol Campbell (London University UK)
The paper investigates education partnership boards (local forums for stakeholder engagement in
strategic education advice) as mechanisms for local education authority (LEA) renewal through
new forms of local governance and leadership to support systemic improvement. The paper draws
on findings from an evaluation of education partnership boards in 11 LEAs, where these were
generally implemented in response to OfSTED inspection reports identifying serious concerns
about LEA performance and capacity for improvement. Education partnership boards, therefore, are
associated with government drives to transform LEAs through new ways of working, involving
approaches to transform the leadership and governance of the education service locally through
partnership working and capacity building.
The paper argues that although the roles and responsibilities of LEAs have been subject of
considerable debate, and codified through government guidance, the nature and development of
new forms of LEA working and the implications for the local leadership and governance of the
education service requires further analysis and conceptualisation. Such considerations are important
also in developing ‘tri-level’ reform efforts, which involve a role for LEAs in working with schools
and national government to deliver educational reform. Therefore, the paper draws on empirical
findings from an evaluation of the operation, working and outcomes associated with education
partnership boards in 11 LEAs, in order to explore new understandings and conceptualisations of
partnership working and governance as forms of leadership and capacity building for LEA renewal.
Dr Carol Campbell
Institute of Education
University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Email: C.Campbell@ioe.ac.uk
Gender and headship in 2004: Reflections on work in progress r
Marianne Coleman (University of London UK)
Most teachers in both secondary and primary schools are women, but most heads of secondary
schools are men and the proportion of men who are heads in primary schools is large in comparison
to the overall number of women in primary teaching. However, the proportion of women who are
headteachers and deputy headteachers is growing.
31
Within this context, gender plays an important and sometimes unrecognised part in working lives,
impacting in particular on women and men who challenge stereotypes, for example, women in
secondary headship and men in primary headships.
A survey of a large sample of women and men headteachers from secondary, primary and special
schools was undertaken in March 2004, using a virtually identical instrument to one used in the late
1990s with women and men secondary headteachers. This paper compares some of the current data
with data collected in the late 1990s, tracing some of the changes in the experiences of secondary
heads and looking at aspects of the impact of gender on their working lives of both primary and
secondary heads.
Dr Marianne Coleman
Institute of Education
University of London
Bedford Way
London WC1H 0NT
Email: m.coleman@ioe.ac.uk
Managing collaboration between universities and colleges
Michael Connolly, Cath Jones, Norah Jones, John O’Shea and Chris James
(University of Glamorgan UK)
Those interested in public management increasingly recognise that many issues can only be tackled
by organisations working together. But in the education sector, collaboration is complicated given
what appears to be a paradox, that educational institutions are expected to both compete and work
together. This paradox is very apparent in the Welsh higher education sector, thus our focus - the
relationship between a university and a number of further education colleges collaborating in an Elearning project - is particularly apposite.
The paper describes an analytical framework, which has resource dependency and legitimacy
dimensions, and uses the framework to provide insights into collaborative practice. The case study
reveals a number of issues. It emerged that organisations do not collaborate; parts of organisations
collaborate with parts of other organisations. Thus senior managers in many of the colleges wished
to be part of the project because they saw it as enhancing their legitimacy, while many of the staff
in the colleges were more influenced by their resource concerns. Some college staff resented their
relatively poor conditions of service. The e-learning project added to their workload and the
promised additional resources did not materialise. Many university staff felt that the
implementation of some of features of the project in some colleges was not what had been agreed.
While we are sympathetic to Benson’s (1975) advocacy of the resource dependency perspective on
collaboration, we consider that legitimacy is a valuable resource. Further, differing interests within
each organisation complicate the effective working of the network.
Professor Michael Connolly
Head of the School of Humanities, Law and Social Sciences
Forest Hall
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
CF37 1DL
Email: mconnoll@glam.ac.uk
32
Who wants a new school principal?
Neil Couch (University of Waikato New Zealand)
This paper presents some of the findings from initial research on principal vacancies in New
Zealand. The research has been carried out as part of the preparation for a pilot project for
Developing Aspiring and Potential Principals that is being run by the University of Waikato in
2004. July 1 statistical information sent to the Ministry of Education by schools over the years 1996
to 2003 was used. This information was analysed for such factors as school type, size, location,
isolation, ethnicity and community socio-economic-status. Findings from the research indicate
some clear patterns of schools that are having difficulty appointing principals. These schools are
most likely to be small, rural primary schools, or have a high Maori roll, or be located in specific
parts of New Zealand. The selection criteria for the participants in the Developing Aspiring and
Potential Principals programme have targeted applicants who are likely to want to be principals in
these schools. The paper will also present responses and reflections from the first group of
participants in the initial trial.
Neil Couch
Regional Co-Ordinator
School Support Services
School of Education
The University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton
Tel: 07 858 5075, 07 858 5071 (DDI)
Fax: 07 858 5077
Email: ncouch@waikato.ac.nz
Headteacher performance management: An investigation of the role of the external advisor
Megan Crawford (University of Warwick UK)
Michael Creese and Peter Earley (University of London UK)
The role of the External Advisor (EA) in the performance management of headteachers is a
relatively new phenomenon. The small amount of research that has been carried out on headteacher
performance management often has a headteacher focus (e.g. Kerry & Warbrick, 2003). This paper
is based upon interviews carried out during 2003 with 18 External Advisers - 12 face-to face and
six on the telephone. We sought to interview ‘experienced’ EAs as we wished to draw upon their
wide range of experience of working in many schools. The sample is not therefore a random one
and we do not know how representative our interviewees were of the 1500 or so EAs registered for
work with Cambridge Education Associates.
The paper will look at the benefits and challenges inherent in the role of the External Advisor to the
school’s governors and asks whether there are shared views of the process, what issues are
emerging, and suggests further areas for research.
Megan Crawford
Institute of Education
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
Email: m.p.crawford@warwick.ac.uk
33
Servant-leadership as an effective model for educational leadership and management:
First to serve, then to lead
Carolyn Crippen (University of Manitoba Canada)
Servant-Leadership is a leadership paradigm for the twenty-first century. The model shifts the
power away from the old hierarchical model to one of primus inter pares: first among equals. The
concept was the inspiration of Robert K. Greenleaf, (1970), who first wrote his ideas in an essay,
The Servant as Leader. Greenleaf believed that servant-leaders begin with the natural feeling that
one wants to serve, to serve first, before aspiring to lead.
Ten characteristics are associated with the transformational servant-leader: listening, empathy,
healing, awareness, persuasion, foresight, conceptualization, commitment to the growth of people,
stewardship, and building community. Many educational leadership and management authorities
i.e., Warren Bennis, Gill Hickman, Robert Owens, Parker Palmer, William Purkey, Thomas
Sergiovanni, and Margaret Wheatley, all call attention to the growing influence of Greenleaf and
servant-leadership upon effective collaborative, cooperative, and collegial institutions. This paper
presentation will investigate the application and implementation of the ten characteristics of
servant-leadership as a framework for transformational educational leadership and management in
an instructive milieu.
Reference to the positive reaction and reception to the servant-leadership approach within various
educational agencies and institutions i.e., Manitoba Council for Leadership, the Manitoba
Association of School Trustees, the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, several Manitoba Leadership
Projects, and many Manitoba school divisions will be discussed, as well. The presenter’s doctoral
research was in the area of servant-leadership in educational administration.
Dr. Carolyn Crippen
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg
Manitoba
CANADA
Email: c720926@mts.net
A matter of faith?
A critique of leadership in Anglican and Catholic schools in England and Wales
Leela Cubillo (University College Worcester UK)
Alan Brown and Marie Brown
(B2B International Market Research UK)
Faith schools drew a great deal of attention three years ago when the Government introduced a bill
to allow schools with a religious character to be established rather more easily than had previously
been the case. The proposal, based on notions of raising standards and school improvement, was
announced amidst a continuing debate about the future of faith-based schools and their place in our
society.
This paper explores the consequences of the proposition on schools, with a particular focus on
Anglican and Catholic schools, the two main providers of voluntary education in England and
Wales. More specifically, the paper examines: the implications of this development for the
leadership of Anglican and Catholic schools; the factors influencing leadership in Anglican and
Catholic schools; and, the qualities expected of the leaders of these schools. It seeks to determine
the distinctive features of each of the two schools in terms of their culture and ethos, which may
contribute to their apparent success and which also distinguishes them from other non-faith schools.
34
The paper will explore the different management and leadership structures within the variety of
Anglican and Catholic schools and the implications these have in relations with the Dioceses and
the expectations of the two Churches. The fundamental structures and expectations that underpin
such faith schools have a direct effect upon the manner in which they can be managed. The
appointment of the Headteacher and senior management play key roles in placing the schools
within their religious context. They often need to be theologians as well as educators. The paper
will also consider the number of combined Anglican/Roman Catholic schools, primary and
secondary, that have had to develop their own distinct styles of management and leadership and
accountability to take account of the different religious expectations of the communities they serve.
Leela Cubillo
Institute of Education
University College Worcester
Henwick Grove
Worcester, WR2 6AJ
Email: l.cubillo@worc.ac.uk
New understandings of leading the strategically focused school
Linda Ellison (University of Nottingham UK)
Barbara J. Davies and Brent Davies (University of Hull UK)
Many schools have detailed plans for the short-term but often these have not been created with the
longer-term future in mind. Others have long-term plans which are not of value, perhaps because
they are too detailed for a dynamic context or they are not shared with staff and are never
implemented. Previous research (Davies and Ellison 1992; 1999) had identified that effective
models of planning in schools change over time as degrees of confidence and autonomy at the
school level increase. This research was funded by the National College for School Leadership in
order to gain new understandings of the way that effective heads work with their staff to develop a
school which is strategically focused for success in the turbulent environment of the future.
The project used in-depth interviews at the school site with heads who are acknowledged to be good
strategic leaders, chosen to represent a range of situations (such as phase, size, SES, gender of head,
region). It was important to collect the school’s documentation as schools which are strategic do
not just talk about it but have written evidence of their plans for the future. Analysis of the data
provides new evidence about the characteristics of strategic leadership and about the strategic
processes and approaches which are effective. The way in which these characteristics interact and
provide us with the knowledge to plan for the future of schools will be explored in the paper.
We hope to continue to study some of the schools as they realise their futures and continue to plan.
We also hope to extend the project internationally as we believe that there will be many aspects
which transfer across cultures and systems but some which will not.
Linda Ellison
School of Education, Dearing Building
University of Nottingham
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
Tel: 0115 951 4444
Fax: 0115 846 6600
Email: linda.ellison@nottingham.ac.uk
35
Public/Private partnerships in education – grounds for optimism?
