Instructional Leadership in Schools: Reflections and empirical evidence

Transcription

1 ` Instructional Leadership in Schools: Reflections and empirical evidence Geoff Southworth School Leadership and Management, 2002, 22(1), In this paper, Southworth promotes the concept of instructional leadership and the need to create learning and teaching schools by: reviewing current understandings of school leadership reviewing definitions of instructional leadership examining two empirical studies which contain descriptions of what instructional leadership looks like in practice drawing out the organisational conditions in which instructional leadership flourishes Key findings Current research on leadership is over prescriptive, fails to take variations between schools into account, lacks description of effective practice and tends to focus heavily on leadership of under-performing or struggling schools. The main tension in the leadership role is that between chief executive and lead professional. Commentators on leadership favour a broad approach which encompasses issues such as whole-school culture rather than focusing exclusively on classroom practice. Interaction is at the heart of effective leadership with good instructional leaders realising that most teachers expand their teaching range only with carefully designed support and assistance. For interaction to be effective, leaders need a range of expertise, from classroom observation and data gathering, to awareness of the teacher s stage of development, and reflective communication skills. Effective instructional leaders learn most by doing the job and understand the curriculum, pedagogy, student and adult learning. Effective organisational conditions for instructional leadership include a teacher-culture of collaboration enquiry into pupils perspectives on their own learning and provision of multiple opportunities for teacher mentoring, coaching and school based professional development. National College for School Leadership

2 The research base: what does research about school leadership look like? Southworth argues that research on school leadership has so far delivered less than its potential, for several reasons: A tendency to over-focus on leadership in the context of improving poorly performing schools. Little regard for the variety of schools (size, type, gender of the leader, the true locus of leadership within the school, changes over time). Moreover, as leadership is socially constructed, the very concept could be expected to vary from setting to setting. A tendency for the research to offer taxonomies of what leadership entails. Such lists, he argues, fragment the work of leaders, and fail to recognise that school leaders do many things at once, their work characterised by simultaneity and holism. He also points to the significant element of tension and dilemma inherent in the leader's role, further undermining any rule-book or recipe approach. Perhaps the major tension in the role is that between chief executive and leading professional. In the early 1990s in the UK, the emphasis was on the managerial challenges of devolution. Now, the leading professional role has again been placed at the heart of school leadership. Yet again, though, contemporary research is more likely to offer prescriptions for instructional leadership than to describe it. What is instructional leadership? Three views Southworth turns to three USA reviews for their perspectives on the nature and focus of instructional leadership. Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinbach (1999) identify instructional leadership as that which assumes that the critical focus for attention by leaders is the behaviour of teachers as they engage in activities directly affecting the growth of students. They further identify two variants: the narrow, which restricts its focus to teacher behaviours which enhance pupil learning and the broader type which focuses additionally on other organisational variables such as school culture which the leadership believes influences teacher behaviour. Leithwood and his colleagues also note that principals alone cannot fulfil all of a school s needs for instructional leadership. Hallinger and Heck (1997) identify the impact of leadership, both in terms of category: defining school mission managing the instructional programme promoting the school climate and in terms of mode of impact: direct mediated reciprocal They conclude that a primary avenue of influence lies in the shaping of the school s direction through vision, mission and goals, and suggest that the broader approach is more effective because it encompasses the indirect as well as the direct impacts, and is also more likely to National College for School Leadership

3 encourage others to share the responsibilities of instructional leadership (the narrower approach tends conversely to foster the notion of heroic leadership). Blase and Blase s Handbook of Instructional Leadership: how really good principals promote teaching and learning (1998) is summarised separately as part of the resources presented to the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). In his paper, Southworth highlights their finding that instructional leaders value a blend of supervision, staff development and curriculum development. Within their institutions, the promotion of teachers professional development was seen to be the most influential practice. Southworth notes that, as with the other two studies he describes, Blase and Blase favour a broader approach to instructional leadership. Instructional leadership in practice: the evidence base Southworth then seeks to add to the limited store of empirical evidence of description of instructional leadership. First, he outlines Blase and Blase s analysis of 800 USA teachers accounts of their own principal s positive and negative characteristics, and their views of how those characteristics affected their performance as teachers. From this, emerged three aspects of effective instructional leadership: talking with teachers promoting teachers professional growth fostering teacher reflection These were tied to headteachers behaviour in terms of: being visible praising results extending autonomy At the heart of all this is the matter of interaction, with good instructional leaders realising that most teachers expand their teaching range only with carefully designed support and assistance (Blase and Blase, 1998). That vital interaction was seen to demand a range of expertise from the principal, from classroom observation and data gathering, to awareness of the teacher s stage of development, and reflective communication skills. The Blases note that developing evidence-informed approaches to leadership, management and school improvement requires concomitant developments in leaders skills in handling data, colleagues and teaching and learning. They also note that such leadership needs to be designed as part of the school s organisational structures and processes for the school to become a learning community. Southworth s own study drew on the experience of the headteacher, two teachers and one governor in each of 10 relatively small primary schools in England. He found a high level of consensus about six ingredients of school leadership: working hard, as a matter of course determination resolution to secure the best for the school, and an intolerance for poor teaching conditions positive disposition, believing the school deserves, and will achieve success approachability valuing a teamwork approach school improver, whether the school is performing badly or well National College for School Leadership

