distributed leadership

A BRIDGE FROM SOCIAL DEPRIVATION TO ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT?

Rosemary McGuinness 23rd November 2009

Practice of Distributed Leadership:

Leadership

Social Deprivation Academic Attainment


60schools

Comparative academic attainment

Cuckoo HallIn top 3


Comparative facts on top 3 schools in borough regarding academic attainment:

Cuckoo Hall School A School B

Outstanding Outstanding Good

36.5% 0% 1.7%

48% 0% 0%

Leadership

SEN

Free School Meals


Pupils attainment on entry to (Cuckoo Hall) is well below expectations

Ofsted Inspection Report


Bottom 6 Schools for academic attainment


Share same characteristics with Cuckoo HallSEN provision ranged from 32% to 48%(Cuckoo Hall’s was 36%)Free School Meals ranged from 40% to 58%(Cuckoo Hall’s was 48%)On Leadership, 3 schools were judged good, 3

satisfactory(Cuckoo Hall was outstanding)

Leadership – the distinguishing feature


TransactionalTransactional TransformationalTransformational


Relies on compliance (Burns)

Planning, controlling, resourcing (Kotter)

Exchange of valued things (Burns)

Change in purposes and resources for the better (Burns)

Developing a visionary stance (Kotter)

Two factor theory with each building on the other (Bass)

Leadership

Distributed Leadership


Instruct Consult Delegate Facilitate Neglect

National College of School Leadership

GRONNSENGE


Leader as hero rejected

Learning Organisation

Arygis & Schon

Single loop (detection and correction of errors) and double loop (interrogating the variables leading to wholescale change ) learning

Distributed Leadership


Puts leadership practice at centre stage as opposed to being with the principal (Spillane)

Allows others to assume leadership either by design or default

Creates a learning culture (West Burnham)Embedding a shared culture (Busher;

Sergiovanni)

Research points


Sample was stratifiedHow embedded is the visionOrganisational learningLeadership practice

Vision ..... Culture

“Everyone knows what we are working towards”

“colleagues are fantastic”

Equity featured highly with many respondents referring to the fact that the school is located in an area of deprivation....responses went beyond the need to merely educate with terms such as...

“academic excellence”

“raise standards”“achieve the best they can”

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

CULTURE

“close friends”“we get on so well”

Organisational Learning


Formal learningPerformance Development InterviewsMentoringCoachingObservation of teachingPeer learning

Leadership


We are all equally important

Leadership involve everyone else to lead

All of us are leaders..without us they can’t work it

“Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going but not how people will get there – setting people free to innovate, experiment and take calculated risks”

Goleman


MCGUINNESS, R. (2009) “THE PRACTICE OF DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP: A BRIDGE FROM

SOCIAL DEPRIVATION TO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF

LEARNING. VOL 16 NO. 5

Reference


distributed leadership

Business

reference rosemary mcguinness

cuckoo hall school

cuckoo halls

satisfactory cuckoo

academic excellence

learning culture west

cuckoo hall sen provision

pupils attainment