Exploring Educational Leadership

Welcome Back

2011-11-06T13:38:00.000Z

I haven't posted anything in over a year due to postponing my studies for a while for family reasons. I have now restarted and nearing the end of a module entitled Leading Change. This is a teacher leader research based module. I have set up a Teacher Learning Community in school and will look to assess or evaluate the impact it has on using formative assessment in class and in turn what impact it has on teaching and learning.

Leading Learning and Teaching

2010-07-05T10:12:00.002+01:00

Have now completed this latest module in my MSc/SQH course. The final assignment involved writing a critical review of Frank Furedi's latest book Wasted: Why Education Isn't Working. I've now submitted this and just need to wait now to see if its a pass!

This has been an interesting module and has really made me think about why we teach what we do in schools. I have also found the current research being done in the field of neuroscience really fascinating especially involving dyslexia and dyscalulia.

Have a great summer!

Busy week!

2010-05-10T19:25:00.002+01:00

Not been finding time to keep blog up to date as much as I had planned. This is the hectic time of year where there is so much to do and so little time. Why do we never plan school events across the whole year?

My reports are done, just some national test levels to be added, running a parents workshop tomorrow night, and got a final presentation to make on Wednesday at To Lead or Not to Lead leadership course run by Falkirk council. Also got two TLCs to fit in before end of June! Im sure i'll manage.

MSc going fine and it now seems to be definite that successfully completion will also lead to attainment for Standard for Headship (SQH). But i'm a couple of years from finishing off. I posted my latest 1000 word discussion and now awaiting for a few others to post theirs so that I can find one to reply to.

Also looking in to applying for GTCS recognition in leadership and my work with teacher learning communities. Would be pleased to hear from any colleagues who have done this already.

Should Primary Headteachers lead by Pedagogical Example?

2010-05-03T18:25:00.001+01:00

I was really intrigued by the Education Secretary’s recent call for more active involvement from headteachers in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Although this was primarily aimed at secondary headteachers, it is my experience that a lot of primary heads could also be more active in the roll out of CfE in their schools. It’s all very well to attend meetings and seminars with Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) then come back to school and ask for various initiatives to be tried out and put in place. Because many heads and deputes (certainly in primary schools) do not teach, I feel they don’t always grasp the impracticalities and additional work generated by some ideas they hear in the lecture hall. Of course, secondary headteachers will be restricted to what they can teach depending on what subject they taught before entering management. As a primary school teacher and for the purpose of this discussion, I will be commenting mainly on some of the research I managed to find on teaching heads in the primary school.

Matthews (2009) discusses the characteristics of outstanding headteachers as school leaders and suggests that one of the important personal skills headteachers should possess is “modelling, leading by example, especially in teaching.” Webb (2005) carried out case studies in six English primary schools examining primary headteacher leadership. She focused on three different theoretical leadership models: educative leadership, instructional leadership and pedagogical leadership. The context of this research was against the backdrop of the introduction of the Education Reform Act (ERA)in England in 1988, but I feel that most of this research is relevant to how headteachers in Scotland could approach leading learning and teaching in the primary school. Indeed, there is research to show that there are many headteachers in Scotland who have to take a lead and teach in their schools and I have taught at a school where this happened. I will draw upon some of the research by Valerie Wilson to highlight the Scottish context of teaching headteachers.

Before 1988 and the passing of the ERA in England, many primary headteachers practised educative leadership. In essence they were involved directly in the teaching culture of the school, a working relationship with both pupils and teachers and a social work role with regards to the welfare of individual pupils to ensure a home life conducive to learning (Webb 2005). I would argue that many primary headteachers in Scotland still see this as part of their role or think that they continue to work this way.Instructional leadership can be considered to be a model of leadership influenced by central and local governments and other policy makers designed to bring about school improvement by establishing effective management structures and systems (Webb 2005). In other words, headteachers should not be concerned with educative leadership but focus more on administration and implementing centrally dictated policies and initiatives. Again, I feel that this is a model of leadership I have come across in my teaching career in Scotland. Take for example the pressures caused by HMIe inspections; meeting attainment levels, record keeping, self-evaluations etc all point to headteachers having to implement effective administrative procedures at the expense of being in the classroom to experience themselves the pressures and the enjoyment of being a classroom teacher.

