Conference Agenda

This is a two-part symposium focussed on educational leadership preparation and development and draws upon research from members of the International School Leadership Development Network. The first part has four papers describing programs and ideas focussed on equity, inclusion and social justice, with the second part having four papers focussed on the future through discussion of exemplary existing programs and future trends. The papers in the symposium will eventually be published in an edited book along with other papers.

School leadership is a priority in education policy internationally, as it plays the essential role in improving school outcomes by motivating teachers, building teacher capacities, and developing good school climate and conditions (Leithwood, Sun, & Schumacker, 2020). A major finding has been that effective educational leadership is important in enhancing quality and equity in schools (Pont, Nusche & Moorman, 2008; Kemethofer, Helm, & Warwas, 2022).

Schools in recent times have faced many challenges and there are many challenges ahead such as: the impact of the COVID pandemic; the rise of AI in schools; teacher shortages in many countries; and massive migration driven through refugee crises in many parts of the world. Along with environmental and humanitarian issues, we know that there is major issues to do with school quality and equity (United Nations, 2015). Leadership preparation development is crucial to building qualified and capable leaders for schools who can take responsibility for fostering students who can deal with the challenges of the world in the long run (Harris & Jones, 2020; Lozano, Garcia, & Sandoval, 2023).

In the face of these challenges, we think it is timely to have a futures focused discussion on educational leadership preparation and development. To facilitate this, we have reached out to members of the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), one of the largest and longest serving international school leadership research networks, and through an interactive development process identified four broad areas of focus that will be covered through 14 papers:

- Teacher and middle leader preparation and development.

- Preparation and development of leadership for equity, inclusion and social justice

- School, community and university partnerships for leadership preparation and development.

- Leadership Training Programs for Future Leadership Development

For the two-part symposium at ECER, we have eight groups reporting on their research and writing.

Part A: School leadership preparation and development for equity, inclusion and social justice

Part B: Future focussed educational leadership preparation and development

This symposium is Part B.

Current studies have identified that there has been insufficient research on effective professional development activities for school leaders (Daniëls, Hondeghem, & Dochy, 2019). In particular, the research on school leadership development is short of exploration of how school leaders can be educated to cope with the challenges raised by changing technology, environment and social dynamics in the next decades. Therefore, this symposium focusses on exploration of leadership training programs and literature that can provide guidance for future educational leadership preparation and development.

The symposium begins Jami Berry and Karen Bryant who describe a continuous learning leadership development program in the USA that signposts how to ensure these programs are always contemporary and future oriented. Gurr and colleagues then consider the future preparation and development needs to middle and teacher leaders and use some Australian examples to illustrate this. The next two papers focus on current programs that have much to offer in terms of development of future programs. Julie Harvie describes the Scottish headship preparation program, whilst Sylvia Robertson and Michele Morrison describe cases of principal preparation in New Zealand.

Principal preparation programs have traditionally been designed to meet the needs of those who seek to lead schools or school districts. Departments of educational leadership sought to design and offer degree options that met students’ career and professional goals, as well as the needs of districts and departments of education. Post-pandemic, this challenge is increasingly more complex as education organizations continue to serve more diverse communities. This work highlights a university in the Southeastern United States that is engaging in a process of continuous improvement to redesign its principal preparation program in addressing current and future leadership challenges through action research. Leadership that views student success as essential to the mission and promotes a sense of belonging for all stakeholders is a major focus of the program with program faculty striving to further develop leaders who recognize the individualized needs of each student. With this mission in mind, the research highlighted in this session seeks to address the following questions: 1. How do university faculty members conceptualize the redesign and implementation of a leadership preparation program grounded in action research to meet the needs of school leaders? 2. How do school and district leaders describe the impact of an action research grounded dissertation process on their professional growth? The paper will begin with an overview of the current literature on leader preparation and the underpinnings of action research as a method through which educational organizations can strive toward improvement via collaborative processes. It continues by offering an overview of Transformative Learning Theory and how the components of critical reflection, communicative learning, and collective discourse have guided the continuous improvement process. It continues by describing the initial action research cycle whereby the process and components of the Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) program were created and implemented. Next, it offers the findings from the second action research cycle in which three cohorts of candidates matriculated through the program during the refinement process. It closes with an overview of the forthcoming action research cycle, focused on gathering data from program graduates and current students via an inclusive leadership self-assessment and focus groups aimed at responding to the first research question, and document analysis and individual program faculty interviews designed to gather responsive data to the second question.

