Misión: Adquirir, administrar, proveer y, cuando corresponda, asegurar el mantenimiento requerido, los bienes y servicios

In their extensive exploration of 3,700 references to explore the role and purpose of the middle leader, Bennett et al. (2003) found that there was “very little empirical work … that examined the influence of middle leadership on teaching and learning” (p. 1). They stated that:

Middle leaders occupy a pivotal position in relation to change and

restructuring in the education system … [and that] there are capacities at the middle leadership level to resist and/or creatively adapt change, and …this question of resistance and adaptation is intimately connected to interrelated issues of accountability, autonomy and professionality (p. 3).

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They present the issues of the perception of the Middle Leader role changing from Head of Department to Subject Leader through to Middle Leader for example and how there was still “reticence by middle leaders to exercise monitoring and evaluation of staff” (p. 4). This reticence to exercise monitoring and evaluation is lessened according to Bennett et al. (2003) when the:

recognition that everyone has something to learn from and something to teach their colleagues has the potential to deepen existing collegial practice and to move departments which do not reveal a culture of collegiality towards creating one (p. 7).

This is a pertinent comment with regards to this research. In his study of Middle Leaders in some secondary schools, Bushner (2005) considered professional identities and how Middle Leaders worked with others. His findings included that continuing to be an effective classroom practitioner is central to the Middle Leader‟s role and professional identity, and “that middle leaders preferred to facilitate collaborative cultures within their departments” (p. 148). The characteristics of these collaborative cultures included:

shared norms and values which were student centred, promoted equitable support to students, focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning to meet inclusively the needs of students, and fostered staff development (Bushner, 2005, p. 148).

In research conducted by Moore (2007), she explored „how‟ the Middle Leader leads his or her colleagues. She found that Middle Leaders used one of two strategies to secure change in “either an adoptive (top-down) or adaptive (bottom-up) approach” (p. 10). She outlined the three approaches used to secure change:

 staff beliefs and understanding of the initiative

 team composition

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This is interesting with regards to this research to some extent as these components match those presented in Table 1 (p. 35) with regards to collaborative leadership, and collegiality. It could be argued that staff beliefs and understanding of the initiative, links to the clarity of the aims and moral purpose of the initiative, and these are components within effective collaborative leadership and collegiality. Team composition is also vital to enable people to support each other and learn from each other. The third approach presented by Moore depends on the experience that teachers already have of a certain area, and calls for leaders:

to be mindful that different subjects have different needs and tensions that enable them to more (or less) readily embrace an initiative (p. 12).

It could be argued that these characteristics are all implicit in the concept of professionalism, a concept which is explored further below.

To summarise, it is accepted that the role of the Middle Leader is becoming increasingly complex with expectations on the Middle Leader to be an effective classroom practitioner, a person to turn to for support and guidance, a crucial link between senior leaders and classroom teachers, an advocate of the development of systems and the implementation of change coupled with the monitoring and evaluation of such. The Middle Leader is expected to always maintain the essential drive to improve teaching and learning keeping the student at the centre of all endeavours. The Middle Leader role in a school therefore is unquestionably vital, and for the Middle Leader to develop and lead an effective department, they themselves must be guided and supported.

42 2.15 Professionalism

Goodson and Hargreaves (1996) state that the concept of teachers becoming more professional was at the forefront of the educational reform experienced by teachers in England in the 1990s. They said that:

while aspirations for greater professionalism in teaching are admirable, what such professionalism might mean is often vague, unclear or contested (p. vii).

Goodson and Hargreaves (1996) also state that:

what it means to be professional, to show professionalism or to pursue professionalization is not universally agreed or understood (p. 4),

and they continue to identify five:

different overlapping discourses which carry different connotations of what it means for teachers to be professional (p. 4).

I have summarised these discourses in Table 2 below:

Discourse Origins Explanation/Possible disadvantages Classical

professionalism

Linked to the more masculine

occupations of law and medicine.

 Can let participants endorse and celebrate high status professionals‟ views of themselves.

 A specialist knowledge base.

