The Professional Induction of Headteachers in England: Findings from the IBPS project

This paper reports on the data gathered through a self-completion questionnaire administered to a sample of headteachers in England who took up post in September, 2000. The survey is part of a larger, international study (The International Beginning Principals Study – IBPS) which aims to investigate and report on the experiences of beginning headteachers and principals during their first two years in post. Research teams are undertaking parallel studies in other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Netherlands and USA. Four research questions underpin the design of questionnaires used in all countries, thus allowing for data to be compared across the countries whilst allowing each questionnaire to reflect cultural, structural and linguistic differences between school systems. The four basic research questions are: 1. How does the process of professional development evolve, what are the main determinants and can we distinguish different patterns? 2. To what extent is it possible for a headteacher – given some external constraints – to develop autonomously a local policy? 3. How (and to what degree) can a beginning headteacher influence the existing school (daily organisation; structures; culture) and the development of individual teachers? 4. What encourages and discourages people from aspiring to headship

The Impact of National Culture on School Leadership in England

This paper reports on the survey findings of an international project to examine the impact of national culture on school leadership. The survey instrument was based on the work of Geert Hofstede, with the data collected for this paper emerging from semi-structured interviews with headteachers in England

Leadership in multi-academy trusts

There has been an accelerating policy shift in England towards a system led improvement process for compulsory education, based on the principle of schools having greater autonomy. This government strategy has seen the rapid and further intended growth of academies which are funded directly, with no statutory responsible for accountability to local government. This radical policy has fundamentally changed the concepts of school governance and leadership within the country, with the preferred structure for supporting individual schools becoming the creation of Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). In this model groups of schools are to be joined through the establishment of a trust which oversees the management of their prescribed educational provision through a corporate structure. The nature of the national school system, with its concomitant structures of governance, leadership and management, is undergoing radical change which means that the direction and control of compulsory education is now to be enacted by these trusts within a fairly loose accountability structure from central government. This paper reports on the early stages of research into leadership within MATs which explores the issues and challenges they face as they take on the strategic ambitions of central government in this emerging era. The data that informs the findings from this research are being gathered from participants in an open access development programmes being run by the UCL Institute of Education for leadership teams from MATs. The programmes, which commenced in November 2016, involves medium size MATs of between 5 and 15 schools and aimed not only to support the achievement of economies of scale, but also to build a shared culture and improvement model that strengthens every school. There are two groups of MATs involved in the first phase of this programme, one of which is comprised wholly of Church of England trusts. The participants in both programmes are representative, therefore, of the new paradigm of school leadership and governance that is emerging from the anticipated shift to academisation of the majority of the nation’s schools

Exploring International Collaborations in Research, Preparation, and Practice

This paper is a collection of my thoughts in regard to the notion of international research in educational leadership. I have conducted and been involved in a number of research projects since beginning full-time employment in higher education that have allowed me to generate some perspectives on educational leadership in other cultures and social systems. I have also run masters programmes in two different universities that had an international focus as one of the principal aims. Finally I have studied a range of literature relating to cultural differences between nation states and engaged in discourse with many scholars from across the world. As a consequence I consider I may be able to offer opinion on the options for research in the future

External influences impacting on beginning headteachers in England: Findings from the IBPS project

This paper reports on the data gathered through a self-completion questionnaire administered to a sample of headteachers in England who took up post in September, 2000. The survey is part of a larger, international study (The International Beginning Principals Study – IBPS) which aims to investigate and report on the experiences of beginning headteachers and principals during their first two years in post. Research teams are undertaking parallel studies in other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Netherlands and USA. Six research questions underpin the design of questionnaires used in all countries, thus allowing for data to be compared across the countries whilst allowing each questionnaire to reflect linguistic, cultural and structural differences between school systems. The research questions are: 1. What are the similarities and differences in the work of school headteachers/principals in different countries? 2. What encourages and discourages people from aspiring to the headship/principalship? 3. How do new headteachers/principals perceive and deal with external influences? 4. What learning experiences help new headteachers/principals adjust to their role? 5. How do new headteachers/principals become socialised into their role? 6. How does the culture of the school evolve with the arrival of a new headteacher/principal? This paper investigates the data that can be applied to how the beginning headteacher deals with external influences. The paper also reviews the sources of support perceived by respondents as being helpful to them when dealing with these external influences

Headship or System Leadership – Which Way to the Future?

