School and System Leadership: Changing Roles for Primary Headteachers

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Ten Roles for Teacher Leaders

School leadership is undergoing significant change as headteachers respond to new opportunities and challenges offered to or imposed on them as a result of government policy. There have been increasing calls for transformational change to redesign the school system to provide a suitable workforce for the knowledge economy and to manage the anticipated shortage of future school leaders. Sue Robinson combines her professional experience as a practising primary headteacher and National Leader of Education with recent research into the impact of government policy on the roles of primary heads to offer an analysis of the shifting nature of school leadership.

Headteachers have taken advantage of roles available including consultancy, leadership of academies and federations and children's centres. Including interview material with 27 'outstanding' primary headteachers, this is the first book combining research and practitioner insight to show how: I also talked to their staff, governors, pupils and parents, and where possible, their partners, to explore what this transition had meant for families.

I learned a lot about the nature of the move and how it feels to make that leap. There is a paradox at the heart of this transition: However, in many ways, being a head is a quite different professional identity.

School and System Leadership: Changing Roles for Primary Headteachers: Sue Robinson: Continuum

As deputy you often act as a buffer between the staff and the head. You will work to get the right staff in the right roles and support and challenge them to do the best job they can — you have to trust your senior leaders to manage much of the day-to-day running of the school. You need to let the operational detail go as you embrace the bigger picture and assume the role of a leader who represents the school and all it stands for within and beyond its gates. The lead-in period between successful appointment and formally stepping into headship offers an invaluable opportunity to get to know the new school context and to be known by those there.

But it is always a challenging time, as the head-elect juggles a demanding deputy role while feeling increasingly pulled towards their new school. The length of this period will vary: It is advisable to look at this block of time in its entirety and to decide in advance, along with your current head and your new governing body, the most productive way to use it.

Discuss when you should visit, who you should meet and what you should be looking at.

Make the most of this chance. Making the transition to headship involves finding the balance between inheriting the role from your predecessor and making it your own. Joshua arranges a daylong meeting for 10 staff members and 10 students who represent various views of the school experience, from nonattenders to grade-level presidents. Joshua works with the school improvement team facilitator to ensure that the activities planned for the meeting are appropriate for students so that students will actively participate.

Although teachers have access to a great deal of data, they do not often use that data to drive classroom instruction.

Teacher leaders can lead conversations that engage their peers in analyzing and using this information to strengthen instruction. Carol, the 10th grade language arts team leader, facilitates a team of her colleagues as they look at the results of the most recent writing sample, a teacher-designed assessment given to all incoming 10th grade students. Carol guides teachers as they discuss strengths and weaknesses of students' writing performance as a group, as individuals, by classrooms, and in disaggregated clusters by race, gender, and previous school.

They then plan instruction on the basis of this data. Teachers who take on the catalyst role feel secure in their own work and have a strong commitment to continual improvement. They pose questions to generate analysis of student learning. In a faculty meeting, Larry expresses a concern that teachers may be treating some students differently from others.

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Students who come to him for extra assistance have shared their perspectives, and Larry wants teachers to know what students are saying. As his colleagues discuss reasons for low student achievement, Larry challenges them to explore data about the relationship between race and discipline referrals in the school. When teachers begin to point fingers at students, he encourages them to examine how they can change their instructional practices to improve student engagement and achievement. Among the most important roles teacher leaders assume is that of learner.

Learners model continual improvement, demonstrate lifelong learning, and use what they learn to help all students achieve. Manuela, the school's new bilingual teacher, is a voracious learner. At every team or faculty meeting, she identifies something new that she is trying in her classroom. Her willingness to explore new strategies is infectious. Other teachers, encouraged by her willingness to discuss what works and what doesn't, begin to talk about their teaching and how it influences student learning.

Faculty and team meetings become a forum in which teachers learn from one another.

Manuela's commitment to and willingness to talk about learning break down barriers of isolation that existed among teachers. Teachers exhibit leadership in multiple, sometimes overlapping, ways. Some leadership roles are formal with designated responsibilities. Other more informal roles emerge as teachers interact with their peers.

3 editions of this work

The variety of roles ensures that teachers can find ways to lead that fit their talents and interests. Regardless of the roles they assume, teacher leaders shape the culture of their schools, improve student learning, and influence practice among their peers. Teachers bringing out the best in teachers: A guide to peer consultation for administrators and teachers. What works in elementary schools: National Staff Development Council. Charting a course for professional learning. Classroom instruction that works.