MA in Educational Leadership (Teach First)

1. MA in Educational Leadership (Teach First) Induction and Teaching Day 1 - 2017: The guest lecture and beginning research

2. Activity: reviewing the Guest Lecture (1) In small groups, discuss your reactions to the guest lecture. Use the following questions as a guide:   • Which parts of the talk resonated with your own experience? Try to be as specific as possible. • Did anything surprise you? If so, what? • What more, if anything, would you still like to know about the lecturer’s findings? • What do you think the connections are with Educational Leadership? • Can you see how strands from the talk might inform your own research or professional practice in future?

3. Activity: reviewing the Guest Lecture (2) Would you describe the lecture as ‘research-based’? If so, how do you know? Working as a group, make a list of all the features of the lecture which made you think it was based on research evidence. Is there anything else, not on your list, which would identify a piece of work as research-based?

4. Activity: reviewing the Guest Lecture (3) Now consider the literature you read in preparation for today. Did any part of those texts lead you to think that the material might be the product of research? Do you need to add any more factors to your list of research features? With all the factors you have accumulated, revisit your earlier definition of research. Revise it if necessary. Write a final agreed version.

5. How do others define research? “The triumph of evidence over anecdote” (Mortimore, 1999). “A focused and systematic enquiry that goes beyond generally available knowledge to acquire specialised and detailed information, providing a basis for analysis and elucidating comment on the topic of the enquiry” (Johnson, 1994:3).

6. More definitions Bassey (1999:38) suggests: Research is systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which aims to contribute towards the advancement of knowledge and wisdom. It is ethical, sceptical and analytical (Robson, 2002) and “seeks to make a difference” (Kellett, 2005: 8).

7. Research follows a process The process starts with research questions, which hopefully will be answered by the end of the project. For a short research project like your case study (IE9D3), you will need to pick very tightly framed questions. However, before you do that, you need to do some critical reading!

8. MA in Educational Leadership (Teach First) Induction and Teaching Day 1 – 2017 Module: Improving Schools (IE9D3) Leadership, Distributed Leadership, Teacher Leadership

9. Session Aims: • Understand the challenge of defining ‘leadership’ • Understand and critique the concepts of distributed leadership and teacher leadership • Consider how and where to look for evidence of distributed leadership and teacher leadership • Consider issues of transferability of leadership concepts from different contexts

10. What is “Leadership”? (1) “The action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2015, online). Leadership is conceptualised in many different ways. Yukl (2002) says these are arbitrary, subjective, differ in usefulness and none of them is necessarily right! However, Yukl (2002) also says that most definitions include the idea that it is about the exertion of influence by ‘one person [or group] over other people [or groups] to structure the activities and relationships in a group or organisation’ (p3).

11. What is “Leadership”? (2) Bush (2011) suggests educational leadership can be conceptualised in terms of six kinds of models: formal models, collegial models, political models, subjective models, ambiguity models and cultural models. Bush devotes a chapter to each of these groups and then compares them, considering ‘their validity for for particular types of school or college’ (p xii). The rest of this session looks at two concepts of leadership in schools which are currently popular.

12. Distributed Leadership is… “Harnessing and enhancing of the skills and knowledge of all those within an organisation to create a common culture that functions positively and effectively” (Harris, 2005b: 258). “… stretched over individuals in schools in a variety of ways that vary depending upon the particular leadership tasks and situations” (Spillane et al., 2004: 28). But are these phenomena unique to distributed leadership?

13. Distributed Leadership “The latest fashionable idea… … despite its “chameleon-like quality” (Harris, 2007: 315).

14. Distributed Leadership • Bennett et al. (2003) identified three key elements within the concept of distributed leadership: • an emergent property of a group or network of interacting individuals, rather than leadership of a single individual, • openness of the boundaries of leadership, • varieties of expertise deployed widely, with initiatives launched, adopted, developed, adapted and improved by many different individuals “within a mutually trusting and supportive culture” (p7).

15. Distributed Leadership So… • Leadership flows back and forth over different people at different times; • Everyone in the organisation participates. • Very prevalent/popular concept in compulsory schooling, especially with NCSL/NCTL.

16. Distributed Leadership • Plenty of literature about it in schools, including Spillane et al. (2004), Harris (2007), Hargreaves & Fink (2008), Hartley (2009), Woods & Gronn (2009), Bush & Glover (2012). • Less prevalent in HE but see Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (2004), Bolden et al. (2008) and Mercer (2009). • There are many models of distributed leadership. On the next slide we look at just one of these.

