Successful Principals in Times of Change

Christopher Day, University of Nottingham, UK

christopher.day@nottingham.ac.uk

The Standards Agenda

i) Shaping the Futureii) Leading Learning and Teachingiii) Developing Self and Working with

Othersiv) Managing the Organisationv) Securing Accountabilityvi) Strengthening Community

(DfES, 2004)

Social Trends

• Australia - Bill Mulford (Tasmania) and David Gurr & Lawrie Drysdale (Melbourne)

• Canada (Toronto) - Kenneth Leithwood

• Denmark (Copenhagen) - Lejf Moos

• England (Nottingham) - Christopher Day

• China (Hong Kong) - Kam-Cheung Wong

• Norway (Oslo) - Jorunn Moller

• Sweden (UMEA) - Olof Johansson

• USA (SUNY, Buffalo) - Stephen Jacobson and Lauri Johnson

ISSLP Participants

• Identify the values, knowledge, skills and dispositions which successful school leaders use in implementing leadership practices across a range of successful schools in different countries.

• Identity those leadership practices that are uniquely important in large v. small schools, urban v. suburban v. rural schools, schools with homogeneous and diverse student populations and high v. low poverty schools.

• Explore the relationship between successful leadership values, practices, broader social and school specific conditions, and student outcomes in different countries.

ISSLP Objectives

• Produce the first international database on successful school leadership based upon the largest empirical study, thus providing a unique contribution to knowledge.

• Produce digital case studies, organise national and international dissemination conferences and produce and disseminate a book and several academic conference papers.

ISSLP Objectives (ctd)

• Literature review and design of interview protocol (April 2001 - July 2002)

• Multi-site case studies conducted, analysed, comparative data produced (September 2002 - August 2004)

• Questionnaire survey of principals in each country (January 2005 - September 2005)

• In-depth observational case studies (October 2005 - July 2006)

• Production of digital case studies (September 2006 - March 2007)

ISSLP Project Phases

• Interview and questionnaire based study• Principals complete biographical and career

questionnaires• Intervies, over 2-3 days (min), on school principal’s

“success” with:– Principal (3 occasions)– 2-3 teachers– 2-3 support staff– 2-3 parents– 2-3 school governors– 2 groups of pupils (3-4 in each group)

ISSLP Methods

• Interviews based on semi-structured schedules covering:– Pupil population and challenges presented– School Ethos– School success and principal’s contribution– Professional relationships with government inspectors, LEA

officers, teachers, governors, parents and pupils

• And for principals only:– Non-professional sources of support– Work/Life boundaries– Narratives of histories and critical incidents/phases

ISSLP Methods (ctd)

•Schools of different sizes operating within different phases of education (i.e. the early years of primary schooling through to upper-secondary and including special schools)

•Schools located within a range of economic and socio-cultural settings (i.e. including rural, suburban and inner-urban schools as well as those with mixed catchment areas)

•Schools in which headteachers who were widely acknowledged as being “effective leaders had spent different amounts of time (i.e. ranging from relatively new to well-established headteachers with many years of experience)

Selection of Schools

Questions

• Beyond transformational leadership

• Values-led, achievement-oriented, people

centred

• Contingency driven: managing tensions and

dilemmas

• Reflection

• Training and Development

What successful leaders look like

• Were clear in their vision for the school and communicated it to all its constituents;

• Focused upon care and achievement simultaneously;• Created, maintained and constantly monitored

relationships recognising them as key to the cultures of learning;

• Were reflective in a variety of internal and external social and organisational contexts, using a variety of problem-solving approaches;

• Sought, synthesised, and evaluated internal and external data, applying these to the school within their values framework;

• persisted with apparently intractable issues in their drive for higher standards

Effective Headteachers: Values led

• Were prepared to take risks in order to achieve these;• Were not afraid to ask difficult questions of themselves

and others;• Were entrepreneurial;• Were “networkers” inside and outside the school;• Were not afraid to acknowledge failure but did not give

up and learnt from it;• Were aware of a range of sources to help solve

problems;• Managed ongoing tensions and dilemmas through

principled, values-led contingency leadership.

Effective Headteachers: Values led (ctd)

Seven Tensions• Leadership v. Management• Maintenance v. Development• Internal v. External Change• Autonomy v. Autocracy• Personal Time v. Professional Tasks• Personal Values v. Institutional Imperatives• Leadership in Small v. Large Schools

Three Dilemmas• Development v. Dismissal• Power with v. Power over• Subcontracting v. Mediation

Origins UK

• Vision and resilience• Articulating and upholding values and beliefs:

the ethical dimension• Focussing upon moral purpose• Fostering an inclusive community• Creating expectation and achievement• Building internal capital and capacity• Leading the learning• Defining and maintaining identity• Renewing trust• Being passionate through commitment

Ten Areas For Success

1.Moral purpose and social justice

2.Organisational expectation andlearning

3.Identity, trust and passionatecommitment

Three Key Themes

Moral purpose and social justice

Organisational expectation and learning

Identity, trust and passionate commitment