PART A: Leadership: a concept map.
Part B: Critical analysis.
There is growing evidence to support the notion that effective leadership in schools is not only the key impact of retaining and developing staff but also of improving student achievement within the school environment (Centre for Education Statistics & Evaluation, 2015. p1). Highly effective principals, through their actions as leaders across the school community, are seen to raise the achievement of students in their schools. (Branch, Hanushek, & Rivkin, 2013. p63; Curriculum & Leadership Journal, 2012. p1). The success of students within the school does not lie solely with the principal, Hattie (2003. p2) notes it is what classroom teachers know, do and care about which accounts for up to thirty percent variance in student achievement. It is the effectiveness of principals to empower and engage staff through their leadership that ultimately leads to student achievement. The way leadership within the school is undertaken is important and related to the individual needs of the school environment, CESE (2015. p3) highlights that principals will combine elements of instructional, transformational and distributed leadership in response to their school community.
DET Director Public School – Transformational Leadership – School Principal.
Providing a support network and leadership structure between the school principal and the director of public schools is an ever increasingly valuable link in schools. Districts, which are managed by influential leaders, are shown to impact student achievement by up to ten percentile points (Barber, Whelan & Clark, 2010. p23). It is the director, through transformational leadership, that motivates and assist principals in their region to set a vision and create goals for their schools. The director also provides mentorship, intensive support and collaboration opportunities with other principals within their network. Identification and nurturing of talented potential leaders and providing these individuals the opportunity to take on leadership responsibilities has been highlighted as the greatest contributing factors to the development and ultimately employment as a principal. (Barber, Whelan & Clark, 2010. p12 & CESE 2015. p8). Transformational leadership leads to greater collaboration, between the director and principals, and ultimately inspires principals to take on new opportunities within their schools to build the performance of teachers and ultimately achieve greater student achievement. Principals will be able to more readily identify individuals within their schools with leadership qualities and utilise these individuals as change agents within their faculty and project teams.
Principal & Executives – Shared Instructional Leadership – Faculty & Project Teams.
Principals can account for 25% of a schools total impact on student achievement (Curriculum & Leadership Journal, 2012. p1). It is the principal’s ability to motivate his staff to achieve the goals of the school and promoting and providing teacher training and development that ultimately leads to improved student achievement. There are various leadership styles that a principal may utilise with staff and it often depends on the unique characteristics of the principal, their staff and the school. Collaboration with the principal, the executive team and key classroom teachers involved in various teams, either faculty or project, through instructional leadership or more specifically shared instructional leadership leads to greater learning opportunities and improvement in student outcomes. Marks & Printy (2003. p374) & Curriculum & Leadership Journal (2012. p6) acknowledge that while the principal remains the leader of the school, teachers, who have requisite expertise or information, exercise leadership collaboratively with the principal and ultimately enhance opportunities for the school. This allows for two-way communication and a teamwork approach to solve identified issues within the school, it is also these individuals who will be in shared leadership positions, in various teams, across the school and targeted for professional learning opportunities related to leadership and promotion to leadership roles in the future.
The principal works collaboratively with staff to define whole school and faculty/team goals and provides opportunities for staff to be upskilled through training and development opportunities, as well as being provided with the necessary resources required to meet the goals, this is seen as the leadership practice which has the greatest impact on student learning and outcomes. (Centre for Education Statistics & Evaluation. 2015. p1 & Moir, S., Hattie, J. & Jansen, C. 2014. p36) By allowing staff to provide input into whole school planning as well as taking on leadership roles within the school there is increased motivation of staff to work toward meeting the goals of the school through a shared instructional leadership approach. Day et al., (2009 p31) found that redesigning organisational structures and distributing leadership and management responsibilities more widely promoted greater staff engagement and ownership, and, through this, greater opportunities for student learning.
Classroom Teachers – Situational Leadership – Students.
According to Hattie (2003, p3) it is what teachers know, do, and care about which accounts for about 30% variance in student achievement. Teachers get to know their students and their abilities and adjust their teaching practises and management style within the classroom based on the individual students in each class. This leadership style is most closely related to the situational leadership style. Teachers are leaders to their students and need to be able to change their behaviours to fit the different individuals and situations they are presented with in the classroom. (Mcloughlin, M. 2016). It is the opportunities that teachers are provided with through training and development, as well as information provided to them in faculty and project team meetings, which allows them to provide deeper and more challenging opportunities for their students. Classroom teachers are increasingly providing students with more inquiry based collaborative learning tasks, which allow students to take ownership of their learning as well as develop their own teamwork and leadership skills.
