Christopher Day, University of Nottingham, UK christopher'daynottingham'ac'uk

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Christopher Day, University of Nottingham,
UKchristopher.day_at_nottingham.ac.uk
Successful Principals in Times of Change
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• The Standards Agenda

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• i) Shaping the Future
• ii) Leading Learning and Teaching
• iii) Developing Self and Working with Others
• iv) Managing the Organisation
• v) Securing Accountability
• vi) Strengthening Community
• (DfES, 2004)

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• Social Trends

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ISSLP Participants

• 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

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ISSLP Objectives

• 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.

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ISSLP Objectives (ctd)

• 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.

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ISSLP Project Phases

• 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)

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ISSLP Methods

• Interview and questionnaire based study
• Principals complete biographical and career
  questionnaires
• Intervies, over 2-3 days (min), on school
  principals 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)

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ISSLP Methods (ctd)

• Interviews based on semi-structured schedules
  covering
• Pupil population and challenges presented
• School Ethos
• School success and principals 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

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Selection of Schools

• 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)

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• Questions

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What successful leaders look like

• Beyond transformational leadership
• Values-led, achievement-oriented,
  people centred
• Contingency driven managing tensions
  and dilemmas
• Reflection
• Training and Development

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Effective Headteachers Values led

• 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

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Effective Headteachers Values led (ctd)

• 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.

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Origins UK

• 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

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Ten Areas For Success

• 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

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Three Key Themes

• 1. Moral purpose and social justice
• 2. Organisational expectation and learning
• 3. Identity, trust and passionate commitment

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• Moral purpose and social justice

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• Organisational expectation
• and learning

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• Identity, trust and
• passionate commitment