One of the benefits of conducting interviews was the opportunity for the participants to share other views and comments about collegiality. To this end, eleven of the participants were keen to offer additional comments and all of these were positive: collegiality “can be quite strong and it can work” (Participant 14); a collegiate approach
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could be “part of society‟s general culture to include people [so] everybody is on board” (Participant 15); “if people work together things will move forward” (Participant 5).
Participant 16 described the Senior Leadership Team as being “approachable … [who] make you feel valued” (Participant 16) and two participants believed that having a hierarchy was still necessary with Participant 14 saying “you need some hierarchy – it‟s human nature, I think people do”.
Two participants identified time as a key condition to collegiality being allowed to be successful. Participant 1 was passionate in this respect stating:
“As an organisation it requires a heck of an amount of time and commitment to permit it to take place rather than a few individuals being able to get together to discuss something” (Participant 1).
He stated that the „commitment‟ needed to be “sincere” which he defined as meaning: “No hidden agendas [and being able to explain how decisions] relate to teaching and learning rather than a personal gain of any sort.”
Participant 12 admitted being “a little bit sceptic” when she first joined the case study, but was “converted” and had moved from being a “leader in every department” to being a “facilitator”. Participant 9 commented on how he believes that the collegiality “ethos is very good” but not everyone had bought into the ethos. However staff members can change if they are exposed “to the benefits of [collegiality and you] get them to value other people” (Participant 9).
125 4.15 Summary of other comments
Once again, time and commitment have been identified as being of key importance to allow staff to work together effectively. The emotional intelligence to build relationships with colleagues and students is referred to, alongside that necessity for the SLT to be “approachable” (Participant 16). These relationships allow staff to work as a committed member of a team where they are valued and listened to, and where there are “no hidden agendas” (Participant 1). The recognition that a hierarchy is a given is identified by two participants, and the concept of the school structure evolving to meet the needs of students and the staff was also stated.
Table 23 below presents the findings from the additional comments made by eleven of the participants. The components/perceptions have been further summarised in Table 24 to mirror Denscombe‟s (2007) third stage of the qualitative analysis process, „interpreting the data‟, to further develop the emerging themes:
Components/Perceptions of collegiality as stated by eleven of the participants
Other comments Transparency Time Commitment Emotional intelligence Relationships SLT to be “approachable” (Participant 16) Feeling valued Being listened to Hierarchy is a given
The school structure evolving to meet the needs of students and the staff
Table 23: The findings from the additional comments made by eleven of the participants
126 4.16 Emerging themes
Table 24 below presents the emerging themes as a result of the additional comments made by eleven of the participants:
Opinions/Perceptions Emerging Themes
Transparency Commitment Assimilation: Transparency Commitment Time Emotional intelligence Relationships SLT to be “approachable” (Participant 16) Hierarchy is a given Systematisation: Hierarchy is a given Feeling valued Being listened to Self-efficacy: The school structure evolving to meet the
needs of students and the staff.
Educational Improvement and School Development:
An evolving school structure Table 24: Additions to the emerging themes as a result of the additional comments
made by eleven of the participants
The opinions and perceptions of the Middle Leaders as a result of the additional comments made by eleven of the participants add to the four emerging themes presented following Research Questions 1, 2, 3 and 4. One new component of Assimilation is being suggested along with one new component of Systematisation. Nothing is being added to Self-efficacy, and one new component is being suggested for Educational Improvement and School Development.
As a result of these additional comments, with the four emerging themes from Research Questions 1, 2, 3 and 4, being and feeling valued and being listened to was raised in Research Questions 1, 2 and 4 and has remained within the theme of Self-efficacy.
127 4.17 Concluding summary
This chapter has presented the findings of the seventeen interviews with Middle Leaders within the case study. The interview process resulted in many opinions as to the benefits of collegiality with participants being willing to talk about their views about collegiality including being articulate about barriers, and possible ways forward.
The interviews sought to explore the views of the Middle Leaders with regards to their:
understanding of the concept of collegiality;
whether they feel that collegiality is a conscious consideration in their work as a Middle Leader;
whether they think that other staff consider collegiality in their day to day work;
whether they felt collegiality had effected change and if so how;
whether collegiality has impacted on their views of leadership and if so, how;
the attributes which they feel are necessary for collegiality to be effective;
the conditions needed for collegiality to happen; and how people work together to make things collegiate;
reasons as to why staff work collegially;
advantages of working collegially;
the skills needed by teachers to deliver an education suitable for the 21st century and whether collegiality encourages the development of these skills and how;
what they feel a 21st century education should encompass and whether collegiality encourages the delivery of this education and how.
With the findings analysed, the themes and sub-themes can be seen in Table 25 below. These will be discussed in Chapter Five to address the four research questions:
Emerging Themes Assimilation: Transparency
Understanding of school ethos
Personal view of education matching the school ethos
Having the personal skills/attributes/qualities to fit in with the school ethos Having the child as a focal point in the school ethos
Conformity
128 Commitment
Systematisation:
Leadership for collegiality including emotional intelligence Strategic awareness
Developing others Valuing others The environment
Allowing failure and positive risk taking Forward thinking
Involvement
Development of team working skills
Utilising skills of new members of the teaching professio;
Students and staff working together to plan what to deliver and how Hierarchy is a given
Salary Self-efficacy: Self-belief Self-worth
The development of leaders Self-confidence
Developing repertoire of teaching and coping strategies Motivation Trust Reflective Honesty Bravery Feeing empowered Job satisfaction
Educational Improvement and School Development: Repertoire of teaching ideas and strategies
CPD
Giving responsibility and ownership Progress and results with a student focus
Opportunities and educational experience for students A clear vision of an education suitable for the 21st century Teacher fatigue
An evolving school structure Being forward thinking Innovation
Table 25: The four themes with sub-themes which will be discussed in Chapter Five
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