Association of Teacher Educators of Europe 2010

1. Association of Teacher Educators of Europe 2010 Leading Master’s Level Professional Development  Ada Adeghe

2. Introduction • Exploration of a range of conceptualisations and theoretical insights into leadership, including their relevance to leading Master’s level learning. • Models of educational leadership that are effective in supporting the kind of professional learning that promotes higher order thinking, interpersonal, analytical and organisational skills. • The extent to which local authority advisers who lead master’s level professional learning are engaged with leadership practices and behaviours that enable teachers to be critically reflective, inspirational, innovative, operate at a more strategic level and to take risks in the context of their schools.

3. Introduction • ‘Leadership needs to be reformulated to make it logically consistent with the learning process.’ – West Burnham (2000, p 72). • Intellectualism • Artistry • Spirituality • Moral confidence • Subsidiarity • Emotional intelligence •  All six elements are interdependent and contribute to a holistic view of the nature of leadership. Re-engineering mindsets

4. Key research questions • What are the key features of Master’s level professional learning? • In what ways do LA advisers’ knowledge and understanding of Masters’ level work enable school teachers to be critically reflective, innovative and strategic? • How can local authority advisers be best supported to lead Master’s level professional development for school teachers?

5. Methodology • Collaborative inquiry practices consisting of stages of reflection and action (Bray et al, 2000). • Roots in Human Inquiry (Reason & Bradbury 2007) covering a broad spectrum of participative research practices. • Eclectic approach to inquiry, avoiding a manipulative or elitist approach to the research process (Heron and Reason, 2001; Reason and Bradbury, 2007). • Located in interpretivism - characterised by a concern for the individual. The central purpose is to understand the subjective world of human experience (Cohen et al, 2007; Silverman, 2005).

6. Data collection methods • Interviews with 3 LA advisers: centrality of human interaction for knowledge production, emphasising the social situatedness of research data. (Cohen et al, 2007). • 1 Focus group (8 participants) with Master’s level students: participants’ agenda can predominate via interaction of group. • Methodological triangulation including face validity re: Focus groups (Kreuger, 2000)

7. Ethics • Research is a human activity, therefore, a moral activity. • Risk/benefit analysis for all participants considered. • Informed consent and confidentiality assured. • Power relationships considered.

8. Initial Findings Key features of Masters level work: • Innovative • Theory/practice links • Creative • Original • Critical • Reflective

9. Initial Findings Leadership behaviours • Supportive • Open to challenge and new ideas • Respectful • Daring • Extra confident • Utilise expertise of group

10. Initial Findings Support needs: • Confidence in teaching Masters level work, specifically academic and critical reading/ writing • Confidence in using literature • Inflexible administrative systems • Inappropriate assessment tasks and strategies • Closer alignment between research questions and collected data

11. Conclusion • Complexity of capturing what precisely Master’s level means in practice. • Need for school teachers to enhance their professional practice through becoming critical readers and self-critical writers. • Power relationships still needs further consideration. • Sample will need to be extended to fully answer research questions.

12. References • Bray, J. Lee, J and Smith, L.(2000) Collaborative Inquiry in Practice: Action, Reflection and making Meaning: New York: Sage. • Cohen, L.; Manion, L and Morrison, K. (2007) Research methods in Education. London: Routledge. • Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.) (2000) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage • Heron, J. & Reason, P. (2001) ‘The Practice of Co-operative Inquiry: Research ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ people.’ In Handbook of Action Research. London: Sage. • Reason, P & Bradbury, H. eds.(2007) The SAGE Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. London: Sage. • West-Burnham, J. (2000) ‘Leadership for learning: re-engineering ‘mind-sets’ in Moon, B.; Butcher, J. and Bird, E. (eds.) Leading Professional Development in Education. London: OUP.