Brent Davies (University of Hull UK)
and Guilbert Hentschke (University of Southern California USA)
The last five years have seen a significant increase in the involvement of the private sector in
education in the core areas of education delivery and not just in the provision of educational support
services. This growing involvement of the private sector in education has been commented on in the
press and in debates on education but is often misinterpreted as privatisation (selling or turning over
publicly held assets to private owners) and as a new phenomenon. It is neither. The decision to
provide some activities within the organisation and to contract with outside agencies for the
provision of other services has been a common feature of organisational life for at least the last two
hundred years. If public/private partnerships are examined from an objective rather than an
ideological viewpoint, the key question should be: does combining two different sets of
organisational skills and human capital have the potential to yield better outcomes than would have
been possible with a single set of organisational skills and capital?
Our research, for the National College for School Leadership, reports on two studies: one on a
partnership between the public and private sector for the delivery of Local Education Authority
(LEA) services (CfBT and Lincolnshire) and second: on a public/private partnership to replace a
failing school with a successful one (3Es and Surrey LEA). The research report highlights four
areas to consider when assessing public private partnerships:




the precondition for partnerships
the change dimensions that emerge as a result of partnerships
the mechanisms for partnering
the success indicators of partnerships.
Professor Brent Davies
International Educational Leadership Centre
University of Hull
Cottingham Road
Hull HU6 7RX
Email: B.Davies@hull.ac.uk
Global boarders
Sue Dyson (De Montfort University UK)
Since its inception, the British NHS has relied extensively on international nurses to maintain the
required complement of staff (Culley and Dyson, 2001). From the outset nurses were recruited into
training from East Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. Although the 1962 Commonwealth
Immigrants Act prevented further direct immigration as Commonwealth citizens, overseas nurses
have continued to be recruited into training. The fate of such nurses has remained relatively hidden,
with few studies examining experiences in detail, and fewer still monitoring any pattern in
prospects and achievements of such nurses. This study examines the lived experiences of
Zimbabwean nursing students currently studying nursing in a UK university, using a life history
approach for the collection of data (Plummer, 2001).
The main finding revealed that a massive migration of people from Zimbabwe is currently
underway, a high proportion of whom are coming to the UK to study nursing. Whether this is
related to a desire for a career in nursing is debatable, being more likely to do with the need to leave
a country whose economy is in decline, whose health service is almost non-existent, and whose
36
people are ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Barnett and Whiteside, 2002). The students’
narratives suggest several implications for educational leadership and management. First,
international students from the same country do not necessarily share the same interests, or speak
the same language, and educators need to be sensitive to intra-group tensions. Second, the students
recount a wide range of racisms in education and the NHS. Facilitating an experienced cohort to
systematically share their strategies, could help support successive cohorts. Third, students work
outside the course, remit monies home, but may be HIV-positive. Dwindling material resources
may impact on their health and produce a management challenge for the future in supporting a sick
NHS workforce.
Sue Dyson
Senior Lecturer
School of Nursing and Midwifery
De Montfort University
Hawthorn Building 1.31(A)
City Campus
Leicester LE1 9BH
Tel: (0116) 2078764
E mail : SMcCartney@dmu.ac.uk
Making public schools more like the private sector:
Converging discourses and altering ideologies
Patricia A.L. Ehrensal (Fordham University USA)
In the U.S. schools there has been an increasing trend to both assimilate management models and
practices of, and recruit educational leaders (principals and, more particularly, superintendents)
from corporations and the military. This looking to and adulation of the private and military sectors
is foundation of the greatest archetypal shift in U.S. education since the reform movements of the
early 20th century. This shift can be traced to four intersecting discourses: privatizing leadership,
privatization of teacher preparation, privatization of educational purpose, and privatization of
standards and accountability. While policies around these privatization of educational purpose and
standards and accountability discourses have been fractured and uncoordinated in the past, the
addition of the privatization of leadership and teacher preparation have allowed for a synergy of
these discourses which has never experienced US history. Further, the confluence of these
discourses reinforce one another in ways which have the potential of absolutely altering ideologies
and organizational arrangements of schools.
The paper will also explore how this confluence of four areas of privatization in education results
from the convergence of two discourses; the schools as producers of human capital and the antipublic sector discourses. Finally, the paper explores how the convergence of these two discourses
obfuscates the distinctions between schooling and education, which allows for the reinforcement of
the corporate model for school organizations, as well as further marginalizing the school as public
good discourse. This raises serious concerns about the ability of the next generation of citizens to
participate in a self-governing democracy.
Patricia A.L. Ehrensal, Ed.D
Fordham University Graduate School of Education
Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy Division
113 West 60th Street
New York, NY 10023-7484
Tel: 212-636-8424
Email: ehrensal@fordham.edu
37
Second headship
Brian Fidler (University of Reading UK) and Jeff Jones (CfBT UK)
There is an increasing trend for headteachers to move on to a second headship after completing an
initial period as a headteacher. Little is known about why these heads choose to move to another
school and the extent to which their initial headship experience prepares them for the headship of a
different school. An earlier pilot study by one of the authors suggested that a second headship
makes them more aware of their earlier learning when they compare their experiences in the two
schools.
This paper will present evidence from a number of recently appointed headteachers of secondary
schools in England who are in their second headship. These headteachers have been interviewed
about their initial experiences on taking up the headship of a different school.
The findings will include why they moved to a different school, what they hoped to achieve and the
extent to which their previous headship prepared them to be successful in a different school.
Professor Brian Fidler
School Improvement and Leadership Centre
University of Reading
Bulmershe Court,
Reading,
RG6 1HY
Tel: 01183788632
Email: f.b.fidler@rdg.ac.uk
Powerful voices and powerful stories:
Reflections on the challenges and dynamics of intercultural research
Tanya Fitzgerald (UNITEC Institute of Technology New Zealand)
Familial circumstances, language, religion, ethnicity, social location and life experiences impact on
the increasingly diverse and complex composition of schools, learners and communities. While the
influence of these factors on schools and schooling has been recognised in terms of our theorising,
arguably this research has been predicated on an unequal relationship between researcher(s) and
participants.
The production of knowledge as a consequence of research has not necessarily positioned
participants (the ‘researched’) as powerful with respect to issues of access, the conduct of the
research and ownership of the intellectual and cultural products of the research process. Yet, as this
paper will ask, how might research be conducted and reported with/in diverse communities that
recognises the powerful position and voices of participants?
In countries such as New Zealand and Australia, there has been increasing recognition of the
primacy of culturally appropriate research methodologies that stimulate opportunities for
participants to engage with/in the research in powerful and meaningful ways. And while these
challenges might well resonant with researchers in countries with Indigenous communities, the
multiethnic composition of the global community would suggest that these principles could be
extended to re-consider the theoretical limitations of Western research paradigms and question how
research might be facilitated, conducted and reported that accounts for this diversity. That is,
research for/about educational leadership could be more broadly theorised in order for discourses to
emerge that account for these multiple positions and multiple voices.
38
This paper reports on the challenges of conducting research with Indigenous women leaders in
educational organisations in New Zealand and Australia and suggests how research based on a
collaborative intercultural partnership might be conducted, nurtured and sustained.
Tanya Fitzgerald
UNITEC Institute of Technology
School of Education Private Bag 92025
Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: + 64 9 815 4321
Fax: + 64 9 815 4310
Email: tfitzgerald@unitec.ac.nz
Leadership and institutional adaptation in turbulent times:
A study of the survival and expansion of Lebanese American University since 1975
Renee Ghattas (Lebanese American University Lebanon)
The focus of this research emerged from an interest in education management at university level,
aiming at studying the factors leading to the development, growth, and survival of an educational
institution, the Lebanese American University (LAU) during the civil war and post war period, i.e.,
from the year 1975-76 to the year 2000-01.
The researcher used semi-structured interviews to explain and understand how and why people at
LAU accounted for, took actions, and managed their day-to-day lives during the period under study.
In addition, the writer refers to magazines, bulletins issued by LAU, local and foreign journals and
newspapers, and other published material, in order to enhance the validity and reliability of the data
collected. The people selected participated in the operations of the university or studied at LAU
during the period under study. The sample included eight people from the management group,
eighteen faculty members and twelve alumni. The faculty members and alumni are divided into oldtimers and new-timers, and the entire sample is divided into females and males. The researcher used
stratified proportion sampling-different age groups, different religious affiliations
The systematic investigation of the story of LAU led to the development of three models for
understanding leadership. The first model was developed from what theorists have said about the
factors affecting leadership. The second model describes the life cycle at LAU. It was reached after
a deep analysis of the data collected. The third model is a generalization of LAU case, theorizing
about leadership during turbulent times.
Renee Ghattas
Lebanese American University
P.O.Box 13 – 5053 (14F)
Beirut
Lebanon
Email: rghattas@lau.edu.lb
The mid-career teacher: The challenge of the instructional supervision process
Anne Halsall (State University of West Georgia USA)
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the instructional supervision process as
it relates to the mid-career teacher. Most state/district teacher evaluation processes focus upon the
beginning teacher, that is, the first three years of teaching. During this period, the focus is upon
classroom competencies relating to management and organization which include lesson planning
39
and delivery. After the initial years, the role of instructional supervision shifts from that of
formative evaluation to one which focuses upon teacher motivation and related professional
development.
Fifteen certified elementary, junior high and high school teachers enrolled in a combined,
M.Ed./Leadership Certification degree program focusing upon instructional and developmental
supervision were asked to reflect upon the benefits of the course in developing their understanding
of the cycle of teachers’ professional growth. They were asked to respond in terms of the benefits to
their professional growth and their plans for development as mid-career teachers. The study
engaged teachers in examining their own professional growth. A phenomenological approach was
used. Participants responded to the prompt, “Describe your experiences in this course in terms of
benefits to your professional growth and your plans for development as a teacher.” In addition,
semi-structured interviews were conducted after the completion of the course, at their school sites,
to determine the ways in which participants were applying/using the elements they had identified as
key components in the process of determining their own professional development as teachers.
Dr. Anne Halsall
Dept. of Educational Leadership & Professional Studies
State University of West Georgia
Education Annex, Room 141
1601 Maple Street
Carrollton, GA 30118-5160
USA
Tel: (770) 836-4402
Fax: (770) 836-4646
Email: ahalsall@westga.edu
Reconstructing professional knowledge and educational reform
Lynne M. Hannay, Norma Macfarlane, Mike F. Mahony (University of Toronto Canada)
Large-scale educational reform is in vogue. Often such reform initiatives are introduced in a flashy
and media-friendly setting but the success of such reforms will not be determined in that context.
