Leadership in Education

Mark Brundrett, Neil Burton, Robert Smith, Mark Brundrett, Neil Burton, Robert Smith

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781446231104
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Leadership in Education

`Leadership in education is receiving increasing attention, and this text contributes much to the debate. A useful text that will appeal to a wide audience of senior managers, teachers, programme designers and researchers? - Learning and Skills Research

`If one were on a fact-finding mission to gain insight into leadership thought and practice in education, then this book is an excellent resource? - Education News

`This book makes an excellent contribution to the current debate on Educational Leadership. It blends theory with practice and provides an important resource for many aspects of leadership development programmes at a variety of levels. The book will appeal to the academic reader, the postgraduate student and those involved in providing leadership courses at a professional level. There is an international perspective on the analysis of leadership theory and practice, integrating examples from a variety of cultural settings and exploring education at all phases from primary to higher? - Stephen Merrill, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Journal of In-Service Education

` Leadership in Education offers an excellent analysis of the current debate: well informed on research and practice, positive but critical. It is particularly strong on what it calls "the railway-bookstall offerings of context-independent leadership"…. There is a great deal of practical wisdom within these very accessible pages? - Michael Duffy, Times Educational Supplement

This book deals with leadership in all sectors, from primary to higher education. It presents an international perspective on the analysis of leadership theory and practice, with the integration of exemplars from different cultural settings.

The authors provide a wide range of conceptual perspectives on leadership. Themes include:

- the efficacy of centralized versus distributed concepts of leadership

- the contrast between competency and academic models of leadership development

- the contradistinction between functionalist and democratic models of leadership.

These themes are developed in four sections:

- Conceptualization

- Leadership development

- Teachers as leaders

- Leadership in practice

Contributors include:

Clive Dimmock, Peter Gronn, Marianne Coleman, Peter Ribbins, Ray Bolam, Peter Newton, Kenneth Leithwood, Helen Gunter, Lynn Davis, Clive Harber and Graham Peeke

This book is recommended to all involved in educational management, particularly to students, teachers, researchers, policy makers and educational administrators.

The Centre for Educational Leadership and Management series, edited by Tony Bush, examines the impact of the many changes in the management of schools and colleges, drawing on empirical evidence. The approach if analytical rather than descriptive and generates conclusions about the most effective ways of managing schools on the basis of research evidence.

Section A: Conceptualising Leadership

1

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LEADERSHIP IN LEARNING-CENTRED SCHOOLS: CULTURAL CONTEXT, FUNCTIONS AND QUALITIES

Clive Dimmock

INTRODUCTION

A renewed drive to develop and improve school leadership is currently under way, and has been so for some time in many countries. Initiatives aimed at improving school leadership have taken place in previous decades, especially in the USA and the UK. What is novel about the current drive is its more global and international nature on the one hand, and the broader approach being taken to the concept of leadership, on the other.

In relation to the globalising and internationalising of leadership development, governments as far apart as the Australian states, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the UK and the USA are not only promoting models of principal development for similar purposes, namely school improvement, but are also encouraging reciprocal visitations and exchanges between principals. In regard to the broadening of the concept of leadership development, at least three new aspects warrant consideration. The first concerns the stronger conception than hitherto, being given to the connectivity between leadership and other key processes, activities and goals of schools, such as learning and teaching (Dimmock, 2000). The second relates to the recognition being given to leadership as a distributed phenomenon in schools and its emergence at teacher and middle management levels, alongside more traditional conceptions centring on senior management and the principalship. The third distinguishes senior or principal leadership in terms of phases, identifying at least three – aspiring, newly appointed/induction and experienced.

The first years of the new millennium have continued the trends of the previous century in being characterised by turbulence in educational policy-making. Continuous and evolving change, it seems, is endemic to policy and practice on an international scale. Leadership lies at the centre of such change in education, both as a key component of educational organisations in its own right and as a catalyst for the successful reorganisation of other activities. Studies have consistently revealed the centrality of leadership to school improvement and quality schools (Hallinger and Heck, 1997). For some time, governments, and others, have accepted and embedded this realisation in their policy-making.

That leadership has assumed such high importance in the minds and values of policy-makers, as well as researchers and practitioners, creates a problem in two respects. First, if leadership is so important, it behoves clarification as to what are its key qualities. Secondly, what kind of philosophical and values base underpins such qualities to provide their justification?