Webb (2005:87) suggests pedagogical leadership as a third possible leadership model to overcome the prescription of instructional leadership. She does not advocate the combining of educative and instructional leadership but alternatively:

“...harnessing some of the routines and techniques of instructional leadership for their own purposes and interpreting these tasks in accord with the values and beliefs underpinning their pedagogical leadership.”

To me this means that headteachers should lead by example in the classroom as well as in the office. Certainly in larger schools, such as in my own context, the headteacher is supported by a depute and three principal teachers. In the age of distributed leadership, management tasks are further delegated to teachers and working groups. Can headteachers not organise their time more efficiently to allow them to spend some time in class leading learning and teaching?

Valerie Wilson (2008 & 2009) has focused her research on teaching heads in Scotland’s smaller primary schools. I began my career in a small semi-rural primary with 30 pupils located in the Central Belt. The staff consisted of the headteacher, two class teachers (with myself as probationer), two support for learning assistants and a part time administrative assistant. For a school of that size it was well staffed. As a probationer, I had 0.7FTE (full time equivalent) teaching commitment with the headteacher having to cover the remaining 0.3FTE contact time. Although the school roll was only 30, the amount of administrative tasks and paperwork demanded by local and central government, as well as the day to day running of the school (dealing with parents, cooperating on multi agency matters, staff issues), is just as demanding as it is in larger schools but with no management structure to fall back on. It is all on the shoulders of the headteacher. Wilson (2008:482-483) states that small school headteachers:

“... often have to act as their own janitors by turning on the heating, mending toilets, clearing leaves from the school playground, and opening the school – activities that would be eschewed by headteachers in urban settings.”

This was certainly true in my experience and time in the small school. On top of all these tasks, the headteacher also taught in class and did her own planning for that time. She had to be organised and manage her time effectively to allow her to do all these things. I argue that it must be possible in the larger primary school for headteachers to set a pedagogical example to their teaching staff especially in this time of flux and transition to CfE. However, I know that many headteachers are seconded for example, to local authority working groups or senior posts. Many act as associate assessors for HMIe as well as acting as tutors for student teachers for Initial Teacher Education institutes. These are all important roles and important for the headteacher’s continual professional development needs. Surely their first priority should be to the strategic development of their own school in term of raising attainment, developing staff skills and abilities as well as leading learning and teaching from the frontline of the classroom.

References

Matthews, Peter (2009) How do school leaders successfully lead learning? Nottingham, National College for School Leadership

Webb , Rosemary (2005) ‘Leading Teaching and Learning in the Primary School: From ‘Educative Leadership’ to ‘Pedagogical Leadership’’, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership 33, 69-91

Wilson, Valerie (2008) ‘The role of the teaching headteacher: A question of support?’, Teaching and Teacher Education 25, 482-489

Wilson, Valerie (2009) ‘Leading Small Scottish Primary Schools: Still a Unique Style?’, Educational Management, Administration and Leadership 37(6), 806-823

Neuroscience and Learning

2010-04-23T20:21:00.002+01:00

I have recently been looking at research calling for nuroscientists, psychologists and teachers to work more closely together to improve and specifically target learning and teaching. There are some interesting developments going on with brain imaging technology and research into dyslexia and dyscalulia. Neuroscientists believe that with further research they can identify how teachers can better support those pupils and correct the fault with brain wiring.

I have also been looking at neuromyths - the idea of left and right brain and innovations such as Brain Gym. Recent reports in the press have also highlighted recent research in to the benefits of Brain Training software - another neuromyth.

Reading around this subject has certainly intrigued me to finding out more and possibly participating in some research of my own.

Distributed Leadership

2010-03-22T21:07:00.002Z

Haven't update for a while so thought I'd add some thought and observations to the blog.