17. Six types of distributed leadership (MacBeath, 2005) • Formal • Pragmatic • Strategic • Incremental • Opportunistic • Cultural

19. Teacher Leadership • No agreed definition of Teacher Leadership • Teacher leaders help colleagues improve their practice, through action research, coaching, mentoring, induction, CPD etc. and by encouraging a collegial non-threatening atmosphere (Harris, 2005a). • Helps the school embed reform (Harris, 2005a: 208). • Improves the classroom practice and self-esteem of the teacher leader (Harris, 2005a: 209). • May improve student outcomes if teaching quality improves (Harris, 2005a: 210).

20. Activity: Research activities in groups, to answer the research question: How widely is leadership distributed in our schools and colleges? Half the class will collect and collate evidence about distributed leadership, the other half will collect and collate evidence about teacher leadership.

21. Feedback and discussion Our research question: How widely is leadership distributed in our schools and colleges? How accurately do you think we have answered it? • Can we make a precise evaluation of our data? • Can we make a fair guess based on our data? • Could we make recommendations for wider distribution of leadership in our schools based on our data? • What does this tell us about collecting research evidence?

22. Barriers to Teacher Leadership • (Harris, 2005a) • Teacher leaders may feel uncomfortable taking the lead, and colleagues may not follow them • Top-down leadership restricts teacher autonomy • Lack of trust • Poor interpersonal relationships

23. Facilitators of Teacher Leadership (Harris, 2005a) • Providing teachers with leadership training • Providing a structured programme of collaboration • Developing a climate of trust • Encouraging experimentation, especially action research

24. Teacher Leadership will remain just a management strategy as long as: • the purposes of education are imposed from outside by governments, global financial institutions like the World Bank and management consultants like PriceWaterhouseCoopers; • students are treated as “objects” to be worked on; • the hierarchical nature of schooling remains intact and power is not distributed.

25. Can leadership concepts (and research findings) be transferred into education from other contexts? In education there is currently much ‘borrowing’ of literature from the business sector, e.g. Yukl (2002) mentioned earlier! Is this entirely unproblematic? Activity: see handout Compare Collins’ (2001) typology of leadership with the ideas of MacBeath (2005) and Harris (2005a).

26. Looking at your school’s policy and practice… (1) • Who/what facilitates teacher leadership in your school? • What barriers to teacher leadership are there in your school? • Why do Fitzgerald and Gunter (2008:337) claim that “teacher leadership is a seductively functionalist way in which teacher commitment to neo-liberal reform has been secured”? Do you agree or disagree? What is your evidence?

27. Looking at your school’s policy and practice… (2) • Would your school benefit from distributing leadership more widely? Why/why not? • How might your school achieve more widely distributed leadership? What would need to change?

28. MA in Educational Leadership (Teach First) Induction and Teaching Day 1 - 2017 Module: Improving Schools (IE9D3) Afternoon session: What is a case study?

29. Session Aims: • Understand why case study is a research approach (not a method) • Understand the unique features of case study

30. What is a case study? Discuss with a partner: Can you define ‘case study’? Has any of the research discussed so far today been something you would call a case study? Why/ why not?

31. Case Study “A case study is an enquiry which uses multiple sources of evidence. It investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (Johnson, 1994:20).

32. Case Study – an example Have a look at the hand-out (Pyburn, 2006). • What features of this small-scale research project make it a case study? • In what ways do you think it might be typical of a case study? [If you have time, try applying Wallace & Poulson’s analytical criteria to Pyburn’s work.]

33. Features of Case Study • A case study looks at what Bassey (1999) calls a singularity, e.g. one school, one classroom, one event in time; • A “bounded system” (Cresswell, 1996:36), limited in both time and space; • More than one source of information to get an in-depth picture; methodological triangulation and/or respondent triangulation; • Deep, but not very broad.

