Session Information
26 SES 12 C, System Leadership
Paper Session
Contribution
Questions concerning the structure of schooling and its implications for school effectiveness and accountability are of policy concern in many countries. Developments in England are of wider interest because of the degree to which the Government has pursued the goal of establishing a system based around schools with high degrees of autonomy, albeit within strong central accountability mechanism. Policies that have been implemented by the Coalition Government since 2010 and which build on previous policies dating back to 1988 conceive of the establishment ‘school-led system’ whereby power is redistributed from democratically elected local authorities to ‘autonomous’ schools, within a continuing national framework of accountability based on national targets and inspection (Department for Education 2010). The concept of the school-led system comprises two key components: the establishment of a variety of mechanisms through which schools collaborate in order to provide the resources and impetus for school improvement (Chapman, 2015); and the emergence of ‘system leaders’ (Higham et al, 2009; Hargreaves 2011; Robinson 2012) – mainly, but not exclusively, school senior leaders who undertake leadership roles beyond their own schools who will take responsibility for leading change in such a devolved and collaborative school landscape. These two components are mutually dependent: the new school structures that are emerging frame the opportunities and incentives for actors to seek to play the role of system leaders, while such leaders in turn are key players in influencing school patterns that emerge. Building on a previous study, the aim of this paper is twofold: to begin to map the pattern of system leadership that is emerging within local contexts; and to explore the ways in which system leaders themselves construct their roles and relationships within these contexts. In principle, system leaders can operate at various levels in the school system, including at the level of classroom teachers (Boylan, 2014). However, the focus of this paper is on those system leaders who are in a position to influence strategically the pattern and quality of schooling: those who might be described as ‘system builders’. Policy has provided a number of opportunities for such leaders to emerge. Many are headteachers or other senior school leaders who help construct new school configurations. Such configurations include structures such as federations, trusts and chains where a number of schools are linked through formal governance arrangements; but they also include alliances formed around Teaching Schools, schools deemed ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted which are tasked with developing collaborative approaches to school improvement across a number of schools (Husbands, 2015). Leaders of such schools (and of other schools officially deemed effective) can also be personally designated as National or Local leaders of Education who are expected to act in a leadership role beyond their own school whether or not it is part of a formal school grouping or Teaching School Alliance. Beyond these groups others outside schools, such as local authority officers and advisers and local advisers of the National College for Teaching and Leadership have the potential to exercise system leadership roles in their local areas. Boylan (2014) suggests three ways of conceiving system leadership: the ways in which system leaders frame their identity and conceive their practice as system leaders (Gunter 2011; Simkins 2012); the ways in which system leaders manage across schools, especially within the framework of school partnerships and collaborations (Hadfield and Chapman 2009; Robinson 2012); and the ways in which system leaders influence the system as whole. This paper represents an attempt to address each of these issues within the contexts of specific local landscapes.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Boylan, M. (2013) ‘Deepening system leadership: teachers leading from below.’ Educational Management Administration and Leadership On line first DOI: 10.1177/1741143213501314. Chapman, C. (2015) ‘From one school to many: Reflections on the impact and nature of school federations and chains in England.’ Educational Management Administration and Leadership 43(1): 46-60. Departm ent for Education (2010) The Importance of teaching: the Schools White Paper. London: DfE Gunter, H. (2011) Leadership and the Reform of Education. Bristol: The Policy Press. Hadfield, M. and C. Chapman (2009) Leading School-Based Networks. London: Routledge. Hargreaves, D. (2011) Leading a Self-Improving School System. Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. Higham, R., D. Hopkins, and Matthews, P. (2009) System Leadership in Practice. Buckingham: Open University Press. Husbands, C. (2015) ‘What are teaching schools for?’ Management in Education. 29(1): 31-34 Robinson, S. (2012) School and System Leadership: Changing roles for primary headteachers. London: Continuum. Simkins, T. (2012) ‘Understanding school leadership and management development in England: Retrospect and prospect.’ Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 40(5): 621-640.
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