Middle Leadership in Schools

A Practical Guide for Leading Learning

Peter Grootenboer, Christine Edwards-Groves, Karin Rönnerman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000051186
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Middle leading refers to those teachers that both teach and have leadership roles, and thus can bridge the gap between the practices of learning and the managemant of schooling. Focusing on the practices of middle leaders, this book addresses the current lack of support and professional development for middle leaders in educational settings.

Middle Leadership in Schools positions middle leaders as professional leaders, and an integral part of educational and professional development in schools and other educational institutions. Drawing on empirical research spanning four countries, this book provides readers with a conceptual framework to understand middle leading and shows how middle leading practices unfold in real educational contexts. This is a valuable resource that goes beyond a theoretical conversation about middle leaders to provide readers with practical applications based on extensive research undertaken by the authors. The book is divided into seven chapters, each of which include reflective discussion questions and recommended readings to promote collaborative engagement with the text. Chapters cover topics such as how middle leading is shaped in practice, its role in professional development and its impact on schools.

Illustrating to middle leaders how they can develop their leadership skills, the book will also be of interest to school principals and other senior leaders as a guide to supporting their middle leaders.

1 Leading from the middle

Introduction

Leadership matters in education, and it matters at all levels and in all domains. We have known for a long time that leadership is important in education, and that good leadership is a critical factor in successful schooling. This assertion is grounded in almost half a century of research into educational leadership from across a range of countries and continents. However, while there is a plethora of literature on educational leadership, almost all of it is about principals and positional heads. But we know that in schools, and other educational institutions, leadership is not just the prerogative of the principal – there are many others who are leading the education in the school. It is these leaders who we want to address in this book, and to think about how their leading practices can be understood and developed. We describe these leaders as ‘middle leaders’. In the past middle leaders have not received as much attention in development and research forums, but their work in schools, with teachers, with students, and with principals are critical to the provision and development of education in schools, early childhood centres, vocational training colleges, and other educational institutions. It seems to us that middle leaders are generally offered little professional development, training, or support for their roles, and so here we want to provide some ideas that can fill that gap.

In this book we consider middle leaders as key agents in leading professional learning – curriculum and pedagogical development. They have an acknowledged position of responsibility in the school but they are also still practising as teachers in the classroom, and as a consequence of this work they are well-placed to understand and develop the core business of schooling – learning (here we mean both teacher learning and student learning). This is a role that is not as open to the principal because they are somewhat distant from the classroom; nor is it available to a classroom teacher alone who does not have the resources available to those in more leadership positions. Also, we do not think that we can simply use or apply the models and concepts that have been developed for principal’s leadership (e.g. distributed leadership) to understand the practices of middle leaders: they are fundamentally different. Middle leading requires a different kind of educational leadership. Therefore, in this book we want to specifically help middle leaders to understand their practices and roles, and to help them develop in their professions, because we believe that they are critical for ‘good’ education.

Before we move on, perhaps it is important to clarify a few terms:

• In this book we will usually use the term ‘school’, but we mean all forms of educational institutions – e.g. early childhood centres, primary schools, elementary schools, middle schools, secondary schools, vocational colleges, and university schools and faculties.
• Also, we often use the generic term ‘classroom’, but here we mean any site where formal learning and teaching occurs. This includes outdoor spaces, gymnasiums, laboratories, workshops, and even virtual and online spaces.
• We also will commonly use the term ‘principal’ to refer to the positional head of a school, noting that in different contexts these people may have different titles (e.g. headmaster, head of school, etc).
• Finally, we will often refer to ‘leading’ rather than ‘leadership’, and this is a deliberate attempt to focus on the practices of leaders (what they are doing, saying and how they are relating to others), rather than their positions or personal qualities per se. This idea will be discussed further in Chapter 2.

Of course, the key term we need to define here is ‘middle leader’; next we take some time to outline and discuss this important dimension of educational leading.

Who are middle leaders?

