Sustainable Recruitment: Time to change the way we appoint Headteachers?
Bethany Kelly
The Open University UK
I have been working in education for over twenty-five years. My first degree in Theology was from the University of Durham, I have a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Management, and at time of writing have just submitted my educational doctorate with the Open University on leadership, identity and gender. Teaching posts have taken me to different parts of the country, to boarding and day schools, and mixed and single-sex schools.
After 10 successful years of middle management, I moved into senior leadership with two deputy headships covering both pastoral and academic responsibilities. Leaving teaching to complete the educational doctorate enabled me to focus on certain aspects of educational leadership. Particular areas of interest in recent years have included mentoring PGCE trainee teachers and NQTs, staff development, delivering training for teachers around the country and abroad, establishing leadership groups and beginning to research my own work on women, leadership and identity. This has led to my current work as the Assistant Director of Teacher Training at the University of Buckingham. As the UK's largest teacher training provider, we work with over 600 PGCE teachers in schools each year.
Abstract
Recruiting Headteachers in the UK continues to be a challenge. News articles over the past few years have highlighted different problems with the recruitment of Headteachers. The route to headship is often considered a... [ view full abstract ]
Recruiting Headteachers in the UK continues to be a challenge. News articles over the past few years have highlighted different problems with the recruitment of Headteachers. The route to headship is often considered a mysterious, arbitrary and often unattractive process. Behind the headlines are stories of increased pressure on the head’s role from an ever-changing educational landscape and as a result it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit for these posts. It is also challenging for a first time applicant to find ways to convey their leadership potential, via a selection process that has barely changed for over twenty years. In the light of leadership identity theory, I have reviewed the recruitment and selection process of Headteachers, questioning its suitability for being able to spot leadership potential in applicants. I have examined the dual aspect of both the recruitment and the selection of Headteachers and researched both aspects of the process from the perspectives of those applying, as well as those carrying out the recruitment. I was able to identify some ways in which the shift in perception, of what the role of Head entails, has permeated the recruitment process.
My main findings suggest that certain models of leadership are communicated more effectively through the recruitment process than others, that the level of support available for aspiring Headteachers is hit and miss, depending upon their school context, and that the recruitment process would benefit from an integration with the language of leadership identity. This involves an examination of both the internal and external shift that goes on within teachers to make them consider applying for a leadership post in the first instance. Unless we adapt our approach it could well be that it gets harder to recruit Headteachers who able to cope with the demands of the post today. This adaptation of approach has ramifications not only for current recruitment practices, but also for teacher training, as well as the standards of teaching themselves.
Authors
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Bethany Kelly
(The Open University UK)
Topic Area
Completed Research
Session
S7C » Theatre Presentation (09:00 - Sunday, 8th July, Lancaster 6)
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