Darling-Hammond, L., Meyerson, D., La Pointe, M. M., & Orr, M. T. (2010). Preparing principals for a changing world, San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. Darling-Hammond, L., Wechsler, M. E., Levin, S., Leung-Gagné, M., & Tozer, S. (2022). Developing effective principals: What kind of learning matters? Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/641.201. Updated September 14, 2023. Orr, M.T. (2023). Reflections on leadership preparation research and current directions. Frontiers in Education 8:1206880. Doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1206880.

Teacher and middle leadership, as concepts and practices, have gained growing interest and momentum in education globally (Harris & Jones, 2017). As a result of this increased attention, there are diverse views regarding definitions, characteristics, and associated practices (Gurr & Nicholas, 2023). However, there appears to be consensus on the positive effect of teacher and middle leaders in exerting influence (Campbell et al., 2015; Di Nobile, 2021; Gurr, 2023) that is used to enhance professional practice through collaboration, trust and a strong focus on teaching and learning and school improvement (Gurr, 2023; Nguyen et al., 2020). At a time when the teaching profession in the world is experiencing higher than ever levels of stress and an increase in work intensification resulting in teacher shortages, the role of teacher and middle leaders seems to be more important and will likely remain features of future schools. With this in mind, this paper explores and highlights the leadership preparation and development that will be required to equip teacher and middle leaders, irrespective of context, with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead their colleagues during an uncertain and fast-changing educational landscape. This paper begins with an overview of the literature on teacher and middle leadership and teacher and middle leadership preparation and development from a global perspective. Then preparation and development in one geographically large jurisdiction, Australia, is described. Using the case of Australia, the paper then considers how over the next two decades the role of teacher and middle leadership might change and what implications this will have for changes in leadership preparation and development. Implications for schools across the world are considered.

Campbell, C., Lieberman, A., & Yashkina, A. (2015). Teachers leading educational improvements: Developing teachers’ leadership, improving practices, and collaborating to share knowledge. Leading and Managing, 21(2), 90–105. De Nobile, J. (2021). Researching middle leadership in schools: The state of the art, International Studies in Educational Administration, 49(2), 3-27. Gurr, D., & Nicholas, D. (2023). Teacher and middle leadership: Resolving conceptual confusion to advance the knowledge base of teacher leadership. Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education, 38(2), 5–22. https://doi. org/10.21315/apjee2023.38.2.2 Gurr, D. (2023). A review of Research on Middle Leaders in Schools. In Robert Tierney, Fazal Rizvi, Kadriye Ercikan and Graham Smith (Eds.) International Encyclopedia of Education (London, UK: Elsevier), pp. 115-122. Gurr, D., & Nicholas, D. (2023). Teacher and middle leadership: Resolving conceptual confusion to advance the knowledge base of teacher leadership. Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education, 38(2), 5–22. Harris, A., & Jones, M. (2017). Middle leaders matter: Reflections, recognition, and renaissance, School Leadership and Management 37(3), 213-216. Nguyen, D., Harris, A., & Ng, D. (2020). A review of the empirical research on teacher leadership (2003–2017). Evidence, patterns and implications. Journal of Educational Administration, 58(1), 60–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-02-2018-0023

