Learning to lead: development for middle‐level leaders in higher education in England and Wales

Inman, Margaret

doi:10.1080/13674580802532654

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The data suggests, however, that neither of these scenarios were the case. These findings concur with previous research investigating academic management role socialisation (Deem 2000;Eley 1994;Inman 2009;Johnson 2002) and point to the fact that while UK Universities appear to be giving increasing consideration to caring for their student body, especially in the context of rapidly rising student fees following the Browne Report (Browne 2010), this is far from the case for academics who are asked to take on middle management roles in the case study institutions. Indeed, the data here appears to reflect a "culture of institutional neglect" from both institutions -whether traditional or modern in history, and research led or teaching led in nature -a term which has recently been used in relation to narratives of doctoral students' experiencing difficulty with their supervision process (McAlpine et al 2012, p. 521).…”

Section: Training and Role Preparation: A Culture Of Institutional Nesupporting

confidence: 44%

Supporting Academic Middle Managers in Higher Education: Do We Care?

Floyd

2015

High Educ Policy

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In the current higher education environment, the need to develop and support good leaders and managers could hardly be more pressing. Yet, research on how academic middle managers are supported in their roles is surprisingly sparse. The purpose of this paper is to address this perceived gap in the literature by reporting on the findings from two separate, but related, research projects investigating the role of the academic middle manager in two culturally different English universities, specifically to examine the support that such leaders have received in relation to taking on and adapting to this increasingly challenging role. By drawing on semi-structured interviews with 28 academic middle managers from one pre and one post 1992 university, the paper argues that we need to provide more support and individually tailored training for today's middle managers so that the best may become the sector's effective senior leaders of tomorrow.

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Section: Training and Role Preparation: A Culture Of Institutional Nesupporting

confidence: 44%

Supporting Academic Middle Managers in Higher Education: Do We Care?

Floyd

2015

High Educ Policy

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“…A common finding in studies of department heads is that incoming heads are often ill-prepared to take on the demands of the position (Lefoe et al, 2007;Inman, 2009). With academic backgrounds that have focused on research and teaching, the shift to leadership and management responsibilities can be daunting for the new department head.…”

Section: Personal Growthmentioning

confidence: 97%

Measuring how the head of department measures up: development of an evaluation framework for the head of department role

London

2011

Quality in Higher Education

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“…This means that they have to relate 'upwards' to a principal or head, and also 'across' to their teaching colleagues, and this relational positioning can create both opportunities and difficulties for the middle leader (Inman 2009). In this way, their positioning forms part of the practice architectures of their leading practices, particularly in the forms and kinds of relationships they are required and able to develop in the project of educating children.…”

Section: Relational Positioningmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This literature is dominated with multiple interpretations as to what a leader does, whom they lead and the variable purposes for leading. Further, this scholarship and research has had a strong focus on the work of principals or the positional heads (Inman 2009). More recently, work on leadership practices in education has been extended to include notions of 'distributed leadership' (Spillane 2006), 'dispersed leadership' (Lingard et al 2003), 'democratic leadership' (Woods 2004) and 'teacher leadership' (Muijs and Harris 2006), where leadership is seen as spread throughout the learning institution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Leading practice development: voices from the middle

Grootenboer

Edwards‐Groves

Rönnerman

2014

Professional Development in Education

106

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Leadership has long been acknowledged as a significant dimension in effective school functioning and, indeed, school leaders can play a substantial role in professional development of staff. Here we have centred on the practices of leading as opposed to the qualities or characteristics of leaders, and this is emphasised by our use of the term 'leading' rather than 'leadership'. In this article we explicitly focus on the leading practices of practitioners we describe as middle leaders, those with an acknowledged position of leadership but also a significant teaching role. Here we present data from a cross-national study of middle leaders in Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools that investigates the leading practices of middle leaders in educational contexts. The article draws on interviews with 22 teachers who have been given the responsibility for leading the practice development of their colleagues; these interviews give voice to this distinctive group of school leaders. In particular, the article draws on the theory of practice architectures to examine the social nature of the language, activities and relationships of leading 'in the middle', and the particular conditions or practice architectures that enable or constrain the development of middle leading practices in education. From this analysis we conclude with a definition of middle leading that includes positional, philosophical and practice dimensions. This could then be used to inform the domains of higher education, policy development and school education globally where middle leading practices are well established.

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Learning to lead: development for middle‐level leaders in higher education in England and Wales

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Supporting Academic Middle Managers in Higher Education: Do We Care?

Supporting Academic Middle Managers in Higher Education: Do We Care?

Measuring how the head of department measures up: development of an evaluation framework for the head of department role

Leading practice development: voices from the middle

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