Session Information
26 SES 12 A, System Leadership and School Self-improvement
Symposium
Contribution
This paper will be reporting on early research into leadership within MATs which explores the issues and challenges they face as they take on the strategic ambitions of central government. The data are being gathered as a part of the evaluation of two open access development programmes being run for leadership teams from medium size MATs of between 5 and 15 schools. There are two groups of MATs involved in the first phase of this programme, which commenced in November 2016, one of which is comprised wholly of Church of England trusts. The participants in both programmes are representative, therefore, of the new paradigm of school leadership that is emerging from the expected shift to academisation of the majority of the nation’s schools. The programmes combine three residential modules supplemented by facilitated regional learning sets, a range of practical tasks and assignments and the opportunity for participants to engage in online and self-directed learning through use of a dedicated VLE site. Data is being collected from 34 participants through development process in order to examine the emerging issues pertaining to system leadership within academy trusts. This is a mixed methods approach that is predominately qualitative. Much of the enquiry is based on open questions in the first instance with little use of a priori coding. This approach is particularly true of the individual interviews which has led to the initial analysis being based on the process of open coding in order to identify categories which would emerge as the data was examined (Charmaz, 2006). Face to face interviews were conducted individually with Chief Executive Officers which were audio recorded and professional transcribed. Subsequent analysis was undertaken through a process of open coding in order to develop categories of leadership issues, challenges and behaviours that were evident in the establishment and continued growth of the medium size MATs. The outcomes from these interviews were to be combined with other data sets emerging from task and assignment outcomes, group interviews and online questionnaires together with feedback from regional learning sets and participant reflexive practice.
References
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: SAGE.
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