This article considers the professional work, identity and recruitment of head teachers (HTs) in Wales. Drawing on the sociology of professions, the article illustrates how intensive educational policy reform post-2011 has restricted HTs' professional agency and re-orientated the head teacher role towards organisational professionalism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews (n=30) with both head and deputy head teachers, the article argues that issues with the recruitment and retention of HTs in Wales can, in part, be explained by the promotion of managerial and technicist approaches to professional practice. This role reconfiguration is the result of myriad and, at times, overlapping accountability mechanisms. The article illustrates how these changes to HT professional roles and identity are more intense within a small education system where HTs had, traditionally, enjoyed an elite professional status. To ameliorate these issues, the article proposes policy initiatives which the Welsh Government could introduce to foster the agency of HTs within a revised professional framework for educational leadership in Wales.

This paper explores issues of headteacher recruitment, retention, and professional development in Wales, within the context of the wider educational policy reforms which, since 2011, have introduced greater external accountability into schools. The paper argues that these reforms have resulted in changes to headteachers' professional roles and identities and that some aspects have militated against headteachers' cultivation and exercising of their 'professional capital' (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012). The data is derived from 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with headteachers, deputy and assistant Heads throughout Wales. Participants' accounts articulate concerns that greater accountability within the Welsh system is acting as a disincentive to headteacher recruitment, and that headteachers often lack independent sources of support, advice and mentoring, which they can access without the burden of additional scrutiny and accountability. The paper concludes by offering a series of observations and recommendations to inform recent renewed efforts to create a new support infrastructure and framework for the development of educational leadership in Wales.

Purpose -The paper reports on a qualitative study of the learning and development of seventy External Mentors during the first year of their deployment to support early career teachers' professional learning as part of a national initiative aimed at school improvement in Wales. Design/methodology/approach -The study adopted a narrative methodology that elicited accounts of External Mentors' learning experiences that were captured as textual data and analysed using an inductive approach to identify: i. the manifest themes that appeared at declarative level, and ii. the latent (sub-textual) themes of External Mentor learning and development. Findings -Four key themes emerged that indicate the complexity of transition to the role of External Mentor in high-stakes contexts. From these, eight theoretically-informed principles were derived which support mentors to embrace uncertainty as essential to their learning and development, and to harness the potential they bring as boundary-crossers to support the development of new teachers.Research limitations/implications -The study investigated the first year of a three-year programme and worked with one form of qualitative data collection. The research results may lack generalizability and a longitudinal study is necessary to further explore the validity of the findings. Practical implications -The eight principles provide a foundation for mentor development programmes that can support ambitious goals for mentoring early career teachers. Originality/value -The study addresses the under-researched area of the learning and development of External Mentors at a national scale.

This project aimed to explore staff and student opinions on the introduction of choice in assessment, drawing upon the principles of Inclusive Pedagogy, Disability Studies and Universal Design. The mixed methods research explored the possibility that students may feel more positively supported during the assessment and feedback process if a range of methods of assessment are available.There was overall support for the proposal, but with some reservations, for example, parity between the different modes of assessment, and student access to different forms of assessment to develop employability skills would need to be planned. Inclusive assessment and feedback processes in Higher Education are essential if the diversity of our students is to be recognised. However, this needs to be balanced with the need to develop a range of life skills. Therefore, choice in assessment methods needs to be designed with clear strategies for skills development, and targeted individualised support.

Cit a tio n fo r fin al p u blis h e d ve r sio n: Milto n, E m m aj a n e , D aly, C a r oli n e, L a n g d o n, F r a n c e s , P al m er, M el a ni e, Jon e s, Ke n a n d D avi e s, An d r e w Ja m e s 2 0 2 0. C a n s c h o ols r e ally p r ovi d e t h e le a r ni n g e n vi r o n m e n t t h a t n e w t e a c h e r s n e e d ? Co m pl exiti e s a n d i m plic a tio n s fo r p r of e s sio n al le a r ni n g in Wal e s. P r of e s sio n al D ev elo p m e n t in E d u c a tio n 1 0.