SBD Phase 4Elective Module

Leading school federations and academy chains

Unit 2 Developing leadership structures in complex settings

AnnotatedBibliography

National College resources

Aldridge, M,2008, School business managers: their role in distributed leadership, Nottingham, National College [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

This report provides a snapshot of the status and position of SBMs on their journey, examining what makes them tick and how they work within their school. It also looks at the pressures and challenges faced by SBMs, including opposition to them taking a role in school leadership. The author argues for greater engagement of SBMs in the leadership of schools and the benefits gained by distributing leadership activities to them.

Blackburn, M, 2012,What attributes and skills are required for executive headship of federations? Nottingham, National College [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

Research by Iain Barnes in 2006 into how six headteachers led more than one school, identified six key skills and attributes of executive headteachers. This study builds on that research in order to gain a wider insight into the role of executive headship within federations.The report found that three of the key skills identified by Barnes were still very significant:

  • strategic thinking
  • exhibiting faith in others (trust)
  • developing positive relationships

Court, M, 2003,Different approaches to sharing school leadership, National College resource [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

This report brings an international dimension to the discussion about different patterns of school leadership, whether leadership is shared or restructured in new and innovative ways.

Hallinger, P. and Snidvongs, K. (2005) Adding value to school leadership and management: A review of trends in managers in education and business sectors, Nottingham, National College [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

Of interest to readers will be the section on how leaders cope with chaotic change and the assertion that they need to develop both affective and cognitive approaches.It also recommends on-site coaching and networks of support. The identification of business management knowledge domains outside the education sector provides interesting parallels, although the currency of this pre-dates recent reform.

Hill, R, Dunford, J, Parish, N, Rea, S and Sandals, L, 2012, The growth of academy chains: implications for leaders and leadership, Nottingham, National College [Online] [Accessed 12.04.13]

This is a very important study, partly because there are few publications on this topic. It explores the rate of growth of academy chains, the challenges faced by these organisations and offers tentative conclusions as to their impact and the implications for school leaders. The study provides a large amount of data for the reader to interrogate and draw conclusions.

MacBeath, J, 2009, Distributed leadership in action. National College [Online] [Accessed 12.04.13]

Important resource covering a large amount of theory in the field of distributed leadership.

National College (undated) System leadership in action: Leading networks, leading the system. [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

Research reports

Harris, A, 2008, Distributed leadership:According to the evidence,Journal of Educational Administration. Vol 46: 2 pp 172-188. [Online] [Accessed 13.04.13]

This whole issue of the Journal of Educational Administration is devoted to the subject of Distributed leadership. The array of authors is a who's who of leading authors in the field: Gronn, Hargreaves, Fink, Spillane and Leithwood among others. In this paper, Harris

Katzenbach, J. R and Smith, D. K, 2005, The Wisdom of teams (European version) : Creating the high performance organisation, London, McGraw Hill

This volume aims to identify what differentiates various levels of team performance, where and how teams work best, and how to enhance their effectiveness. It includes stories and case examples showing why teams continue to be the primary building blocks of organisational performance.

Spillane, J, 2006,Distributed leadership, SanFrancisco: Jossey Bass

This is the definitive text on the theory of distributed leadership

Thorpe, R, Gold, G, and Lawler, J, 2011,Locating distributed leadership International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 13, 239–250 (2011) [Online] [Accessed 14.04.13]

This abstract introduces a number of papers on the theme of distributed leadership which can be accessed free. Apart from the abstract you may find Bolden’s paper Distributed leadership in organisations: A review of theory and research particularly interesting.

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