For reform to be implemented and institutionalised, individual practitioners need to reconstruct
their professional knowledge in order to change their practice. This involves professional learning,
not just professional development sessions (Bolam, 2002). In this conceptual paper, first we explore
the processes involved in reconstructing professional knowledge. Second, we examine how leaders
and organizational structures can support professional learning. Reconstructing professional
knowledge is a complex and problematic process pivotal to successful implementation of
educational reform. Putnam & Borko (2002) maintain that professional learning is influenced by
the context where the learning takes place; and the interactions between individuals to share and
distribute learning. This means that reconstructing professional knowledge might require that
individuals question their tacit knowledge (Hannay, 2003) in order to create new mental models
(Duffy, 2003). Leaders and organizational structures need to support a questioning of past practice
and the construction of new mental models. Leaders must create organizational cultures which
allow practitioners to feel vulnerable. As well both leaders and organizational structures need to
foster the reconstruction of professional learning by ensuring the reform efforts emphasize:
authentic problems; collaboration; professional dialogue; and evidence based change (Bolam, 2002;
Hargreaves, 2002; Duffy, 2003; Hawley & Valli; 1999; Putnam & Borko, 2002).
Lynne M. Hannay
Ontario Institute for the Study of Education
University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
40
Leaders leading and learning
Lynne M. Hannay (University of Toronto Canada)
and Don Blair (Thames Valley District School Board Canada)
In Canada, education is under the constitutional jurisdiction of provincial governments who then
delegate responsibility to local school districts. The senior administration of the school districts
(including a Director as CEO and Superintendents as the next administrative level) manage and
lead local educational reform implementation. We are mid-way in a longitudinal research study
which is examining the role of school districts in facilitating significant educational reform.
In this paper, we examine the role of senior administrators in re-shaping the organizational
practices and structures in their school district to support the implementation of educational
reform in their 180 schools. Through their leadership, the school district is being systematically
reconstructed from the ‘inside-out’. The senior administrators lacked a grand plan when they
entered into the process three years ago. Rather, they have learned about system-wide change
from engaging in system-wide reform and from their interactions with system personnel. While
this is obviously a very complex process, the data documents that the senior administrators were
deliberately creating links between their learning, and that of the school administrators and
teachers. Further they were addressing the reform agenda through:



respecting the contextual realities of schools
aligning professional development and resources
promoting reciprocity through balancing expectations and support.
Thus senior administrators were achieving the systemness advocated by Fullan (2001) and interconnectedness argued for by Louis, Toole & Hargreaves (1999). As well, there is emerging
evidence that they are laying the foundation a knowledge-creating school district (D. Hargreaves,
2002).
Lynne M. Hannay
Ontario Institute for the Study of Education
University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
High turnover of teaching staff: Challenges for school leaders
Barry Harris (University of Western Sydney Australia)
This paper is based upon a research project recently conducted over an 18-month period in five
Secondary Schools in Western Sydney, Australia. The schools are in low socio-economic
communities with up to 40% of their population being relatively recent migrants from the Pacific
Islands.
One of the findings of the research concerned the high turnover of staff, which varied from 30%70% annually. This has many implications for the school community, including the middle
management or Faculty Heads. These leaders find a high proportion of their time being spent
assisting inexperienced teachers with classroom management, discipline and lesson planning issues.
These issues are compounded by the fact the new teachers and leaders have little cultural
knowledge of the schools’ diverse communities. Continually undertaking crises management, the
school leaders are left with little time for broader leadership responsibilities such as curriculum
development and implementation. However, many of the new teachers (and indeed some of the
leaders), while being inexperienced, initially have great enthusiasm for their jobs and a strong
desire to learn; an attribute that provides a strong basis for new initiatives that may assist to keep
41
the teachers employed at these schools for longer periods. As well as exploring the problems
leaders encounter with these issues, this paper also considers a number of strategies leaders and
education systems may use to try and reduce the high turnover of staff.
Dr. Barry Harris
School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning
University of Western Sydney
Locked Bag 1797 South Penrith DC
NSW 1797 Australia
Tel: 02 47360937 [International 61247360937] or Mobile 0404875142
Fax: 02 47360055 [International 6124736055]
Email: b.harris@nepean.uws.edu.au
How do leaders learn?
Roger Harrison and Fiona Reeve (The Open University UK)
The importance of continuing professional development for leaders in all sectors of education is
widely acclaimed. The establishment of the National College for School Leadership, and more
recently the CEL, reflect national government commitment to the idea that more comprehensive
and coherent programmes of CPD are urgently required. Learning about leadership has been seen as
a means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the education sector and providing the
route for professional development for a cadre of staff who are designated ‘leaders’. In this paper
we wish to examine some of the assumptions about the nature of ‘learning’ and ‘leadership’ on
which this scenario is premised. In particular we want to draw on socio-cultural theories of learning
which have been deployed by others (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Eraut et al, 2000; Billet, 2001) in
relation to learning in the workplace. These theorisations of learning direct our attention away from
individual cognition towards the role of cultural context and social participation in the construction
of meanings, and away from formal programmes of education and training towards informal
learning in the work setting. In doing so they provide potentially fruitful links with notions of
leadership as a distributed and relational activity (Gronn, 2003; Bennett et al, 2003). Taken together
these ideas about learning and leadership provide a powerful challenge to established constructions
of leadership capability and its development.
Roger Harrison
CEPoLL
Open University, Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Email: R.M.Harrison@open.ac.uk
The impact of computers on the work of the principal:
Changing discourses on talk, leadership and professionalism
Margaret Haughey (University of Alberta Canada)
This paper is based on a two-year study involving interviews with over 30 principals about the
impact of computers on their work. However, it is insufficient to report this descriptive data as an
innocuous picture of life in schools. Instead, the work of the principal, increasingly less
autonomous, needs to be interpreted within the current neo-liberalist values which applaud
accountability, but also within more subtle currents. In this paper I would like to look at three of
these. First, talk. Administration as Talk is the title of an old paper by Peter Gronn that is still
relevant to our work. It is accomplished through talk. Gronn’s elucidation of the ways power is
handled through discourse is an interesting counterpoint to the principals’ accounts of the use of e-
42
mail and the push for immediacy. Then, leadership. The current emphasis on distributed leadership,
again a concept Gronn has supported, mimics the distributive power of the network. Can schools
become networks rather than hierarchies or communities? I will discuss what is occurring in these
schools to support this trend. Finally, professionalism. Computerization has made test results easily
available to external agencies for review and analysis. As Foucault points out, power contains its
own resistance and where institutions have been able to regularize networks of power, they then
move on to deal with exceptions. Teachers have accommodated by trying to do the best for the
students in their care. Governmentality may well reshape the meaning of professionalism to solidify
these expectations. What are the impacts of testing and ICTs on the shaping of professionalism and
the work of the principal?
Professor Margaret Haughey, PhD
Educational Policy Studies
7-104 Education Centre North
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5
Tel: 780-492-7609
Fax: 780-492-2024
Email: margaret.haughey@ualberta.ca
Email: haughey@pop.srv.ualberta.ca
Partnerships and collaborative networks:
Developing a culture that supports and values management learning
Jane Hemsley-Brown (University of Surrey UK)
There has been much interest in evidence informed decision-making in education – identifying
effective ways of increasing the use of research evidence to provide a basis for management
decision making, in both the private and public sectors. However, in education although there has
been much speculation and discussion, there has been a paucity of recent empirical research
evidence which provides insights into the characteristics, practice and mechanisms of successful
research utilisation strategies.
This paper presents and discusses the findings from an empirical study conducted in eight local
authorities in England and Wales, which aimed to explore how research evidence was successfully
disseminated and how the barriers to research use by headteachers (principals) were successfully
addressed. This paper presents some empirical evidence of successful strategies adopted by local
authorities in the UK to facilitate research use by managers and practitioners to support decisionmaking in education. Examples of the different roles that change agents such as local authority
managers played in facilitating research utilisation are explored. The research evidence suggests
that to improve research-use among managers in education strategies should focus on facilitating
communication networks, partnerships and links between researchers and practitioners, with the
key long term objective of developing a culture that supports and values the contribution that
research can make to management decision-making in education. Managers in local authorities can
help to build networks, develop partnerships between professionals locally, nationally and
internationally, and also act as change agents in the dissemination and adoption of new ideas.
Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown
School of Management
University of Surrey
Guildford GU2 7XH
Tel: 01483 - 68 - 9347
Email: j.hemsley-brown@surrey.ac.uk
43
Caring for children of conflict: Implications for educational leaders
Catherine M. Hill (Villanova University USA)
Common sense tells us that cognition does not take place in a vacuum, isolated from environmental
influences. In Beirut, Bosnia, Belfast, and Bogota, as well as in our homelands, children harbor
anxieties, affections, fears, worries, ideas, facts, and figures. When children are cared for
emotionally, guided ethically, made safe physically, and equipped with the social skills needed to
negotiate responsible lives in an increasingly complex world, they are more likely to become good
persons and great souls. As Emerson reminds us, a great soul will be strong to live, as well as
strong to think. The facilitation of growth toward greatness is the moral imperative of educational
leaders everywhere.
Drawing from the research on children of war and conflict, I will present a conceptual paper which
provides a framework and provokes a dialogue about how best to care for children so that they learn
well, reflect deeply, and act justly. Specifically, it addresses the cognitive and moral development
of children of conflict—children who are witnesses of social, political, and violent struggles.
Our responses to ethical questions make us who we are; thus, I invite the audience to consider
evidence in the light of questions linking cognition to morality. How do children learn about
responsibility (to themselves, families, friends, society, and the world around them)? How does
conflict affect cognition and morality? How do children develop cognitive and moral intelligence?
How do they apply this intelligence? Why is it that some children are rescued and others lost?
Dr. Catherine M. Hill
Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Science
Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership
Villanova University
Villanova,
PA 19085
USA
Tel: 610-519-6929 (office telephone), 215-769-1416 (home telephone)
Fax: 610-519-7249
Email: Catherine.hill@villanova.edu
Leadership: Beyond the official discourse
Walter Humes (University of Strathclyde UK)
This paper offers a critique of current approaches to training for leadership in education. Its starting
point is a belief that insufficient attention has been paid to the political imperatives that have driven
developments such as the Headlamp/Headship Induction Programme scheme in England and the
Scottish Qualification for Headship. These have led to an over-concentration on ‘in school’ factors
in accounts of the determinants of good leadership, a tendency that has been aided by the school
effectiveness and school improvement research of the 1990s which diverted attention from the
wider social and cultural factors influencing pupil motivation and achievement. It is suggested that
the process needs to be understood in relation to a broad political aim of devolving responsibility
but not power in all public services.
The critique extends to the academic community itself which, it is argued, has colluded in the
political strategy to promote an approved language of leadership: in particular, those studies which
claim to identify a ‘science of leadership’ are subject to critical scrutiny. In order to break out of
the constraints of the official discourse, it is proposed that the role of headteachers and principals as
public service professionals, with a duty to speak out on important matters of policy, needs to be
44
strengthened. This is likely to encourage creative tension between two impulses – responsiveness
to the demands of bureaucratic goals and commitment to ethical values.
