New South Wales Department of Education and Training
Leadership Fellowship 2007–2008
Future leaders: fostering and developing emerging and aspiring leaders at the workplace level
Kathryn Drummond
Principal
Wheeler Heights Public School
New South Wales, Australia Published 2008
Leadership Fellowship 2007–2008
Future leaders: fostering and developing emerging and aspiring leaders at the workplace level
Contents
PageExecutive Summary / 3
1. Overview of the research study / 4
2. Background information / 4
3. Key research questions / 5
4. Research methodology / 5
5. Findings / 6
6. Implications of the findings for the practice of leadership / 13
7. Conclusions and recommendations / 13
Acknowledgements / 15
Bibliography / 16
Appendix 1 / 17
Executive summary
There has been much interest and research in recent years into successful, effective educational leadership, with Professor Geoff Scott concluding in his Learning Principals report, that ‘it is the combination of brains and heart that ultimately makes the difference.’
The study was conducted at a time when statistics show that there will be a large number of principals and executive staff in the New South Wales Department of Education and Training who will retire within the next five years. With many vacancies to be filled there will be a pressing need to adequately prepare future incumbents for the complexities of leadership.
This study examines what principals and their leadership teams in the United Kingdom and Sweden look for when identifying teachers with leadership potential; how they identify them, and how they develop and support them on their leadership development journey. It also examines whether the knowledge, skills, disposition and personal and professional qualities identified in the United Kingdom and Sweden are reflected in the New South Wales Department of Education and Training School Leadership Capability Framework (Appendix 1).
1. Overview of the research study
This work was produced by Kathryn Drummond, a recipient of a Leadership Fellowship 2007–2008, awarded by the New South Wales Minister for Education and Training.
In his Learning Principals report, Professor Geoff Scott concludes that there is ‘a need to be far more proactive in identifying, and then systematically supporting, the development of the next generation of principals, right from the early stages of their careers’ (2003, page 48). Further to that, Grahame Morgan and Russell Hawkins in their Leadership Fellowship 2004 Report, GENeration next – Generational change in the Principalship, made several recommendations which concern identifying, developing and supporting teachers with leadership potential. In her 2005 Leadership Fellowship report, Lindy Taylor also recommended that principals ‘identify those members of their staff who have the potential for leadership … and involve them in the thinking behind whole-school planning and decision making’ (page 11).
In this study, the researcher has investigated what schools do, both formally and informally, to identify, nurture and cultivate emerging and aspiring leaders, and how they prepare them to undertake leadership preparation programs.
2. Background information
In many countries, there are formal programs available for teachers aspiring to leadership positions. In New South Wales, the Department of Education and Training offers programs such as the Executive Leadership Development Program and the Principal Preparation Program. In England and Scotland, there is a national program to prepare aspiring principals: the National Professional Qualification for Headship in England and the Scottish Qualification for Headship in Scotland. Both are benchmark qualifications, underpinned by the National Standards for Headteachers in England and the Standard for Headship in Scotland. Umea University, in Sweden, offers a preparation program for aspiring principals and there is a national three-year training program for principals once they have been appointed to their position. Programs and qualifications such as these are generally based on a capability framework or a standard that describes the knowledge, skills and personal qualities needed for effective, successful leadership.
3. Key research questions
This research explored the following broad questions:
· How do principals and their leadership teams identify potential leaders? What skills, knowledge, dispositions and personal qualities do they think are important?
· What formal and informal forms of opportunity and support are employed by schools to develop the leadership capacity of teachers? As an individual’s career progresses, how is his or her capacity to take on more advanced and more sophisticated leadership roles broadened and strengthened?
· How is current leadership theory and practice, for example using the National Standards for Headteachers, reflected in the strategies and processes put in place by schools to develop leadership capacity?
4. Research methodology
In order to gain an international perspective on this topic, research was undertaken in the United Kingdom (England and Scotland) and in Sweden. The research explored how schools identify, nurture and cultivate their emerging and aspiring leaders.
The methodology for the research study included visiting schools, universities and Local Authorities in England (Manchester and Birmingham), Scotland (Aberdeen and Edinburgh) and Sweden (Umea and Stockholm) to:
· interview principals, teachers and representatives of institutions to elicit information about leadership development;
· observe leadership practices within schools, particularly to see how distributive leadership is facilitated and what support and training is given to leaders with different levels of experience and at different points in their careers; and
· examine documentation, such as professional learning policies, management plans and action learning plans.
5. Findings
Throughout these findings the title of principal is used, to refer to leaders of schools. This includes head teachers or other school leaders, as relevant to the various educational systems.
England – Manchester and Birmingham
Context
In England, there will be a large number of retirements among school leaders in the next few years. In approximately 500 schools in Birmingham, for instance, there are 138 principals over the age of 55; 23 of those are over 58 and three over 60; and there are 69 schools where the whole senior management team is over 50. There are also fewer teachers in their mid-thirties and forties poised to move into those leadership positions. This situation has arisen for a variety of reasons including the perception held by many aspiring leaders that the principalship is a difficult job and recruitment issues that existed in the 1980s. Nationally, only one person in ten who holds the National Qualification for Headship has applied for a principal position. (Information provided by Mary Higgins, Senior Advisor, Workplace Development, Birmingham Local Authority.)
In the past, it was considered that 15–20 years of experience as a classroom teacher and middle manager was required prior to becoming a principal. According to Mary Higgins, future leaders now need to be targeted and prepared within nine years. The National College for School Leadership courses for middle management include Fast Track, Leadership Pathways and Leading from the Middle. Under the banner, ‘Tomorrow's Leaders Today’, the College calls for initiatives to develop local solutions to succession issues and works with local authorities and education action zones to develop programs for specific contexts. Four of these programs were researched in this study.