This chapter addresses both of these questions. It presents a set of leadership functions and a set of qualities seen as appropriate for contemporary school leaders in diverse cultural contexts, and a justification for them. Accordingly, the chapter is structured into four parts. The first outlines the complex context in which leadership is exercised and highlights some perennial problems confronting its development. The second presents a rationale and justification for the view of leadership endorsed. The third outlines a set of contemporary leader functions appropriate for successful schools, both present and future. The fourth and final part refers to these functions to generate a set of leadership qualities which, it is argued, form part of a framework for conceptualising leadership, and for planning its future growth and development.

A broad canvas of leadership is thus covered. Implicit is the realisation that current turbulent policy-making environments, with changes advocated to most aspects of schools and schooling – curriculum, learning, teaching, assessment, standards and accountability – place a premium on coherent and synergistic approaches to leadership. Such a view endorses the connectivity between leadership and other school activities, such as learning and teaching, it being no longer sufficient to see leadership as a discrete entity. Moreover, leadership should relate to the wider issue of the type of schools and educational organisations society needs. That being the case, leadership reflects the prevailing social and cultural condition. Hence, different societies may well have culturally different expectations of their schools and thus of leadership, despite powerful global forces towards convergence.

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP: CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT AND PERENNIAL ISSUES

Some of the more clearly distinguishable trends in leadership thinking and practice have already been alluded to in the introduction to this chapter. They, along with other important developments in the field, justify further discussion in this section. Some are perennial issues revisited; others, however, are markedly new. These developments are structured into five aspects: global and cultural issues; leadership connectivity; leadership as a distributed concept; leadership phases; and training and preparation for leadership.

Leadership Betwixt Global and Cultural Forces

Powerful global and international trends in education policy are creating leadership contexts that are increasingly alike. School-based management, outcomes-oriented curricula, market forces and competition, a need to forge united school communities and a focus on standards and accountability are commonplace environments within which school leaders are expected to function.

A consequence of globalisation is the emergence of generic or ubiquitous expectations of leaders. For example, there is now a cross-cultural expectation that leaders be more proactive in leading and managing school resources to secure improved performance of staff and students. While they are increasingly held accountable for their schools’ performance, they are also urged to consider their schools in relation to the outside world. This externalising includes almost everything, from local to international and global levels, taking in the school community, the local and business community, the national society and citizenship, and even the broader international and global issues of world environmental, political and economic concerns.

Global and international trends are also discernible in other aspects of leadership. Many education systems are joining the USA in expecting a professionally accredited cadre of school leaders. It is intended that initiatives such as this will create a true profession of the principalship. England, for example, plans for all new headteachers to have, or be taking, the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) by 2004. Hong Kong is planning the same for its new principals.

That powerful forces are at work to internationalise and globalise the principalship, is beyond dispute (Dimmock and Walker, 2000). They include the Internet, jet travel, and international media and publishing. Opportunities abound for principals, academics and policy-makers to travel abroad to conferences, to undertake international consultancies, and to gain leadership training through study visits and projects conducted overseas. Part of the professional development of Hong Kong principals, for example, includes study visits to Beijing and Shanghai to study practices in mainland China. The National College for School Leadership in England sponsors programmes of study visits by overseas principals to disseminate international best practice. There are countless examples of this type.

Despite all this, the indomitable fact is that leadership is culture-bound to an extent that cannot or should not, be ignored (Dimmock and Walker, 2000). Yet, it has been largely ignored in education. For some years, the present author has argued that concepts, theories, research findings, policies and practices conceived in the Anglo-American world may not apply, or may need adaptation, in other societies (Dimmock, 1998; Dimmock and Walker, 1998a; 1998b). For example, we know that the distribution of power and influence varies cross-culturally, so that in some societies, such as the USA and the UK, power tends to be more evenly distributed, whereas in others, such as Asia, it is more concentrated. In addition, some societies tend to be more individualistic, such as the USA and the UK, while others are more collectivist, as in Asia. There are other cultural differences, too, but consideration of these two alone has important implications for leadership. The Chinese principal, for example, experiences a much greater respect and deference for her/his authority than her/his ‘western’ counterpart. Equally, she/he is less inclined to ‘confront’ difficult interpersonal conflicts for fear of ‘losing face’ and disturbing apparent harmonious relations, than is the English or American principal. More weight is given to conformity and to hierarchy and seniority in Chinese schools than is the case in British or American schools. Leadership styles and expectations thus differ cross-culturally (Walker and Dimmock, 1999a; 1999b).