4 A variety of approaches to improving the quality of teaching and learning was encountered, but three stood out: modelling, with heads using their own teaching, and even assemblies, as an example, and working alongside staff in classrooms monitoring, with heads looking at teachers weekly plans and pupils work, and reviewing test data professional dialogue, taking all opportunities in staff meetings, developing curricular policies, reviewing pupil data, to probe teachers assumptions and to promote ideas Southworth also noted that all these strategies were complemented in school structures and systems policies, schemes of work which reinforced the head s educational messages and expectations. The effect of their direct and indirect effects also creates a teacher culture characterised by professional collaboration and professional learning. Both studies (Blase and Blase, and Southworth s own) show a high degree of consistency, and both feature prominently the process of professional dialogue. Southworth argues, however, that the empirical base is low, and many more studies of instructional leadership are needed. He concludes with reflections on: how instructional leadership is developed the organisational conditions for instructional leadership how school leaders should be used to promote learning organisations outside the world of education How instructional leadership is developed: messages emerging from the literature School leaders giving thought to develop learning schools may wish to reflect on the following messages: Learning by doing Southworth focuses on the view prevalent among school leaders that they learn most by doing the job. One implication of this is that headteacher appointments should be on the basis of confidence that the candidate is committed to continuous, reflective learning: their work is a course of study so they need to be good students. He argues that new heads are likely to benefit more from opportunities to discuss and learn from their own work than from courses with new content. More thought needs to be given to the development of deputy heads, whose opportunities to learn from doing the job of head in their current school may be restricted. Understanding the curriculum, pedagogy, student and adult learning Instructional leadership demands credibility and empathy with teachers. Too often, headteachers have to rely on out-of-date or assumed knowledge of teaching and learning, while the training offered to them has been on other management tasks (budget, human resources, marketing, etc). The demand of our knowledge society is for learning organisations, thus Instructional leadership needs high levels of knowledge and understanding of curricula, pedagogy, student and adult learning. This represents a major challenge for NCSL. National College for School Leadership

5 Organisational conditions Southworth is convinced that learning schools must facilitate teachers pedagogic growth, since the development of their teaching skills and repertoires seems to me to be the major content area. The curriculum of learning schools should be pedagogy. He also finds a correlation between instructional leadership and certain organisational conditions associated with learning communities. The conditions which leaders might benefit from monitoring are identified as: a teacher-culture of collaboration, in which formal and informal professional dialogue is the norm, including challenge and debate enquiry into pupils perspectives on their own learning provision of multiple opportunities for teacher mentoring, coaching and school based professional development explicit efforts to manage professional knowledge in the school through audits of teacher strengths, skills and needs Thus the school becomes a teaching and learning school, with the most hospitable environment for the exercise of instructional leadership because professional cultures characterised by openness, trust and security appear to be the ones where teachers feel confident to become learners. Southworth closes by reflecting that, in a world where more and more enterprises are interested in developing themselves as learning organisations, it is time for school leaders to present themselves as leaders of teachers par excellence. References Blase, J and Blase, J, 1998, Handbook of instructional leadership: how really good principals promote teaching and learning, Thousand Oaks, CA, Corwin Press Hallinger, P and Heck, R, 1997, Exploring the principal s contribution to school effectiveness, School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 8(4), 1 35 Leithwood, K, Jantzi, D and Steinback, R, 1999, Changing leadership for changing times, Buckingham, Open University Press National College for School Leadership