PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role and leadership practices of executive leaders in English multi-academy trusts (MATs) considering the meaning of system-level leadership and its perceived impact on schools' improvement processes, conditions and culture.Design/methodology/approachThis paper was guided by an ecological systems approach emphasizing the interactions between the micro-, meso-, macro-, exo- and chronosystems, and was used to develop context-sensitive accounts of leadership across groups of schools. It involves interview-based multi-perspective case studies using a sample of five MATs and collecting data from 31 interviews with various school and MAT leaders.FindingsThe primacy of leadership at the executive level was central to efforts for school and MAT transformation and that was evident throughout the findings of the study. System leadership was multifaceted and was understood through the multiple layers of the organizational structure of MATs. Four major domains of practice highlight the efforts of these leaders to address complex and systemic challenges. These are setting strategic directions, developing people and organizational capacity, establishing organizational infrastructure to support schools' improvement efforts and providing instructional guidance.Originality/valueFindings reveal new empirical data about the role of executive leaders in English MATs and highlight the ways in which they seek to establish, manage and sustain school and MAT-wide improvement providing the research with a holistic idea of system leadership.
This paper takes ecological systems theory as a conceptual basis for defining and examining the main aspects of ‘system leadership’ in a large-sized multi-school group, such as a multi-academy trust (MAT) in the context of England. The theory provides a sound framework for understanding the processes and interactions involved in this notion of leadership which is framed within an educational ecosystem as a complex set of interconnected elements. Such an approach focuses on MAT leadership strategies able to create and guide a holistic conception of educational change in the market-oriented and decentralised educational system of England. Data were drawn from interviews with eight MAT leaders and analysed alongside documentary evidence. The findings provide specific insight into the daily work of executive leaders acting as system leaders seeking to create and sustain achievement-centred and practice-focused systems MAT-wide. They demonstrate the social and developing as well as the organisational aspects of system leadership in MATs and the ways in which different elements of the environment influence executive leaders in thinking and acting systemically. This paper adds value to existing knowledge on MATs and the ways in which they are led by system players. It broadens the frame of reference of leadership beyond the individual school to consider features of the broader system and environment. Complexity and ecological perspectives provide essential tools to understand more deeply educational change and have the potential to analyse notions of leadership across multi-school groups.
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