Since returning from Aberdeen last weekend I've not had much time to continue with any course work but I am planning to put this Saturday aside to address that and bring myself up to date with reading and contribution to the WebCT online discussion forum. Our use of the online forum is recorded and the university look to make sure you have made sufficient use of the facility and have contributed to the course. It also helps to develop out online learning community.

I also thought I'd mention some other areas of leadership I am involved with in school. I am a class teacher but have distributed leadership repsonsibility for leading a school improvement working group. My group has been tasked with looking at literacy and how we take this forward with Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). From August until now we have been designing and creating a forward planner. This has taken a lot longer than I anticipated with lots of goin back to the drawing board and redrafting of our planner. I am quite confident we have now reached a stage where the plan can be trialled before the new school year and the start of CfE in August.

I also continue to be a member and facilitator of a Teacher Learning Community looking at embedding the use of Assessment Is for Learning techniques to increase pupil attainment. Being a facilitator has also meant drawing on leadership experience and what I have been learning from my studies as well as my participation in my authority's leadership training.

I plan to use the blog more often as a learning journal and must get into the habit of adding to it more often and more regularly as an evaluation of what I am doing and learning about leadership in an educational context.

Curriculum for Excellence????

2010-03-15T20:37:00.003Z

Was up in Aberdeen on the 13th of March for a tutorial meeting with some of the participants of my current MSc module Leading Learning and Teaching.

There was some topical debate and discussion on CfE and on how and what we should be teaching. This was referring back to Ferudi talking about the responsibility of the older generation to educate and pass on knowledge to the younger generation.

We got a good overview of the module ahead and some of the questions and issues we need to explore.

We got more clarification on the recent accreditation by the GTCS of this course as a Flexible Route to the Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH). In year 3 of the course those wishing to attain SQH will require to undertake a work based project equating to 60 credits. Successful completion will lead to the award of MSc and SQH.

Off to carry on with my reading and add my thoughts to the web based discussion forums.

Leading Learning & Teaching

2010-02-28T20:18:00.002Z

Currently reading Wasted:Why Education Isn't Educating by Frank Furedi for my current module. We have been set the task of looking at What do young people need to know or be able to do to cope with the demands of a challenging future? Is CfE the answer?

Both The Scotsman and The Sunday Herald carried articles this weekend reporting that teachers are calling for a further one year postponement to implemeting CfE until assessment is sorted out. I feel that we have been given the new curriculum and we should just get on with it. As teachers we expect pupils to be flexible and to adapt to new situations, in this case many teachers need to start doing the same and embrace the new curriculum and and use their innovative skills to make Scottish Education the best in the world again!

I would welcome any comments or opinions from colleagues on Curriculum for Excellence as part of my master's research.

Exploring Leadership module

2010-02-22T18:49:00.003Z

I finally found out this morning that I passed the module and got what I think is a reasonable mark for my essay.

I have started reading for the next module - Leading Learning & Teaching and looking at a text by Frank Coffield - All You Ever Wanted to Know About Learning and Teaching. This was primarily written for FE students but it highlights and raises many relevant issues which teachers and lecturers should also be aware of.

Coffield talks about 3 kinds of learning; surface, deep and strategic learning. For the last module I was definitely a surface learner; I did what was required to achieve the pass. As Coffield points out, we all go through these 3 types of learning at different times, depending on priorities, relevance and interest. We do not stick to one type of learning.

Next module

2010-02-18T18:40:00.002Z

The next module in my MSc course is about to start on 23rd Feb. To date, I have still to hear if I have passed the first module. I am used to having course work assessed and returned within a few weeks and most certainly before I start the next part of the course. I hope to hear soon!

The next module is called Leading Learning and Teaching and I will update the blog once i've begun.

Module completed

2009-12-14T18:18:00.002Z

I have now completed the first module 'Exploring Leadership' as part of my MSc in Leadrship in Professional Settings. I have just heard that this course has now recedived accreditation from the GTCS for the felxible route to SQH (Scottish Qualification for Headship). Not quite sure what that means for me at the moment as here are lots of rules and regulations. Anyway, my assigment is finished and has been submitted, so need to wait and see if I passed! Next module begins in February.

Have a great Christmas and best wishes for 201o!