Case Studies: Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
Putting Heads Together, is one such ‘local solution’ program in the Blackburn, Darwen area (near Manchester, England). Principals, working with the National College for School Leadership have devised and delivered the program for teachers with a minimum of five years' teaching experience, who are nominated by their school as leaders of the future. Now in its second year, Putting Heads Together Again uses needs analysis, based on the Standards for Headteachers, coaching, work shadowing and workshop sessions, to help prepare candidates for leadership positions.
Forging Ahead is a National College for School Leadership local solutions initiative in Birmingham, England. Developed for teachers between their third and seventh years of teaching experience, it is delivered at the local authority level. Seventy nine principals are involved, offering candidates a ‘menu’ of opportunities for learning about leadership, including mentoring, shadowing, and observing interviews and meetings.
Leading from the Middle The Flightpath Education Action Zone, is a collective of 13 schools in a very disadvantaged part of Birmingham, England. Schools work with the National College for School Leadership to deliver Leading from the Middle to meet local needs. The program is delivered locally for three or four teachers from each school, who have the ‘capacity, will, attitude and potential’ for leadership.
Greenhouse Schools is another local solution initiative. This program seeks to identify and develop early career teachers who have the potential for leadership. Coleshill Heath Primary School, in a very low socio-economic part of Solihull, Birmingham, England, has a tradition of ‘growing their own’ leaders and hence the title ‘greenhouse schools’. Schools appoint young teachers and then develop and promote them to fill leadership positions within the schools. Other workers (for example. teaching assistants, play workers) in the school are similarly given opportunities to develop their skills.
Identification of future leaders
In each of the above cases, when asked how future leaders are identified, the principals and others used terms such as ‘gut feeling’, ‘intuition’, ‘seeing spark and ambition’, using performance management processes and having conversations with teachers about their about career paths.
Qualities, skills and dispositions heads and their leadership teams look for
In identifying potential leaders, principals and other key personnel sought out teachers whose attributes included at least some of the following:
· are excellent classroom practitioners;
· are committed to their own on-going professional development and contribute to the development of others;
· are resilient;
· are prepared to take risks;
· show initiative and set their own targets;
· want to have a go;
· are flexible;
· see the bigger picture and their own impact;
· are dynamic and inspirational to both staff and pupils;
· are reflective and self-critical;
· see the cup as ‘half full’; and
· have a sense of humour.
Opportunities provided for development
In addition to offering the programs described above, further opportunities were provided for leadership development at the workplace level.
These opportunities included:
· ‘stepping up’ into relieving leadership roles to gain experience, and
· job-sharing a vacant deputy position, thereby developing a broader base of leadership skills in the school;
· pairing experienced teachers with new teachers; and
· using the School Plan to create opportunities to lead areas.
Principals either provided support to identified potential leaders themselves or appointed a coach or mentor.
In Birmingham, England, the National College for School Leadership funded four places for one term's secondment to another school (for example, a school on special measures as the result of a poor Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills inspection) to ‘push’ them towards principalship.
Principals said that they sought or created opportunities within and beyond the school to give experience in leadership and encouraged their staff to take risks and lead an area of responsibility. In at least one school, Coleshill Heath Primary, the principal rewarded staff who accepting extra responsibilities with allowance payments from a flexible budget.
Scotland – Edinburgh and Aberdeenshire
Context
The Standard for Headship, which was developed in 1998 and revised in 2005, defines ‘the leadership and management capabilities of headteachers’ (page 2). The related Scottish Qualification for Headship was deemed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in its 2007 report, Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland to be ‘an outstanding and demanding programme ... through which future leaders achieve the Standard for Headship.’ (page 15).
In Edinburgh, the Scottish Qualification for Headship is offered by the Centre for Educational Leadership at the University of Edinburgh. To be admitted into the course, candidates must demonstrate that they have:
· project leadership or at least active engagement in a Working Group, that is a school focus or target team;
· an overview of how the whole school functions, with its sometimes competing and conflicting demands;
· some experience of leading and developing others;
· commitment to leading and managing curriculum;
· good interpersonal and personal qualities;
· ability to communicate effectively and to articulate a vision;
· an understanding of the broader political context; and
· potential.
Also on offer through the University of Edinburgh is the Chartered Teacher Program for teachers with at least six years teaching experience. This program includes leadership strands in three of its modules.
In Aberdeenshire, it was felt that the Scottish Qualification for Headship did not adequately meet the needs of teachers in either succession planning or early leadership development. The Local Authority has worked closely with the Professional Learning and Leadership Centre at the University of Aberdeen to establish courses that are considered more ‘fit for purpose’. The emphasis is on developing leadership skills from pre-service training, through the early years of teaching, and finally as a teacher gains experience and assumes additional responsibilities. Several courses are offered, for example Chartered Teacher Program, Exploring Leadership and Leadership and Management.
Case Studies: Blackhall Primary School, Edinburgh and Kellands Primary School, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire
Identification of future leaders
Principals in both schools said that they identified leadership potential through professional discussions with teachers and through observation of staff in meetings and working groups. The annual review process also provided them with opportunities for identifying leadership strengths amongst their teachers.
Qualities, skills and dispositions heads and their leadership teams look for
The principals and their deputies identified attributes including:
· excellent classroom practice, with high student engagement;
· willingness and ability to collaborate with others;
· ability to lead working groups and manage projects;
· having a core set of values and principles;
· having self-confidence and resilience;
· being prepared to take risks and learn from mistakes;
· having good interpersonal and communication skills;
· being reflective (for example reflecting on what impact there has been on student learning as the result of teachers’ own professional development);