Professor Walter Humes
Head of Educational Studies
University of Strathclyde
Southbrae Drive
Glasgow
G13 1PP
Tel: 0141-950-3416
Email: walter.humes@strath.ac.uk
The role of the Regional Director in the Greek educational system:
A descriptive and critical approach
George Iordanidis (School of Pedagogy Florina Greece)
Traditionally, the Greek educational system is distinguished by intensely bureaucratic
characteristics and centralism in relation, mainly, with the decision-making process. It is considered
from the most centralized systems of administration of education in Europe. However, this is rather
expected, after the administration of the Greek educational system follows substantially the model
of administration that is applied in the public sector. At the last decade, mainly, regarding in the
public administration, become certain efforts of decentralization, with the creation of Regions and
the cession of certain competences and responsibilities to them.
This model is also applied in the administration of the Greek educational system at the last threeyear period, when the institution of the Regional Director of Education was created. So, the specific
institution is a new one and we believe that if we need to criticize the role, we have to wait for a
small period. However, the precise description of his duties, in October 2002, is considered to be a
positive step to the general description of the role. But a close study of these duties reveals that the
exercise of administrative duties from the Regional Director does not escape from the bureaucratic
and centralized administrative model that is characterized the Greek educational system.
This paper tends: firstly, to describe the administrative duties of the Regional Director in the Greek
educational system and, secondly, to find an answer to the dilemma if the creation of this institution
is a step to the decentralization of the administrative system or just an effort of the central
government to move forward by controlling, more effectively, all the educational system and
implicating the same bureaucratic decision-making process.
Dr George Iordanidis
Lecturer in Management and Administration in Education
School of Pedagogy
3rd km of the National Road Florinas-Nikis
53100 Florina
GREECE
Tel: ++2310991095
Email: iordanidisg@pathfinder.gr
45
The problematics of researching emotions and psychodynamics
in educational institutions
Chris James (University of Glamorgan UK)
There has been a recent upsurge of interest in the emotional dimension of managing and leading in
schools and colleges, which has been driven by a number of factors, inter alia, a desire to help
teachers and those responsible for leading schools to cope with the emotionally burdensome nature
of their work, to explain the difficult process of change in schools, and to provide a rich picture of
‘what working in a school is really like’. In many of the published accounts of research into
emotional experience in educational institutions, the methodology tends to be regarded as
unproblematic, and data collection, data analysis, interpretation and theorising can be handled in
much the same way as research into any other phenomena.
In this paper, I argue that studying the emotional experience of individuals, groups and institutions
in educational settings is challenging, and in particular, researching the way in which emotions can
move within and between those different sets – and the researcher - is particularly problematic and
requires especial care.
The paper will explore a number of different facets of researching into the emotional experience in
educational leadership and management and the psychodynamics of educational institutions to
illustrate its problematic nature. These facets include the problem of working with ‘difficult
knowledge’, the significance of context, ethics and confidentiality, unconscious influences, and the
pervasive and sometimes temporary nature of emotional experience. I will further argue that
addressing these challenges appropriately presents opportunities for an in-depth understanding of
educational leadership and management.
Professor Chris James
Head of the Educational Leadership and Management Research Unit
School of Humanities, Law and Social Science,
Forest Hall
University of Glamorgan
PontypriddCF37 1DL
Phone: +44(0) 1443-482352
Fax: +44(0) 1443-482380
Email: cjames1@glam.ac.uk
Changing perceptions of citizenship in a multicultural society:
Finding a method to dig deeper into teachers’ own identities to produce, manage and lead an
inclusive school culture
Helen Johnson (University of Surrey UK)
Citizenship education as an educational and social phenomenon in English schools is much
discussed. With reference to the Crick Report and government announcements, it is possible to see
that underpinning its complex curriculum is the desire for a sharing of some basic values and the
inculcation of desirable social behaviour that are encapsulated in a common identity.
However, within the context of British society that is both post-traditional and post-colonial, such
values, behaviour and identity are not unproblematic (Hall, 1996), as is the language in which they
are expressed (Beveniste, 1958). Thus, citizenship teachers and others do not have a task with
‘taken-for-granted’, unquestioned perspectives and assumptions. In this uncertainty, it is likely that
the conceptualisation of national identity used, promoted and embodied by teachers in the
46
classroom and as a statement of whole school values will be based, at least, in part, in terms of how
they have constructed the narratives around their own.
This paper will discuss the research methods that might be use to explore with teachers and school
leaders the problematic nature of their own identities. It will focus, in particular, on going beyond
the ‘ticking of boxes’ through the use of personal experience methods (Clandinin and Connelly,
1994) to obtain rich data necessary to reveal complexities and the uniqueness of narratives. The
paper will conclude by speculating on the impact of such data on encouraging and leading inclusive
school culture building.
Dr Helen Johnson
Director of the Professional Education Research Centre (PERC)
Roehampton University of Surrey
Southlands College
80 Roehampton Lane
London
SW15 5SL
Phone: 02083923224
Fax: 02083923431
Email: H.Johnson@roehampton.ac.uk
An analysis of the experience of department boundaries and their management by subject
leaders in secondary schools in Wales
Nicola Jones, Chris James and Gerald Dunning (University of Glamorgan UK)
The role of the subject leader (SL) in secondary schools is increasingly regarded as particularly
significant in the improvement of pupil achievement. Further, the subject department, which we
view as essentially a subsystem within the open system that is the school, is an important unit for
analysing the ways in which schools are managed and led.
Recent research has pointed to the management of the department boundary as an important aspect
of the SL’s role. The way in which the SLs manage the boundary has significant implications for
their authority. Moreover, the characteristics of the department boundary appear to have important
ramifications for the nature of the department.
In this paper, we use institutional transformation theory, in which the boundary is a key concept, to
define and explore departmental boundaries and the psychological and emotional interactions that
occur there. We report the outcomes of a study in which we interviewed male and female SLs in
secondary schools of a range of kinds and in varied settings in Wales to explore their experience of
the department boundary and its management. In the paper, we describe some of the key concepts
that underpin the work, the research context and the methodology and we outline the main findings
and discuss the key issues that emerge from the study.
Nicola Jones
c/o Michelle Noonan
School of Humanities, Law and Social Sciences
Forest Hall
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
CF371DL
Tel: 01443 482204
Email: mnoonan@glam.ac.uk
47
Power, providence and programmes: Just how do principals become effective?
Jeremy Kedian (University of Waikato New Zealand)
There is an oft-quoted statement that: “Highly effective schools are run by highly effective
principals”. This paper explores one aspect of a current research project investigating the notion of
“highly effective principals”. School principals in New Zealand have no clear or prescribed
developmental pathway beyond the first year of principalship. Their professional development
becomes a matter of personal preferences and motivation – and often serendipity. In a number of
instances, the quality, nature and extent of the professional development is exemplary. In a
substantial number of cases the quality is questionable. The research evidence suggests a number of
reasons for this, which are discussed in the paper. Just as education systems can be considered
emergent, secure, improving or transforming, so can principals on their professional development
journeys. There is evidence to suggest that there is a link between power (status and experience),
providence (opportunity) and programmes (focused, planned development) in principal professional
development. The paper reports on an on-going investigation into the nature of these links. In
addition it considers barriers to, and strategies for, principal development in New Zealand.
Jeremy Kedian
Manager and Senior Consultant
Educational Leadership Centre
University of Waikato
New Zealand
Email: kedian@waikato.ac.nz
Using ‘behaviour’, good and bad, as a resource:
New insights on leading and managing behaviour and attendance problems in schools
Ian Keyhoe (The Grubb Institute UK)
Evidence suggests that helping children reach government targets is best done by placing targets in
the wider context of children’s whole development - it also suggests that highly effective schools
with good behaviour and attendance are often ones which use children’s developmental needs as a
resource for teaching and learning.
This paper draws on a wide range of training and research projects carried out by the Grubb
Institute. These include the DfES’s Behaviour Improvement Programmes (BIP), Behaviour
Education Support Teams (BEST), the National College for School Leadership, the Church of
England Board of Education, Education Action Zones and various studies of poor behaviour and
attendance in struggling and transformed schools. It offers the ‘REED RAINBOW’ - a unique tool
for thinking about the nature of these natural developmental processes and how they can be used as
a resource by leaders in education. It suggests that processes already happening in the encounter
between adults and children in schools can be fostered in order to enable children to ‘find a place’
from which to take the role of PUPIL and the role of LEARNER. Using case studies the paper
explores how the RAINBOW, used as a tool, can help to understand in new ways why behaviour
and attendance problems exist, and what kind of leadership and management roles need to be taken
to deal with them.
Ian Kehoe
The Grubb Institute
Cloudesley Street
London N1 0HU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7278 8061
Fax: +44 (0)20 7278 0728
Email: i.kehoe@grubb.org.ac.uk
48
Tears of joy, tears of despair: What makes headteachers cry?
Glynn Kirkham (Nottingham Trent University UK)
In the paper will be presented comments and commentaries from headteachers about incidents in
their professional career at two ends of an emotional spectrum. Is it bi-polar or is there adjacency
of this response to emotion? The causes and complexities of human activity may suggest that
relationships are at the centre of all responses.
The paper is based on both a brief questionnaire followed up by opportunity samples of headteacher
colleagues and their stories taken by the researcher during the last year. The research is firmly
embedded in the field of examining emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1997) and explores the notion
that headteachers as leaders should be emotionally resilient. The research is largely based in the
relativist domain and makes use of narrative style recounting. Vignettes and “anchoring vignettes”
(King, Murray, Salomon and Tandon 1997) are used to exemplify points and to illustrate the range
of examples. The results of the questionnaire will be presented. There is, also, an analysis of those
matters which cause headteachers to respond in a lachrymal manner according to type of incident
and also in relation to the phase of education and gender of headteacher.
Questions are asked about the nature of the post of headteacher and the openness of emotion; when
to do and when forbear. Suggestions are made for the development of school leaders as managers of
their own emotions.
Glynn Kirkham
Senior Lecturer in Education Management
Nottingham Trent University
Lionel Robbins Building
Clifton Lane
Nottingham NG11 8NS
Tel: 0115 948 6326
Fax: 0115 948 6626
Email: glynn.kirkham@ntu.ac.uk
Investigating the relationship between school climate and headteacher leadership,
and pupil attainment:
Evidence from a sample of English secondary schools
Rosalind Levačić (London University UK) Lars Malmberg (University of Oxford UK),
Fiona Steele (London University UK) and Rebecca Smees (University of London UK)
The central issue is the methodological and empirical problems of testing for the effects of school
climate and leadership on pupil attainment (‘school effectiveness correlates’). In England, despite
the emphasis in school inspection guidelines and in head teacher professional development (e.g.
LPSH) on specific leadership qualities and behaviours coupled with the existence of the national
pupil database, we do not have very little if any statistically based recent research on the
relationship between leadership, school climate and pupil attainment.