 Teachers found experience and not scientific theory to be most useful in their work moving away from Classical Professionalism

 Classical professionalism does not lend itself to enable staff to embrace the changes of a postmodern society with a changing educational climate whereby accountability is becoming more of a key focus (this has been presented in this chapter).

Flexible

professionalism

The idea of shared professional community and cultures of collaboration.

 Discussion about teaching to enable improvement to begin.  Possible disadvantage has been a periphery of practice and

contrived collegiality (as explored in the first section in this chapter).

 Can work in a „local‟ context (e.g. within one school) whereby teachers work with common agreement and standards of practice for example.

 Fragmentation can occur if working practices are kept „local‟.

43 Practical

professionalism

The reflective nature of people judging their own work linked to practice.

 Shaped by teachers‟ personal knowledge, experience, purposes and values.

 Advocating that teachers are “knowledgeable and knowing persons” (p. 11).

 One possible disadvantage can be that the teacher‟s experience limits their belief that things are possible (for example peer assessment or AfL)

Extended (or „new‟)

professionalism

Teachers embracing the broader social context of education including CPD, and collaboration with parents, other staff and the students.

 A focus on outcomes.

 Teachers may feel constrained as a result of prescribed initiatives from the previous government.

 Disadvantages may include the demand of new initiatives, CPD and collective planning resulting, ironically, in the teachers spending less time with the students.

Complex professionalism Professions being judged on the complexities implicit within them.

 Appreciating that teaching is a complex role with an expectation on teachers to be “knowledgeable, experienced, thoughtful, committed, and energetic workers” (Devaney and Sykes, 1988, p. 20, in Goodson and Hargreaves, 1996, p. 17).  A potential hazard is that with increasing work complexity,

“complex professionalism … will simply become a synonym for teacher exploitation and burnout” (p. 19).

Table 2: Discourses presented by Goodson and Hargreaves (1996, pp. 4-19) about what it means for teachers to be professional

In their consideration of five discourses, Goodson and Hargreaves (1996) believe that “professionalism and professionalization can empower teachers or exploit them” (p. 20). They present a detailed list of what they believe teacher professionalism should, in a complex, postmodern age, be:

 Increased opportunity and responsibility to exercise discretionary judgement over the issues of teaching, curriculum and care that affects one‟s students;

 Opportunities and expectations to engage with the moral and social purposes and value of what teachers teach, along with major curriculum and assessment matters in which these purposes are embedded;

 Commitment to working with colleagues in collaborative cultures of help and support as a way of using shared experience to solve the ongoing problems of professional practice, rather than engaging in joining to work as a motivational device to implement the external mandates of others;

 Occupational heteronomy rather than self-protective autonomy, where teachers work authoritatively yet openly and collaboratively with other partners in the wider community (especially parents and students themselves), who have a significant stake in students‟ learning;

 A commitment to active care and not just anodyne service for students.

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as the cognitive dimensions of teaching, and also recognize the skills and dispositions that are essential to committed and effective caring;

 A self-directed search and struggle for continuous learning related to one‟s own expertise and standards of practice, rather than compliance with the enervating obligations of endless change demanded by others (often under the guise of continuous learning or improvement);

 The creation and recognition of high task complexity, with levels of status and reward appropriate to such complexity.

(pp. 20-21)

The third and sixth belief are pertinent to this research because the „working with‟ others in a supportive way and sharing experience, and the self-directed search for continuous learning which links with having a shared purpose are explicit within the conceptualisation of collegiality presented on p. 38.

Day and Smethem (2009) believe that Goodson and Hargreaves‟ (1996) conceptualisation of professionalism “remains relevant in this century” (p. 152). They cite Hargreaves‟ (2003) assertions that “principled professionalism is underpinned by strong values, beliefs and moral purpose” (Hargreaves, 2003, p. 131). This „principled professionalism‟, I suggest, builds on flexible professionalism and practical professionalism already presented above.

Considering the work by Hargreaves further, he joined with Shirley in 2009 to co-write the book „The Fourth Way: the inspiring Future for Educational Change‟. They contextualise the First, Second and Third ways as presented in Table 3 below:

45 The Way Components/Definition

The First Way

Innovation and Inconsistency

From the end of World War II to the mid-1970s when there was “enormous confidence in the ability of the state to solve social problems” (pp. 3-4).