Globalising and internationalising forces are tending to lead to convergence of educational policies and practices, including leadership. However, while some aspects of culture are susceptible to change, other more deep-seated cultural characteristics, forged over centuries, remain stubbornly in place. The resultant tension helps explain many of the world’s present problems. They are no less applicable to leadership. The implications for educational leadership are profound. They are likely to affect how leaders are prepared and trained, what emphasis leadership is given in particular societies, what are the societal expectations of leaders, and so on. Few ubiquitous solutions to leadership issues can be assumed. Differences in societal values and thus in leadership practices and expectations, abound. It is abundantly clear that more research is needed on how societal cultural impacts on leadership.

Leadership connectivity

In earlier work (Dimmock, 2000), the present author described at some length the idea of leadership as a connected concept. He argued that it was a failure to see it in such terms that partly allowed Weick’s (1976) conception of schools as ‘loosely-coupled’ organisations to continue to survive. It also helps explain why so many system and school restructuring initiatives fail to penetrate beyond the principal’s door into classrooms.

Essentially, in the context of school improvement and student learning, it is important to understand the links between all elements that comprise the school and schooling, including leadership, and to do so in a backward-mapping way (Dimmock, 2000). This entails identifying, and then relating, student learning outcomes derived from the curriculum, learning processes, teaching methods, use of computer technology, organisational structures, human and financial resource management, and culture building. All of these are linked to each other and to leadership.

Thinking connectedly is important strategically in securing school improvement and in micro-managing the daily work of schools (Dimmock, 2000). Leaders who think connectedly are more likely to foresee the consequences of their actions. A decision to change curriculum content, for example, might well relay on to imply new ways of learning, which in turn indicate new ways of teaching, the need for professional development, different organisational structures and patterns of resource allocation, and the building of a new culture. Any or all of these are possible consequences and spread effects of an initial idea for change. Developing the skills of connected thinking will hopefully become a central part of the study and practice of leadership in future, since it is an integral part of strategic and micro-leadership.

Leadership as a distributed concept

It used to be the case that leadership was thought of wholly in terms of the headteacher or principal. This is not so nowadays, with the prevailing view that leadership is a permeable process that is widely distributed throughout the school. Indeed, many talk about it as an empowering process enabling others in the school to exercise leadership. Behind such notions is the rationale that a high-performing organisation can only be achieved if all of its sections and departments are ‘full-on’, and that any slack or underperformance is eradicated. Leadership as a distributed rather than monopolistic concept is more likely to achieve this, it is contended, through its capacity to apply pressure and motivation more successfully throughout the organisation.

Leadership as a distributed concept is increasingly being incorporated into professional development initiatives. For example, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) in England, has developed a programme called Leading from the Middle, specifically aimed at middle managers such as department heads and year co-ordinators. Furthermore, a growing number of scholars in the field are propagating ideas and practices based on the notion of teacher leadership. Still others conceive of student leadership. Behind all this is a view of leadership as an influence process rather than a set of tasks associated with a particular position. In reality, leadership is both. It is an influence process, and that is what makes it generic across levels of an organisation. However, incumbents of different positions also need to apply the influence processes to particular spheres of responsibility, and those are often, and likely to be, different. The interconnection between leadership as a process and a set of tasks connected to position is likely to be of interest to those charged with designing leadership courses. They will need to consider how the content of such programmes will differ between teacher, middle manager and senior leadership.

Phases of leadership

Scholars in the field of educational leadership have given relatively scant attention to developing theories of career progression in the profession. This is particularly the case for empirically supported theories. Recent interest has focused on identifying leadership stages and a number of schema have resulted. These originate, however, more from a conceptual than an empirical base. Consequently, this aspect of leadership remains a ‘hot topic’ for future empirical research. As the following paragraphs reveal, there is as yet no universally agreed, unequivocal consensus on a stage theory of leadership.

Many of the conceptual schema proposed recognise stages or phases of leadership, and have been conjured by policy-makers and professional developers seeking to improve the training and preparation of school leaders. In Hong Kong, for example, the government has based its policy of needs assessment and school leader professional development on a three-stage structure of aspiring, newly appointed and experienced principals (Education Department, Hong Kong, 2002). There are problems of terminology with this taxonomy. For example, the term ‘aspiring’ is condescending, especially when many such candidates already occupy senior leadership positions. Likewise, some ‘newly appointed’ principals may have already been principals, but in other schools.

In England, the NCSL has published a five-stage model of career leadership as follows (NCSL, 2001). The first stage is recognised as ‘emergent leadership’, w...