Session Information
26 SES 06 B, Teacher Leadership Development in the Educational Context (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 26 SES 13 B
Contribution
School leaders around the world face expectations from national and local policy level on leading the schools, as a result of recognition of leadership importance for student learning (Leithwood et al., 2020). This paper explores how an emerging teacher leader role is developing in an upper secondary school in Norway within a context of changes in society and frequent reform initiatives. A renewed version of the national curriculum (LK20) underlines that school leaders are responsible for developing processes of organizational learning and engage in local reform work at their schools. The principal cannot take the responsibility for this leadership expectations alone (Møller & Rönnberg, 2021), reflecting a growing need for middle leaders at different levels to contribute.
The term middle leadership is perceived differently in various national contexts (Day & Grice, 2019; De Nobile, 2018; Harris et al., 2019; Lipscombe et al., 2021). In this paper we focus on teacher leaders described as ‘subject leaders’, a redesigned role in which teachers are given responsibility for leading processes of professional learning amongst their peer teachers. They are teachers leading students inside the classroom, whilst at the same time leading peer teachers outside the classroom (Wenner & Campbell, 2017). Hierarchically placed below senior middle leaders their reach of authority is limited (De Nobile, 2018). They report to their department heads.
Integrated between senior leaders and peer teachers (Grootenboer et al., 2019; Wilkinson, 2017) research on middle leaders show that they are important for developing professional learning and development (Grootenboer et al., 2019). However, tensions between a whole-school focus and department focus may develop (Harris & Jones, 2017). Teachers as subject leaders are not comfortable about getting too much involved with their colleagues’ individual professional work (Helstad & Abrahamsen, 2020) or with controlling the teacher profession (Alvehus et al., 2020). Although previous research has shown that middle leaders are important for improvement (Harris & Jones, 2017) there is still need for investigating the many different middle teacher leader roles which are emerging in schools. The educational landscape is changing and professional roles are developing, something which makes it relevant to assume that relations between the different layers in the school, such as the teachers, subject leaders, department heads and the principal are influenced in particular ways. The present study which this paper rests on provides a contribution to the field on how teacher leaders work to find their role among their peer teachers while at the same time being part of the teacher profession they are expected to lead.
Our study’s research question is as follows:
How do teacher subject leaders in an upper secondary school experience and develop their position amongst their peer teachers?
The present study aims to identify how teachers as subject middle leaders may contribute to develop processes of professional learning amongst peer teachers in the local school in light of national expectations on local reform work.
Theoretical framework:
This study draws upon a relational understanding of leading, taking the perspective that practice organizes and constructs activity through social interaction (Spillane, 2006). Theory of practice architecture argues that individuals in a community of practice encounter one another in intersubjective spaces in language, space and time in the material world and social relationships (Kemmis et al., 2014, p. 4). This is about socially established cooperative human activities characterized by sayings (ideas and discourses), doings (actions and activities) and relatings (relationships) which ‘hang together’ Kemmis et al., 2014, p. 31). Theorized through a lens of practice architecture in processes of organizing professionalism (Noordegraaf, 2015) the teacher subject leaders are viewed as a differentiation of teacher positions in the school organization.
Method
The research underlying this paper rests on an ongoing longitudinal larger study investigating leadership in an upper secondary schools in Norway (Helstad & Abrahamsen, 2020). This research project has a qualitative design with the aim of generating more knowledge about changes in school leadership over a period of six years. In this paper we focus on experiences and expressions of practices from 12 teacher subject leaders from two visits; one in 2019 and one in 2022. The last visit gave the opportunity to identify how the subject leaders had developed their understandings of their own and each other’s practices when acting as subject leaders. We chose focus group interviews because this method facilitates for letting discussions unfold between participants if the researchers create a situation based on trust. Further, focus group can produce a concentrated amount of empirical data on a topic (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). Since we have visited this school a number of times in connection with the larger research project, we had met the subject leaders several times and experienced that trust was established. The questions guiding the focus group interviews were directed towards getting the subject leaders to tell us and each other about what they experienced as teacher leaders and whether and how the role had changed over time. We focused on what they said and did as subject leaders and how their relations towards the teachers was experienced and developed. We also wanted to hear them tell each other about specific challenges in leading their colleagues’ professional learning. The interviews were transcribed, and followed a three-step analysis process, described as coding, extracting and interpretation (Kvale og Brinkman, 2009). Richards, (2009) describes this as descriptive, thematic and analytical, where in the descriptive phase the focus was on what the informants told, and the second phase focused on the themes which were emerging and the third analytical phase involves interpretation and abstracting findings and analysis across the interviews relevant for the research question.
