Goleman (2006) identified six leadership strategies which he believed all good leaders adopt depending on the situation that they are in:
- Coercive
- Authoritarian
- Affiliative
- Democratic
- Pace-setting
- Coaching
A key point to Goleman’s argument was that the leader must be what he calls “emotionally sensitive” in order to know which leadership style to deploy.
He further argues that persistent coercive and authoritarian leadership creates dissonance and discord whereas the other four styles create team harmony and inclusion.
More than 20 years ago, the former Teacher Training Agency defined a professional development framework for heads of department (TTA, 1998). The strands still hold true today. Broken into four sections, they are subject development and strategic direction, teaching and learning, managing staff in the department, and effective deployment of staff and resources.
They also defined the role of the subject leader as someone who has responsibility for securing high standards in teaching and learning in their subject area as well as playing a major role in the development of school policy in practice.
Throughout their work, a subject leader ensures that practices improve the quality of education provided, meet the needs and aspirations of all pupils, and raise standards of achievement.
Five strategies
After a review of relevant literature and research, I carried out a school-based practitioner inquiry to evaluate five effective middle management strategies:
- The creation and development of a support network.
- The sharing of resources.
- Delivering a curriculum that is engaging for teachers and students.
- Regular involvement in teachers’ professional development.
- Consistency in the delivery of lessons.
1, Developing a support network
An effective middle leader is one that has a quality relationship with the team, works towards a shared goal, and involves the teaching staff in the department (MacBeath & Mortimore, 2001).
In this strategy, I worked with members of the department to allocate roles for specific courses. These teachers were usually willing to take on the role as principal teacher for a course offered in the department.
Teachers often felt empowered by running a course, knowing that they were also being supported by another experienced colleague. Figure 1 below illustrates how this strategy works in practice.
My findings showed that all teachers felt that the most important things for departmental success were cohesion and support from the head of department. It is very important for the middle leaders to involve teachers in the process. Teachers are more likely to get involved if they feel that their views are considered in the decision-making.
2, Sharing of resources
It is important that middle leaders work with the teachers in the department to contribute towards the development of shared resources. They should encourage members to create new resources, particularly if there are subject specialists who have the capacity (and time) to do so.
Even when resources are created some teachers may decide to not use them nor even share the ones they have created. It is therefore important for the middle leader to encourage and model best practice as well as measure the impact this strategy has on the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.
The diagram below (figure 2) illustrates a typical model for teachers to share resources. Teachers create resources and place them centrally into a shared location called the resource bank.
Figure 2: Resource-sharing strategy
The problem with this simplified approach is that it is assumed that all teachers are contributing, and that resources are being used effectively. To make this work, members of staff should be given opportunities to contribute towards a shared set of resources. Furthermore, resources must be accessible to everyone and revisited regularly over the course of the year – and the middle leader must check that this is happening.
It is important that the sharing of resources is implemented alongside the support network strategy. Some teachers may need encouragement, so support from colleagues will help boost their confidence (Zhang et al, 2021).
Figure 3 below, shows the refined model with the resource bank containing subfolders where principal and support teachers can intermittently build resources, keeping them up-to-date.
Figure 3: Refinement of resource-sharing strategy
3, Delivering a curriculum that is engaging for teachers and students
It is the central role of the school and indeed the duty of the department to deliver a relevant curriculum that meets the needs of all students (Reynolds & Teddlie, 2000). The management of students is largely devolved to classroom teachers, but it is the role of the head of department to ensure the department offers the right curriculum for their learners. Decisions are typically based on what is on the national curriculum or specifications, what other schools are doing, or even what the head of department believes it should include and can deliver.
Middle leaders need to be clear about what they want their students to be able to do, know, and understand about a subject. If the middle leader chooses to have no rationale, then it implicitly becomes the same as what other schools are doing.
Although this may not seem to be a bad idea, the curriculum offered may not be suitable for the students and teachers at any given school. Changes to government policy and the curriculum have the biggest influence over what is included, but it takes a bold middle leader to establish the needs of their students.
4, Regular training and professional development
I found evidence in my research that for training to be effective, it needs to be regular, involve all members in the department, and its impact measured through learning outcomes.