Principal & Executive Team – Professional Relationship – Parent & Community Groups.
It is important for principals and executive staff to have a strong professional relationship with the parent and community groups associated with their schools. Day et al. (2009 p5) noted how effective leaders’ positive relationship with parents and the wider community had a substantial influence on pupil learning and raising student achievement. Proactive principals continuously seek to engage parents and the wider community as active allies in improving pupil outcomes.
The NSW Department of Education (2010, p4) is also committed to building community relationships to engage parents, Aboriginal Elders, local Aboriginal Education Consultative Groups and Aboriginal community organisations in school planning and decision making processes. It is important that the principal display leadership in ensuring that a professional relationship is formed between the school and parent & community groups through regular meetings, which act as forums where there is an avenue for two-way communication to take place between the principal and the parent & community groups.
Librarian & Library Space – Shared Instructional Leadership.
The librarian is the strongest change agent within the school, and acting as a catalyst, assists in leadership and promoting beneficial change within each of the above-mentioned groups. Dando (2016) noted that librarians are pros at promoting collaboration and aligning library learning outcomes with the goals of school improvement and district strategic plans.
The library, when well resourced, is seen as a central space where transformational leadership between the director public schools and principals in the region can meet and work collaboratively on the vision and leadership taking place in their individual schools. The librarian will be an active participant in faculty and project teams and are change agents that can be relied upon to provide knowledge and skills to individual teachers or teams through coaching and supporting their development in a shared instructional leadership capacity. Librarians who build trust and respect within collaborative teams and have developed a well-resourced collaborative library/learning space are allowing teachers to feel safe to take risks and be innovative with their pedagogy (Moir, S., Hattie, J. & Jansen, C. 2014. p40) within a team teaching environment. The library spaces are also well aligned to student inquiry and collaboration projects.
Dando, P. (2016) noted that when librarians are provided with the opportunities to take on shared instructional leadership across the school, principals recognise partners whom they can consult, invest in, support and depend on to lead. It is important that librarians have skills and knowledge across KLA’s and are proactive in embracing new teaching methods, technology and curriculum changes. When librarians are proactive in their approach to changes they are seen as effective leaders and assist in developing staff to create a collaborative community of learners across faculties and the whole school community.
References
Barber, M., Whelan, F., & Clark, M. (2010). Capturing the leadership premium. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/social%20sector/our%20insights/capturing%20the%20leadership%20premium/capturing%20the%20leadership%20premium.ashx
Branch, G.F., Hanushek, E.A., & Rivkin, S.G. (2013). School Leaders Matter. Education next, 13(1).
Centre for Education Statistics & Evaluation (2015). Effective Leadership. Learning curve 10.
Curriculum & Leadership Journal (2012). The importance of leadership in high performing schools. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/the_importance_of_leadership_in_high_performing_sc,35652.html?issueID=12676
Day, C., Sammons, P., Hopkins, D., Harris, A., Leithwood, K., Qing, G., … (2009). The impact of school leadership on pupil outcomes. Retrieved from http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/11329/1/DCSF-RR108.pdf
Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference, what is the research evidence. Retrieved from https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=research_conference_2003
http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/11329/1/DCSF-RR108.pdf – need to do correctly
Marks, H. M., & Printy, S. M. (2003). Principal leadership and school performance: an integration of transformational and instructional leadership. Educational administration quarterly 39 (370) DOI: 10.1177/0013161X03253412.
Mcloughlin, M. (2016). Situational leadership in the classroom. Retrieved from http://sites.psu.edu/leadership/2016/02/10/situational-leadership-in-the-classroom/
Moir, S., Hattie, J. & Jansen, C. (2014). Teacher perspectives of ‘effective’ leadership in schools. Australian Educational Leader, 36(4), 36-40. Retrieved from http://www.minnisjournals.com.au/acel/
NSW Department of Education and Training (2010). The New South Wales smarter schools national partnerships implementation plan. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/nsw_summary_implementation_plan.pdf