In recent years, leadership and professional learning and development have become part of an international lexicon associated with school improvement. Much is now known about the significance of leadership in raising expectations around pupil attainment and achievement and in fostering the conditions for effective learning for children and young people in school (Grissom et al. 2021). However, across the world there are difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified senior school leaders. Scotland provides a good case study of such a system because it has been grappling with issues of headteacher recruitment for over a decade and the current policy programme is focused on reforming the governance of school education. Reducing the ‘poverty related attainment gap’ for young people has become the mantra of the Scottish Government over the past few years and headteachers (school principles) have been focused on as key actors in realising educational policy ambitions. In Scotland headteacher preparation is now seen as an essential element in readying teachers for this role, reflected in the fact that since August 2020, there is a statutory requirement for aspiring headteachers to gain the Standard for Headship (General Teaching Council for Scotland, 2021), mainly through a masters level programme called Into Headship. This paper presents the findings of a research project which explores the lived experiences of a cohort of aspirant school leaders undertaking the Into Headship programme, to understand how engaging in this process impacted and influenced their leadership development, practices and their preparedness for the headteacher role. An ecological model of agency (Priestley et al. 2015) has been used to shape the research design and to analyse the data. Ways in which this sustained learning programme impacted the agency of the participants in developing their professional identity and leading school improvements were considered. This paper concludes with a futures-oriented stance considering what lessons can be drawn from this research to enhance the development of future principal preparation programmes. This is done by examining how the underpinning values, concepts, design processes and practices of the programme, impacted the agency of participants in terms of equipping them with strategies to navigate their way through political tensions, competing demands and expectations in leading school improvement and the effect this had on their knowledge and understanding of strategic leadership and their own professional identities.

Grissom, J. A., Egalite, A. J., & Lindsay, C. A. (2021) How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research. Research Report. Wallace Foundation. GTCS. (2021). GTC Professional Standards for Teachers. [online] Available at: https://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-standards/professional-standards-for-teachers/

Like other international jurisdictions, New Zealand is facing an escalating recruitment and retention crisis within the school principal workforce. However, unlike their international counterparts, New Zealand principals are not required to possess postgraduate qualifications nor are they compelled to complete formal leadership preparation programs prior to appointment. Over the past two decades, the influence of school leadership on student outcomes has become evident (Leithwood, et al., 2020). Yet in New Zealand, programs to prepare Aspiring and First Time Principals were stopped. Given prior experience in a school leadership role is often deemed the best pathway to principalship, attention is turning to those in middle leadership roles and their preparation for educational leadership. This paper explores leadership preparation in urban and semi-rural schools in New Zealand. Drawing on a multiple case study conducted during 2020-2022, the views of three aspiring leaders are considered with regard to their perceived level of preparedness for leadership in terms of key competencies as outlined by the Leadership Strategy (2018) and the additional challenges to preparation brought about by ongoing and new crises. The paper is framed by research and policy that addresses successful school leadership in New Zealand and research undertaken globally, and aims to contribute to a growing body of international literature about leadership of high-needs schools as evidenced in the work of the International Schools Leadership Development Network (Angelle, 2017; Murakami et al., 2019). The paper builds on other research that seeks to understand the influence of government policy and strategy on school leaders and the educational outcomes of students (Cranston, 2013; Gunter & Thomson, 2009). Insights into leadership preparation in New Zealand are heard in the voices of middle leader participants as they decide whether to step up or step away from school leadership. Thus, the barriers and opportunities faced by these leaders contribute to a discussion about the function of school leadership in the next decade and beyond. Given no current mandatory leadership preparation in New Zealand, this paper contains important recommendations for policy makers and school practitioners.

Angelle, P. S. (Ed.) (2017). A global perspective of social justice leadership for school principals. Information Age Publishing, Inc. Cranston, J. (2013). School leaders leading: Professional responsibility not accountability as the key focus. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(2), 129-142. Gunter, H., & Thomson, P. (2009). The makeover: A new logic in leadership development in England. Educational Review, 61(4), 469-483. Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2020). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(1), 5-22. Murakami, E., Gurr, D., & Notman, R. (Eds.). (2019). Educational leadership, culture and success in high-needs schools. Information Age Publishing, Inc. Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (2018). The leadership strategy for the teaching profession of Aotearoa New Zealand: Enabling every teacher to develop their leadership capability. Retrieved from https://teachingcouncil.nz/professional-practice/rauhuia-leadership-space-home/rauhuia-leadership-space/leadership-strategy/ and development. Professional Development in Education, 47(1), 22-35.