Densgombe (1982) reports that teachers who are given limited opportunities to learn new skills in a regular and systematic way were often reluctant to take part in the training. Teachers are more likely to welcome sensible forms of training if the right training is provided.
However, specific training is not always available to teachers and, when it is, it may not be entirely impactful. To solve this, many schools try to offer in-house training which when planned correctly, and delivered expertly, can have a sustained and lasting impact.
Joyce and Weil (2011) found that even where training is delivered by experienced teachers, they are often very busy, which meant that the help teachers got was meager. It is therefore essential for middle leaders to reflect on their own practice and see what impact if any the training provided has on teaching and learning.
5, Consistency in the delivery of lessons
Schools aim to offer all students the best opportunity to reach their full potential. I found that a consistent approach to lesson delivery was an important factor for improved learning outcomes.
Mascall et al (2009) found that middle leaders were responsible for helping their colleagues to carry out their classroom duties and assisting in the improvement of classroom practice.
By doing so, the middle leader is given their own professional growth, can promote the school’s mission, and works for the improvement of the department and school system.
I introduced a five-part lesson structure which gave teachers the opportunity to use a range of teaching resources that met the needs of our learners.
- Starter activity: At the beginning of the lesson, teachers use a starter activity which either settles or challenges all students in the class, getting them off to a flying start.
- Learning objectives: Teaching resources contain learning objectives which can be used to measure skills, knowledge and understanding, linking them to assessment grades/levels.
- Mini-plenary: Lessons contain a mini-plenary which helps students reflect on their learning during interval(s) in the lesson. It is also a great opportunity for teachers to offer their students a chance to respond to feedback.
- Teacher assessment: Every lesson must include a teacher assessment. This may be a question-and-answer session, monitoring of student work, listening to student discussions, or even a mini-quiz.
- Suitable plenary: Lessons include a suitable plenary, which offers students an opportunity to reflect on the learning outcomes of the lesson, reinforces their learning, or a task that prepares them for the next lesson.
Conclusion
The role of middle leader has shifted away from one that was perceived as an “individual effort” and towards one that involves delegating responsibilities.
In 2003, Wise and Bennett looked at how heads of departments perceived their roles. They found that “middle managers regarded themselves as primarily being teachers and that very few had received training on their roles, with 12% not having received training at all”.
What is intriguing is that most middle leaders who participated in the research found that when they were pushed for time it was the administrative tasks that took priority, since they were viewed to be the most visible.
It is important for the middle leader to understand the importance of their role and the impact this has on the quality of teaching and learning and staff wellbeing. I would therefore encourage middle managers, and in particular curriculum leaders, to apply all five successful practical strategies in their school settings, measuring the impact they have on the quality of teaching and learning outcomes.
- Monir El Moudden has been teaching for more than 13 years, including six years’ experience as a successful head of department. He completed his Master’s in teaching at the Institute of Education, carrying out a school-based action research evaluating the impact of effective middle management strategies on improving the quality of teaching and learning and student attainment. Follow him on Twitter @monirelmoudden
Further information & resources
- Densgombe: The ‘hidden pedagogy’ and its implications for teacher training, British Journal of Sociology of Education (3:3), 1982.
- Goleman: Leadership perspectives. In: Leadership that gets results, Hooper (ed), Routledge, 2006.
- Joyce & Weil: Models of Teaching, Pearson, 2011.
- MacBeath & Mortimore: Improving School Effectiveness, Open University Press, 2001.
- Mascall et al: The relationship between distributed leadership and teachers’ academic optimism. In: Distributed Leadership: Studies in Educational Leadership, Harris (ed), Springer, 2009.
- Reynolds & Teddlie: The International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research, Routledge, 2000.
- TTA: National Standards for Subject Leaders, 1998: http://www.all-london.org.uk/archive/Resources/subject_leader_standards.pdf
- Wise & Bennett: The future role of middle leaders in secondary schools, National College for School Leadership, 2003.
- Zhang et al: How do the leadership strategies of middle leaders affect teachers’ learning in schools? A case study from China, Professional Development in Education (48,3), April 2021.