The terms ‘middle leader’ and ‘middle leading’ have recently become a little more prominent in systemic and educational rhetoric, and have been used to refer to two broad groups of practitioners. Hargreaves and Ainscow (2015) and Fullan (2015) use the term ‘middle leaders’ to refer to leading work undertaken at a regional level in large-scale reforms, while others direct its meaning towards middle management. This is where we differ. From our position, when we refer to middle leaders, we are referring to leaders in schools that have both an acknowledged leadership position AND some teaching responsibilities. We define it this way:

It is middle leaders who have some positional (and/or acknowledged) responsibility to bring about change in their schools, yet maintain close connections to the classroom as sites where student learning occurs. In one sense, middle leaders bridge the educational practices of ‘classrooms’ and the management practices of the administrators/leaders.

(Grootenboer, Edwards-Groves and Rönnerman, 2014, p. 509)

The critical point of difference in our thinking is that these education professionals, middle leaders, both lead and teach (students). This means for us, that middle leaders may have assorted titles and positions depending on the nature, type, size, and context of the school. In Table 1.1 below we outline some of the roles that could be considered as middle leaders, and ones that are not.

Table 1.1 Examples of middle leading roles and not middle leading roles

Middle leading roles	Not middle leading roles
Senior teacher Head of department Level coordinator Instructional leader Process leader Development leader Curriculum coordinator	Principal Systemic curriculum advisor School manager Vice principal

Although we offer these roles as examples, we are equally aware that the nature of the work of ‘middle leaders’ will vary depending on the size, structures, and organisational arrangements in different schools. In a very large school, the principal and several deputy principals may not have any regular teaching roles in the classroom, and therefore, they would not be middle leaders. However, in a smaller school, it may be that all the deputy principals also have a substantial teaching workload, and so they would be considered as middle leaders under our definition. Principals in rural and remote schools differ again since in their unique position they both have systemic leadership (management and administration) responsibilities and have a substantial teaching role, and so, in these circumstances may actually be considered a middle leader.

What we are clear on is that we are not talking about middle management, as this term for us has particular meanings and connotations that we are trying to avoid (ones often related to business models of education). As middle leader, Peita Lack, explained to us after she thought about how to develop her own middle leading practices:

The first thing I needed to do was to know who I was, and what my leadership style was. I knew I was good at what I did. I paid attention to detail, I worked in an orderly, conscientious way. I am task orientated and I strive to make astute decisions. But this was not leadership… this was management. So my first realisation was…. I was a Middle Manager NOT a Middle Leader. To move forward, I needed to consider what I was actually doing with and for the learning of the teachers and students in my school.

(Middle Leader, Peita Lack, 2018)

This is not to say that middle leading does not involve management per se, but rather to highlight that we focus specifically on professional learning, and any management would be directly related to facilitating such professional learning.

What is middle leading for?

A critical question for the middle leader is – what is middle leading for? Middle leading is an educational practice (in a broad sense); and like other educational practices it is part of the complex of education practices aiming for the formation and transformation of individuals and societies (this is described more fully in the next chapter). This broad purpose of education aims to support others (individuals and collectives) to live well in a world worth living in (Kemmis and Edwards-Groves, 2018). As Keith Basso reminds us (1996) in his work with Apache peoples, each one of us offers a different take on the significance of place for our lives and for our learning, for living well in a world worth living in. Conceptions of wisdom, manners, and morals, and of our own histories, experiences, and knowledges are inextricably intertwined with place – our own place, our ‘sense of place’. A central purpose for leading is to recognise and respond to the place, and to each individual teacher’s histories, experiences, and knowledges.

In education practice, therefore, middle leading primarily seeks to support place focused learning and development in schools – of teachers and of students. This is about learning and teaching to live well in a world worth living in through practices that form, reform, and transform. The middle leader does this by initiating teachers and students into thinking critically about: i) their histories, experiences, and knowledges; ii) their language, their actions, and their relationships; iii) what they are doing as they engage in new or developing activities; and iv) how they relate to others in ways that promote agency and solidarity. To do this, middle leaders must begin by asking of themselves particular kinds of searching questions; for instance:

1. Does the educational activity initiate teachers and students into forms of understanding that foster individual and collective self-expression: the capacity to understand our world, and to think and speak well? Does it model and help to secure a culture based on reason in the classroom, the school, and the community beyond?
2. Does the educational activity initiate teachers and students into modes of action that foster individual and collective self-development: the capacities to do the things we need to survive and thrive as biological beings and as people and communities, and to act well in the material and natural world, and in the economic life of the local and global communities? Does it model and help to secure a productive economy and a sustainable world in the classroom, the school, and the community beyond?
3. Does the educational activity initiate teachers and students into ways of relating to others and to the world that foster individual and collective self-determination, that is, democratic self-determination: the capacities to relate well to others and the world as social and political beings committed to democracy, justice, care, and compassion, for example? Does it model and help to secure a just and democratic society in the classroom, the school, and the community beyond?

