Leadership for Learning: Building Capacity for Effective Teaching and Learning in Schools Serving Disadvantaged Urban Communities

Raising standards of teaching and learning in schools, especially those serving socio-economically disadvantaged communities, is a key issue of concern for governments worldwide. Recent evidence shows that despite persistent efforts over the past half century, the attainment gap between children with different socio-economic backgrounds still remains (OECD, 2011). In recent years, governments in the UK have engaged in a series of radical structural and curriculum reforms intended to transform the governance, structures and cultures of schools, the curriculum and processes of learning and teaching in classrooms and, through these, to build capacity for improvements in teaching and learning and close the achievement gap. Running parallel with these has been a range of related research projects, some commissioned directly by government, some through government funded, independent research organisations. However, research findings have not always impacted on schools and teachers.

The aim of this knowledge exchange project, therefore, is to promote the application of the accumulated academic knowledge on effective leadership and effective classroom practice to the work activities of a head teacher and senior leadership team of one secondary academy and the head teachers of seven primary schools in a teaching school alliance. These schools serve socioeconomically disadvantaged urban communities. A sustained participatory approach, in the form of workshops and school leader led inquiries, will be used to co-produce, document and disseminate new knowledge about effective leadership for learning practices within and across the schools.

The work will be centrally informed by the key findings of six national and international research projects on school leadership and teachers and teaching led by the PI and Co-Is, including successful and effective school leadership (Department for Education (DfE)) and the National College for School Leadership (NCSL)); successful leadership of European schools in challenging urban contexts (Socrates); effective classroom practice (ESRC); turnaround schools through the London Leadership Strategy (NCSL); networked learning communities (NCSL); and teachers' work, lives and effectiveness (DfE).

The Academy and the Teaching School Alliance have expressed a deep interest and commitment to the knowledge exchange project which will focus upon five key areas: i) turnaround leadership of underachieving schools in disadvantaged urban communities; ii) leaders who sustain success; iii) effective leadership of classroom teaching and learning; iv)) variations in teachers' work, lives and effectiveness; and v) collaborative school-based inquiry. Academic knowledge of these five areas will be applied to their priorities for development so that they may extend their understanding and improve their practice of leadership strategies for learning in these contexts.

The outcomes of the research and development activities will be shared during the project through an interactive web-based workspace. A communications strategy will be developed during the project to maximise its impact on leaders of the wider school community. This strategy focuses upon disseminating outcomes of the school-led inquiries through i) a public facing website which will be scoped, designed and built using the university's content management system and ii) a regional conference which will bring together key stakeholders from participating schools and beyond, local authorities, national policy and head teachers' organisations and academics. One outcome of these strategies will be the establishment of a 'School-University Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Network' to enable sustained dialogue amongst practitioners themselves and between practitioners, academics and policy makers.

Beneficiaries
1. The first level beneficiaries of this project are the head teacher and senior leaders in the Secondary Academy and the head teachers of the seven schools in the Primary Teaching School Alliance.

2. The broader, second level audience are leaders of schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged urban communities in the East Midlands region and beyond.

3. The third level audience are those who make and influence national policy and practice in improving schools in disadvantaged urban settings, including the Department for Education, the National College for School Leadership, the National Association of Headteachers.

4. The fourth level audience are academics and educational researchers who will learn about the processes of working with schools in networks of knowledge exchange and transfer in order to apply and maximise the impact of their work in the context of use (See the Case for Support for more detail).

The project will generate new understandings about effective leadership strategies for learning and capacity building in primary and secondary academies and schools, and through these, have potentially positive benefits for the above beneficiaries in the following ways:

i) For head teachers and senior leaders involved in the project in terms of enhancing their understanding and practice of leadership for learning;

ii) For leaders of schools serving socio-economically deprived communities in terms of increasing their knowledge of applied leadership practices and skills through which they can build and develop collective capacity in ways which will result in more effective teaching and learning and close attainment gaps;

iii) For government officials and non-government public bodies and quangos in terms of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current models of and strategies for raising standards in schools in disadvantaged communities;

iv) For academics in terms of adding a new dimension to current understandings of and ways of designing applied, user-led research into the ways in which schools develop and foster leadership for learning

To ensure access and increase the likelihood of beneficial impacts we plan to disseminate outcomes and outputs of the projects widely to different educational stakeholders:

i) to school leaders and head teachers in the participating Primary Teaching School Alliance and Secondary Academy via face to face workshops, support for their collaborative inquiries, the creation of web-based interactive workspace and bespoke leadership training materials for participating schools;

ii) to leaders of other schools and government officials and non-government public bodies through the development of a public facing website as an open platform for leadership development, a regional conference on leadership for learning, and the creation of a 'School-University Knowledge Transfer and Exchange Network' to enable sustained dialogue amongst practitioners themselves and between practitioners, academics and policy makers;

iii) to the academic community via publications in international and national refereed journals.