The paper considers the methodological issues underpinning this type of research and illustrates the
application of a methodological approach to obtaining the data needed for such investigations and
analysing them. In particular, the problem posed by the effect of school context variables on school
climate and leadership is examined.
In this study school climate and headteacher leadership instruments were administered to secondary
pupils and staff in 20 English secondary schools. Factor analysis derived school climate and
49
leadership constructs. These were included as independent variables in two level models of pupil
attainment, controlling for prior attainment, pupil characteristics and school context. School climate
and context variables are correlated, while the theoretical relationship is understood to go from
school context, modified by school management, to school climate. When context variables were
included none of the climate variables except homework was significant in explaining attainment. If
school context is excluded, pupil-rated headteacher leadership is significant whereas adult ratings of
leadership are not. Only parental involvement, pupil attitudes and warm pupil-teacher relations
were significant. Agreement within schools about leadership and climate was limited.
Rosalind Levačić
Institute of Education
University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Tel: 0207 612 6746
Email: r.levacic@ioe.ac.uk
Pupil disaffection in areas of socio-economic disadvantage:
Some implications for effective school leadership
Norma Lloyd Nesling (UK)
This paper is based on research that endeavours to elucidate the reasons for disaffection in
connection with those pupils who make little or no effort to succeed within their educational
institution concomitant with their academic ability: why some pupils choose to under-achieve and
opt-out of the public examinations’ system.
Comparisons of examination results, attendance patterns, 16+ destinations, and adult and youth
unemployment were made between schools in Wales, the local education authority and Tregarn
Valley in South Wales. An in-depth quantitative survey of KS4 pupils’ perspectives was conducted
in five secondary schools in Tregarn, a predominantly working-class area with high levels of
unemployment. Based on these views the main emphasis of the research was directed towards a
rationalisation of disaffection and poor examination results in an under-achieving school compared
with Tregarn and similar schools in South Wales.
The qualitative study was confined to pupils from the main case school and members of the
community within the catchment area. It investigated aspects such as social background, parental
support, truancy, negative peer pressure, family composition, intra-school problems, school
organisation, unemployment and the ‘ecological fallacy’ evidenced by pockets of deprivation found
in the main case school’s catchment area.
Ineffectual leadership and the absorption of the majority of secondary pupils from the lower half of
the valley, with all the accompanying socio-economic problems, was manifested in underachievement. This is what made the main case school different from other schools and appeared to
be the paramount cause of pupils’ weak attainment and lack of academic success.
Norma Lloyd Nesling:
Ingleside
Alexandra Place
Abercynon
Mountain Ash
Mid Glamorgan CF45 4YA
Tel: 01443 740626
Email: NVLN@NVLN.fsnet.co.uk
50
Gender and cultural dimensions towards widening access to new knowledge in educational
leadership and management
Rosita Lopez Marcano (Northern Illinois University USA)
Understanding diverse identities in the changing roles educational leadership and management
programs requires an understanding of diverse group affiliation and their cultural values. Research
suggests that the awareness of multiple realities within an organization will be advanced by
defining ways to value group diverse identities towards continued improvement in accessing
advanced educational opportunities. The identity of people in organizations is a function of their
organizational group membership (Costanzo, 1995; Cox, 1994 & 1996, & Nkomo). “Educational
Change is a process of coming to grips with the multiple realities of people, who are the main
participants in implementing change. Michael Fullan states that “The leader who pre-supposes what
the change should be and acts in ways that preclude others realities is bound to fail,” (1991). We
must reinvent policies that provide advanced educational opportunities for traditional and nontraditional students who are interested in widening their access to educational leadership
opportunities.
This study utilized embedded intergroup theory. This method of investigation has been used to
study women and minorities in traditional organizations. The significance of embedded intergroup
theory for understanding identity is its attention to the effects of diverse identities within a larger
organizational context (Nkomo & Cox, 1995).
Rosita Lopez Marcano
Leadership, Educational, Psychology and Foundations LEPF
Graham 400
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb
Illinois 60115
Tel: Work 1 815 753 9336 Home 1 773 794 0578)
Fax: 1 815 753 8750 Home 1 773 794 0902
Email: rlmarcano@sbcglobal.net or rmarcano@niu.edu
Leading for diversity: And now for something completely different?
Jacky Lumby and Krishan Sood (University of Lincoln UK)
The concept of diversity has to some extent replaced former discourses concerning equal
opportunities, anti-racism, anti-sexism, multiculturalism and a range of other terms. Decades of
initiatives to secure representative staffing and more equitable and appropriate experiences for both
staff and learners have not brought about the desired results. The environment for leading schools
and colleges is also now influenced by recent European legislation which has established a pressure
to respond to a wider ranging focus on the multiple characteristic which may lead to discrimination
or disadvantage. There is a danger that despite adopting new terminology, 'leading for diversity'
may be yet another repackaging of liberal concepts and actions which have not significantly dented
the dominance of sections of the UK population and culture, and may be displacement activity
which appears to address issues, but does little to bring about significant change.
Using data from a range of learning environments, this paper explores how far the disaggregation of
issues, for example addressing gender and race separately, is still appropriate, or how far we need to
see leading in a diverse society in a more holistic way. It is suggested that new goals are needed,
and that that the traditional indicators of success may no longer be adequate. The paper suggests
that leading for diversity is not enough. Leading with diversity, adopting a holistic understanding of
51
the need to incorporate diversity in its broadest sense in educational leadership, may offer
something different.
Please note the paper is authored by Jacky Lumby, Marlene Morrison, Krishan Sood, Alma Harris,
Daniel Miujs, Ann Briggs, Derek Glover and David Middlewood and Michael Wilson.
Professor Jacky Lumby
International Institute of Educational Leadership
University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS
Tel: 01522 886190
Fax: 01522 886023
Email: jlumby@lincoln.ac.uk
Trust and its role in principal succession
Robert B Macmillan and Shawn Northfield (University of Western Ontario Canada)
In the early stages of their tenure at a new school, principals often use formulaic and/or previously
successful administrative and management practices until such time as they gain experience with
their new responsibilities. However, these non-contextualised practices only act as an initial bridge
in practice and do not automatically develop teachers’ trust in the new administrator. In an attempt
to understand the nature and importance of trust and its development, this paper focuses on how
principals use their experience and knowledge of schools to develop practices that create and build
teachers’ trust in the administration. It reports on the findings from 100 interviews with teachers
and principals in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Robert B. Macmillan Ph.D.
Faculty of Education
University of Western Ontario
1137 Western Road
London, Ontario
N6G 1G7
Tel: (519) 661-2111, ext. 84549
Fax: (519) 661-3833
Leading in a managerialist paradigm: A survey of perceptions within a faculty of education
Jim McGrath (University of Central England UK)
The extent to which managerialism, in its many forms, has influenced the organisational culture and
management practices of universities in recent years is contested. Using a broadly
phenomenological approach this paper examines the lived experiences of twenty members of staff
who work in a Faculty of Education within a statutory university. The twin regimes of funding and
inspection are identified as decisive factors in the university’s adoption of managerialism.
The research indicates that Faculty management and staff have been able to integrate the demands
of a relatively ‘hard form of managerialism’ with their own traditional, but tacitly held, educational
values. In responding to the exigencies of managerialism the Faculty’s organisational culture has
evolved into a ‘reactive bureaucracy’ within which a form of ‘stratified collegiality’ appears to be
emerging. These changes have contributed to the situation where management and staff hold
contrasting views as to the style of leadership exercised within the Faculty. Managers believe that
they operate in an open, collegiate and supportive manner but their approach is interpreted by staff
52
as managerialist, typified by a concern with directing, monitoring and controlling staff. The result,
as examined here, is a complex, multifaceted situation that is characterised by ambiguity and
tension between conflicting interpretations of the same phenomena.
Jim McGrath
Faculty of Education
University of Central England.
Perry Barr
Birmingham, B42 2SU
Tel: 0121 331 7366
Email: jim.mcgrath@uce.ac.uk
Leadership in secondary independent schools in the UK
Margaret McLay (Manchester Metropolitan University UK)
This paper reports on research with headteachers in independent secondary schools in the UK,
examining the preparation and training of women for senior management. The research comprised a
1) pilot study of interviews with 9 female headteachers of girls' and coeducational secondary
schools; 2) a questionnaire sent to male and female heads of coeducational secondary schools. It
examines: the profile of these headteachers; changes in the sector, particularly those affecting
structure, leadership and management style, and preparation and training for headship. It finds that
the sector has been subject to considerable change and that leadership has become less autocratic
and more distributed as a result. It presents evidence of the similarities and differences in the
experiences of men and women on the path to headship. Whilst there are only slight differences in
leadership style, the career paths show that several of the women have experienced problems with
sexist approaches compared to only one of the male respondents. This problem was especially acute
in former all-boys schools which had become coeducational. The majority of women headteachers
in the coeducational schools were married, and had children.
A significant finding was that they had had their families at a relatively early age which allowed
them sufficient time to restart their careers and apply for promotion. The research findings are
compared to other relevant studies in both the independent and maintained sectors in order to
support conclusions and make recommendations to those aspiring to headship and those involved in
their preparation and training.
Margaret McLay
Institute of Education
MMU Cheshire
Crewe, CW1 5DU
m.mclay@mmu.ac.uk
Are students satisfied with the extent of their participation
in the management of their universities?
Implications for distributed leadership in higher education
Maria Eliophotou Menon (University of Cyprus Cyprus)
The paper examines the views of students regarding the extent of their participation in the
management of their university and their satisfaction with the degree of this participation. After an
examination of the literature on student participation in university governance, the author presents
the results of a survey based on data collected from 135 students of the University of Cyprus in the
academic year 2002/2003. According to the findings, respondents believed that their involvement in
53
the management of their institution was very limited. This applied to both high and low levels of
decision making, even though respondents recognised that their input was greater in less important
decisions. The perceived limited involvement resulted in feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction
among students, with the majority of respondents demanding a higher level of participation for all
three decision-making situations considered in the study. The paper discusses the implications of
the findings for contemporary universities, with emphasis on the need to abandon outdated
leadership models. Specifically, it proposes measures for increasing student participation in
university governance in the framework of a distributed leadership model designed to empower the
key stakeholders of higher education.
Dr Maria Eliophotou Menon
University of Cyprus
Department of Education
P.O. Box 20537
1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: 357-22751012 (O)
Fax: 357-22753702
Email: melmen@ucy.ac.cy
The changing role of college principals in Botswana
Nelson Moletsane (UK)
Rapid and massive quantitative developments have taken place in education during the three
decades of independence in Botswana. Access has been emphasized at all levels of education and
training as reflected in the 1977 National Commission on Education (NCE) report, the National
Policy on Education in 1977, the 1993 NCE report and policies on Universal Primary Education
(UPE). The continuing changes in teacher education in Botswana emanate from the changing needs
of the nation as well as the continuing changes in the market environment. Significant
developments made include among others the following:

Policies that directly affect teacher education e.g. commercial styles of management

Language policies

Changes envisaged in teacher education programmes

The dynamic nature of the learning environment and its demands on the teacher

Teacher qualification, and

Training of school heads as instructional leaders.
