Christopher Rhodes

Academic and Social Integration in Higher Education: A Survey of Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction within a First-Year Education Studies Cohort at a New University.

A survey of student satisfaction and dissatisfaction was undertaken within an undergraduate education studies cohort at a new university in the English Midlands. The cohort included both ‘traditional’ and ‘non‐traditional’ students and represented an increasingly typical ‘widened’ community of students within higher education. This student‐ informed survey enabled expression of facets of experience which were found to be deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying by the cohort and which also had the potential to impact upon their academic and social integration. The cohort was asked to link facets found deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying to the likelihood of their retention and degree completion or the likelihood of their exit from the institution. Themes emerging were concerned with teaching and learning, debt and money worries, workload and support. Many of the facets identified fall within institutional control and can be managed in order that both ‘traditional’ and ‘non‐traditional’ students may achieve integration, maintain their personal vision and be retained. The survey methodology employed can be adapted to accommodate contextualization within other higher education institutions. It is suggested that engagement with such survey methodology represents investment in both institutional, educational and financial health.

Coaching, mentoring and peer-networking: challenges for the management of teacher professional development in schools

Abstract School performance and school improvement are in the spotlight. A plethora of policy driven initiatives including the prescription of standards, enhanced self-management opportunities, organisational restructuring, professional development of staff and statutory interventions, such as literacy development, have underlain the pressure and support offered by government to raise standards in schools. Coaching, mentoring and peer-network mechanisms, which have had prevalence outside education, are being seen as important within education as a means of assisting the raising of standards and attainment. This article concerns itself with the use of coaching, mentoring and peer-network mechanisms in schools as a means to enhance professional development, embed changed practice and encourage the transmission of teacher learning to pupil learning within classrooms. The potential benefits of the deployment of such mechanisms within schools are reviewed, and the article highlights management issues within schools likely to emerge should individual schools adopt or give additional prominence to the use of such mechanisms as a means to enhance professional development

The Linkage of Continuing Professional Development and the Classroom Experience of Pupils: barriers perceived by senior managers in some secondary schools

Abstract The work reported in this article forms the first part of an extended study to elucidate linkages between continuing professional development and the classroom experience of pupils. It serves to place in context the current pressures and support offered by policy-makers to ensure firm linkage between professional development and the raising of standards and attainment in individual schools. The perceptions of senior managers from 15 secondary schools are explored with respect to such linkage, and their views concerning barriers to organisational translation of professional development into improved pupil performance are elucidated. In engaging the views of senior managers, possible sources of weakness in the transfer of teacher learning to classrooms are identified. Although senior managers represent only one group of stakeholders within individual schools, the work provides suggestions for possible actions as a basis for further study concerning the individual learning of teachers and its transmission into enhanced learning for all pupils.

The identification, development, succession and retention of leadership talent in contextually different primary schools: a case study located within the English West Midlands

This article explores head teacher and middle leader perceptions of leadership talent identification, development, succession and retention in 12 contextually different urban primary schools. The schools are located within a single local education authority in the English West Midlands. The study is constructed to inform the research agenda in the face of a looming leadership recruitment and retention crisis in the UK and overseas. Outcomes of the study tentatively indicate both agreement and discordance between features of leadership talent thought important by head teachers and the features some middle leaders perceive that need to be demonstrated in order to progress. Succession planning in the sample schools appeared unstructured, although the contextual issue of size appeared to offer some interesting possibilities for smaller schools. The journey of transition towards a professional identity of ‘leader’ is considered. This journey appears to represent a potential barrier for some middle leaders as they consider senior leadership. It is suggested that overcoming shortfalls in aspirant leader learning trajectories appears to reside largely in the hands of their head teachers on a day-to-day basis.

Leadership Talent Identification and Development: Perceptions of Heads, Middle Leaders and Classroom Teachers in 70 Contextually Different Primary and Secondary Schools in England.

This article reports on outcomes from a study funded by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) designed to explore leadership talent identification, development, succession and retention in contextually different primary and secondary schools in England. Focus groups and a questionnaire were used to secure perceptions of heads, middle leaders and classroom teachers about leadership talent identification and development. Twenty characteristics indicative of leadership talent were identified. Agreement and disjuncture were recorded concerning the importance of characteristics among respondent groups. The implications of these findings for leadership development and succession, in the face of a potential leadership crisis in the UK and internationally, are discussed. The longer-term career planning of staff, the place of needs analysis, self-disclosure and senior leadership decision-making are examined with respect to leadership talent identification and development. The article offers a basis upon which schools can reflect on their role in providing a good training ground for future leaders. School-based changes are recommended so that individual schools longer-term leadership requirements may be better addressed.

The impact of leadership and management on the construction of professional identity in school learning mentors

This paper explores the perceptions of school learning mentors with respect to their professional development and emerging professional identity. Although tentative, the emergence of two distinct professional identities is reported in this study: first, an instrumental technical identity characterized by compliance; and second, a creative professional identity characterized by an active involvement in the creation of one’s own professionality. Emerging differences in identity appear to be influenced by feelings of security in school learning mentors’ role definition and sense of purpose and by the power differential they perceive between themselves and qualified teaching staff. The findings have implications for the present workforce remodelling agenda in England and Wales, intended, in part, to facilitate the work of teachers via greater professionalization of learning support assistants. It is suggested that the leadership and management of schools hosting learning mentors and other learning support assistants should further consider their approach to the professionality of this important group of workers if frustrated identity claims, dissatisfaction, poor morale and their exit from the education service is to be avoided.

