Professional learning in Scotland has been a long-standing feature of education reforms, particularly over the past two decades. This commitment to professional learning aims to ensure that teachers and school leaders are continually improving their skills, knowledge, and practices to provide high-quality education for all (Campbell and Harris, 2023; Forde et al., 2022). Several policy initiatives, frameworks and professional learning programmes have a significant focus on collaborative approaches within and between schools, local authorities and other providers in a range of sectors. School leaders are seen as pivotal not only in leading collaborative improvement initiatives within the system but also in driving collaborative learning (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2015). They create opportunities for teachers to engage in the development of both personal and collective critically reflective practices. However, evidence on how preparation and support of educational leaders to initiate and sustain such approaches is scarce.  

There are several professional development programmes available for middle and senior school leaders in Scotland, some developed and delivered centrally by Education Scotland (Government’s executive agency for education), while others such as Into Headship (pre-requisite for all newly appointed headteachers) are delivered by universities, local authorities and Education Scotland working in partnership. Despite the attention that often structures and systems receive in facilitating or hindering essential collaborative work, central and local funding cutbacks as well as the uncertainty about the amount and duration of future funding poses a challenge in developing greater capacity for collaboration that crosses professional and social boundaries, both within and across schools.  

This paper examines how professional preparation, alongside a diverse set of experiences and programmes, enhances school leaders' capacity to initiate, facilitate, and sustain collaborative improvement.

Conceptual basis 

We draw on the concepts of agency and self-efficacy, highlighting their relationship to the development of individual skills, abilities, and knowledge, as well as the construction of professional identity. Operating through shared beliefs of efficacy, three different forms of agency (individual, proxy and collective) are explored associating these with individuals’ and collective’s development of professional skills, abilities and knowledge and their professional identities.  

Data were collected using site visits and online interviews with 10 headteachers, policy documents, and field notes to capture insights into relationships, professional development opportunities, responsibilities and events as they occurred in the field. We used a combination of deductive and inductive coding to analyse data from 10 schools. Initially, we applied deductive codes based on the conceptual framework (Miles and Huberman, 1994) and knowledge on leaders’ professional development, supported by Nvivo software. Inductive codes were generated for professional development opportunities and challenges, refined through a constant-comparative method (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). A second coding round ensured precision and reliability, with regular meetings to enhance inter-rater consistency. Analytic memos highlighted key patterns, focusing on systems, approaches, and challenges. We categorised challenges as institutional, political, or normative, and identified strategies to address them. Findings were validated through triangulation across data sources.

Our findings demonstrate that professional development influences and is influenced by the organisational context in which it takes place and was found to be aligned to the context in which these headteachers work. School leaders deliberately built connections with local authority officials and local organisations, collaborating with stakeholders to co-create or redesign their schools. They also involved external partners to understand and implement deeper learning. Examples include formal and informal networking approaches, collaborative action research through research-practice partnerships, attending courses at HEIs and/or other Government agencies related to leadership and professional learning. These approaches made the growth and sustainability of professional development and learning a shared endeavour, with multiple stakeholders actively involved.

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