34. A case study is an empirical enquiry which is: • Conducted within a localised boundary • Interesting enquiry into aspects of an educational activity, programme, institution, system • In its natural context and within an ethic of respect for persons • To inform judgements and decisions of policy-makers and practitioners (or theoreticians) • Collecting sufficient data for the researcher to be able to: • Explore significant features • Create plausible interpretations • Test trustworthiness of these • Construct a worthwhile argument or story • Relate argument or story to relevant research in the literature • Conveys convincingly to an audience the argument or story • Provide an audit trail for other researchers to validate or challenge findings or construct alternative arguments Bassey (2007:143)

35. Case study = research approach, not a method • Natural activity, systematically recorded • Methods of collecting data are chosen to fit the case (see slide 8) • Using more than one method enables a researcher to triangulate findings

36. Possible sources of evidence • Archival records/policy documents • Direct observation • Interviews • Participant observation • Physical artefacts • Questionnaires (There are more, but all of these would be suitable and likely to be accessible for social science research in a school)

37. Collecting data for a case study Methods will be discussed in depth on the next Teaching Day, but for now think about: • Methods should be ‘fit for purpose’, not just a personal choice. How might the purpose be clarified? • Methods may well be derived from reading literature about the topic. Borrowing someone else’s methods – with proper attribution – has benefits. What might these be?

38. Benefits of getting ideas from literature • Someone else’s methods have been used at least once before, and hopefully ‘debugged’. • We can learn from the experience of previous researchers (their successes and failures). • Our own tiny sample of evidence from a single case can be compared with the findings of others.

39. Disadvantages of getting ideas from literature • Someone else’s methods may not fit our context • Someone else’s research may be dated, i.e. overtaken by more recent findings • Using someone else’s work is plagiarism unless…?

40. Advantages of a case study approach • Allows in-depth investigation • Copes with complexity • Provides a ‘rounded’ picture (from the multiple sources of evidence, and if qualitative in nature) • Methodological triangulation is ‘built-in’ • Findings are often easily understood • Good fit with small-scale research and a single researcher in a short period of time

41. Disadvantages of a case study approach • Lack of ‘rigour’ • Lack of ‘generalizability’ – findings might be unique to the case • May generate a large quantity of data • Access may be uneven • Can be demanding of researcher’s time (in terms of both data collection and interpretation/ analysis)

42. One more feature of your case study Like Pyburn, you will be an insider researcher, i.e. researching your own school. What challenges might this throw up? The recommended follow-on tasks from today include considering being an insider-researcher (Mercer, 2007) and reading the BERA (2011) guidelines for ethical research.

43. Things to ponder (1) • Case studies are complex and require careful planning and field work flexibility • Insider research may be problematic (for participant(s) and researcher). These should be carefully considered, especially in terms of ethics. • Using more than one method is desirable, but that adds a lot to planning time. For your assignment, you will have to balance the benefits of multiple methods against the disadvantages of preparing more than one, and decide your approach accordingly.

44. Things to ponder (2) We advise against choosing your research topic immediately. On the November Teaching Day we will look at methodology and methods, which will help you to frame your choice and draft your research proposal. This document will be submitted on the 8th December. The best next step is to do as much reading as you can. Please see the ‘homework’ sheet for guidance. It covers the subject of today’s lecture, today’s topics, and pre-reading in preparation for the next Teaching Day.

45. MA in Educational Leadership (Teach First) Induction and Teaching Day 1 - 2017: Final plenary

46. What to do between now and the next Teaching Day The homework sheet has four tasks: • Follow-up reading for the guest lecture • Follow-up reading from the induction day topics • Pre-reading in preparation for the next guest lecture • Further guidance on ethical issues for your case study • Wider reading around relevant leadership, management and policy issues.

47. A busy teacher’s approach to choosing reading for Task E • Consider your school/department/year phase. What are the current priorities? Make a list. • Consider your interests in teaching, e.g. what you would like to know more about/do better. Make a list. • Think about the day’s activities. What topics/authors might you want to explore a little further? Make a list. • Compare your lists. Are there any overlaps? • Review the recommended reading for Task 4. Select six or seven topics from your lists (choosing one or more from each list) to pursue.

48. A busy teacher’s guide to doing Task E • Read the source for each topic chosen. Use the Wallace & Poulson guidance. • Follow up with a keyword search in the online journals available through the university library. Start by limiting the search to the last 3 – 5 years: go further back later if necessary. • Always read the Abstract for an article first. Discard at that point if not obviously what you wanted! • Keep full references for your reading. (You might want to set up a bibliography. There are software packages for this: the University Library offers Endnote Online, another which can be downloaded free is Mendeley).

49. Feedback You will be sent a link to an online feedback form for today. Please respond to it as soon as you get the link, because; • we use feedback when preparing materials for the next teaching day, and • it is discourteous not to give feedback quickly to our Guest Lecturers. Password: October

50. So, what’s next? • Time to enrol! • Any questions about today? Email your course leader or your individual seminar tutors. • Is this course not for you right now? No problem, just email Paula Clarke-Bennett. Whatever you decide, please give us some feedback! Hope to see you in November!