3 Inclusive leadership for professional development in context
Learning and professional development are always situated within relationships. These in turn can be part of formal and informal processes. For instance, the study mentioned above (Flores & Kyere, 2021) tells of a school leader who learned the value of getting new parents to laugh early in meetings (so as to break down walls between them and the institution). He had learned this not from formal training, but from watching a principal when he was a young teacher working in an alternative setting. The relationships which school leaders and practitioners find themselves in are not just personal and physical either. They are also closely entwined with the policy context. For example, in Scotland (where professional growth through career-long professional learning is strongly embedded in school systems), school leaders and practitioners are expected to fully engage with social justice principles. These principles are, for instance, strongly in evidence in the Scottish professional standards. As a consequence, in the Scottish context, professional development can be seen as intertwined with social justice for all. Such an expectation is not as simple as it might appear however, since people generally have different understandings of what social justice means (Thomas et al, 2019). It also puts considerable pressure on those school leaders, because to be effective in supporting individuals in their learning and development as professionals, school leaders need to be well connected (Jones, 2017b). To support social justice, therefore, they need to know what opportunities are available and have the resources to support their staff to engage in them.
Resolving such issues is made harder too because so much professional development is a top-down affair where teachers voices are secondary and the goals are decided by others; consider this tale from a professor who had returned to school to work as a teacher:
‘Having students record and (re)present their neighborhoods gave him many insights into his students lives. However, when he suggested that practice be shared during a professional development day at his school, administrators shot him down in favor of a focus on the literacy issue du jour’
As a consequence, individuals can find themselves unable to explore the issues that seem relevant to them and in ways that help them to unravel underlying challenges. It was as a response to this inability to explore relevant issues, that the first Inquiry to Action Groups were set up. (You read about a study that emerged from an Inquiry to Action Group in Activity 4). These were established to allow teachers to make connections between social justice issues and classroom practice, through the sharing of experiences, ideas and readings, alongside the development of plans of action. Contrast the experience of the former professor mentioned above with this one from a teacher at an Inquiry to Action Group:
‘There is a genuine concern for each other, for teachers and they can go and discuss something as simple as ‘how was your day,’ to abstract ‘let’s talk about this policy.’ There’s a place for the conversation and it feels authentic as opposed to a generic PD or some cliché workshops. There’s a sense of love I feel in the space which is something I don’t think we get to talk about enough.’
So, let’s explore how teachers feel when they are involved in one-to-one supportive professional development over an extended period of time. The following reading looks at teachers and student-teachers developing their practice over an extended period.
Activity 5 Shared moments?
Read Lofthouse, R. and Thomas, U. (2017) ‘Concerning collaboration: teachers’ perspectives on working in partnerships to develop teaching practices [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’, Professional development in education, 43(1), pp. 36–56.
Read from Findings p, 10 to the start of Discussion on p. 20. As you are reading think about and make notes about the following issues:
- The relationships between interviewees
- The nature of power between the interviewees and in the practices they discuss
- The feelings that the processes have encouraged
- What lessons from these personal interactions might be applied more widely in a leadership context?
Discussion
It was evident that this paper was focussing upon mainly positive experiences, but there were still clear examples of power relations at play, such as those emerging from student-teaching dyads and teacher & student-teacher dyads. But it was also clear that the process of professional development brought people together, without participants feeling judged. Noticeable by their absence were words such as exposed or humiliated! It was also interesting to see the recognition of risk taking that was being encouraged and supported, which allowed for new ideas to emerge and be explored. Evidently this was facilitated by people not feeling in competition nor formally evaluated, as in previous assessments and observations they had experienced. This removal of top-down control could also be why collaboration emerged when compulsion was removed. Another noticeable observation was of people talking about teaching whilst teaching. This suggests that people are relaxed with each other and very open to being flexible and responsive to others in the moment. This is particularly important because, being aware of moments is an essential aspect of inclusive practice. It is through everyday moments that schools impact on the experiences of adults and young people, in academic, physical, social and emotional contexts (Benjamin et al, 2003).