The objectives of the Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) and Vision 2016 are to have a
system of quality education that can adapt to the changing needs of the country as the world around
us changes. Improvements in the relevance, the quality and access to education lie at the core of the
vision for the future. The research reported here investigates the perspectives of the college
principals as viewed by the following people to be interviewed; deputy principals, heads of
departments, the university staff (quality assures), the community and students. The focus of the
report will be on the changing roles of college principals in respect of their management styles,
professional commitment, leadership and accountability to central government.
Nelson Moletsane
9 Milland House
Bessborough Road
London SW15 4BL
Tel: 02087045396
Cell: 07796453083
Email: ntmoletsane@hotmail.com
54
Learning from the learners’ perspective
Vadna Murrell–Abery (UK)
Monitoring the individual learning and development of a self selected group of four police
probationers during their Probationer Training from Module One to Module Seven, offered an
insightful journey of the management of their learning. This investigation of their socialization and
integration within the Police Organisation leading to their competence for independent patrol,
centered on the ‘received curriculum’ which became the focus of the ‘intellectual puzzle’ of this
research. Through a ‘bricolage’ framework of case studies, participant observations and interviews,
the findings highlighted the need for a new educational leadership and management approach for
learning. Their determination and willingness ‘to learn how to learn’, yet undergoing unsupported
periods of intense emotion and challenge, justifies the development of a learning system model of
governance to improve the practice of teaching and learning among police trainers and trainees.
This holistic approach allows for the individual styles of the learners and fosters a culture of
experimentation and learning as ‘one size does not fit all’. Police Probationer Training must reflect
the changing and complex nature of policing. However, the impact of the differing context of police
practice, i.e. public enquiries and new legislation, and the ‘multi-level’ nature and ambiguity of
such developments require the process of genuine partnerships built on trust and with the focus
based on evidence informed policy and practice. Such an awareness could promote the development
of leadership and management practice at all levels to be more conducive in stimulating a training
and learning environment from which trainers and learners benefit.
Vadna Murrell–Abery
Plaisance
Westwood Row
Tilehurst RG31 6LU
Tel: (0118) 9428363
Fax: (0118) 9428370
Email: vadna@vmassociates.demon.co.uk
Newly appointed women headteachers and mid-career teachers’ renewal
Izhar Oplatka (Ben Gurion University of the Negev Israel)
Research on the first years in headship points to high levels of stress, resistance, and anxiety that
teachers and especially senior teachers may experience following the arrival of a new headteacher
to their school (Weindling & Earley, 1987). Senior teachers are reported to strongly resist new
school changes introduced by the new headteacher, repudiate his/her authority, and feel anger
toward the ‘stranger’ who invaded their school (Daresh & Playko, 1995; Oplatka, 2001).
Based on a qualitative study that was aimed at exploring patterns of self-renewal among mid-career
teachers in Israel, a different, more positive result of the arrival of new headteacher is reported.
Subsequent to the arrival of a new woman headteacher four teachers among twenty that participated
in a life-story interview experienced increasing levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy, energy
replenishing and enthusiasm, reframing of instructional perspectives and innovative behaviour, all
of which were identified in past research as elements of self-renewal (Bejian & Salomone, 1995;
Oplatka, 2003). Concepts such as elation, rebirth, growth used to describe their feeling in midcareer were directly and indirectly related to the arrival of the new headteacher.
Among the new headteacher’s characteristics that contributed to mid-career teachers’ self-renewal
are caring and emotional support for the staff, desire to empower the teachers, trust, attentiveness,
commitment to changes and innovations, and the ability to identify one’s potential and creativity.
55
Interestingly, these characteristics were modelled as part of a ‘feminine’ leadership style
(Blackmore, 1999; Hall, 1996).
The conclusion for leadership development is that new headteachers should adopt an emotional,
growth-enhancing attitude if they are to promote the senior staff and curtail ‘natural’ stress and
anxiety brought about by the uncertain situation accompanying the arrival of a new headteachers
into the school.
Izhar Oplatka, Ph.D
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Dept. of Education
P.O. box 653, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel
Tel: 972-3-9512056
Fax: 972-3-9512056
Email: oplatkai@bgumail.bgu.ac.il
School business managers:
A site level response to the strains of the ‘new public management’
Fergus O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Wood and Terfot Ngwana (University of Lincoln)
Funding devolution to site level state sector schools in many countries has led to a burgeoning in
the strategic and operational responsibilities of senior leaders particularly in the areas of finance and
resource management. One way of discharging these responsibilities is the appointment of a
bursar/school business manager to the senior leadership team, however, such an appointment, often
from outside the education field, can bring tensions as well as benefits.
This paper draws on a Baseline Study recently completed by the University of Lincoln for the
National College for School Leadership (NCSL)/Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on
the current state of school business management in England. It includes a literature review, a
survey of training opportunities for bursars, a longitudinal study consisting of two stratified random
sample national surveys (2000 and 2004) an analysis of applications forms for the National College
for School Leadership Certificate of School Business Management and data on bursars from the
2003 DfES Annual Schools Survey.
Using data from the Baseline Study and other studies, the paper will identify the key characteristics
of these new professionals as they enter and train for their new duties (e.g. age, gender, salary,
former occupations, qualifications, reasons for entry). The changes in the paradigm for school
leadership and management as this new post is incorporated into senior leadership teams will be
explored and “ideal type” models for leadership teams and support staff structures proposed.
Finally, implications for our understanding of the epistemology of leadership, management and
administration will be critically reviewed as the “New Public Management” marketisation gains
maturity in the education system.
Fergus O’Sullivan
Director
International Institute for Education Leadership
University of Lincoln,
Brayford Pool,
Lincoln, LN6 7TS
UK
56
Maintaining the discipline: Life after special measures
Jane Perryman (Goldsmiths College UK)
This paper is concerned with the medium-term effects on management structures and styles
subsequent to a period in the disciplinary regime of Special Measures. In it I discuss the techniques
used by the management of one school to continue the school’s improvement after the inspection
regime had departed. In particular I consider the prolongation of a system of ‘Panoptic
performativity’, in disciplining the staff body in a number of ways. This is a term I first used in a
paper presented at Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association in 2003,
and refers to the way OfSTED and school management teams engender a sense of permanent
surveillance in schools under Special Measures, to ensure that ‘improvements’ prevail.
The primary data used in the paper is a case study of a secondary school which was under Special
Measures from 2000 to 2002. The subsequent research, which consisted of interviews with key
members of staff, was carried out in the summer of 2003, just over a year after the school came out
of Special Measures.
The school had a successful year following the departure of the inspectors, and I argue that this is
because the management of the school carried on as if OfSTED were still there by constructing
other forms of disciplinary observation and initiatives. These include what some respondents called
‘initiative overload’, in which the management team were clear that they did not want a period of
consolidation following Special Measures, but rather wanted to ‘keep up the pressure’.
Jane Perryman
Lecturer PGCE Social Science with Citizenship
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross SE14 6NW
Tel: 020 7919 7346
Fax: 020 7919 7313
Email: j.perryman@gold.ac.uk
Understanding leadership in the senior leadership team: Practitioners' perspectives
Maggie Preedy and Lesley Kydd (The Open University UK)
This paper will report on a small-scale pilot study of senior leadership teams (SLTs) in schools,
exploring some emerging themes from the research. The study has been conducted in six schools three secondary, two middle and one primary school - in a range of geographical and socioeconomic settings. The main research questions are:




How does the leadership role of the headteacher relate to the leadership roles of other SLT
members?
How is leadership dispersed across the SLT?
What models of leadership do team members draw on in thinking about and undertaking their
work?
In their thinking and practice, what do they perceive as the relative influence of school
culture and values, and external expectations of school leaders?
The paper will explore how heads and SLT members understand their respective leadership roles,
and how these interact in the day-to-day work of the team. We look at how far, and in what ways,
respondents see leadership as dispersed or distributed among team members, and the factors that
57
promote and constrain shared leadership within the team. Issues relating to how team members
balance the tensions and contradictions between internal school priorities and external demands are
also discussed.
Dr Maggie Preedy
Centre for Educational Policy, Leadership and Lifelong Learning
The Open University
Email: M.Preedy@open.ac.uk
Principals managing change:
A case study of 96 schools in Soshanguve township, South Africa
Martin Prew (Department of Education, Pretoria South Africa)
The paper explores the roles and skills that successful school managers needed in a transforming
school environment in a South African township. These principals seized on innovations they were
exposed to, making them work for their schools. However, they were selective in the innovations
that they accepted, adopting only those that fitted their transformational agendas and their inclusive
development plans. The successful school manager, who were open, confident and inclusive, were
effective at working with the surrounding community on its own terms and the education district
office and in making these interfaces productive allowing the school to play a key role in improving
the community, while simultaneously making their schools more functional.
The research was based on a case study – the Soshanguve School Development Project – which
operated in all 96 schools in Soshanguve township between 1997 and 2001 before being absorbed
into the normal operations of the district office.
The paper examines briefly the structure and delivery of the project, the research methods used, the
nature of the problems in Soshanguve’s schools in 1997 and the way that successful managers in
two profiled schools worked with the project and its various innovations to improve their schools
and communities. It further explores what conditions in the two less successful profiled schools
militated against their take up of the project and failure of their schools to develop. It concludes
that the key is the management itself.
Dr Martin Prew
Director: Education Management and Governance Development
Department of Education
Sol Plaatje House
Pvt Bag X895
PRETORIA 0001
Tel: 00 27 12 312 5373/5474
Email: Prew.M@doe.gov.za
Leading urban schools in challenging contexts
Kathryn Riley (University of London UK)
Tom Hesketh (Northern Ireland Regional Training Unit UK)
Many leaders of urban schools are stimulated by the opportunity to have a significant impact on the
lives of children and young people. They relish the creativity, the energy, the resilience and
exuberance of the children, and the rich cultural understanding and experiences of their parents.
However, many also experience relentless social and community pressures, frequently becoming
the interface between disempowered communities and a range of public institutions.
58
Drawing on interim findings from a research and development study, Leadership on the Front-line
which brings together eighteen headteachers and principals from Belfast, London and Liverpool,
this paper will explore these complex issues. Participating heads are leaders of schools in urban,
front-line contexts which include high levels of social and economic deprivation, transient
populations and divided communities. The study, a partnership between the Institute of Education
London and the Northern Ireland Regional Training Unit focuses on issues of school and
community context, values and beliefs. It aims to contribute to a greater understanding about the
ways in which school context shapes the nature of the leadership challenges; how values play out
on a day to day basis; and the degree to which school and community beliefs and aspirations can be
aligned.
