As I write this article there is only one week left until our Middle Leaders Summit on the Gold Coast. Much work has occurred in both the conception and hosting of this event. Two colleagues from our Queensland Executive have been instrumental in this. Dr Tania Leach and Mr Adam Kuss have brought their well-honed expertise and boundless enthusiasm to the planning and execution of the Summit experience. Ms Susan Garson, a new member of our Executive, has also contributed significantly sharing the findings of her soon to be completed doctoral research focussing on middle leader identity. The talent of our Executive group is profound.
In preparation for our Summit, Susan and I were interviewed for the first podcast of the Summit by Mr Michael Murphy. The episode is entitled Campfires, journeys and sandwiches, oh my, focussing on metaphors and middle leadership. It was a clarifying discussion reminding us of the power of metaphor in decoding and understanding the importance of middle leadership. For many years I have thought about middle leadership as the engine room of our schools. Metaphor is a very compelling linguistic device conveying complex ideas. It can help to steer the collective to desired destinations.
Since childhood my world has been shaped by choral music. Choral conductors use metaphor and other linguistic devices skilfully when searching for a particular sound scape. My experience has been that some use them incredibly powerfully while others fall short. One I remember spoke majestically about ‘crackling consonants’. He could certainly make our consonants ‘crackle’. They could ‘crackle’ sufficiently to cut through the woolly acoustic of a neo-gothic cathedral. Another spoke of his desired sound being like ‘rich gooey caramel’. To this day I am not quite certain what sound he wanted to achieve with this imagery.
Through this I learned much about the possibility of descriptive language when triggering imagination. What I also learned was that much rested on how such language was delivered. It requires a command of language to achieve its desired goals. It’s all in the delivery. Thinking pictorially can carry so much meaning.
As mentioned earlier, I like to think of middle leadership as the engine room of our schools. It is where much of the heavy lifting occurs. For middle leadership to be effective there must also be highly attuned and aligned senior leadership. This relationship is perhaps akin to the metaphorical butterfly. A butterfly cannot flutter without both wings. If middle leadership is the engine room, then perhaps senior leadership is the steering compartment. Navigating around obstacles to calmer seas or new destinations is impossible without a well-functioning engine room as well as deft and nuanced steering. Senior leadership must tend and support the actions and responsibilities of middle leadership if our schools are to remain agile.
My understanding of the middle – senior leader relationship was forged during my many years of middle leadership. Over the years, I witnessed and experienced several different approaches to this relationship. A senior leader who did much to foster my understanding of the importance of senior leadership to effective middle leadership was the late Mr Ken Symonds. Ken was the long serving Deputy Headmaster of All Saints Anglican School on the Gold Coast. Ken was a cricket tragic. Both his actual and metaphorical worldview centred on the concept of ‘team’ and his total commitment to classroom practice. Ken’s focus on the concept of ‘team’ was both motivating and enticing. When talking about recruitment he would often say ‘do you need four quicks Bruce - how about thinking about a spinner’? He made you think tangentially and counterculturally in much of his use of imagery and pictorial language.
Other experiences of the senior leader – middle leader relationship have not been as positive. I remember working with one senior leader whose use of imagery was most unhelpful. This senior leader had talent in spades – talent that could have been used so effectively in the mentoring space. Sadly because of a few unfortunate occurrences in their career they chose not to mentor and support but to belittle cynically. Their choice of language whilst on occasions humorous, did not contribute at all positively to the stewardship of their middle leaders. This was challenging. Perhaps they were effective because a day never goes by when I don’t think about how not to handle a particular personality or situation because of this experience. In saying this it has to be acknowledged that it was not all bad – it was nonetheless instructive. How we choose our language and by association, the metaphors and other descriptors we use, do have a profound influence on school culture.
If there is such a thing as a “metaphoricist” then I am one! My classrooms and leadership spaces over the years have been influenced very much by my exposure to effective metaphor. Interestingly at a wonderful in-service as a part of St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School Trends in Education series, speech pathologist Dr Hayley Tancredi reminded us recently that neurodiverse students might have trouble with metaphorical description and too much talking. This was certainly a timely reminder about how we shape our language and our language expectations.
Metaphor and other devices are powerful agents for good in our leadership spaces. It does help us pivot direction in so many helpful ways. Here’s to middle leadership as the engine room of our schools. ACELQ has done much in the middle leadership space. Thank you to our Pivotal People team for their deeply held commitment to the learnings of our middle leadership colleagues. Thank you also to Ms Susan Garson for her dynamic middle leader doctoral work (there is a biographical note about Susan below) and thank you again for the skill and care of Dr Tania Leach and Mr Adam Kuss in making our Middle Leadership Summit such a wonderful success.
Before closing, I would like to add a word of thanks to Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther AM who concluded his time as ACEL Patron at the Summit. There are not enough words to thank Frank for his enormous contribution over so many years. He has been a generous, prolific and an outstanding advocate for our treasured profession. Thank you Frank for your scholarship, example, collegiality and wisdom.
Meet our Queensland Executive – Ms Susan Garson
My name is Susan Garson, Director of Pedagogy at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, and I am excited to be a new member of the ACEL Queensland Executive. I have taught in a range of secondary school contexts in Queensland for 26 years and am passionate about the power of visible thinking techniques to enhance teaching and learning for both staff and students. My work on the steering committee for ACEL’s Pivotal People as well as the Project Zero Australia network, have been extremely rewarding experiences.
I am a lifelong learner. My undergraduate studies were completed at UQ, and I am currently completing a PhD at QUT entitled ‘Making Middle Leadership Visible: Representations of Identity and Influence in Australian Independent Secondary Schools’. My research makes visible the complex work of academic middle leaders. It investigated what influenced the leadership development of eight middle leaders over time and how they influenced the dispositions of others, or their propensity to think and act in context. The work of French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, theoretically grounded my research. The study investigated, ‘What influences academic middle leaders in their roles and how do they influence others?
A new definition of middle leader influence was devised and enablers and barriers to the development of middle leader identity and influence were explored. My study contributes to theorizations of middle leadership through an identity/influence couplet and visual metaphors to represent this. My thesis informs practice and policy with regard to future professional learning opportunities for middle leaders.
Dr Bruce Addison
ACEL QLD Branch President