Improving School Leadership: Contexts and Success

1
Improving School Leadership Contexts and
SuccessFor them, conventional wisdom is not
convenient truth.
Keynote for OECD Workshop Brussels, February 1-2,
2007
2
Key questions in leadership improvement

• What do we do which is good for the children in
  our schools?
• What do we do which is good for the society we
  would like to have?

3
Improving school leadership a common objective

• To align intentions to develop and support
  leaders who combine excellence and equity with
  policies and policy implementation strategies
  which work
• At present, in many countries, there is a focus
  on policy and systems development but not enough
  attention to the management of implementation
  processes

4
Improving school leadership a common objective
To develop benchmarks/national leadership
standards (functional and personal) which reflect
the realities of policy objectives and leadership
contexts
5
Improving school leadership contexts of change

• Declining birth rate
• Greater mix of students, greater range of needs
• Increased external accountabilities (the new
  institutional paradigm)
• Alienation of students
• Increased range and intensity of tasks and
  relationships
• Results driven
• Teacher turnover in some schools
• Problems with teacher morale in many others
• Fewer career teachers
• Fewer who wish to become principals
• Little or no succession planning

6
Reciprocal Accountability

• Acknowledge that contexts in which many
  principals work mean that achieving success on
  several fronts (personal, social, academic,
  vocational) is becoming a more complex task.
• Acknowledge that whilst principal preparation is
  important, sustained and targeted support for
  principals in service is crucial.
• Acknowledge that in many countries where the
  largest cohort of principals is over 50 years
  old, for reasons of life and work change, this is
  likely to be at risk of under-performing and
  needs to be designated as high priority.

7
What we know (from research) about successful
leadership

• School leadership is second only to classroom
  teaching as an influence on pupil learning
• Almost all successful leaders draw on the same
  repertoire of basic leadership practices
• The ways in which leaders apply these basic
  leadership practices not practices themselves
  demonstrate responsiveness to, rather than
  dictation by, the contexts in which they work
• School leaders improve teaching and learning
  indirectly and most powerfully through their
  influence on staff motivation, commitment and
  working conditions

8
What we know (from research) about successful
leadership

• School leadership has a greater influence on
  schools and students when it is widely
  distributed
• Some patterns of distribution are more effective
  than others
• A small handful of personal traits explains a
  high proportion of the variation in leadership
  effectiveness

9
Managing knowledge creation, dissemination and
use what we know about successful principals in
action
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What ISSPP tells us about successful principals
at work pedagogical and transformational (1)

• All have ambitions for both the achievement and
  welfare of staff and students, they promote
  individual and collective efficacy
• All focus on the functional for the sake of the
  personal
• All work in contexts of forms of contractual
  accountability but some require more resilience,
  courage and strengths of values than others

11

What ISSPP tells us about successful principals
at work pedagogical and transformational (1)

• All exercise core sets of qualities, skills,
  strategies which are differentiated according to
  context
• All have high levels of diagnostic and problem
  solving skills
• All combine clusters of interpersonal skills and
  organisational strategies to achieve their ends
• All have clear moral and ethical purposes
• All manage conflicting expectations

12

What ISSPP tells us about successful principals
at work pedagogical and transformational (2)

• All are strongly learner focused and their
  schools are data rich
• All have a strong appreciation of the importance
  of emotional understanding and have high levels
  of self knowledge
• All manage a number of tensions and dilemmas
• All have CPD and professional learning at the
  centre of their improvement strategies
• All prioritize genuine care for all in the
  community
• All recalibrate contextualised conditions and
  constraints to create conditions for improvement

13

What ISSPP tells us about successful principals
at work pedagogical and transformational (3)

• All have a strong sense of agency and a lot of
  hope
• All have a vision of their school as a learning
  organisation and microcosm of a democratic
  society (though democracy has different
  meanings)
• All are at different stages of their own
  development
• All work in schools which are in different
  improvement phases
• All exercise embryonic or advanced forms of
  distributed leadership
• All are passionate about their work.

14
Policy Implementation Challenges

• Problems of sustainability, resilience and
  succession building intrinsic motivation
• Leadership of complexity and ambiguity capacity
  building
• Embedding organizational commitment and trust
• Raising standards whilst promoting equity
• Creating work conditions which support both the
  emotional health/well-being and measurable
  attainments of staff and students
• A mandate for leading the learning
• National performance standards for all leaders
  (an holistic perspective)
• Application of strategies appropriate to local
  need and reflective of centralist effective
  agendas
• Preparation, training and development for quality
  retention
• Celebrating success

15
Leadership for learning training and
development (1)

• Internal core training agendas
• Pedagogical leadership
• Personal values (self knowledge)
• Combining the functional and personal
• Emotions leadership
• Combination of skills and strategies (for
  restructuring and re-culturing)
• Inter and intra personal skills
• Vision/values in changing contexts
• Data and belief driven decisions
• Capacity building distributing authority with
  responsibility
• Futures training

16
Training and development (2)

• External core training agendas
• Systems leadership
• Knowledge of leadership in different contexts
• Knowledge of teachers in different professional
• life phases
• Knowledge of organizational life phases
• Knowledge of change processes
• Knowledge of change leadership

17
Framing the report the issues

• Key changes in social, economic and policy
  contexts
• Implications for schools (purposes, working
  conditions, professionalism)
• The role of leaders excellence with equity
• Leading for learning and achievement successful
  practices
• Country case studies
• Training and development forms and functions
• Future directions and possibilities