Building the confidence of first-time middle leaders in New Zealand primary schools

Abstract

Purpose Middle leaders play an important role in the education landscape, first and foremost as teachers, and second as leaders. The purpose of this paper is to identify the expectations and challenges experienced by first-time middle leaders in New Zealand primary schools, and identify the leadership development and support they were provided with. Design/methodology/approach This was a small qualitative study designed to collect data from the perspectives of first-time middle leaders and principals in New Zealand primary schools. Three methods were employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six middle leaders who had been in the role for one to three years. These participants were identified through an analysis of recent public appointment records and then e-mailed with an invitation. Four principals from a local principals’ association were invited to comprise a focus group and relevant documents were analysed. Findings The findings from this study are presented in three sections: expectations, challenges and leadership development and support. Whilst the principals described wide and varied role expectations the middle leaders highlighted the importance of their teaching role with leadership responsibilities as secondary. From both perspectives time to do the administrative work was an overwhelming difficulty. A key finding was related to a lack of confidence to undertake the role in spite of efforts to provide and receive support. Overall, there was agreement that further development for new middle leaders was essential. Research limitations/implications This small, limited study highlights the central role that middle leaders play in leading learning and teaching, and the existence of a lack of confidence. Further research is needed to delve into conditions that would enable new middle leaders to manage the challenges of time and confidence. Practical implications The research recommends that practitioners who are new to a middle leadership role be allocated dedicated time for performing the administrative tasks and participating in an ongoing induction programme. The middle leaders themselves and their schools would benefit from efforts to strengthen middle leadership development. Originality/value Although a great deal has been written about middle leadership, there is only a small amount of research about primary schools. This research adds valuable new information in a primary school context and breaks new ground in researching early career, first-time middle leaders in this context.

School middle leadership: A systematic review

“…Similar to positionality, but not as frequently discussed, is the constitution of the subcultures MLs work in. While the positionality of MLs is often referred to as a ‘position’ or ‘post’ within a hierarchical organisational structure (Bassett and Shaw, 2017; Irvine and Brundrett, 2019; Ng and Chan, 2014), middle leadership is defined as involving more than occupying an ‘in between’ positional space. MLs are often described as working alongside their colleagues while at the same time working ‘up’ to senior leadership (Edwards-Groves et al, 2016; Grootenboer et al, 2015).…”

Addressing inequity and underachievement: Intervening to improve middle leaders’problem-solving conversations

“…Leaders must over time manage team dynamics, doubts and disagreement, resistance to change, and be confident enough to directly challenge and improve ineffective teaching practice. Middle leaders report that dealing with difficult staff and talking about problematic teaching practices is one of their biggest challenges (Bassett, 2018;Cardno, Robson, Deo, Bassett & Howse, 2018;Harris & Jones, 2017).…”

“…School leaders, and increasingly middle leaders, are tasked with raising achievement and reducing disparity. Middle leaders, in particular, are increasingly responsible for the implementation of their school's improvement agenda because they, more than any leader, work closer with teachers to solve the problems that perpetuate this disparity (Bassett, 2018;De Nobile, 2018Harris & Jones, 2017;Harris et al, 2019;Patuawa, Robinson, Sinnema, & Zhu 2021). Problem solving is largely exercised socially, and requires skilled and confident middle leaders to engage all stakeholders in respectful conversations about issues affecting the quality of teaching and learning (Argyris & Schön, 1974;Robinson & Le Fevre, 2011;Robinson, Meyer, Le Fevre, & Sinnema 2020;Timperley, 2015).…”

School middle leaders as instructional leaders: building the knowledge base of instruction-oriented middle leadership

“…In some jurisdictions, they may not be required to be subject experts and can lead a subject team without a formal qualification in that subject (Hammersley-Fletcher and Kirkham, 2007). However, primary school middle leaders must spend more energy balancing leadership responsibilities and teaching tasks due to the teaching structure and release time offered in primary schools (Bassett and Shaw, 2018). And, where curriculum requires it, primary school middle leaders may face additional responsibilities to support teachers in planning and enacting interdisciplinary curricula (Bryant et al, 2020).…”