1000 word submission on a relevant educational topic

2009-12-02T19:58:00.002Z

This is my 1000 word comment on the latest report into headteacher recruitment and retention which I had to submit as part of my course.

Introduction
I would like to discuss and comment upon the recent publication The Recruitment and Retention of Headteachers in Scotland. The findings of this report have been described as a “School leadership crisis.” (TESS 6/11/09, 1) At a time when schools are trying to implement CfE and the threat of education coming under central government control, school leadership has to be strong and effective. However, 23% of current heads would not recommend the top job to others and 30% were not sure if they would recommend the job. (MacBeath et al 2009, 51)

Development of Leadership
There have been moves over the last 2 or 3 years to introduce and encourage distributed leadership in schools. The EIS set out their ideas for “progressive models of leadership-rejecting top down systems of management” (2008, 4) and HMIe talk about leadership as “...not just about honing the skills of those in the most senior positions...” (2007, v) These are two documents and visions which have been central to encouraging distributed leadership among teaching staff in the school which I work. In my setting, most staff have taken on a variety of distributed leadership roles from teaching Scots language to running a Scholastic book club for the whole school to leading a school improvement plan working group. I would argue that all of these experiences do provide a level of leadership experience but again, with regards to my own context, there are no opportunities to develop skills in areas such as school budgets and employing new teachers unless you are already in a management position or in an acting role. This was an issue highlighted in the recent report. (MacBeath et al 2009, 46-47) In my local authority they run a leadership course called To Lead or Not to Lead. This is an opportunity to explore school leadership as a class teacher by taking on a small project in school with support from a school based mentor. The course also examines and encourages participants to look at the Standard for Headship. The next stage for those interested in a leadership position is to take the SQH but there are limited places and a waiting list. The other option is do what we are doing and undertake an alternative qualification at our own expense. I believe that the course may receive accreditation from the GTCS and we may be able to achieve SQH on completion. The current Scottish Government may now take action in light of the recent findings on headteacher recruitment and retention but many still feel that “...developments to date fall short of a coherent leadership framework, or clear strategy.” (EIS 2008, 12)

School Leadership Crisis
From my reading of the recent report, the main reasons for Headteachers not to recommend their job to others seems to be the long working hours and the demands of HMIe and local authority education departments. 57% of heads are working on average between 51 hours and 65 hours per week. (MacBeath et al 2009, 22) This must have a huge impact on personal and family life and commitments. Pressures also seem to come from the public accountability that follows on from HMIe inspections. Although inspections are designed to be constructive in nature, 60% of Headteachers have said that they found the inspection process “...less than positive.” (MacBeath et al 2009, 56)The other side to Headteachers not promoting their job as an attractive career move is the fact that only 8% of current teachers would like to be a head. (MacBeath et al 2009, 46) When you look at those who would like to be a depute headteacher, this figure almost doubles to 14%, which would indicate some kind of anomaly. (MacBeath et al 2009, 46) One depute headteacher attributes this to the fact that at one point her headteacher only earned £1,800 more than she did and that it was not worth accepting the extra responsibilities of headship on this salary differential. (TESS 13/11/09, 4) From my own context, there was a situation where the chartered teacher in school was only just behind the depute in salary terms and well ahead of what the Principal Teachers were being paid. There is an argument then about pay and conditions for Headteachers which would reflect the true nature of their jobs. The pressure and difficulties experienced by Headteachers were “found to be self-imposed because they find it difficult to delegate and believe that others cannot perform certain tasks.” (MacBeath et al 2009, 54 and TESS 6/11/09, 5) My Headteacher has been willing to delegate not only to her management team but also to class teachers, support staff and pupils.

