Distributed Leadership in the UK Primary School: An Analysis of the Views of a Headteacher

Abstract

Currently, leadership is a recurring theme in the field of education. There is also a number of research that examined school leadership from different perspectives. Some of these studies pay greater attention on school leadership policies while others focused on the key role of school leadership. Leadership is, as will be shown in this chapter, key to developing school practices that support schools to become effective organizations. Although, researchers usually defined leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon which is of interest to them, some perspectives have been more influential than others. In this sense, these authors see leadership as a process which encourages staff at variety of levels take on leadership role. This approach of leadership not only synthesizes distributed model but also provides an opportunity to capture how leaders encourage and manage school improvement in practice. With this mind, this chapter examines the nature of leadership in one school in the UK to see whether it facilitates distribution of leadership. The data was collected using semi-structured qualitative interview with the headteacher of the school. The data collected was analyzed by reading the interview transcript many times, highlighting what was considered important. From the headteacher’s responses, recurring school practices – collaboration, shared leadership, learning culture, school connection with communities, and school response to SEN children – emerged. However, these findings should be considered with caution because the study was carried out in one school. A reasonable number of schools would have possibly provided more corroborated evidence. However, the findings can possibly further thinking in other schools with similar situations.

Citation

Kurawa, G. and Gumel, S. (2022), "Distributed Leadership in the UK Primary School: An Analysis of the Views of a Headteacher", Sengupta, E. and Blessinger, P. (Ed.) Role of Leaders in Managing Higher Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 48), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120220000048004