Professor Kathryn Riley
London Leadership Centre
Institute of Education
University of London
10 Woburn Square
London WC1H ONS
Email: k.riley@ioe.ac.uk, kriley@dial.pipex.com
Headteachers’ reflections on primary headship from 1988-2003: An exploratory study
Desmond Rutherford (University of Birmingham UK)
In 2000 I interviewed two groups of six headteachers of successful primary schools in Birmingham.
The first set of interviews focused on their senior management teams (Rutherford, 2002) and the
second on their deputies (Rutherford, 2003). This paper complements the earlier research by
talking to the heads again in 2003 about their changing roles and responsibilities over the last
fifteen years: that is from the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) to the end of 2003, with a
particular focus on the implementation of Performance Management (Webb and Vulliamy, 1996;
Jones, 1999; Bell and Rowley, 2002; Moore, George and Halpin, 2002). Of the twelve heads I
talked to in the initial research I was able to re-interview six. This paper draws together relevant
data from all eighteen interviews. The paper contrasts the recollections of headship prior to 1988
where the head’s managerial responsibilities were “reasonably simple” and “pretty minimal”; to the
period immediately after the ERA with the “liberating effect” of what came to be known as the
local management of schools; to the period up to 1997 (the final years of the conservative
administration) where because of the number of government initiatives and the increased
accountability of schools “gradually we became managers and bureaucrats, implementing other
people’s initiatives, no longer inventing new things”; to the present day (under a labour
administration) when “the pressure and the workload have become unmanageable [and] I have lost
that sense of joy”. Some of the heads are disenchanted (Day and Bakioglu, 1996) although I argue
that frustrated with successive governments is a more apt description while some are still enchanted
(Pascal and Ribbins, 1998). The paper presents an alternative view of headship that balances the
overly optimistic impression that may be obtained from government and its agencies, leading to a
deeper understanding of the realities of headship today.
Dr Desmond Rutherford
School of Education
The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 4804
Email: r.j.d.rutherford@bham.ac.uk
59
Sustaining research in a modern higher education institution: A case study
Paul Ryall, Louise Bright, Dai Smith, Leanne Richards and John O’Shea
(University of Glamorgan UK)
The UK Higher Education system is in a state of flux, not least in terms of its research. The UK
carries out 4.5% of the world science and produces 8% of scientific papers. The Government is
warning that there is a real danger that this position cannot be maintained and that we need to look
again at how our research is organised (DTI, 2003). The Government is committed to addressing
this problem and has issued a number of consultation papers to this effect. The Sustainability of
University Research: A consultation on reforming parts of the Dual Support system (DTI, 2003)
and Joint consultation on the review of research assessment (Roberts, 2003) are both concerned
with enhancing the UK research track record without significantly more funding being made
available.
The University of Glamorgan is a modern higher education institution (HEI) with a developing
research profile. Internal funding is provided to emerging areas of research to pump prime future
projects and nurture a healthy research culture. The long-term sustainability of research is of
paramount importance. To this end a bottom-up survey of research activity was undertaken, the
results of which provided the basis for a Research Performance Management Framework, and
illustrated that investment alone was insufficient to ensure a sustainable research profile.
This paper suggests a strategic framework for HEI’s to adopt in order to deliver a portfolio of
successful, sustainable research.
P. V. D. Ryall
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd
CF37 1DL
Email: pvryall1@glam.ac.uk
Leading multicultural schools: a new understanding!
Saeeda Shah (University of Leicester UK)
In the context of emigration, immigration, international mobility and globalisation, the
management contexts on educational sites are undergoing deep and sensitive changes,
making highly challenging demands on educational leaders. In the backdrop of
international socio-eco-political developments, multicultural schools will continue to be a
sure phenomenon in countries like Britain.
The paper looks into this important issue with a focus on the secondary schools in Britain.
The aim is to raise awareness of the developing situation, which has the inherent potential
of growing more sensitive and complex.
The paper discusses the emerging issues in schools with substantial a number of
multiethnic students, and the corresponding demands on leaders. The issues of ethnic
identity and related conflicts and tensions, which impact on leadership effectiveness and
students’ achievement, are explored. Section two highlights the need to develop an
understanding of leading multicultural schools for improved effectiveness. The leadership
and management of students’ ethnicity, the interplay among ethnicity, students’
achievement and the school leadership, and the management of conflicts and tensions in
60
multicultural schools are some of the issues looked at. The final section suggests a way
forward by offering some suggestions for developing school leadership to gain an
understanding of leading multicultural schools.
Saeeda Shah
The University of Leicester
School of Education
21 University Road
Leicester LE1 7RF
Email: sjas2@le.ac.uk
Keeping schools out of court:
Legally defensible models of leadership to reduce cyber-bullying
Shaheen Shariff (McGill University Canada)
This paper draws attention to a knowledge gap in leadership models that attempt to address bullying
and suicide. Given that parents are beginning to sue schools for failing to protect victims of
bullying, educators need guidance to address emerging forms of harassment such as cyber-bullying
and discriminatory discourse in popular youth culture.
I extend a set of legal standards identified in my doctoral research on the legal obligations of
schools to handle bullying in general, and apply them to cyber-bullying. The standards were
extrapolated from in depth review and analysis of Canadian, American and British common law on
negligence, constitutional law, human and civil rights.
I focus on three important considerations: a) the need to avoid criminalization of children and
adolescents; b) the need to clarify the extent of educators’ legal obligations to protect students from
psychological harm; and c) the need to clarify the extent of educators’ legal obligations to sustain
school environments that reduce bullying and create equal opportunities for learning. I recommend
improved law-related education at the undergraduate and graduate level for educators, grounded in
compatible theories on leadership, social justice and ethics of care. Together, these models show
greater promise in helping schools navigate the unprecedented dilemmas of technology and
pluralism in tomorrow’s schools through ethical, educational and legally defensible alternatives.
Shaheen Shariff PhD
Department of Integrated Studies in Education
Faculty of Education
McGill University
3700 McTavish Street
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Email: Shaheen.Shariff@mcgill.ca
Leading in projects: Reflections on the experience of two education action zones
Tim Simkins, Kath Aspinwall and Viv Garrett (Sheffield Hallam University UK)
Projects are an increasingly important means of instituting and implementing change in all sectors
of education. Often they are associated with direct Government funding streams which are used,
among other things, to resource particular posts with specific project management responsibilities.
Such roles create particular leadership challenges that are ill-served by much of the current
61
literature on educational leadership with its focus on roles that are firmly located within
organisational hierarchies.
One policy initiative of recent years that illustrates these themes is that of Education Action Zones
(EAZs). Such Zones vary in type – between large zones independent of LEAs and smaller
‘Excellence in Cities’ Zones that lie within the local education authority’s ambit. Whatever their
basis, however, all Zones have involved the creation of a range of roles from EAZ Project
Managers to EAZ co-ordinators within schools. This paper will explore some of the leadership
issues that these roles generate, drawing on studies undertaken in two Zones, one large and one
small.
Professor Tim Simkins
School of Education
Sheffield Hallam University
Collegiate Crescent
Sheffield S10 2BP
Tel: 0114 225 2325
Fax: 0114 225 2323
Email: t.j.simkins@shu.ac.uk
Departmental leadership in chartered and statutory universities
Robert Smith (University of Leicester UK)
This paper describes and presents the findings of two recent case studies of leadership in academic
departments in two British universities, one a chartered university and one a statutory university.
The departments were in the same academic discipline and were of approximately the same size in
terms of the numbers of academic staff. The studies are the first in a series of ‘pairs’ of such
studies in departments of various academic discipline and size, a key theme of the research being
the comparative analysis of departmental leadership in the two types of university. The research is
an extension of the presenter’s earlier, more extensive work examining the role of the university
head of department.
The case studies explored the different departmental and university cultures, the different ways in
which leadership is distributed in the two departments, where it lies, the mechanisms for its
dispersal and how effectively it is perceived to work. Data were collected by semi-structured
interviews with the heads of the two departments and other members of their staff who have
leadership roles.
The main findings of the study were that the cultures and organisational structures of the two
departments and their approaches to leadership and management were very different. In cases, the
departmental leadership and management was perceived to be satisfactory. The studies also raised
questions regarding the findings of other researches and writings, namely that heads of department
have unreasonably high workloads, that large university departments are difficult to manage and
that collegiality is the preferred model of decision-making.
Dr Robert Smith
Centre for Educational Leadership and Development
University of Leicester
Barrack Road
Northampton
NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 630180
Email: res25@le.ac.uk
62
The professional development of university heads of department
Robert Smith (University of Leicester UK)
This paper describes recent research into the development needs of heads of department in a British
university and the development and provision of a leadership programme for heads. The research
comprised a census of all heads of department in the University to determine their perceived
development needs followed by semi-structured interviews with eight heads, selected on the basis
of their identified areas of need, in order to further investigate these needs and to collect data on the
preferred methods of delivery for development programmes.
Heads identified four main areas of development need, dealing with personnel, merging of
departments, the tension between teaching and the need for high quality research and the need to
simultaneously represent the department to the University and the University to the department.
The preferred modes of delivery for development programmes were scenario or problem-based
events involving group discussion. Opportunities to meet other heads to discuss ‘real life’ issues
were identified as being rare but very desirable. There was a strong feeling that didactic sessions,
based on formal presentations, were ineffective and undesirable, other than for the transmission of
information.
The leadership programme is currently under development and its presentation, including feedback
from heads on its effectiveness, will be reported upon in the presentation.
Dr Robert Smith
Centre for Educational Leadership and Development
University of Leicester
University Centre
Barrack Road
Northampton
NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 630180
Email: res25@le.ac.uk
Building capacity through leadership development:
Exploring the contribution of Education Action Zones
Howard Stevenson (University of Leicester UK)
Shortly after its election in 1997 New Labour introduced Education Action Zones (EAZs) as the
centrepiece of its efforts to raise educational achievement in areas of social disadvantage. Zones
were trailed as the harbingers of a radical third way in education policy promoting new forms of
governance, curriculum diversity and innovative public private partnerships. Five years on, the
EAZ experiment is coming to an end and Zones will no longer exist in their original form. Their
inability to radically re-engineer educational practice has resulted in some labelling the experiment
as a policy failure.
This paper draws on research conducted in one of the largest EAZs to argue that the legacy of
Zones may be both more positive and more enduring than some would suggest. It focuses on the
development of leadership capacities at all levels within Zone schools and explores how Zone
supported collaborative initiatives both within and between schools have contributed to leadership
development.
The paper argues that EAZs may have contributed to a better understanding of the specific
challenges of leading schools in areas of social disadvantage. It also suggests that the longer term
63
potential of encouraging cross-school collaboration to promote leadership development can be
undermined by the contrary pressures of local market competition. In these circumstances those
schools in greatest need of improvement face the biggest obstacles to progress.
