Leadership Development Elective Module

Engaging with system leadership roles

Unit 2:System Leadership in Action: the challenges of providing leadership across the system

Annotated Bibliography

Official documents

Estyn (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales) (2010) School Business Managers: A best practice guide. Cardiff: Estyn. MLP

The report reviews the role and effectiveness of school business managers in Wales and describes best practice through case studies. Focuses primarily on secondary school settings, but also covers collaborative arrangements between schools.

Pont, B., Nusche, D. and Hopkins, D. (eds) (2008) Improving School Leadership. Volume 2: case studies on system leadership. Paris: OECD and SSAT.

Part of an extensive research programme exploring aspects of school and system leadership; this summary provides a basis for comparative analysis of government policies and sets out the prospects for further development.

National College publications

Ballantyne, B., Jackson, D. and Temperley, J. with Lieberman, A. (2006) System leadership in action: what does a system leader do? Nottingham: NCSL.

Short paper structured around key roles and reflective questions in system leadership; useful insights into the key dilemmas identified by practitioners working in system leader roles.

Ballantyne, B., Jackson, D., Temperley, J., Jopling, M. with Ann Lieberman (2006)

System leadership in action: Leading networks leading the system. Nottingham: NCSL.

NCSL summary of research into system leadership, based on interviews with system leaders who have been involved in a range of network-based reform initiatives. Focus on the role of system leaders in developing and leading networks of schools.

Hargreaves, D. (2010) Creating a self-improving school system. Nottingham: the National College.

What might the future of system leadership look like in an age of austerity and the retreat from top-down government initiatives? This think-piece from the National College provides an excellent insight into the possible characteristics of a ‘self-improving school system’.

O’Leary, D. and Craig, J. (2007) System Leadership: Lessons from the literature. Nottingham: NCSL/Demos.

Brief summary of the key concepts of systems thinking and system leadership; includes references, so a good starting-point for further investigation.

Southworth, G. (2010a) School Business Management: A quiet revolution Part 1. Nottingham: The National College.

An overview of the evidence relating to school business management in schools, showing where the move to school business managers started and what happened in the early years of training them. Then the current state of play is set out before looking at what is needed next and in the future.

Southworth, G. (2010b) School Business Management: A quiet revolution Part 2. Nottingham: The National College.

This document summarises the four major studies that underpin the narrative in part 1, providing a summary of the evidence relating to the work of school business managers in England.

West-Burnham, J. (2006) Moral Leadership. Nottingham: NCSL.

Short paper applying philosophical and ethical analysis to school leadership. Sets out key questions and a philosophical method that could be pursued further through analysis of specific themes in system leadership.

Research reports

Collarbone, P. and West-Burnham, J. (2008) Understanding Systems Leadership: securing excellence and equity in education. London: Network Continuum.

Good readable summary of different aspects of system leadership; studiedly un-theoretical, it maps out a broad range of system leader roles, and makes connections with equity issues, social justice and community development.

Fullan, M. (2003) The moral imperative of school leadership. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Influential book examining the moral purpose of school leadership and its critical role in changing the cultural context of schools. Argues that school leaders should become change-agents, working to transform both their own schools and the larger school system that surrounds them.

Fullan, M. (2005) Leadership and sustainability: system thinkers in action. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

This book develops the key ideas set out in ‘the moral imperative of school leadership’ above. Fullan develops his argument about the system leaders and their contribution to sustainable system-wide educational reform.

Fullan, M. (2006) Change theory: A force for school improvement. Seminar Series Paper 157. Melbourne, Victoria: Centre for Strategic Education.

This paper looks at ‘flawed change theories with merit’ and reviews specific strategies for system-wide reform. It then sets out the core underlying premises for a theory of action to achieve sustainable change across schools and districts.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. (2002) The New Leaders: Transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. London: Little, Brown. (Also published under the title ‘Primal Leadership’)

Provides a summary of emotional intelligence, revisits the ‘leadership repertoire’, and describes strategies for creating sustainable change.

Hargreaves, D. (2007) System Redesign – 1: The road to transformation in education. London: Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Provocative, highly readable, paper on different levels of system re-design. Written in 2007 and highly critical of government policy at that time.

Heifetz, R. A. (1994) Leadership without easy answers. Harvard: Belknap Press.

Very influential book on ‘adaptive leadership’, based on the concept of adaptive work, defined as leading change in situations where both the problem and the solution is unclear and new learning is required by all participants affected by the organisation.

Heifetz, R.A. and Laurie, D. L. (2001) The Work of Leadership. Harvard Business Review, December.

Available at:

Short paper that sets out the challenges of adaptive work and outlines six principles to guide the work of leaders operating in complex situations.

Higham, R., Hopkins, D. and Matthews, P. (2009) System leadership in practice. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw-Hill Education.

Broad overview of government system leadership programmes in England; useful discussion of Consultant Leaders and National Leaders of Education.

Hill, R. (2008) Achieving more together: adding value through partnership. Leicester: ASCL.

Broad-based research studies into different ways in which schools are securing improvement through collaborative working and developing different kinds of partnerships.

Hopkins, D. (2007) Every School a Great School: Realizing the potential of system leadership. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Open University Press.

Key text that set out a vision for system leadership in England; summarises key concepts in a clear and accessible way.

Hopkins, D. and Higham, R. (2007) System leadership: mapping the landscape.School Leadership and Management, 27, 2.

Available at:

This paper draws on similar material to ‘Every school a great school’. Provides a good overview of government programmes and system leader roles in operation around 2006. Based on programme evaluation material.

Websites

The following websites all publish regular research reports and other publications focused on different aspects of system leadership.

CfBT Evidence for Education (EfE) Research Programme

Michael Fullan Website

Alma Harris website

David Hopkins website

John West-Burnham website