A multi-dimensional approach to principalship

In the last two decades, principalship within further education has moved from being the chief academic officer to one which has bought about the combination of the chief executive element with the academic role, imposing greater demands and levels of accountability on the postholder. In light of these changes, it is appropriate to ask what is known about the nature of the role and how individuals can be encouraged to aspire to principalship. This paper considers what principals themselves perceive the role to involve and looks at existing literature on the way in which the principalship can be categorised. Relatively little has been written on the role of principals within further education colleges, yet at a time when Frearson (2005), Hargreave and Fink (2006) and Davies and Davies (2011) are debating the 'timebomb' within educational leadership more needs to be understood about the nature of the role if individuals are to develop into the next generation of college leaders

The challenges of developing future leaders of Community Colleges and beyond

This is the author's accepted version of an article published in Antistasis, 2015.Ensuring there are sufficiently skilled and experienced individuals to become leaders within various departments of community colleges (and beyond) is vital in order to secure the future of education in these institutions

Defining a tri-dimensional approach to the development of leaders of further education colleges.

This article presents a review of current leadership practices of principals in further education colleges and suggests that principalship is more than a two-dimensional functional model comprising internal or externally focused activities. During the past 20 years further education leadership has become more demanding, with greater accountability imposed by a state-controlled system and, as Hargreaves and Fink (2005) suggest, this has impacted on the number of individuals entering senior leadership posts. In light of these changes it is appropriate to review the role of the principal and what is known about the way the role has changed. As a result of the way in which principalship has evolved, this article introduces a tri-dimensional model of principalship first by reflecting on leadership practices of college principals and identifying the key elements of their role, and second by suggesting that college principalship compasses three theoretical aspects: a public, an internal–public and an internal–private

The implementation of sustainable leadership in general further education colleges

Sustainable leadership as a concept is both in its infancy and also under researched, with much of the previous work in the area concentrating solely on the compulsory sector. Lambert (2011) argues that existing models are not entirely appropriate for further education due to the landscape in which colleges operate. This paper presents the findings of empirical work which sought the views of principals of general further education colleges (equivalent to United States Community Colleges) in the south east of England and London, UK, as to whether they are in agreement with the component aspects of the framework of sustainable leadership for further education colleges suggested by Lambert (2011)

A multi-dimensional approach to principalship

In the last two decades, principalship within further education has moved from being the chief academic officer to one which has bought about the combination of the chief executive element with the academic role, imposing greater demands and levels of accountability on the postholder. In light of these changes, it is appropriate to ask what is known about the nature of the role and how individuals can be encouraged to aspire to principalship. This paper considers what principals themselves perceive the role to involve and looks at existing literature on the way in which the principalship can be categorised. Relatively little has been written on the role of principals within further education colleges, yet at a time when Frearson (2005), Hargreave and Fink (2006) and Davies and Davies (2011) are debating the 'timebomb' within educational leadership more needs to be understood about the nature of the role if individuals are to develop into the next generation of college leaders

The practical application on middle leaders of performing coaching interventions on others

Lambert, Steve, The practical application on middle leaders of performing coaching interventions on others, Management in Education (Journal Volume Number and Issue Number) pp. xx-xx. Copyright © [2022] (Author). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.The role of middle leaders in bringing about improvement in schools is well documented in the UK and abroad, with the ever-present demand for raising standards and achievement. At the same time, the benefits to individuals from receiving coaching or mentoring is also well documented. However, little is known about the benefit to those providing coaching. This article outlines some initial findings emerging from the first stage of a study exploring the benefits to middle leaders in secondary schools in England in their ability to recognise emotions having provided some coaching interventions to others. All participants were asked to complete an online emotional recognition test. After which a subset of the participants provided coaching to a member of staff from within the school for one academic term. After which participants resat the emotional recognition test. Most participants saw their ability to recognise emotions improve as a result of providing the coaching interventions. This is particularly important given existing literature that suggests due to the demands of the role, middle leaders have a deficit in their ability to recognise emotions, leading to a negative impact on those with whom they work

Emotional awareness amongst middle leadership

The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to explore middle leaders’ ability to recognise emotions in the context of workplace research, and to propose measures that might support them in their role. This paper combines a contemporary literature review with reflections from practice to develop more nuanced understandings of middle leadership. The paper applied the Geneva Emotional Recognition Test (GERT) to explore the level of emotional recognition of 86 individuals (teachers, to headteachers (equivalent to school principals)). The preliminary findings suggest that teachers and headteachers have higher levels of emotional recognition than middle and senior leaders. This paper subsequently argues that the task-orientated nature middle leadership compounds an individual’s ability to engage effectively in relationship-orientated tasks. This explains why middle leaders scored lower on the GERT assessment. This is further inhibited by the anti-correlation in the brain’s ability to deal with the TDM and DMN processing functions where individuals operate in one neural mode for long periods. The viewpoint paper proposes a number of implications for middle leaders and suggests that middle leaders should proactively seek out opportunities to engaged in activities that support the DMN function of the brain and subsequently the relationship-orientated aspects of leadership. For example, coaching other staff. However, it has to be recognised that the sample size is small and further work is needed before any generalisations can be made. This paper offers a contemporary review of the role of middle leaders underpinned by a preliminary study into individuals’ ability to recognise emotions