Dr Howard Stevenson
Centre for Educational Leadership and Management
Northampton Centre
Barrack Road
Northampton NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 251805
Fax: 01604 231136
Email: hps2@le.ac.uk
Ethical and social implications of the ‘turn’ to educational leadership
Michael Strain (University of Ulster UK)
“The practical limits of leadership-as-control have… become visible through the recognition that
educational leadership is a thoroughly inter-human and hence moral endeavour, just as education
is.” (Biesta and Miron, 2002, p. 102)
OfSTED has characterised leadership as predictably ‘effective’ when it is ‘inspirational’ and shows
“strong commitment to the schools, its pupils and the community” (Ofsted, 2003, p. 8). This paper
examines the recent, systematic ‘turn’ to educational leadership, and apparent separation of
leadership from issues of governance and management. This move may be significantly related to a
current aestheticisation of learning and the performative aspects of educational and institutional
objectives. These, and associated changes, are discernible in the economy generally, with
implications for learning in relation to work. Similar preoccupations are evident in related policy
initiatives in lifelong learning and the national curriculum. They seem to prioritise the surfaces of
‘role’, ‘performance’, and ‘quality’ above responsiveness to individual and social claims: for
justice, voice, and social inclusion. Recent work by Williams (2001) on ‘Care, Values and the
Future of Welfare’ examines practical ways of framing public policy, and implementing social
welfare measures based on an ‘ethics of care’. The implications of this approach, for education,
and for current conceptions of educational leadership, will be tentatively explored in this paper.
Michael Strain
University of Ulster
Shore Road
Newtownabbey
Northern Ireland, BT37 0QB
Tel: 028 9036 6485
Email: dm.strain@ulster.ac.uk
Making national policy work in local contexts: Understanding power relations beyond EMIS
(Education Management Information Systems)
David Taylor and Sarie J Berkhout (University of Stellenbosch South Africa)
National policy imagines education in terms of rather abstract ideas and categories of hierarchy,
structure, institution and function. Authorities use legislation and budgets to guide these ideals
towards implementation and reality. The fallacy of equating policy with reality, and the ways in
which policy texts are contested and “recreated” in practice (Ball) pose challenges to examine
closely how management and leadership operate in particular instances of policy implementation in
64
specific contexts, especially in contexts as divergent as those produced by educational legacies in
South Africa. New understandings of leadership require far greater recognition of context: this
implies a strong departure from essentialist approaches, functional models of leadership and
universalistic representations of educational institutions or the assumptions of generally suitable
directives for managing policy implementation. South Africa’s attempts at rapid educational
transformation point to opportunities for imagining new approaches and understandings of
management and leadership at school and community level. This paper contributes towards
revealing and conceptualising context-related leadership, particularly by way of exploring the
power relations, both intended and invisible or embedded. The paper combines insights from
several concurrent research projects to imagine new ways of understanding what is familiar or
assumed in the conceptualisation of selected local contexts: the tension between school governance
and management created by the democratising intentions of the SA Schools Act (1996); the
assurance of the quality/integrity of national high stakes assessment; and the empowerment of
woman through decentralised education.
David Taylor and Sarie J Berkhout
Department of Education Policy Studies
University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch, 7600
Tel: 021 808 2398/2263
Fax: 021 8082283
Email: djlt@sun.ac.za, sjb@sun.ac.za
Testing a model of complex educational change to destruction?
The ‘extreme case’ of the hospitalist movement in the United States
Mike Wallace (University of Bath UK)
The nature of change in education and other public services in the UK has radically altered over
two decades of ‘top-down’ central government reform. Theoretical development is needed to
understand the new managerial complexity of contemporary change. It includes both individual
initiatives and their combination in programmatic change, as in the UK central government strategy
to modernise all the public services. Deeper understanding of contemporary change forms a
foundation for developing realistic practical guidance on how to manage implementation. An initial
conceptualisation of complex change and of ‘orchestration’ as a key to managing implementation
was derived inductively through an ESRC-funded investigation of large-scale reorganisation of
schools in England. The model offers a basis for analysing characteristics of the complexity of
individual changes, their interaction as components of programmatic changes, and change
management themes entailed in implementation. It also has potential as a practical planning
framework for orchestrators of complex and programmatic changes. One component of an ongoing
attempt to determine the limits of the wider applicability of this model is a small-scale study of an
‘extreme case’ of change elsewhere: the ‘bottom-up’ emergence of ‘hospitalists’ as a new role in
the management of acute patient care in US hospitals. The study is part of the author’s activity as a
Public Services Fellow within the ESRC/EPSRC AIM (Advanced Institute for Management
Research) initiative. This paper will use findings from the hospitalist study to assess how far the
complex change model can be generalised beyond the original educational context from which it
was derived. Will the model survive the test?
Mike Wallace
Professor of Education
Department of Education
University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
Email: a.m.wallace@bath.ac.uk
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The National Professional Qualification for Headship in Wales:
Issues for policy and practice in educational leadership development
Alun Williams (University of Cardiff UK) and Chris James (University of Glamorgan UK)
The National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) is the professional qualification for
aspiring headteachers in Wales. It is the foundation stage of the National Headship Development
Programme (NHDP) and it was first implemented in Wales in 1997. NPQH became the
responsibility of the Welsh Assembly Government in 1999 following devolution, and a new NPQH
model was implemented in 2001. Since 1977, approximately 500 candidates have gained the
qualification, and from September 2005, possession of the NPQH will become mandatory for all
newly appointed headteachers.
The paper describes the context for headteacher development in Wales, which is different from
other parts of the UK and becoming more so, and the part the NPQH plays in the NHDP. It will
outline the nature of the programme; the ways in which the programme has developed; the
assessment arrangements; the management of the programme application and entry processes; and
the funding of participation.
The paper will also describe the outcomes of an analysis the profile of the successful candidates
particularly in relation to the qualification becoming mandatory, particularly in a bilingual
education system and the impact of the diverse and somewhat fragmented nature of the education
system in Wales on provision.
Other issues arising from research into the programme will be described including the value of
cross-phase and cross-LEA training, the role of the programme tutors, the timescale of the
programme and its implications for candidate development and the need for ‘access courses’ for
those contemplating taking the NPQH programme.
Alun Williams
Centre for Educational Leadership Training
Cardiff University
21 Senghennydd Road
Cardiff
CF24 4AG
Email: NPQHWALES@cf.ac.uk
New understandings from the past:
Biographies of retired professors add meaning to the lives of teacher educators
Randolph Wimmer (The University of Saskatchewan Canada)
“William Pinar, Madeline Grumet, Richard Butt and others advocate that biographies of teachers,
especially autobiographical accounts, are the best sources for understanding teachers. This work is
influencing teachers, supervisors, administrators, teacher educators, educational researchers and
theorists, and educational policy makers of varied stripes” (Schubert and Ayers, 1992, Preface).
Specific to educational administration and leadership, Greenfield (1986) suggested that “The
character of administrators is clearly of great importance. We may study it through biography and
history” (p. 76).
Teacher education in Canadian faculties of Education serves proudly as a key function of those
faculties. Yet despite the prominence and the amount of resources used to administer teacher
education, Ducharme (1993), Weber (1985), and Wimmer (2003) pointed to a paucity of research
pertaining to the lives of teacher educators. In response, findings from a two year study are
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highlighted where the biographies (written by the researcher) of three retired educational leaders
from a Canadian university were analysed to reveal 10 categories common to the participants. The
categories were: role of professional others, early connections with the academy, drifting into the
academy, serendipity, comfortable transitions, positive and rewarding careers, responsive research,
community mindedness, the role of personal others, and a definite view of teacher education.
Relative to the theme of the BELMAS conference, the findings from that study are discussed in
relation to 1) how others’ past experiences can inform those currently engaged in university-based
teacher education, and 2) implications of the findings for the administration of teacher education.
Randolph J Wimmer
The University of Saskatchewan
Department of Educational Administration
College of Education
28 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, SK
Canada S7N 0X1
Phone: 306–966-7622
FAX: 306-966-7020
Email: randy.wimmer@usask.ca
Private principles meet public values:
Towards an adaptive public service model of leadership?
Glenys J Woods (UK) and Philip A Woods (University of West of England)
Modernising leadership in education is heavily influenced by a strong policy commitment which
favours 'the injection of private sector values, responsibilities and actions into the management of
public services delivery' (Grimshaw et al. 2002: 480). The practical implementation of
modernisation in LEAs and educational institutions, however, meets countervailing influences that
promote principles, values and processes derived from a traditional public ethos.
This paper presents a model of leadership (an adaptive public services model of leadership), in
development by the authors, which reflects research evidence that modernising leadership is not
found in its pure form but is modified by a continuing orientation to an older public ethos and to
aspects of a notion of ethically transforming leadership. The adaptive model has been developed
from analysis of the leadership style of senior management of a company contracted to run an LEA
in a public-private partnership.
The paper will draw from ongoing analysis of headteachers' perceptions and experience of the
leadership approach of the private company, which is being used to test and further refine the
model. Ethical issues, paradoxes and contradictions raised by the model and the practice it
represents will be highlighted, providing insights into the challenges facing leaders in reconciling
modernising trends and public ideals and values.
Dr Glenys Woods
Millham Cottage
Chapel Street
Broadwell, Moreton-in-Marsh
Gloucestershire GL56 0TW
Tel: +44 (0)1451-830049 Mobile: 0774 3760845
Email: GlenysWoods@aol.com
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Why democratic leadership? Radicalising distributed leadership for education
Philip A Woods (University of the West of England)
Why should we give attention to the idea of democratic leadership? Are there not already more than
an enough conceptualisations of educational leadership? In the plethora of leadership concepts, the
importance of probing the implications for leadership of being situated in and contributing to
democratic society is, however, somewhat neglected. This paper explores the significance and value
of democratic principles and their application to leadership of schools and colleges. Its argument is
a development of work by the author, which follows up aspects of a review, with colleagues, of
distributed leadership (Bennett et al 2003, Woods et al 2003) and aims to promote a more active
focus on democratic issues in educational leadership (Woods 2004 in press). It will:


review different meanings that are ascribed to democratic leadership in relevant literature;
identify gaps and limitations in existing models of educational leadership from the
perspective of these meanings.
The paper will argue that democratic leadership is a relatively neglected area of educational
leadership, yet that engagement with it is critical to improving schools in order that they facilitate
truly worthwhile educational experiences. It will also put forward the view that democratic
leadership is an entitlement and responsibility which is dispersed amongst staff and other
stakeholders of the school, and not confined to senior leadership positions. The paper will conclude
by suggesting implications for leadership which seeks to create and nurture democratic schooling.
Professor Phil Woods
Faculty of Education
University of the West of England
Bristol
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