Expected Outcomes
Sayings – from reminding to reflecting When asked what the subject leaders experienced when leading the teachers’ professional learning the teachers who had been in this position from 2019 told that they experienced a change from reminding the teachers on what to do towards changing their meetings towards discussions, reading and showing relevant research. They also told that the role opened up the possibility to bringing teacher ideas and thoughts up to the formal school leaders, and that the school leaders listened to them. Doings – what they could do and what they wanted to do The teacher leaders reported that they wanted to contribute to develop their work (subjects) together with their peers, and to plan development work. They were very concerned about that planning together was about doings, not just words. They expressed that they did not want to “spy on their colleagues”, but rather offer peer guidance. Relatings – “Captain on the rowing boat” The teacher leaders’ relations towards the teachers and their own teaching profession is characterized by a strong loyalty. They underlined that they were not leaders, but teachers leading change and development work amongst equals. Their responsibility was improvement work for everybody in the subject department, which meant that they first and foremost initiated and pushed learning processes forward. They expressed that they had responsibility for a group of teachers, and which was a small part of the school, as “captains on the rowing boat”. In sum, the study shows that teachers leading peers in the local school is a strong tool for development and professional learning. Teachers leading teachers is a robust strategy concerning educational leadership. At the same time there is also a risk that traditions and norms being equals as peers undermine efforts of leadership.
References
Alvehus, J., Eklund, S., & Kastberg, G. (2020). Organizing Professionalism – New Elites, Stratification and Division of Labor. Public organization review, 20(1), 163-177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-018-00436-y Day, C., & Grice, C. (2019). Investigating the Influence and Impact of Leading from the Middle: A School-based Strategy for Middle leaders in Schools. A research Report commissioned by The Association of Independent Schools Leadership Centre New South Wales. De Nobile, J. (2018). Towards a theoretical model of middle leadership in schools. School Leadership & Management, 38(4), 395-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2017.1411902 Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2019). Understanding middle leadership: practices and policies. School Leadership & Management, 39(3-4), 251-254. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1611712 Harris, A., & Jones, M. (2017). Middle leaders matter: reflections, recognition, and renaissance. School Leadership & Management, 37(3), 213-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2017.1323398 Harris, A., Jones, M., Ismail, N., & Nguyen, D. (2019). Middle leaders and middle leadership in schools: exploring the knowledge base (2003–2017). School Leadership & Management, 39(3-4), 255-277. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1578738 Helstad, K., & Abrahamsen, H. (2020). Leadership in Upper Secondary School: Exploring New Roles When Teachers Are Leaders. In L. Moos, E. Nihlfors, & J. M. Paulsen (Eds.), Re-centering the Critical Potential of Nordic School Leadership Research: Fundamental, but often forgotten perspectives (pp. 173-189). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55027-1_10 Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education (1st ed. 2014. ed.). Springer Singapore : Imprint: Springer. Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2020). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(1), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077 Lipscombe, K., Tindall-Ford, S., & Lamanna, J. (2021). School middle leadership: A systematic review. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 0(0), 1741143220983328. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143220983328 Møller, J., & Rönnberg, L. (2021). Critical perspectives in and approaches to educational leadership in two Nordic countries J. In S. J. Courtney, H. Gunter, R. Niesche, & T. M. Trujillo (Eds.), Understanding educational leadership, critical perspectives and approaches. Bloomsbury Academic. Noordegraaf, M. (2015). Hybrid professionalism and beyond: (New) Forms of public professionalism in changing organizational and societal contexts. Journal of professions and organization, 2(2), 187-206. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/jov002 Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The Theoretical and Empirical Basis of Teacher Leadership: A Review of the Literature. Review of Educational Research, 87(1), 134-171. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316653478 Wilkinson, J. (2017). Reclaiming education in educational leadership. In P. Grootenboer, C. Edwards-Groves, & S. Choy (Eds.), Practice theory perspectives on pedagogy and education: Praxis, diversity and contestation (pp. 231-241). Springer
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