Senior leaders in the self-improving school system in England. Their perspectives on the sustainability of their positions and roles.

Simon Asquith

University of Birmingham, UK

Simon Asquith is Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes in the School of Education and Head of Education in the Department of Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham. He is also a student on the School of Education's EdD Programme. Simon has been a primary school teacher in Leeds, Bradford and Cumbria and has held lecturing positions at Liverpool Hope University and the University of Cumbria as well as the University of Birmingham. Whilst working in the university sector, and in addition to his present roles as above, he has directed undergraduate initial teacher education programmes, led provision in geographical and environmental education and led large and successful initial and continuing education partnerships. In connection with the latter roles, Simon has been National Chair of the Association for Partnership in Teacher Education and has fulfilled national responsibilities with the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers.Simon's research interests are associated with senior and executive leader positioning and perspective within the developing self-improving school system in England. His research is particularly contextualised within and across structures including academy trusts and Teaching School Alliances and roles including, for example, that of National Leader in Education. It involves him in purposive sampling of key players and actors within these systems as well as analysis of attendant discourses. Simon links his research interests and findings to his teaching on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within the School of Education at the University of Birmingham.

Abstract

System change in school-age education in England, and continued assumptions regarding the system being increasingly school-led, place particular expectations and put particular pressures on senior and 'executive' leaders within it. This small-scale research continues a focus by the researcher on leaders within and across Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) and Teaching School Alliances (TSAs). Via open, conversational semi-structured interviews with MAT Chief Executive Officers, Executive Headteachers and leaders of TSAs, data has been generated that provides insight on these leaders' views on matters such as: sustainable size and shape of such bodies; sustainability of regional and cross-regional mechanisms; resilient and effective partnership mechanisms; effective and proven in-Trust and/or Alliance systems and roles, and importantly; characteristics of leaders within these systems who 'stay the test of time'.

Drawing on and continuing with theoretical perspectives from earlier work - particularly those offered by Pierre Bourdieu (1980; 1989) and by Yrjö Engeström's Activity Theory (1999; 2004) - I consider how participants' responses chime with recent discussions regarding the demands required of school leaders in the contemporary and developing school system, and particularly notions if intensification of role, leadership for learning and collaboration within the developing self-improving school system (Earley and Greany 2017).

Personal and revealing perspectives are shared regarding the characteristics necessary in contemporary school leaders, with some emphasis on participants' own personal histories and with some reflections on phenomena such as 'loneliness' and 'fear', but also on relevant, positive virtues and values and particularly on partnership and collaborative working. Reflections are captured and explored on where in the 'system' these participants see the greatest opportunities for sustainable system leadership and how these do or don't chime with other contemporary evidence and discourse.

Bourdieu, P. (1980) Le Sens Pratique. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. (In translation - The Logic of Practice (1992) London: The Polity Press.)

Bourdieu, P. (1989) Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory. 7(1): 14-25

Earley, P. & Greany, T. (2017) The future of leadership In: Earley, P. & Greany, T. (Eds.) School leadership and education system reform. London: Bloomsbury. 222-228

Engeström, Y. (1999) Innovative learning in work teams: Analysing cycles of knowledge creation in practice. In: Engeström, Y., Miettinen, R. & Punamäki , R-L. (Eds) Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Engeström, Y. (2004) New forms of learning in co-configuration work. Journal of Workplace Learning. 16(1/2): 11-21.

Authors

Simon Asquith (University of Birmingham, UK)

Topic Area

Project

Session

S6C » Theatre Presentation (15:20 - Saturday, 7th July, Lancaster 6)

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