Conclusion
I have only commented upon a very small part of what this recent report has brought to light and I have tried to balance this with my own opinion based on work context experiences and academic readings. I cannot offer in this short submission anything near a solution or answer to this problem but I am willing to give an opinion on how I would take steps to address some of the issues. The notion of succession planning comes up again and again in many leadership texts. It is implied in Leadership for Learning: The Challenges of leading in a time of change and more explicitly in The EIS and Leadership in Schools (2008, 13). It is a recommendation to local authorities and existing Headteachers that effective succession planning procedure are put in place to help address problems with recruitment and retention (MacBeath et al 2009, 58-59). My final observation is that there must be a move away from the idea of the heroic or charismatic leader, the single person leading and more emphasis put on team leadership especially with the senior management team. Without surrendering his or her responsibility as headteacher, more opportunities for distributed leadership need to be developed and encouraged for class teachers, including opportunities to shadow PTs, DHTs and HTs for those interested in going down the headship route. Qualifications such as SQH and other Masters level awards need to be more flexible to take account of teachers work and family lives and be designed so that candidates may work at their own pace. These small steps and suggestions will only go a small way to addressing the issues highlighted in The Recruitment and Retention of Headteachers in Scotland but if the Scottish Government are serious about giving our children a world class education then they too along with local authorities need to start addressing the concerns with haste.

References

The Educational Institute of Scotland (2008) The EIS & Leadership in Schools, Edinburgh, EIS
HMIE (2007) Leadership for Learning: The Challenges of leading in a time of change, Livingston, HMIE
MacBeath J et al (2009) The Recruitment and Retention of Headteachers in Scotland, Edinburgh, Scottish Government
The Tess, 6th November 2009 & 13th November 2009

Update!

2009-11-26T22:21:00.003Z

I haven't posted to the blog for ages. This has been due to many things one of which concludes tomorrow! My school has just been inspected by HMIe and we get feedback tomorrow morning sometime. I was observed twice, once whilst the class were peer assessing their Personal Learning at Home and once during a language lesson which took the form of a Critical Skills challenge. The maths inspector also interviewed me after hearing that she missed a great lesson that I did with the class, so I had to talk her through that. I got loads of great feedback on my teaching. So fingers crossed for the school's final report!

Course has started!

2009-10-05T20:51:00.003+01:00

I was up at Aberdeen University at the weekend to meet with the course tutor and some of my fellow students. It was good to put names to faces and get the opportunity to find out a bit more about the course.

Dr Eastwood gave an introductory lecture on leadership and raised questions such as "Is management different to leadership?" and introducd various leadership models for consideration. I am currently reading a collection of articles in a publication called 'What is Leadership?' published by University of Exeter, Centre for Leadership Studies.

I am going to finish reading this through and make some notes before adding my thoughts to the online learning environment. I will also need to start thinking about my 1000 word online submission and my 5000 word essay due before Christmas.

Im going to be busy!

MSc Update.

2009-09-24T07:36:00.002+01:00

Will be heading up to Aberdeen on 3rd October for an introductory meeting with the course tutors and fellow students. I have already registered and logged in to the online learning site and still trying to figure out how it all works!

At last!

2009-09-15T17:55:00.003+01:00

Registration and course details have finally arrived! More updates soon.

Waiting to start!

2009-08-27T18:51:00.002+01:00

Despite having emailed the university, I was told that my course work etc would be posted out later in August. We are now only a few days away from September when this course is supposed to begin. I don't feel like emailing again but I need to say Im not used to this kind of leaving everything to the last minute especially for a Masters degree course offered by one od the four Scottish ancients!

I have been doing some reading around the subject to keep me keen and have just found out that I have been accepted on to my local authority's first stage leadership course.

I just want to start my studies!

Still waiting!

2009-08-16T11:34:00.004+01:00

Still no materials from Aberdeen Uni but hopefully they will arrive soon. Im really keen to get started and have been buying one or two books to get me started. Back to school this week so lots to get ready for the coming term.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/pldc/programmes/view_programme.php?code=leadership_settings

Books

2009-08-05T20:50:00.000+01:00

Still waiting on all my course corresepondence to arrive but splashed out on a couple of books today when I was in Edinburgh. I've dipped into the first chapter of The Principles and Practice of Educational Management and i'm already pondering if leadership and management are two seperate concepts or are they intertwined.

Begining

2009-08-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

I have started this Blog to review and reflect on my studies for an MSc in Educational Leadership from the Univeristy of Aberdeen. I am due to start this in September and plan to update on a regular basis.