Pg.Cert /pg.Dip/ Msc Leadership and Management in Education

Whether you're looking for career progression or simply wishing to critically reflect on what you're doing already, this is an interesting time to be studying educational leadership. A new government administration , new models of leadership, the wider childrens workforce and extended services may all be shaping our thinking about practice. Our provision for the coming year will help you think through wider strategic issues as well as developing your leadership skills.

The information below should help you make some initial decisions. For further information and an application form contact Paul Close, course leader, on 0114 225 5169 . NB:-applications are being accepted up till Friday October 1st 2010

Modules for 2010 -2011

This year we are offering 5 modules and the 'Extended Professional Project' for the Masters award. We outline these modules below and then explain briefly how they might be combined, as appropriate, to form a study route to the Masters award.

1* Professional Learning in the workplace (Leadership and Management).

60 credit points.

This module will give you a postgraduate certificate in Leadership and Management in Education and is suitable accreditation for participants who may already be following leadership courses designed in-house, by the National College (NPQH, Leadership Pathways etc).or who simply want to accredit some leadership work they are planning to do.. You will be required to make apresentation of leadership work you are doing inschool and to research and develop an argument for a critical essay on an aspect of leadership of particularinterest to you. Two cohorts will be running in 2010-11, one from October 2010 and one from January 2011.Each cohort will meet on 5 occasions :-an initial briefing session, 3 negotiated twilights and an assessment day for the leadership presentations. Fee for this module :- £700

*Full details of this module are given on pages 3-13

2Attributes of Effective Educational Leaders30 credit points

This module will introduce you to the full range of current thinking and debate around educational leadership, to help you critically reflect on and beyond your own experience. As for the module above, you will be required to research and develop an argument for a critical essay on an aspect of leadership in which you have developed a particular interest during the module study.

3 Leading and Managing organisational change30 credit points

This module will introduce you to a range of theory and practice around how change happens inorganisations. It will require you to develop a study of managing change in your organisational context, involving some collection of data. This study may be retrospective, current, or forward - looking in its focus

4 Developing Coaching and Mentoring in Education30 credit points

This module introduces coaching and mentoring as vitally important strategies for developing leadership capacity in schools. It sets coaching and mentoring in its leadership context, provides a range of theories and debates to position your thinking and strategies for implementing 'coaching cultures' inschools. You will be required to theorise and reflect on coaching practice in schools ,including your own experience.

5The Enquiring Practitioner30 credit points

This is a leadership and management version of our generic research methods module. offered to all participants on the Professional Development Programme. Its purpose is to help you pilot a piece of action research in preparation for your Masters project. You will be required to present a pilot study using one research method with some associated reading in the field, and to reflect on wider issues around the process of practitioner enquiry.

For all modules you will receive online support , individual tutor feedback and a book of readings to get you started on the literature.

Fees for each of these modules :- £550 for QTS and £650 for non QTS. All fees can be paid in instalments

…and finally…The Extended Professional Project60 credit points

This is the major research project that will take to the Masters award, typically requiring a full literature review, methodology, results and discussion chapters. Fees :- £1000 for QTS, £1300 for non QTS.

Where do I start?

Typically, there are three study routes to get you to your Masters project

1) You complete the Professional Learning in the Workplace pg cert and then take either Coaching or Change and the Enquiring Practitioner module.

2) You do Attributes, Change , Coaching and Enquiring Practitioner

3) You join us with accredited learning from another HE institution, in which case your study route will be a matter for individual negotiation depending on circumstances.

How long does it take?

The Pg Cert (60 credits) is normally completed over one year, the Diploma (120 credits) over 2 years and the full Masters project (180 credits) over 3 years.

Attendance for each 30 credit module:- 4 Saturdays between 10.00 am and 4.30 pm,

except Enquiring Practitioner which runs for three Saturdays

Attendance dates for 2010 -11

Semester 1Attributes of Effective Educational Leaders

9 Oct, 6 Nov, 27 Nov 2010 15 Jan 2011

Enquiring Practitioner

16 Oct, 13 Nov, 4 Dec 2010.

Semester 2 Leading and Managing Organisational Change

Developing Coaching and Mentoring in Education

26 March, 7 May, 21 May, 18 June. 2011.

Enquiring Practitioner:-2 April,14 May, 11 June 2011

Faculty of Development and Society

Professional Learning in the Workplace

Pg/cert Leadership and Management in Education

Module information 2010/11

Dear colleague,

Welcome to the leadership and management version of our Professional Learning in the Workplace module. This module carries 60 credit points, which is the equivalent of a postgraduate certificate if you are starting your studies withus, or can be used towards a diploma and thence onto an Msc if you have already begun accredited leadership and management study.