Leadership development and school improvement

The chosen focus of this special issue is timely given the burgeoning international interest and investment in leadership development and school improvement. In many countries leadership and improvement have been closely linked and there is no doubt that this linkage has an international reach. Together, these articles review and extend some of the key tenets surrounding present understandings and prompt further consideration of the advancement of both the theoretical and empirical agenda for leadership development and school improvement in the future. The collection offers insights into a variety of contemporary issues including access, equity and entitlement, the linkage of work‐based and formal leadership learning, the distribution of learning opportunities, the development of inclusive leadership to serve the diverse communities that schools accommodate, the transition to headship and nature of central government policy directives that drive leadership development and school improvement. Perception of what constitutes an effective expression of leadership in schools is judged in relation to stakeholder requirements and expectations. Interventions made by central government stakeholders to direct how school leaders are developed and what they are expected to do will foster the formation of particular identities, thinking and priorities for action. The themes of central control and local solutions emerge in the articles in this collection and highlight that the establishment of leadership development that is seen centrally as fit for purpose does not necessarily embody the thinking and creativity needed to address the local expression of school improvement. Whilst many blind spots remain and space limitations do not allow a full range of issues to be explored, the present collection offers both UK‐based and US‐based studies upon which an international audience may further reflect upon their own practices, opportunities and constraints and in so doing further define their own research priorities.

Growing the leadership talent pool: perceptions of heads, middle leaders and classroom teachers about professional development and leadership succession planning within their own schools

This article reports on outcomes from a study funded by the National College for School Leadership designed to explore the factors that assist in the leadership development of teachers at a number of stages of their career development. More specifically, the study sought to identify issues associated with leadership talent identification, development, succession and retention in contextually different primary and secondary schools in England. In the face of school leadership shortages in the United Kingdom and internationally, it has been suggested that leadership succession planning in individual schools can contribute to increasing the supply of successors as incumbent leaders leave their posts. Focus groups and a questionnaire were used to secure perceptions of heads, middle leaders and classroom teachers about leadership succession planning within their own schools. The study secures a better understanding of factors perceived either to aid or to hinder leadership succession planning across a sample of 70 schools. A variety of contextual, cultural and developmental influences on talent pool development and leadership succession planning are identified. The findings strongly indicate that a coherent and coordinated approach to leadership learning and development in individual schools, supported by incumbent senior leaders, is essential if succession planning is to be effective and the supply of able leaders entering the talent pool is to be increased.

Coaching and mentoring for self‐efficacious leadership in schools

– This article aims to propose a three‐stage framework for on‐going professional development of aspirant and incumbent heads that is designed to increase their own self‐efficacy. It is suggested that continuity and progression in self‐efficacy development can be addressed via processes pertaining to acculturation, assimilation and actualisation. The on‐going work of Fletcher augments this conceptual framework with a new approach to action research ensuring an evidence‐based foundation to the growth of self‐efficacy., – The article offers an analysis of existing research evidence in coaching, mentoring, talent management, leadership development and self‐efficacy to propose a framework useful in research and in the development of self‐efficacy that may help secure transition between the potential to lead and high performance in leadership incumbency in schools., – The article points to the importance of coaching and mentoring as potential scaffolds to create an appreciation of self‐efficacys value at all stages of the headship journey. It is suggested that active development of individuals self‐efficacy through mentoring and coaching relationships may serve to ensure that the loss of human potential of those who could lead but never completed the journey is reduced., – The article identifies new questions pertaining to the practice of high quality coaching and mentoring in the journey to leadership in schools and raises further questions pertaining to the conceptualisation of learning relationships and the interactions and feelings involved in such learning relationships., – This article suggests a phased approach, an integrated vision of mentoring and coaching for headteacher development that can span their professional lifetime. This generative approach is what distinguishes the authors’ proposal from others. An emphasis is placed on self‐study integrated in an Appreciative Inquiry approach, however, the authors’ proposal goes further in that they have realised that aspirant headteachers should be taught how to undertake self study integrated with action research not only for their own benefit as they journey towards incumbency but also so that they can become coach and mentor for others; for their staff, pupils and other aspirant headteachers.

Changing times, changing lives: a new look at job satisfaction in two university Schools of Education located in the English West Midlands

This article reports on the outcomes from an initial study to explore the job satisfaction of academics in the light of changes in higher education in the UK. The study is placed in relation to attendant concerns that the job satisfaction, motivation and morale of academic staff may be being tested. A questionnaire and semi‐structured interviews were used to secure academics perceptions from two Schools of Education located within chartered and statutory universities in the English West Midlands. Thirty facets perceived important in impacting upon job satisfaction were identified and from these, key facets deemed either deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying to academics were established. These key facets have the potential to impact upon academic’s motivation and morale as well as their job satisfaction. A typology based on the balance between key facets is presented as a means to enable manager‐academics to further reflect upon possible actions within their Schools and institutions. The study captures insights relevant to informing the future research agenda and highlights the possible consequences of a laissez‐faire stance to these important issues.