When reading this study, a model called the Leadership for Learning Framework (The Open University is not responsible for external content), came to mind (MacBeath & Dempster, 2008). This has 5 principles and emphasises moral purpose. The principles are not independent of each other, but are interrelated and complementary. They can be summarised as:
- Everyone is a learner. Learning is context based, involving social, emotional and cognitive processes. Learning enables and arises from leadership.
- Cultures, physical spaces, social spaces, tools and strategies, and having opportunities to reflect are central to creating favourable learning conditions.
- Dialogue about leadership should make practices explicit, develop shared understanding, shared values and explore different perspectives
- Leadership should be shared in the day-to-day flow of activities, drawing upon people’s expertise whatever their role or position, allowing all people to be leaders and participants in learning communities.
- Accountability should feel shared, involving self-evaluation, drawing upon evidence and its relation to the school’s core values, with attention paid to sustainability and legacy.
Such a moral, situated set of principles, which recognises the importance of the context, seems a useful reference point for those who are concerned about how top-down processes and hierarchical power structures can negatively impact on people’s ability to engage with professional development. It also seems relevant when we are considering such activity beyond the level of individuals and as part of a wider organisational activity.
So, let’s explore this a bit more, by reflecting upon these kinds of processes when applied across schools within a local cluster.
Activity 6 Is co-operation about ongoing learning?
Read this chapter about the development of an 8-school co-operative in the UK: Swaffield, S. and Major, L. (2019) ‘Inclusive educational leadership to establish a co-operative school cluster trust? Exploring perspectives and making links with leadership for learning’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(11), pp. 1149–1163.
Read from Interviews with headteachers and governors to the end of the chapter (p1157–p1162) (In this chapter the acronym LfL stands for the Leadership for Learning framework outlined above)
As you are reading make notes about the following questions.
- In what ways is this organisational process, a process of:
- relationship building
- learning
- professional development?
- Can you see the principles from the Leadership for Learning framework in action?
Discussion
It seems evident that this process is inextricably linked with the three issues mentioned in the blurb above. It also seemed that the ways in which the leaders set about changing their cultures and ways of working reflected the framework. It began with a unified understanding on behalf of the headteachers and governors. They had been aware that without this trust, their collaboration was potentially fragile and unsustainable, being reliant on a few key people. In setting up the trust, there had been a meeting of all the governors and a mapping of all existing collaborations, followed by a meeting of school leaders and other stakeholders to make their shared values and vision explicit. This included setting up democratic processes in which each school had one vote, so that no single voice could dominate, and they could maintain school identities. They also shared information about pupil enrolment and finances. At the outset the head teachers had a slightly more predominant role to ensure coherence across schools, but more collaborative ways of working developed over time. Whole trust working groups and networks were established and individuals could play a leading role across all schools based on particular areas of expertise or interest, with professional expertise being audited and made available to everyone. This included the expertise of teaching assistants, headteachers, governors and parents. Peer headteacher support had also become part of everyday practice as well as schools sharing bureaucratic tasks. The focus was upon specific needs, as well as joint professional development provision, workshops for governors, and learning days for families and community partners.
In this reading it was clear that the headteachers and governors greatly valued the collaboration between the 8 schools, and they saw the formation of the co-operative trust as an act of leadership that strengthened ways of working. This view of leadership is evident across many school contexts too. For example, a study in 3 secondary schools of Zimbabwe (Muresherwa & Jita, 2021), revealed a shared view of leadership as an equity-focused, collaborative, multidimensional, social activity. Similarly, a large-scale systematic review of research into leadership of sustainable Professional Learning Communities (Olmo-Extremera et al, 2023) concluded that:
- distributed leadership as part of collaborative teaching culture with a focus upon the emotional well-being of a whole community contributes towards school improvement.
- Leadership is not just about the school leader; everyone else in the school can exercise leadership, sharing responsibilities and be involved in horizontal and shared decision-making.
- A collaborative school culture enables teacher leadership and allows for professional networks and interrelationships to develop within or outside the school.
- Collaboration between schools, local institutions and families can support student learning and school functioning.
At the heart of such processes are the same kinds of issues which we explored in Activity 5. It requires people to feel they have a role to play, that their voice is valued and that the nature of the change matters to themselves and those around them.
So, let’s move on to consider this issue a bit more deeply, by looking at the role of the individual and how leaders can support them to collectively change their organisation.
