Pedagogical leadership in action: Two case studies in English schools

This paper explores the construct of pedagogical leadership in action in two case study schools in England. Both schools investigated had headteachers who were recognised as excellent practitioners who had led their schools from a failing position to being judged as ‘outstanding’ and had successfully sustained and extended this status. Their behaviours thus corresponded to the ideals of pedagogical leadership which had been developed in previous research by the authors. This approach is an extension of ideas pertaining to learner-centred leadership where the key focus is on the personalisation of education for the benefit of the learner. Pedagogical leaders take this further, however, and ensure they are equally responsibile to the local community and the larger education system when determining appropriate action to support learning in their schools. The research reported here is based on interviews conducted with members of the school community (including students) to establish to how these pedagogical leaders determine effective action. The examination of data identifies six categories of leadership activity which contribute to the continued growth of these schools: establishing a success culture, managing external expectations, selection and induction of staff, managing a robust supportive environment, sustaining effective internal relationships and headteacher leadership behaviour

Partnerships with parents

Research focusing on partnerships has often been limited to an examination of the relationships between parents and formal education settings (Rouse, 2012; Grayson, 2013; Goodall, 2013; Jackson and Needham, 2014; MacQueen and Hobbs, 2014). Influential models of partnerships such as “Spokes on a wheel” (Gordon 1970), “Three models depicting parent roles” (Swap 1993), “Six types of involvement school-family-community partnerships” (Epstein 1997), “A six-element empowerment paradigm for parent and family involvement” (Souto-Manning and Swick, 2006), “Family-Centred Practice” (Rouse 2012), “Six point model” (Goodhall 2013) all approach partnerships as dualistic relationships between the parents and the educational settings. Building on systems theory, we argue that the nature of partnerships indicates complexity, non-linearity and non-predictability, influenced by a variety of interrelated and interwoven factors that are interacting in a continual manner. The specific context of partnerships determines a system of compartmentalised, context specific, relationships between the stakeholders which connects them as a whole and attempts to establish continuity in understanding the rituals and values of this context. In that sense partnerships should be approached from an ecological paradigm that is concerned with the examination of partnership as a complex social phenomenon. This qualitative research that informs this paper was undertaken in 12 educational settings in England where all stakeholders (families, children, people from the local community and school staff) were interviewed and content analysis of relevant secondary data (e.g. press cuttings) were examined to: 1. Explore the views of the relationships between staff in educational settings and children, parents and communities; 2. Examine how these relationships are formed; 3. Investigate how (if) partnerships are sustained. We found that the formation of successful partnership depends on the conditions in which stakeholders are interacting (social context, structures and organisation) and are contingent on and depend on the way interactions are accomplished towards a common goal. Furthermore, effective partnerships that encourage multi-modal, multi-layer and multi-factional communication between all stakeholders and are open to interaction between all stakeholders lead to a process of continual evolution, rather than a reduction to the properties and values of the school only. The data revealed five strands of partnerships: malleable, isolation, passive, active and dynamic/ecological of which the first four reflect the normally seen dualistic approaches to partnerships. The last one: Dynamic/Ecological, however, includes multiple ways of establishing connections and reflecting a “holism” desire to identify common goals for the learning environment and joint decision making at all levels

Scale invariant jets: from blazars to microquasars

Black holes, anywhere in the stellar-mass to supermassive range, are often associated with relativistic jets. Models suggest that jet production may be a universal process common in all black hole systems regardless of their mass. Although in many cases observations support such hypotheses for microquasars and Seyfert galaxies, little is known on whether boosted blazar jets also comply with such universal scaling laws. We use uniquely rich multiwavelength radio light curves from the F-GAMMA program and the most accurate Doppler factors available to date to probe blazar jets in their emission rest frame with unprecedented accuracy. We identify for the first time a strong correlation between the blazar intrinsic broad-band radio luminosity and black hole mass, which extends over $\sim$ 9 orders of magnitude down to microquasars scales. Our results reveal the presence of a universal scaling law that bridges the observing and emission rest frames in beamed sources and allows us to effectively constrain jet models. They consequently provide an independent method for estimating the Doppler factor, and for predicting expected radio luminosities of boosted jets operating in systems of intermediate or tens-of-solar mass black holes, immediately applicable to cases as those recently observed by LIGO.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in AP

Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

In this conceptual paper we examine the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in England and the underpinning pre-dominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in the recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification [Early Years Teacher Status (EYT)] a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for ECEC. In this paper we argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but we need to think of it not only abstractly, but practically as well. Thus, we conclude, our (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities

Pedagogical Leadership in Education Contexts: Evidence from the Field

Literature examining effective leadership in education describe a number of models such as Transformational, Learner-Centred, Distributed and Situational. A similar example is ‘pedagogical leadership’, a phrase that frequently appears in literature and one referring to forms of practice that shape and form teaching and learning to be integrated in leadership. In this paper, however, we will argue that the term pedagogy is an ambiguous one when it is attached to the concept of leadership and requires further explanation, particularly in the 21st century. Our conclusions are informed by findings from research undertaken by us with headteachers and leaders of early years settings in England during 2012. One of the key findings is that we should shift from using models of leadership and instead to view leadership as a praxis that is not merely concerned with the dichotomy of teaching, learning and outcomes, but is also concerned with an integrated conceptualisation of the relations between teaching, the learning ecology of the community and the social set of axes in which the educational organisation is set. This understanding of pedagogical leadership is thus concerned with the links between desired educational outcomes and the set of social realities that surround the educational setting

Pedagogical leadership: A comparative study from England, Greece and Sweden

Current international research addresses the complexities, challenges and barriers that impact formal accountable leadership in the field of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as well as its conceptualisations (e.g. Nicholson and Maniates 2016, Caroll-Lind et al 2016, Nicholson et al 2020). For example, a literature review of English ECEC found that there is a distinction between organisational leadership and pedagogical leadership (Pascal et al 2020). Pedagogical leaders are the ones who might not have any organisational responsibilities but lead the direct interactions between children and adults and the educational elements that constitute the pedagogy. They also highlight that in England there is no clear route to a leadership qualification for staff in ECEC

An approach to supporting young people with autism spectrum disorder and high anxiety to re-engage with formal education - the impact on young people and their families

School refusal is an important factor impacting upon poor outcomes for adolescents and youth. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience characteristic difficulties regarding social interaction and communication, rigidity of thinking and sensory sensitivities. These difficulties, coupled with the heightened anxiety that many on the spectrum experience, place them at particular risk of school refusal. This study investigates activity undertaken in one UK local authority, where provision was developed to help such students to re-engage with formal education. Data were collected at three points through the first year of the provision’s existence. Findings show all students were successfully supported to attend the provision and re-engage with formal education. Factors supportive of re-engagement are presented and considered in the light of an ecological model of support for school refusers and what is considered as ‘good practice’ in autism education. It is suggested that the factors identified are indicative of good practice across both areas of activity

Deep optical study of the mixed-morphology supernova remnant G 132.7+1.3 (HB3)

We present optical CCD images of the large supernova remnant (SNR) G 132.7+1.3 (HB3) covering its full extent for the first time, in the emission lines of Hα +[N II], [S II], and [O III], where new and known filamentary and diffuse structures are detected. These observations are supplemented by new low-resolution long-slit spectra and higher resolution images in the same emission lines. Both the flux-calibrated images and spectra confirm that the optical emission originates from shock-heated gas since the [S II]/Hα > 0.4. Our findings are also consistent with the recently developed emission-line ratio diagnostics for distinguishing SNRs from H II regions. A multiwavelength comparison among our optical data and relevant observations in radio, X-rays, gamma-rays and CO bands, provided additional evidence on the interaction of HB3 with the surrounding clouds and clarified the borders of the SNR and the adjacent cloud. We discuss the supernova (SN) properties and evolution that led to the current observables of HB3 and we show that the remnant has most likely passed at the pressure driven snowplow phase. The estimated SN energy was found to be (3.7 ± 1.5) × 1051 erg and the current SNR age (5.1 ± 2.1) × 104 yr. We present an alternative scenario according to which the SNR evolved in the wind bubble cavity excavated by the progenitor star and currently is interacting with its density walls. We show that the overall mixed morphology properties of HB3 can be explained if the SN resulted by a Wolf−Rayet progenitor star with mass ∼34 M⊙⁠