The module accredits your leadership learning in two ways (a) through a presentation and portfolio of practical leadership work you are already doing inschooland (b) through an exploration of wider theory and debate around school leadership via a critical essay.

You will join amodule group of colleagues at Sheffield Hallam from a variety ofschools, some of whom, like yourselves, will be drawing from in - school provision.and others who may be accreditingtheir leadership work fromNationalCollege programmes such as NPQH or Leadership Pathways . The group will meet at negotiated times, usually four twilights or equivalent, over a 6-9 month period. Depending on numbers, we will run one or two groups, starting at the beginning of, and mid year,respectively.The module as a whole is normally completed within one academic year.

The current fee for the module is £700

During the sessions you will discuss and work on your leadership presentations and critical essays and,in addition, will receive individual tutorial support and formative feedback. A book of readings will be available at the beginning of the course to get you into the literature as well, of course, as access to our range of electronic data bases. Further details of the assessment tasks and readingactivities are given in this booklet

Your learning and teaching concerns, the wider school workforce, the Every Child Matters Agenda and new leadership models and networks emerging amongst schools make this an exciting time to be studying leadership. We look forward to working with you.

Best wishes,

Paul Close

Route Leader,

Msc Leadership and Management inEducation

0114 225 5169

MODULE INFORMATION

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE

(LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT)

60 credit points level 7

1MODULE AIMS

This module aims to enable you to:

- Within the context of studying Leadership and Management:

identify and use opportunities for learning that arise in the workplace

analyse your personal and professional competences and identify how these can be further developed through work-related study in the context of school or other educational setting based development projects

develop and implement realistic strategies for managing school or other educational setting based development projects

reflect critically on your experience of implementing school or other education setting based development projects

place your professional learning in a wider context.

2MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES

BY THE END OF THE MODULE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO...

- In relation to a project focusing on Leadership and Management:

critically analyse the role and impact of peer support, coaching and mentoring on the planning, implementation and evaluation of a school development project and on your professional learning

demonstrate competencies in identifying, and engaging with, a knowledge base that is appropriate to the area of professional practice on which your school development project is focused

successfully develop the strategic planning of a school based development project

demonstrate competencies in the operational implementation of the development project strategy

evaluate the impact of the development project on both your own practice and that of others within your school

plan and implement effective dissemination strategies within your school

produce an agreed package of evidence that demonstrates the learning gained from the school development project

analyse your work critically in relation to its professional, organisational and/or wider societal context.

3 LEARNING, TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

There are two equally weighted assessment tasks, the leadership learning journey and the critical essay.

Part 1:- The leadership learning journey

This task invites you to conceptualise, analyseand critically reflecton the impact of a period of yourleadership work in school.We include below some of the introductory reading we recommend to do this. It will involve you in further developing your understanding ofleadership , organization and change through:-

  • Making an initial assessment of your personal strengths and development agenda as a school leader,drawing from various diagnostic tools eg The Myers Briggs Type Indicator and as presented inNorthouse P.(2009) Leadership :-Concepts and Practice. London. Sage.
  • Using a conceptual framework to analyse your school as anorganisation inorder to better understand whole school development needs and contextual factors that help or hinder your leadership work. Bolman and Deal's'four frames' approach (Bolman . L.G and Deal ,T.E (2003) Reframing organizations. 3rd edition.San Francisco; Wiley.) will be initially available, but once again you will be encouraged to investigate other frameworks eg Morgan's 'images of organization', Mc Kinsey 7S, Lewin's force field analysis etc
  • Critical reflection on key stages or events in your leadership work in school as a change process you are seeking to influence and bring about.This will require sufficient reading to understand something of the process of change, including strategies for implementation such as dealing with resistance and enlisting support , and evaluation. ( eg Alvesson, 2008, Hayes, 2002, Buchanan and Badham , 2008.)
  • Gaining feedback from staff participants on your leadership work. This might be through a coaching relationship or from members of your team or subject area. and may require a variety of data collection methods (see Coleman and Briggs, 2006)

This leadership learning journey will be assessed through

1A 20 minute power point presentation, supported by additional commentary and a portfolio of evidence.

2A 20 minute 'professional dialogue' with your assessor, where you will be encouraged to reflect further on your leadership work by addressing some of the questions below.

The professional dialogue

Following your presentation, you will be expected to participate in a professional dialogue of around 20 minutes which will give you the opportunity to reflect further on your learning. A possible selection of questions is given below to indicate the types of conversation that might evolve. This list of questions is not intended to be exhaustive, merely indicative.

