The 4 readings that draw our Leadership for Learning programme to a conclusion have been chosen to provide a summary of the key ideas encountered throughout the course and at the same time to introduce some new perspectives and novel ideas to add to our understanding of Leadership for Learning.  The articles that follows are in recommended reading order:

  • Dempster, N.  Leadership for Learning: A Framework Synthesising Recent Research. [If you experience difficulty opening this article cut and paste the following to your web browser - http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/28012/57815_1.pdf?sequence=1]. This short article highlights a Leadership for Learning Framework, synthesising a range of research, designed to connect leadership and learning.

  • Swaffield, S. & Dempster, N. [2009] A learning dialogue [principle 3].  In MacBeath, J. & Dempster, N. (eds)  Connecting Leadership and Learning: principles for practice. London: Routledge. This article highlights the central importance of what the authors refer to as 'disciplined dialogues' to Leadership for Learning. 

  • Mitchell, C. and Sackney, L. [2011] Building and Leading Within Learning Ecologies In T. Townsend & J. Macbeath (Eds.), The international handbook of leadership for learning (pp. 975-990). Netherlands: Springer.   This article '...utilizes an ecological perspective to draw attention to the dynamic connections, relationships and mutual influences that impinge on teaching and learning and the consequential implications for school leaders.'

  • MacBeath, J. and Townsend T. Thinking and Acting Both Locally and Globally: What Do We Know Now and How Do We Continue to Improve?  In T. Townsend & J. Macbeath (Eds.), The international handbook of leadership for learning (pp. 1237-1254). Netherlands: Springer. The key sections to look at  start on page 1244, with the section entitled 'Mosaics, Patterns and Midwifery' to the end of the chapter.  These sections, although referring to various contributions in MacBeath and Townsend's 'The international handbook of leadership for learning', are particularly useful in pulling various threads from the course together.

 

Summary of Core Reading

In Leadership for Learning: A Framework Synthesising Recent Research Dempster has producing a Leadership for Learning Framework that covers a number of themes  that have been explicit in the course as well as highlighting a number that have been implicit.  His  eight key dimensions on page 7 serve as the platform for his useful Leadership for Learning Framework diagram on page 8.  These dimensions are as follows:

Leaders best affect student learning outcomes when:

• they have an agreed and shared moral purpose ;

• there is ‘ disciplined dialogue ’ about learning in the school; • they plan, monitor and take account using a strong evidence base with their teachers;

• they are active professional learners;  

• they attend to enhancing the conditions for learning;

• they coordinate, manage and monitor the curriculum and teaching;

• they use distributive leadership as the norm; and

• they understand the context of their work and connect with wider community support for learning.

As Dempster says of the position of the dimensions in the diagram, '...the figure shows that each of these dimensions is an important aspect of the work of effective leaders of learning. Taken together they represent the terrain over which accomplished leaders must travel constantly in the pursuit of their moral purpose' [p.8].

A key dimension identified by Dempster as regards how leaders best affect student learning outcomes is that ' there is ‘disciplined dialogue’ about learning in the school' [p.7].    Swaffield and Dempster describe ‘disciplined dialogue’ as follows:

'By this we mean that discussions about leadership, learning and the relationship between them and not trivial, trite, piecemeal, or sporadic. They are not derogatory, censuring, destructive or coercive. They are  positively focused on the moral purpose of schools and they are all-embracing. Conversations are not irrationally based on stereotype or hearsay, but on reason and values, stimulated by helpful quantitative and qualitative data. In this sense they are constructive conversations carried in 'disciplined dialogue' [p.107].

Dialogue is also highlighted by Mitchell and Sackney in Building and Leading Within Learning Ecologies, a  focus in our recent 'Collaborate' session. Here the authors argue:

 'Attention, therefore, needs to be paid to the structure, content, and character of educators’ talk. Senge (1990) distinguishes between two complementary ways of structuring collegial discourse: “In a discussion, different views are presented and defended, and… this may provide a useful analysis of the whole situation. In dialogue, different views are presented as a means toward discovering a new view” (p. 247, italics added). Through dialogue, Senge contends, individuals hold their own point gently and listen to others’ points so as to come more fully into the web of meanings, aspirations, aims, values, and beliefs that are present in the group.....Dialogue asks individuals not just to listen and reframe their own positions and practices, but to put their own meanings aside so that they can see into the meanings of their colleagues. It asks people to reflect on their practices, in the light of these new meanings, and to return these reflections to the conversation for consideration by colleagues.

... Leaders have the task of seeing that a culture of congeniality does not paper over the divisions and fault lines within the group. Differences need to be uncovered and understood so that staff can decipher the totality of patterns, connections, beliefs, values, and commitments that influence educational lives and then arrive at a collective sense of what matters to them, what kind of school they want, and what they want for the students. Leaders help educators to move  gracefully through difficult negotiations by bringing them back to one primary commitment: “that they are in the school to build the best possible learning environment for the children in their care, to foster the children’s growth and learning, and to help the children feel happy and successful” (Mitchell and Sackney 2009, pp. 101–102). With comments such as, “Let’s talk about what we want for the children and what this is doing to them,” leaders remind people of the goal, reaffirm their purpose, and move the discourse toward educational matters' [pp. 981-982].

Central to this is Mitchell and Sackney’s  view that leadership's key task is ‘to conceptualize learning systems from an ecological perspective, to examine the mutual influences and interconnections among various aspects of school life, and to frame and reframe conditions so as to enhance and energize teaching and learning’ [p. 976].They describe this perspective and the influential role of leaders as follows:

'When applied to schools, the ecological perspective draws attention to the dynamic connections, relationships, and mutual influences that impinge on teaching and learning. In each school, teaching and learning are embedded in a context of events, experiences, activities, structures, networks, knowledge, people, histories, interests, resources, artefacts, understandings, and commitments, all of which exert a mediating influence on teaching and learning processes.

Ecological understandings are consequential for school leaders as well as for classroom teachers. Because leaders are involved in building the structures through which schools operate, they are highly influential in shaping the perspective on which the learning community is grounded' [p. 976].

Finally, this ecological perspective is  echoed by Macbeath and Townsend as they speculate that Leadership for Learning is about 'the mosaic or patterning of relationships that create the conditions in which leadership and learning flourish and are conjoined...' [p. 1243].


Discussion Activity

Share your views with the rest of the class on the Discussion Board on an aspect of one of the themes below.  This might be on something that has helped develop your understanding in terms of Leadership for Learning or it might be something with which you have a problem or indeed have a particular interest. This can be done any time within the next two weeks.

-  Mitchell and Sackney's  'ecological perspective'

-  Swaffield and Dempster's  'disciplined dialogue'

-  Dempster's 'Framework for Learning'

Last modified: Thursday, 29 November 2012, 4:27 PM