Abstract
The landscape of English schooling has changed dramatically in the past decade. The rapid expansion of academies, independent of local authorities, has led to great diversity in the structure of the education system. Increasingly, these academies are clustered into multi-academy trusts (MATs), which oversee groups of schools, which may or may not be locally based. This policy shift has profound implications for the education system; for example, in the significant role of Trust Boards and a corresponding reduction in the role and influence of school governing bodies.
These issues are explored in the first article of this issue, by Tim Simkins, John Coldron, Megan Crawford and Bronwen Maxwell. They note the changes to the ‘historic balance of responsibilities between national and local government’ and report on the rapid expansion of academies, with more than 6500 by August 2017. They discuss the differences between secondary and primary schools, with most (70%) of the former opting for academy status but only 25% of primary schools doing so. The authors conducted research in three local authority areas, interviewing 10 heads of successful (Ofsted ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’) primary schools. They note that most of these heads wanted to move cautiously to embed new relationships and question whether generalised structural arrangements, such as MATs, can meet the very different cultural and organisational imperatives of primary and secondary schools.
Andrew Boocock reports on leadership in the English further education sector, based on a literature review. He comments on the significant differences in college leadership following incorporation in 1993, noting official support for distributed leadership. However, he claims that funding and inspection regimes have shaped a transactional, or managerial, approach to leadership, contributing to a de-professionalised work environment. He argues for ‘eco-leadership’, distributed leadership embedded within democratic local decision-making, to counter new public management.
David B Reid examines how two new US elementary school principals make sense of their roles, drawing on socialisation theory, and comments on established evidence of the challenges facing beginning principals. He observed these principals as they conducted teacher evaluations in their new schools, and also interviewed them both on three occasions. He found that these principals relied on peer networks when making sense of new policies, and he concludes that lack of initial and ongoing training forced them to do so.
Scott C Bauer, Lori Silver and Jessica Schwartzer address the problems arising from the isolation of new principals, drawing on data from a southern US state. They conducted a survey of 242 first-year school principals, with a good 68% response rate, using a five-point Likert scale. They note that social support mechanisms serve to lessen the degree of isolation felt by principals, leading to an improved emotional state, and positive outcomes, such as persistence.
The next two papers both report on research from Sweden. Asa Hirsh and Mikael Segolsson draw on activity theory to analyse the data from their case study secondary school, collected through observations and group interviews. They note the challenges of ‘leading from the middle’ for the school’s lead teachers and conclude that collaborative learning must be supported by clear organisational structures.
Elinor Schad discusses research on teachers’ perceptions of organisational communication in two Swedish municipalities, drawing on the findings from a survey of 401 primary and lower secondary school teachers. They define organisational communication as the process through which workplace information is conveyed to employees. They note that these teachers state that they have insufficient time to address work-related communication and conclude that deficient communicative interactions may deplete teachers’ emotional and cognitive resources.
There is a developing literature on school leadership in sub-Saharan Africa, and Bernard Moswela and Keonyatse Kgosidialwa make a valuable contribution in their discussion of barriers to school leadership in Botswana. They report on the decline in school performance and examine this ‘worrisome trend’ through a survey of 199 teachers, and interviews with 21 teachers, including members of senior management teams. These participants note several barriers to effective leadership, including government ‘interference’ and drug use by students. The authors conclude that schools require leaders qualified in educational management, who should then be allowed greater flexibility to run their schools.
Martin Brown and his colleagues examine leadership in a disadvantaged rural primary school in Ireland, which has also seen an ‘influx’ of immigrant pupils. Their case study includes interviews with school leaders, staff and parents, as well as observations of classrooms and meetings, and documentary analysis. They show that the principal, through adopting culturally responsive, distributed leadership, with values, equality and ethics at the core, contributed significantly to the success of the school.
The final paper, by Lisette Uiterwijk-Lujik, Meta Kruger and Monique Volman, reports on research in three primary schools in the Netherlands, with a focus on the interplay between school boards, school leaders, and teachers, in developing enquiry-based working. Drawing on interviews with representatives of these three groups, they note that these three schools had different reasons for embarking on inquiry-based work, only one of which related to improving school test results. They show several ways in which leaders stimulated enquiry and conclude that the potential for school-based inquiry often depends on top-down initiatives, from the board to leaders, and from leaders to teachers.
This issue of the journal further illustrates the global significance of educational leadership, with papers from six countries on three continents.