Session Information
26 SES 12 A, System Leadership and School Self-improvement
Symposium
Contribution
This paper presents the findings from research seeking to develop further insight and understanding of the leadership qualities and practices essential to be an effective system leader in primary phase education in England. In recent years the role has evolved, altering the expectation of what it means to be an effective headteacher. This research suggests that being an effective system leader in the primary phase requires leadership qualities and practices beyond those required of a headteacher leading one school. The study was carried out in seven large rural local authorities in England. It is a qualitative research study based on in-depth semi-structured interviews (Wengraf, 2001) with 12 headteachers who are system leaders in the primary phase. Through telephone semi-structured interviews with primary headteachers who are either a national leader in education (NLE) and director of a teaching school and/or an executive headteacher it explores two questions: • What are the leadership qualities and practices needed by an executive headteacher to lead successfully a group of small primary schools? • What are the leadership qualities and practices needed by an NLE and director of a Teaching School Alliance (TSA) to support successfully other schools? The interview responses were submitted to thematic analysis which leads to the development of two models. One represents the connections between five leadership qualities following theme mapping and the other provides a framework for 12 leadership practices derived from network analysis. The models derived from the research findings seek to inform understanding of the similarities and differences between the qualities and practices of a headteacher of one school and those of a system leader who is concerned with the outcomes for pupils in more than one school.
References
Wengraf, T. (2001). Qualitative research interviewing. London: SAGE.
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