Criterion / Possible Questions
Engagement with an appropriate knowledge base / Reflect on the literature/ NPQH course activities
What’s worked and not worked? How has your engagement contributed to your learning about leadership organisation and change How’s it contributed to your school based improvement project? What has been your most significant reading and why?
Accessing peer support, coaching and/or mentoring / Why coaching worked or not?
Strengths and weaknesses of process
Formal/informal coaching and support, What factors would you change? What have you learned to help you in your own role as coach? What have you learned abut leadership from your experience of being coached?
Planned your professional learning / Give your rationale for your expected learning.
What were your intended outcomes?
Justify your plan of action and relate it to the outcomes
Are there specific issues to be addressed?
Were there any ethical considerations to be taken into account?
What have you learned up to this stage?
What do you hope others will learn from your experience?
Made a significant change to school practice / Reflect on the stages and time scale
What went to plan? What didn’t?
Why did some things go smoothly, others not?
What was helpful? What wasn’t?
Reflect on NPQH materials on leading change
What have you learned about implementation?
What would you have done differently?
Reflect on resistance to change
What literature/models/theories underpin your thinking about leading change?
Evaluated the impact of your work on school improvement / What did you want to happen?
What actually happened?
Were there unintended outcomes? - Comment on these
What were the strengths and weaknesses of your approach?
What would you have done differently?
What have you learned about the changes you have made to your own practice and behaviour, and practice in school?
What have you learned about measuring impact?

Part 2:- The critical essay:

The purpose of the critical essay is to allow you to identify and develop inmore depth an interest in one or more key leadership debates that may have been prompted by your initial reading for the learning journey.

Recent examples from students have included explorations of distributed leadership, organizational culture change, strategic leadership, emotional dimensions of leadership, leading change and team development. Naturally,the literature field you focus on will relate to this interest and some examples of initial readings you might explore are suggested at the end of this briefing information. The rest will be in negotiation with your tutor.

The critical essay will require you to:-

  • Identify an aspect/s of leadership around which there are key debatesand decidewhether you will pitch your essay as a question or exploration.
  • Engage in both wide and close reading byassembling and critically analysing a range of literature sources relevant to this this/these debates .
  • Use these sources to create a clearly structured argument around your area of interest
  • Reach some provisional conclusions about your area of interest and debate andassessyour personal learning from the study
  • Present your work according to academic conventions

The critical essay will be assessed as a continuous piece of writing of around 6000 words.

Tutorial support

Tutorial support forthis module normally includes four face to face 2 hour twilight meetings, or equivalent, as below, for which there will be preparatory work,

1Initial briefing and discussion session.

.

2Discussion of presentation

3Discussion of critical essay

4Rehearsal session for presentation and dialogue

5Assessed presentation session

4PASS CRITERIA

TO ACHIEVE APASS...

Pass Descriptors
  • a coherent account of your learning is presented and rationalised with respect to objectives, constraints and resources
  • the intended outcomes for the participants and school and/or others affected by the school based project are presented in a clear way
  • the implications of the study for personal and professional development are explored critically and in some depth

  • the monitoring and reflection on progress during the project is described with implications for continuing or modified actions being rationalised with respect to original or modified objectives, methods and personal learning
  • learning tasks have been undertaken with a high degree of autonomy and professional independence

  • the contribution of your work to personal learning about leadership is presented in a clear and reflective way
  • a critical evaluation of changes to working practice, actual or planned is provided
  • evidence/supporting conclusions/recommendations are reviewed critically in relation to their wider significance

  • critical reflection and analysis includes consideration of the potential further development that you anticipate is needed
  • key aspects of the wider professional/organisational/societal context of the study are set in context and their relevance to the study explored critically

  • relevant key theories/texts are used judiciously to illuminate the experience of your leadership work and to explore wider debates
  • a mainly appropriate format and style, is used which includes the conventions of written English and mainly accurate use of Harvard referencing
  • outcomes from your work are communicated effectively and in a format appropriate to context and audience

5SELECTED READINGS (1)

For the leadership learning journey presentation

Question:- what's my understanding of leadership , organization and the process of change?

Leadership

*Northouse, P (2009) Leadership:- concepts and practice. London. Sage

Davies. B and Davies , B eds (2005) Essentials of school leadership. London. Routledge.

Raynor, A (2004)Individual schools : unique solutions. tailoring approaches to school leadership. London. Routledge.

Goleman, D (2000) Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review March/ April.pp.79-90

Organization

Ball, S.J (1987) The micropolitics of the school . Methuen.

*Bolman, L.G and Deal, T.E (2003) Reframing organizations.3rd edition San Francisco. Wiley

Hirschhorn, L (1991) The workplace within: psychodynamics of organizational life. MIT press.

Morgan , G (2006) Images of organization.2nd edition.London. Sage

Change

*Alvesson, M and Sveningsson, S (2008) Changing organizational culture. London. Sage.

Hayes, J (2002) The theory and practice of change management. Basingstoke. Palgrave.

*Buchanan, D and Badham, R (2008) Power, politics and organizational change. 2nd edition.London. Sage