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Middle Leaders in Schools

I have been emersed in thinking about middle leaders in schools recently. In August, the Educational Leadership group at the Faculty of Education (University of Melbourne) hosted a two-day workshop that brought together many of the major Australasian researchers focussed on middle leaders. During this meeting we discussed the recently launched AITSL (2024) professional standards for middle leaders, and three important new survey instruments focussed on middle leaders. At the workshop we considered all of these as they provide clarity for educators and researchers about the work of middle leaders. Brief descriptions of these follow and a summary is provided in Table 1.

The AITSL (2024) professional standards for middle leaders complements the teacher standards and principal standard. In developing the middle leader standards, AITSL (2024) noted that most middle leadership roles fall under three broad categories: pedagogical leadership (improving teaching and learning in one or more curriculum areas), student-based leadership (focused on student pastoral and welfare matters), and program leadership (leading a specific program). Across six standards, there are 24 areas described. The six standards are: enabling dispositions; enabling knowledge and skills; enhancing understanding and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples; coordinating high impact teaching and learning; leading improvement in teaching practice; and, managing effectively.

The Middle Leadership Roles Questionnaire—School Edition (MLRQ-SE) (De Nobile, et al., 2024 is based on the input/output role model developed by De Nobile (2018). The MLRQ-SE has questions that reflect seven middle leadership roles: staff development, managing students, administration, organising people, managing curriculum, staff supervision, and leading learning and change. 

The Middle Leading Practices in Schools Survey (MLPSS) (Tindall-Ford, et al., 2024) is based on the practice-focussed research of Grootenboer and colleagues (e.g. Grootenboer, et al,, 2017; Grootenboer & Edwards-Groves, 2023) which describes areas of activity for middle leaders as occurring through three practice pairings: leading—teaching; Managing—facilitating; and, collaborating—communicating. The MLPSS describes practices across four areas: leading and managing school teaching, learning and curriculum; supporting teacher colleagues’ development; collaborating with teacher colleagues on teaching and learning; and collaborating with, and advocating to, the school principal.

Highfield, Thompson and Woods (2024) used the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF) (which is based on the research of Leithwood - see Leithwood, 2017) and developed a survey for middle leaders that, through 19 questions, describes work across the four leadership areas of: setting direction; building relationships and developing people; supporting desired practices; and, improving the instructional programme. These four areas are well-established as being core to educational leadership at all levels and in most contexts, and it is one of the most robust and widely applicable views of educational leadership (Gurr, 2023)

Table 1: Comparison across the AITSL middle leader standards, the MLRQ-SE and the MLPSS.

Table 1 simply lists the broad categories described. To fully understand what the standards and the surveys entail, you will need to access the full documents with the references I have provided. They are four equally valid ways to view the work of middle leaders, and whilst there are some commonalities (most obviously a focus on improving teaching and learning) there are also major differences (e.g. the role perspective of the MLRQ-SE versus the practice perspective of the MLPSS). So, there is not one right way to represent the complex work of middle leaders – this is an important statement to keep in mind.

These are great resources to help to support middle leadership work, but because they are not complete or sufficient, you must interpret them and use them in a way that makes sense for you and your work context. For those aspiring or working in middle leadership roles, exploring these resources helps in understanding what is possible in these roles. The surveys could, for example, be used to reflect on your own work and get others to provide formative feedback, and through this allowing you to identify those areas that you want to do more of, and those areas in which you might want to less. For those in senior school leadership or system leadership roles, it provides not only role clarity, but an obligation to acknowledge and better support the people in these roles.

Beyond exploring these important new resources, there are many ways to support your work as a middle leader or to support the middle leaders in your schools. There are an increasing number of papers in high quality open access journals, and John De Nobile has a special issue in Education Sciences (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/special_issues/EPN5P69J1A) in which you can find the MLPSS (Tindall-Ford, et al., 2024), the adaptation of the OLF (Highfield, Thompson & Woods, 2024), a paper by me on teacher and middle leaders (Gurr, 2024) as well as three other papers and some more to come. There are also resources from ACEL, with professional development targeted for middle leaders (https://www.acel.org.au/acel/ACELWEB/PL/2024/ACELearn/Middle_Leaders_Program_Online.aspx), the national conference in Adelaide from September 30 to October 2 (https://www.acel.org.au/nc24), and a book from our CEO, Barb Watterston, former ACEL President, Patrick Duignan, and ACEL member and collaborator, Elizabeth Benson (Benson, Duignan & Watterston, 2024).

I wish you well with your work as middle leaders or in your work supporting middle leaders and hope that these resources prove helpful.

References

Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) (2024). Professional Standards for Middle Leaders; Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited: Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Benson, E., Duignan, P., & Watterston, B. (2024) Middle Leadership in Schools (Emerald).

De Nobile, J. (2018). Towards a theoretical model of middle leadership in schools. School Leadership and Management, 38(4), 395–416

De Nobile, J.; Lipscombe, K.; Tindall-Ford, S.; Grice, C. (2024) Investigating the roles of middle leaders in New South Wales public schools: Factor analyses of the Middle Leadership Roles Questionnaire. Education Management Administration and Leadership, 0(0), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432241231871.

Grootenboer, P., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2023) The Theory of Practice Architectures. Researching Practice. (Springer)

Grootenboer, P., Rönnerman, K. and Edwards-Groves, C. (2017). Leading from the middle: A praxis-orientated practice. In P. Grootenboer, C, Edwards-Groves, & S. Choy (Eds.) Practice Theory Perspectives on Pedagogy and Education: Praxism diversity and contestation (Springer), pp. 243-263.

Gurr, D, (2023) A think-piece on leadership and education, Global Education Monitoring Report 2024, UNESCO. Available at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000384529/PDF/384529eng.pdf.multi

Gurr, D. (2024) Teacher and Middle Leader Research: Considerations and Possibilities. Education Sciences, 14, 875, 18p. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080875

Grootenboer, P.; Edwards-Groves, C.; Attard, C. (2024) Understanding School Middle-Leading Practices: Developing a Middle-Leading Practice Model. Education Sciences, 14, 492. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14050492.

Highfield, C, Thompson, P. & Woods, R. (2024) Curriculum Middle Leader Practices and Teachers Perceptions of Their Effectiveness: A Study in New Zealand Secondary Schools. Education Sciences, 14(6):623. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060623

Leithwood, K. (2017). The Ontario Leadership Framework: Successful School Leadership Practices and Personal Leadership Resources. In, K. Leithwood, J. Sun & K. Pollock (Eds). How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success: The Four Paths Framework. Springer, pp. 31-48

David Gurr
ACEL VIC Branch Executive Member