(Kemmis and Edwards-Groves, 2018, p. 24)

For the middle leader, these kinds of broad theoretical questions solidify the base from which to act in purposeful ways in practices in places. These are questions that frame what can be asked of any educational formation or any educational innovation; and form a strong foundation that provides insight into the purposes of educational work. They are questions that challenge us all to reconnect with past practices as a platform to grow and change. As Kemmis and Edwards-Groves (2018) suggest, they are questions that:

open windows into education—to see how ways of doing education were formed and developed, and how they evolved and transformed over time, sometimes disappearing altogether. They also open windows out from education, to see how educational formations and innovations served or did not serve the interests of the cultures, economies and societies they intended to serve. They help to answer the question ‘To what extent does education mirror and to what extent does it shape societies?’ (It always does some of both.)

(p. vii)

This proposition is one that is not only important, but central for middle leading. It places at the centre of thought and action the need to consider both the broad purpose of education and its impact on individuals and societies, and the local happeningness of it as it is developed in schools and classrooms. Middle leading is part of the indivisible connection between practices and places. Leading education into successful futures is leveraged from a deep knowledge and strong sense of the current and past practices (in and of that place); for the middle leader, its purpose to facilitate teacher learning for student learning connects directly to these site-based knowledges and practices.

Middle leading

Now we have clarified who middle leaders are and the purpose of middle leading, we want to direct attention to outlining and discussing the practice of middle leading – what it is comprised of and how it can be understood. This is important because, as noted above, it is not the same as the leading of principals, and so we need new conceptual tools to explore this domain of educational leading.

After working with a range of middle leaders across different countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden) at different levels (early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary), we have distilled some of the key practices of middle leaders. These are presented as simultaneously practiced couplings: leading and teaching; managing and facilitating; and collaborating and communicating.

The practice of middle leading involves engaging in (simultaneous) leading and teaching by managing and facilitating educational development through collaborating and communicating to create communicative spaces for sustainable future action.

(Grootenboer, Rönnerman and Edwards-Groves, 2017, p. 248)

The key idea here is that middle leaders are always (or often) simultaneously engaging in leading and teaching, and that these two practices are interrelated; they are always (or often) simultaneously engaging in managing and facilitating professional learning, and that these two practices are interrelated; and they are always (or often) simultaneously engaging in collaborating and communicating, and that these two practices are interrelated.

Taking these broader practices together, middle leading is a deliberate educative practice that seeks to build individual and collective capacity and school-based coherence of site-based education development from, within, and beyond the middle, as its practices effectively and strategically extend in dialogic ways upward to the principal and executive leadership, and down and across to teachers in classrooms in pursuit of learning, development, and change.

The leading and teaching coupling highlights that middle leaders are both leading pedagogical and curriculum development in their particular site (e.g. department or group), and engaging in the same pedagogical and curriculum development in their own teaching. They cannot simply offer a course or workshop on a particular idea or approach ‘from a distance’, nor can they concern themselves only with their own classroom – they must be intimately involved in both, and in an integrated way. This may well involve...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Leading from the middle: words from a middle leader
• 1. Leading from the middle
• 2. Practices and practice architectures of middle leading
• 3. School-based professional learning and development
• 4. Relating, trust, and dialogic practice in middle leading
• 5. Evidence-informed development
• 6. Middle leading in practice
• 7. Middle leading as a practice-changing practice
• Appendix 1: Facilitating teacher reflection: questions and strategies
• Appendix 2: Interactive strategies for facilitating focused reflection, rich discussion, and critical thinking
• Appendix 3: Questions to guide evidentiary talk in professional learning conversations and for individual self-reflection
• Appendix 4: Conversation transcription conventions
• Appendix 5: Supporting a dialogic approach: an example from the field – teacher reflection questions
• Appendix 6: Learning together through action-oriented professional learning: a guide to collaborative peer coaching in the classroom setting
• Index