Saturday, July 26, 2014

Anchoring the Abstract - what great school leadership looks like - Luke Fenwick

Just had a quick read of this recent research article - which adds a new 'lens' to leadership theories - that of trust:

"Our last section provides a different lens through which we can look at effective leadership—trust. 
A climate of trust is essential for organisational success. A school’s leadership is pivotal in developing a culture based on trusting relationships. 
Following one expert, we frame the relationship between leadership practices and trust like this: practices are the “what” of leadership, while trust plays a major part in the “how” of leadership. 
Trusting relationships are often characterised by reliability, honesty, benevolence, openness and competence. 
These are clearly evident within Highfields’ two learning communities:
1. The staffroom, where leadership has an direct influence
2. The classroom, where leadership often has an indirect influence
And also in those learning communities beyond school doors:
3. The home (in the context of home-school relationships)
4. The school cluster"

Lots of thoughts around this statement - "According to Megan Tschannen-Moran, trust within the staffroom correlates with trust in the classroom and even trust between teachers and parents."
This is of particular interest to me, as at a recent staff PD day, a staff member stated in a group forum that they had never worked in such a low trust model, as the NZ education system. Some mismatch between accountability and trust perhaps?




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