Teachers in the more innovative schools had the “freedom to develop curricula to meet the varying needs of their students as part of a mission to change the world … [and schools] were smaller, unmotivated students left for employment and students who stayed wanted to learn … [but] there were huge variations in focus and quality” (p. 5). The profession was unregulated.

The Second Way

Markets and Standardization From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s.

“Vocational education came alive with new initiatives. Mentoring and tutoring programs for every individual student were the trailblazer of today‟s personalized learning” (p. 6).

Coherence was a key focus, and the national curriculum was introduced in 1988. “The passive trust of the First Way when parents respectfully handed their children over to teachers who were left to get on with the job was replaced in the Second Way by an active mistrust between parents and teachers” (p. 9).

“A new Way was needed in society and in education to restore professional energy and develop the higher levels of creative learning and skill development essential for competitive and cohesive knowledge societies “(pp. 11-12). Top-down pressure. “Greater competition and increased expectations, but at too great a cost to student learning, teacher motivation and leadership capacity in schools” (p. 12).

The Third Way

Performance and Partnership Including:

Performance targets kept from the Second Way. A “key measure being collecting five passes at Grade C or above “ (p. 15) at GCSE level;

Streamlined inspection process of schools;

Support staff put into schools to “relieve teachers from extraneous administrative tasks and other workload pressures” (p. 16);

Partnerships leading to academies “many in inner cities where their educational predecessors had been failing” (p. 16);

The NCSL started “as a central part of both capacity-building and change- management strategies in the system” (p. 16);

More performance data being expected and used and made available to parents; A focus on a “more coordinated attention to the whole child‟s development” (p. 16) involving children services at national and local levels;

Schools supporting each other.

Table 3: The First, Second and Third Ways summarised from Hargreaves and Shirley (2009)

Hargreaves and Shirley‟s (2009) Fourth Way is a:

professional path to improvement that builds from the bottom, steers from the top, and provides support and pressure from the sides …Here, teachers define and pursue high standards and shared targets, and improve by learning continuously through networks, from evidence, and from each other (p. 107).

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This Fourth Way focuses on teachers setting “shared targets rather than scurrying around to meet targets demanded by others” (p. 72), and teachers having collective responsibility before accountability. These assertions directly match Goodson and Hargreaves‟ (1996) first, third and sixth beliefs.

In his article considering a blended model of collaborative leadership Coleman (2011) states:

collaborative leadership is best viewed as a composite and blended form of leadership which draws together a range of themes and ideas to form a coherent model for partnership working (p. 302).

One of the five elements of collaborative leadership considered by Coleman (2011) as mentioned previously, is authentic leadership, and within his analysis of authentic leadership, he considers the concept of professionalism (Wilson and Pirrie, 2000; and Evetts, 2003):

Professionalism comprises the common values, practices and approaches, which form the basis for a collective identity, associated with a specific organization or circumstance. Professionalism is a fluid concept, socially constructed and yet evolutionary in nature (Evetts, 2003), with its precise form contextually specific and „the product of a dialectical relationship with its environment‟ (Hanlon, 1999, p. 3) (Coleman, 2011, p. 304).

The idea of common values, practices and approaches are prerequisites in the definition of collegiality presented on p. 38.

47 2.16 Conclusion

It is evident that an extensive amount has been written about Middle Leaders and their potential to be agents of change. As a result of this literature review, I would suggest that there are gaps in the literature available with regards to Middle Leaders and the concept of professionalism. Coleman (2011) suggests that:

existing literature offers little insight into the precise nature of leadership practice required to achieve [authentic leadership] or the basis for leaders‟ underpinning values themselves (p. 305).

This suggests that further empirical research into „explanatory‟ case studies (Yin, 1984) whereby the „why‟ questions could be asked “when the focus is on a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context” (Yin 1984, p. 13) would be appropriate. Research into professionalism on a daily basis and how it impacts teaching and learning, and/or school development for example could be a way forward.

It is recognised in this research that the “high expectations of all staff” (Hopkins, 2001, p. 10) with regards to school culture and development is a key feature of professionalism.