Early career teachers’ perceptions and experiences of leadership development: balancing structure and agency in contrasting school contexts

Abstract

Drawing on the findings of a three-year, longitudinal study investigating early career teachers' (ECTs) experiences and perceptions of leadership development in English secondary schools, this paper highlights, from the perspectives of ECTs, some of the factors that support and facilitate leadership development during the first few years of the teaching career. ECTs' leadership dispositions and aspirations seemed to be formed within and in response to what they perceived to be the nature of their particular school contexts. They appeared to position themselves in relation to the perceived school leadership ethos at a range of points along what might be conceptualized as a continuum from resistance and alienation to amenability and identification with the perceived ethos. Amenability and identification with the school leadership ethos seemed to be associated with high levels of personal agency, such that ECTs gathered important developmental experience as leaders and were developing leadership skills, dispositions and aspirations. In a minority of contexts, ECTs experienced feelings of alienation, and positioned themselves as resistant to school leadership in contexts they perceived to be characterised by high-accountability, blame and coercion. This resistance and alienation was associated with reduced agency, and restricted development as leaders.

A review of the empirical research on teacher leadership (2003–2017)

“…In contrast, a disconnected school culture with the opposite characteristics (e.g., blame and coercion cultures) and a personal stake was shown to be a major barrier to genuine teacher leadership (Cooper et al, 2016;Muijs and Harris, 2006;Poekert et al, 2016;Woodhouse and Pedder, 2017).…”

“…b) School structure has been shown to be a factor that significantly influences or restricts the exercise of teacher leadership (e.g., Beachum and Dentith, 2004;Muijs and Harris, 2006). A supportive, transparent and flexible structure, this review suggests, is an important condition that fosters teacher leadership and allows innovation to flourish and grow because teachers' contribution is recognized and valued (e.g., Foster, 2005;Muijs and Harris, 2006;Rutherford, 2006;Woodhouse and Pedder, 2017). On the contrary, a heavily top-down, rigid, and opaque structure, it is suggested, may act as a hindrance to teacher leadership (e.g., Foster, 2005;Little, 2003;Muijs and Harris, 2006;).…”

“…c) Principal Leadership Research has identified principal leadership as an important enabling factor for teacher leadership. A range of studies have suggested ways in which school leaders support teacher leadership, for example, through giving teachers space, time, and opportunities to get deeply engaged in curricular decisions and other school matters (e.g., Cheng and Szeto, 2016;Chew and Andrews, 2010;Smith et al, 2017;Woodhouse and Pedder, 2017); getting actively involved in identifying, encouraging, and developing teacher leaders (Cheng and Szeto, 2016); and fostering a climate conducive to peer collaboration (Beachum and Dentith, 2004;Hunzicker, 2012;Supovitz et al, 2010).…”

Democracy or control? The participation of management, teachers, students and parents in school leadership in Tigray, Ethiopia

“…Exercising leadership in school is associated with a heightened sense of agency, belonging, and social competence amongst students and staff (Fielding and Prieto 2002;Mitra 2004;MacBeath and Dempster 2009;Woodhouse and Pedder 2016) and feelings of ownership amongst parents (Swift-Morgan 2006, 365;Jeilu 2009, 55). Since democratic values are best developed experientially rather than through a disembodied political curriculum (Harber 2002;Fielding and Prieto 2002;Harber and MnCube 2012), many have argued that broadening participation in decision-making is an important means of promoting democracy in schools and wider society (Davies, Schweisfurth and Harber 2002;Woods and Woods 2013).…”

Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis

“…These were sampled through a convenience model of those who agreed to be contacted further and could be tracked down. As experienced by Woodhouse and Pedder (2017) access to potential respondents was impacted by busy lives and interviews were sometimes cancelled or rescheduled. This impacted on who was part of the study and presented issues of generalisability in the illustrative cases.…”