Session Information
26 SES 02 A, Educational Leadership Development
Paper Session
Contribution
The aim of this paper is to present research findings on the leadership of district authorities, principals, development leaders and teachers in the implementation and development of a literacy education program called Beginning Literacy (BL). BL comprises a certain approach to literacy teaching that is implemented through a two years’ collaboration between schools and consultants from the Centre for School Development (CSD) at the University of Akureyri. The backbone of the implementation is the professional learning of teachers aimed at increasing their capacity to teach literacy, along with the development of other conditions supportive of improvement, such as leadership. In each school a development leader is appointed to manage and lead the implementation from within the school and work in close relationship with the consultants and teachers. In this paper the focus is on leadership in the BL-programme and the value of it for the implementation and development of the programme. The research questions are:
a) What is the value of the leadership of principals, district authorities, the development leaders and the teachers for the implementation and development of BL in schools?
b) How has their leadership emerged/appeared?
c) In what way has taking part in BL influenced their leadership?
It is generally accepted that leadership is a key factor in professional development, school improvement (Hall og Hord, 2011; Muijs og Harris, 2003), professional learning communities (Bolam, et al., 2005) and students’ performance (Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, og Anderson, 2010). It is also established that student performance is better where leadership is distributed or collaborative and aims at strengthening the schools’ capacity for academic improvement (Hallinger and Heck, 2010; Louis et al., 2010). This applies not only to the distributed leadership within the schools (such as principals, middle leaders, teachers, other staff and students) but also to stakeholders outside the school such as parents and other community members and, in particular, to the leadership of district authorities (Fullan and Quinn, 2016; Lambert, 2003; Louis et al., 2010). There is growing emphasis on the importance of district authorities/leaders and principals to build their own leadership capacity and work strategically towards developing distributed leadership within the schools (Helterbran, 2010; Lambert, 2003; Louis et al., 2010; Fullan and Quinn, 2016). Furthermore, it has been concluded that middle leaders (such as the development leaders in BL) play a role in developing teachers’ leadership as they help teachers to develop professionally (Clarke, Killeavay and Ferris, 2015; Cosenza, 2015; Fleming, 2014). It is also argued that an important step towards increased (teacher) leadership is starting an open conversation about (teacher) leadership within the schools (Helterbran, 2010).
Although leadership in schools is a growing research field there are only few research that look into the dynamic of the leadership of those parties mentioned and the influence of their leadership on school improvement and professional development. The research findings presented here shed an important light on how leadership of district authorities, principals, development leaders (middle leaders) and teachers’ influences the implementation and sustenance of a project like the BL and on the emphasis on leadership within such a project. They provide valuable knowledge on the leadership dynamic of those involved and how it influences professional development and school improvement in general and should be useful to those working with the implementation of BL and beyond.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Wallace, T. S., Hawkey, K., Greenwood, A. … Smith, M. (2005). Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities (rannsóknarskýrsla nr. RR637). University of Bristol: National College for School Leadership. Clarke, M., Killeavay, M., Ferris, R. (2015). Mentor teachers as leaders and followers in school–based contexts in the Republic of Ireland. International Journal of Educational Management, 29(3), 368–379. Cosenza, M. N. (2015) Defining teacher leadership: Affirming the teacher leader model standards. Issues in Teacher Education, 24(2), 79–99. Fleming, P. (2014). Successful middle leadership in secondary schools. Oxon: Routledge. Fullan, M. og Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The right drivers in action for schools, districts, and systems. Thousand Oaks: Corwin. Hall, G. E. og Hord, S. M. (2011). Implementing change: Patterns, principles, and potholes (3. útgáfa). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Hallinger, P. and Heck, P. H. (2010). Collaborative leadership and school improvement: Understanding the impact on school capacity and student learning. School Leadership & Management, 30(2), 95–110. Helterbran, V. R. (2010). Teacher Leadership: Overcoming "I Am Just a Teacher" syndrome. Education, 131(2), 363–371. Lambert, L. (2003). Leadership capacity for lasting school improvement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Louis, K. S., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K. L. og Anderson, S. E. (2010). Learning from leadership: Investigating the links to improved student learning: Final report of research to the Wallace Foundation. Sótt af http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/key-research/Documents/Investigating-the-Links-to-Improved-Student-Learning.pdf Muijs, D. og Harris, A. (2003). Teacher leadership ‒ improvement though empowerment?: An overview of the literature. Educational Management & Administration, 31(4), 437–448. Rúnar Sigþórsson, Halldóra Haraldsdóttir og Sigríður Margrét Sigurðardóttir. (2014). Literacy education through Beginning Literacy: Research and preliminary findings. Paper presented at ECER 2014, Porto: The Past, Present and Future of Educational Research in Europe http://staff.unak.is/not/runar/Rannsoknir_erindi/BL_ECER_14_paper.pdf
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