Session Information
26 SES 08 B, School Leadership Development: Emerging Trends and Topics (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 26 SES 14 B
Contribution
School leadership and management are key to teachers' professional learning, especially if the leader incorporates teachers' individual characteristics into organizational development activities, thus making teachers open and engaged in professional learning activities (Robinson, Lloyd & Rowe, 2008; Sagnak et al, 2015), while low engagement and motivation can be observed when individual characteristics are not taken into account (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Furthermore, leaders can support teachers' professional learning by providing an appropriate learning environment, both structurally (e.g. time) and through the shaping of the organisational culture (e.g. The complexity of the leadership role and the differentiation of its perception through leadership theory research has been explored in detail in the theoretical research of Krüger and Scheerens (2012). In our analysis, we have mainly drawn on two models, instructional leadership and transformational leadership approaches. The former captures the image of a distinctive professional leader who is knowledgeable in his or her field (Robinson, Lloyd and Rowe, 2008), while the latter sees the leader's task as initiating changes that move the organisational culture towards the values of collegiality, planning and development along common goals (Marzano et al., 2004; Krüger and Scheerens, 2012).
By creating formal learning situations, building trust within the organisation and creating opportunities for peer learning school leaders can have a strong influence on what and how teachers learn in schools (Leithwood et al, 2010, Haiyan et al. 2016). Middle managers can play a key role in supporting teachers' continuous professional development. The creation and generation of knowledge are based on the interaction of organisational members, which requires a high level of commitment. The key to this can be a middle-up-down approach (Nonaka & Toyama, 2005), where middle leadership translate the organisational vision into concrete concepts and create the conditions for knowledge creation. Middle leadership may be able to serve as experts and help teachers to link new theoretical knowledge with local practices. Furthermore, they can lead teachers' research-oriented professional learning (Soekijad et al. 2011, Stoll et al. 2015), and they can cross knowledge boundaries horizontally and vertically (e.g. between managerial and professional knowledge, partnerships with networks outside the institution) and provide innovative learning environments for their colleagues (Hargreaves and Fullan 2012).
It is evident that the middle leadership has a unique position in the school organization. Our research focuses on exploring this unique perspective in terms of individual professional development and organizational learning aspects. To realize the goals of the research we have conducted an online survey on a representative stratified random sample of Hungarian teachers. The details of our research methodology and preliminary results will be detailed in the next parts of the abstract.
Project no. 128738 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the OTKA-K_18 funding scheme.
Method
The study is following a quantitative research strategy, using a large-scale database for analysis. The sampling was based on the stratified random sample of primary and secondary educational institutions based on their profile (primary school, general secondary school, vocational secondary school) and regional dispersion. The sample was weighted based on distributions regarding the maintainer of the school and their size and can be considered as a representative sample in relation to these variables. The sample consists of 5063 teachers (from 656 schools, at least 20% or 5 teachers from each school). Considering the focus of our analysis, the sample can be further broken down into employees (N=3186; out of which 78,5% are female; the average age is 49,1), middle-leadership (N=983; out of which 84% are female; the average age is 52) and (vice-)principals (N=894; out of which 72,7% are female; the average age is 53,72). During the research, participants completed an online survey which contained the following variables that are relevant from the point of view of our study: organizational (school type, maintainer, size) and individual (gender, age) contingency factors, frequency of individual professional development activities, characteristics of learning organizational behaviour. The factor structure for individual professional development activities was confirmed in previous research (Rapos et al, 2022) with the following factors: knowledge sharing in interaction (e.g. “I have shared my experiences with my colleagues.”), individual reflection (e.g. ”I have thought about my experiences after class.”), learning from others without interaction (e.g. “I have read pedagogical academic literature.”), learning by experimentation and creation (e.g. “I have experienced with new teaching methods.”), asking for professional support (e.g. “I have received personal mentoring.”). For the characteristics of learning organizational behaviour, we used the Hungarian version (Horváth, 2022) of the Dimensions of the Learning Organisation Questionnaire developed by Marsick and Watkins (2003) focusing on continuous learning, inquiry and dialogue, collaboration and team learning, systems to capture learning, empowerment, connecting the organization to the external environment, providing strategic leadership for learning. The main aim of our research is to explore different patterns of individual and organizational learning as it is perceived by employees, middle leadership and principals, focusing on the unique perspective of middle leadership. In our research, we take into consideration the different individual and organizational contingency variables as well.
Expected Outcomes
Our results indicate a unique role identification of middle leadership in schools. The results confirm that while on the factors of individual professional development middle leadership is more akin to principals and is showing different patterns than employees, regarding organizational learning aspects, the perspective of middle leadership is the same as employees differing from that of principals. Differences regarding individual and organizational learning factors can be related to different leadership roles, rather than contingency variables. Involving other contingency variables showed a more homogenous picture. According to our results, we can emphasize the specific situation of middle leadership which needs the attention of professional development providers, organizational developers, and school leadership as well. Taking into consideration the specific Hungarian context, we can identify the lack of organizational perspective (in terms of autonomy, and function of middle leadership) and the possibilities of using distributed leadership practices to encourage the value-added of middle leadership.
References
Haiyan, Q., Walker, A., & Xiaowei, Y. (2017). Building and leading a learning culture among teachers: A case study of a Shanghai primary school. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143215623785 Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. Teachers College Press. Horváth, L. (2022). A tanulószervezet kontextus-adaptált modellje a magyar köznevelésben a pedagógusok munkahelyi elégedettségének függvényében. [Context-adapted model of the learning organization in Hungarian public education in relation to teachers’ job satisfaction]. Iskolakultúra, 32(4), 48–69. https://doi.org/10.14232/ISKKULT.2022.4.48 Krüger, M. & Scheerens, J. (2012). Conceptual Perspectives on School Leadership. In: J. Scheerens (Ed), School Leadership Effects Revisited. Review and Meta-Analysis of Empirical Studies. Springer. Leithwood K., Patten S., & Jantzi D. (2010). Testing a conception of how school leadership influences student learning. Educational Administration Quarterly 46(5), 671–706. Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E. (2003). Demonstrating the Value of an Organization’s Learning Culture: The Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 5(2), 132–151. DOI: 10.1177/1523422303005002002 Marzano, R. J., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results. Aurora, CO: ASCD and McREL. Nonaka, I, & Toyama, R. (2005). The theory of the knowledge-creating firm: subjectivity, objectivity and synthesis. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14(3), 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dth058 Rapos, N., Tókos, K., Nagy, K., Eszes, F., & Horváth, L. (2022). A pedagógusok folyamatos szakmai fejlődésének és tanulásának komplexitása. [The complexity of teachers’ continuous professional development and learning]. Neveléstudomány [Educational Science], 2022(1), 7-36. DOI: 10.21549/NTNY.36.2022.1.1 Robinson V. M. J., Lloyd C. A. & Rowe, K. J. (2008). The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Differential Effects of Leadership Types. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54–67. Sagnak, M., Kuruoz, M., Polat, B, & Soylu, A. (2015). Transformational leadership and innovative climate: An examination of the mediating effect of psychological empowerment. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 60, 149–162. Soekijad, M., van den Hooff, B., Agterberg, M., & Huysman, M. (2011). Leading to Learn in Networks of Practice: Two Leadership Strategies. Organization Studies, 32(8), 1005–1027. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840611410834 Stoll, L. (2015). Using evidence, learning and the role of professional learning communities, in C. Brown (ed.), Leading the use of research & evidence in schools. IOE Press.
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