This poster will seek to illustrate a qualitative study of six newly-appointed headteachers in Scotland who have recently completed the mandatory qualification of Into Headship. As a course tutor on IH, the study is undertaken as the focus of my doctoral research.

In order to better understand the longer-term influences of the IH programme, I am curious to explore how former participants go on to further develop and apply their knowledge and understanding once appointed as headteachers post-programme. I am also interested in the significant prior learning and experiences participants bring to their IH studies and seek to explore the influence this has on them whilst on programme as well as  post-programme.

Though IH is delivered by seven universities across Scotland, Education Scotland, which oversees the programme on behalf of the Scottish Government, collates an annual evaluative report. This report is based on a form of “satisfaction poll” completed by former participants at the point of course completion and is arguably unable to provide insights which deeply analyses or critically reflects upon the multiple influences of the IH programme. For IH, it is significant that only one study (Mowat, 2020) seeks to explore the ongoing development of former IH participants; however no studies were found which explicitly sought to do so over an extended time period or which studied former participants in permanent headship roles. Therefore, I believe it can be argued that there appears to be a clear “gap” in the field of knowledge related to the influence of the Into Headship programme.

Research Question

Taking account of the impact of leading during the COVID-19 global pandemic in Scotland:

In what ways do newly-appointed headteachers in Scotland perceive that their engagement in the Into Headship programme has influenced and continues to influence their leadership development in leading their school community?  

1.     Which aspects of participants’ leadership growth, sense of identity and related application of this understanding do they recognise to have been influenced /continue to be influenced (directly and/or indirectly) by engaging in the IH programme and in which ways?

2.     Which aspects of participants’ leadership growth, sense of identity and related application of this understanding do they feel, have been/ are subject to other influences, contextual factors and other learning and in which ways?

Anticipated Outcomes

Through this study I hope to gain insights into: 

• how study participants transfer and apply leadership knowledge & understanding gained in the IH programme in the various contexts they function within across the system. 
• how study participants’ sense of identity as a headteacher has developed and continues to develop over time in their role as a newly-appointed headteacher
• what other significant influences study participants identify alongside the experience of engaging in the IH programme
• the part context, social learning, collaboration and engaging in networks/communities of practice plays in study participants’ ongoing development as headteachers

Key concepts are captured in a conceptual framework which has been constructed from the following dimensions:

• “Perceptions of Into Headship influences”, “Other influences” and their entanglement in the enactment of the headship role
• Notions of journeying i.e. personal and professional development over time, “Being, Becoming and Growing as a leader” (GTCS, 2021) 
• The development of the professional, situated and personal identities of school leaders (Day et al., 2007)

My ontological beliefs about the nature of the study influence and seek to align my methodological choices in the design and enactment of my research approaches in order to realise the study aims. The study is a qualitative perception study, situated within the interpretivist paradigm due to the unique, contextualised and individualised nature of each study participant’s experiences. The entire population of possible participants were those from IH cohorts from 2018-2021 across Scotland, and this overall group were invited to take part in a brief initial survey. A smaller sample who indicated agreement were invited to take part in the second phase of the study. To ensure sufficient data creation which generated “thick descriptions” (Geertz,1973) whilst at the same time being mindful of the manageability of the study, a sample group of 6-8 were sought. Crucially, as this study focusses on in what ways newly-appointed headteachers apply and further develop their knowledge & understanding once appointed, study participants were required to be approximately within their first year of permanent headship at the time of the study (specifically within 6-18 months of appointment). They also needed to be willing to/ have capacity to take part over the timescale of the study. A purposive sampling approach in identifying the sample of 6-8 participants was adopted. Purposive sampling is a non-probability approach which is useful for qualitative researchers as it allowed an element of judgement to be applied to the sample selection process. I do not aim for generalisability within this study and my sample does not seek to directly represent the population. However, I did wish to include a range of participants who are not atypical, who work in a range of diverse contexts and will be able & willing to engage in depth with the process. In the second phase of the study, a group of six headteachers have now been engaging in a series of three hour long semi-structured interviews, at six-month intervals. They are asked to deeply reflect on their IH experience, aspects of their ongoing leadership development, including events such as critical incidents and relate this to any perceived direct influence from their Into Headship experience and other influences they believe to be of significance. During the final interview, participants will be asked to reflect upon their leadership development using a “River of Experience” reflective narrative tool. (Iantaffi, 2012).

The first two instances of data creation through semi-structured interviews have taken place. The data from Interview One was analysed by adopting an open coding approach (Saldana, 2014) from which themes were then constructed. Both inductive and deductive approaches were adopted to organise and reorganise the data in relation to the research questions and when interrogating aspects of the conceptual framework. Though there were crosscutting themes and recurring influences which all participants noted to varying degrees, data from Interview One was used recursively in Interview Two to further extend reflections which were uniquely significant to each individual participant. Increased understanding of leading strategic change, engaging in critical reflection, developing an enhanced ability to critique policy & educational literature and the benefits of networking with others were typically reported as influences of the Into Headship programme. These themes recurred in all the participant’s data. However, findings of the study, so far, also demonstrate the significance of the uniqueness of each individual’s own values and beliefs about leadership; with their personal and professional identity also being reported as fundamentally important to their leadership practice. Other reported key influences so far include the other people who support the ongoing development of participants over time as well as the multiple experiences and professional learning prior to, during and after their time engaging on the Into Headship programme. The final instance of data creation will take place in May 2023.

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