School of Education

1. HERZEN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY School of Education Department of Management Cross-cultural Conceptualisations of Educational Leadership Professor Gromova, Dr. Mercer, Dr. Shah, Dr. Taysum, Professor Trapitsin British Educational Research Association Conference September 3-6, 2008

2. A Collaborative Partnership

3. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-bridge-project.htm • Herzen State Pedagogical University and The University of Leicester • BRIDGE 2 = 30-credit CPD module in Managing the Curriculum • BRIDGE 3 = Masters in Educational Leadership • Both underpinned by joint research

4. Focus of the Joint Research 1) How is educational leadership conceptualized in Russia and the UK? 2) How do Russian and UK teachers describe the impact upon their professional lives of undertaking postgraduate study with a focus on educational leadership? 3) How do Russian and UK teachers describe the impact upon their professional development of different mode(s) of learning, particularly face-to-face lecturing, distance learning, and blended learning?

5. Research Design • Negotiated • 4 sets of participants, all undertaking CPD: Herzen, Leicester International, Leicester school-based A, Leicester school-based B • 3 stages of data collection: • 4 data collection tools:

6. How is educational leadership conceptualized in Russia and the UK? • Pre-course questionnaire (Herzen only) • Pre-course questionnaire (all groups) • Mid-course interviews (all groups) • Post-course questionnaire (all groups, with lower response rate).

7. Conceptual Framework • What is educational leadership?(Davies, 2005) • Who can have a leadership role? Distributed leadership (Harris, 2005a) Teacher leadership (Harris, 2005b) Democratic leadership (Woods, 2004) • Are leaders born, developed and / or trained? (Rhodes, Brundrett and Nevill, 2008; and Bush, 2008).

8. Findings (1a) : Intra-group comparisons from Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia Prof. Larisa Gromova Dean of the Faculty of Management Prof. Sergey Trapitsin Head of the Department of Educational Management

9. STUDENTS’ PORTRAIT gender 9,3% 90,7% - female - male

10. STUDENTS’ PORTRAIT 3,53% age 24,71% 27,06% 27,06% 44,7% - Up to 30 - Up to 50 - Up to 40 - >more than 50

11. education 4,66% 32,56% 59,31% 3,49% - arts - education - science - management

12. 5,82% 10,47% 8,14% 3,49% 6,98% positions 32,56% 32,56% • University Leaderships - headmasters • kindergarten principals • vice-headmasters • kindergarten vice-principals - teachers • kindergarten nurses

13. SURVEY RESULTS from HERZEN QUESTIONNAIRE UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP

14. 1. PERCEPTION OF A LEADER

15. 2. GROUNDS FOR LEADERSHIP 1 – character 2 – sense of responsibility 3 – significant professional experience / length of service 4 – special education BORN LEADER

16. 2. GROUNDS FOR LEADERSHIP

17. 2. GROUNDS FOR LEADERSHIP(the opinion changed) BORN LEADER getting new knowledge and skills DEVELOPED LEADER

18. 3. POSSIBLE LEADING POSITIONS

19. 4. LEADER’S FUNCTIONS 1 - to design the strategy 2 - to design the tactics 3 - to assign responsibilities 4 - to form teams 5 - to define roles / status of colleagues

20. 4. LEADER’S FUNCTIONS 1 - to design the strategy 2 - to design the tactics 3 - to assign responsibilities 4 - to form teams 5 - to define roles / status of colleagues

21. 5. HOW IS IT TO BE A LEADER? 1 - has authority 2 - makes extra work 3 - bears extra responsibilities 4 - gets additional fee

22. 5. HOW IS IT TO BE A LEADER? 1 - has authority 2 - makes extra work 3 - bears extra responsibilities 4 - gets additional fee

23. Findings (1b): intra-group comparisons from UK groups Pre-course and post-course questionnaires Leicester international group – some changes Leicester school-based group A – insufficient data Leicester school-based group B – little change

24. Findings (2a): inter-group data, comparing the pre-course questionnaires from all four groups Pre-course questionnaires – key findings

25. Findings (2b): Inter-group data, comparing the mid-course interviews from all four groups Herzen (5 interviewees: H1 to H5) Leicester International (8: LI1 to LI8) Leicester school-based A (6: LA2 to 7) Leicester school-based B (7: LB1 to 7) Differences in length and means of recording

26. 3 Interview Questions • What does educational leadership mean to you? Are leaders born or developed? • Who in your organisation hold a position or positions of leadership? Who should? • What, in your perception, are the two or three most important responsibilities leaders hold?

27. What does educational leadership mean to you? Herzen Leicester International Leicester A Leicester B

28. What does educational leadership mean to you? • Leading is the same as managing (H2, H5, LI2) • Leading is not the same as managing (LI3 and LI4) • Leading includes managing (LA7) It’s perhaps a mixture of two things really … having a vision … combined with skills of actually managing the implementation of that vision (LA7)

29. What does educational leadership mean to you? Transformational leadership (Leithwood and Jantzi, 2005) (LI, LA, LB) – setting directions often mentioned; • developing people often mentioned; • but redesigning the organisation rarely mentioned I think it’s about thinking outside the box. Not being afraid to really, really, really think about what is important and not being afraid to maybe have very radical solutions (LA5)

30. What does educational leadership mean to you? Invitational leadership – respect, trust (LI4), care (LA6), in for the long haul (Novak, 2005). They are passionately … interested in the welfare of the people they are dealing with. They’re prepared to give time to what they’re doing and show commitment and go the extra mile (LA6) Ethical leadership (Starratt, 2005) (LI1, LI8, LA2, LA6, LB3, LB6) You need to have a very, a very well-defined and well-understood personal value system that you are able to articulate to others (LB6)

31. Are leaders born or developed? All four groups displayed variations on three basic positions: • Leaders are born; • Leaders are developed and everyone has the potential to be a leader; • Some leadership traits are innate; others can be developed. Motivation is key, as are previous experience and personal circumstances.

32. Who in your organisation holds a position of leadership ? Herzen Leicester International Leicester A Leicester B

33. Distributed leadership (Harris, 2005) Implicit in LA The role of middle leaders are crucial in pressing forward change and making progress (LA7) Everyone … even the students … it’s everyone really (LA2) Explicit in LB We’re quite advanced as far as leadership is concerned, and distributed leadership (LB2) Everyone, I would hope, including students … because within our organisation, we believe in distributed leadership (LB6)

34. Teacher-leadership (Harris, 2005) – an aspiration for some LI interviewees; a reality for some LA and LB interviewees. Teachers also sometimes – but they have often no power to do what they wish to do (LI2) Teachers don’t have any leadership outside the classroom … Teachers should have some leadership (LI6) Support staff under-developed. (LB5)

35. What, in your perception, are the two or three most important responsibilities for leaders? Herzen Leicester International Leicester A Leicester B

36. Accountability and Performativity Leadership role is mainly to set a routine for work, to organize, supervise other teachers’ teaching plans, do lesson observation (LI5)

37. Learning-centred leadership (Southwood, 2005) I think to always focus on student learning, to facilitate the growth of everyone in the institution – members of staff, support staff, everyone (LI8) The bottom line is that teaching and learning is at the heart of all those responsibilities (LB1)

38. Thank you for listeningThank you to our sponsorsAny questions?