Headship in English maintained schools is an occupation that is proving less than attractive for the vast majority of potential applicants, leading to the probability of a recruitment crisis in the near future. Furthermore the school system suffers from over provision of school places and pockets of endemic under achievement, particularly in areas where there are challenging circumstances. High amongst the range of government led responses to these circumstances is the call for system leadership, a process whereby the experience and expertise of successful schools can be utilised more widely across the school system. This article evaluates the concept of system leadership and compares it with the emergent models of headship that have become apparent in effective schools. It is argued that the model of headship described in this article could enhance the attractiveness of the occupation whilst being more effective than system leadership in providing an effective learning environment for all students. The article concludes that whilst system leadership can be demonstrated as having clear advantages in some contexts it should not be considered to be a universal panacea and efforts to sustain and develop models of headship that focus on the unique needs of each should be sustained

Multi-Academy Trusts (MATS) - A background briefing paper

There has been an accelerating policy shift in England towards a system led improvement process for compulsory education, based on the principle of schools having greater autonomy. This government strategy has seen the rapid and further intended growth of academies, free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges (UCT) which are funded directly from central government, with a coterminous ending of the previous statutory relationship between state funded schools and local authorities. This radical policy has fundamentally changed the concepts of school governance and leadership within the country which, after a period of widespread academisation, has led to the preferred structure for supporting individual schools becoming the creation of Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). In this model groups of academised schools are to be joined through the establishment of a trust which oversees the management of their prescribed educational provision through a corporate structure

Global drivers of reform

Many school systems across the world are actively seeking to improve student outcomes, processes that are frequently underwritten by reform in terms of structure and functions. A general tendency is to follow the trend perceived in public sector management to allocate accountability locally through devolution. This often means policies of school autonomy which are intended to enhance the qualityof educational provision in search of higher levels of student attainment. The key question to ask is why is enhanced student attainment such an objective for global reform? This paper identifies which drivers for reform are dominating the global picture and, perhaps just as importantly, explore what could and should be the factors which underpin school based education as we move further into the current century. A case is made that the two principal divers of reform are economic and globalisation: economic because most governments seeking reform are seemingly driven by international comparisons which suggest enhanced student outcomes will benefit their gross domestic product (GDP) and globalization because countries reliant upon natural mineral resources are now recognising a need to enable their workforce to interact successfully beyond their own borders and culture. In returning to the could and should, however, the ongoing pandemic caused by Covid-19 demonstrates it has become apparent there is a need to revisit the way in which schools are structured to aid student learning, with the use of digital devices and artificial intelligence emerging as two fundamental issues to be addressed in school reform. What we have witnessed in 2020 is a shift to reorganising student learning towards remote or blended learning and what we have seen is rapid, required change which, arguably, was needed. As Vladimir Lenin stated “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen” – this seems to sums up recent experience

The phenomenon of ‘off-rolling’ in English state maintained schools which is widening the social divide

In my last blog ‘Papering over the cracks in the system in English school system’, published at the end of March, I hinted that some schools and multi-school organisations were exploiting the state school system by conveniently placing challenging students into alternative provision so their attainment outcomes (generally lower) did not damage the headline performance figures. In other words, such organisations had found ways to deal only with students who would enhance overall performance in terms of attainment and reputation. This objective, I argued, could be achieved in many ways, but especially through the removal of troublesome students through a process of ‘off-rolling’. Sadly, this process has been shown to be on the rise and is now one which is becoming a matter of grave concern, leading to a close focus from the state education system on how alternative provision is being (mis)used when seeking to establish and maintain performance outcomes that are deemed acceptable in a high stakes accountability environment

Towards school autonomy in England: A troubled and far from complete journey

This chapter focuses on the journey towards autonomy for state-maintained schools in England. Firstly, it is important to recognise that a total of four national school systems exist within the United Kingdom as both Northern Ireland and Scotland have their own regulations, whilst Wales has devolved powers which allow for different policy enactments. Secondly, it is necessary to understand the complexity of provision within England that gives legitimacy to independent fee paying, independent state-funded and local authority-maintained schools. The notion of independent state-funded schools has been manifested in the current century through the creation of academies, which are corporatized entities funded directly from central government. At the time of writing independent fee-paying schools account for some seven per cent of the relevant student population (i.e. those of compulsory education ages – currently 5 to 16 years), with the remainder being almost equally split between local authority schools and academies. Academy trusts will be explored more fully later in this chapter, but the story starts with the prolonged attempts between 1870 and 1970 to establish a national school system