A School Leadership Pipeline Model : a systemic and holistic model for school leadership development

Abstract

Today's schools require their leaders to deal with atypical challenges and confidently navigate problems involving a diverse range of stakeholders. The predominant leader-centric school leadership theories and models developed in the last century, which focused mainly on principalship, no longer meet the needs of current and future school leaders (Frost, 2011; Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Neidhart & Carlin, 2011, Waterson, 2015). Following a critical review of existing leadership literature and field investigation, this thesis posits a School Leadership Pipeline Model to initiate a paradigm shift in school leadership development, which focuses on the three tiers of leadership in a school system: teacher leaders, mid-level leaders and senior leaders. The model is based on migrating and adapting the theoretical principles of the Leadership Pipeline Model (Charan, Drotter, & Noel, 2001, 2011), to an educational leadership context, providing a structure to help New South Wales and Australian school organisations identify and nurture future leaders via a holistic approach to talent management and succession planning. The study used a mixed method approach that included a two-phase sequence. The first phase involved the creation of the School Leadership Pipeline Model (SLPM) and its measurement tool, the School Leadership Capability Scale (SLCS), which was used as a survey tool to capture quantitative data from an online survey. Stringent steps were taken to substantiate the validity and reliability of this scale using robust statistical assessments and analyses. Input from an expert panel versed in capability framework development, and evaluation by a focus group comprising school leaders from different levels of leadership, have established the face and content validity of the survey instrument. Two pilot tests of the survey instrument and the use of factor analysis proved its construct validity. Reliability was also established using convergent and divergent validity tests. The second phase of the study involved a series of semi-structured interviews about school leadership with school leaders from different leadership levels and demographic areas in NSW, Australia. The thirty-five participants included teacher leaders (classroom teachers and team leaders); mid-level leaders (assistant principals in primary schools and head teachers in high schools); and senior leaders (deputy principals and principals). They were selected from more affluent areas (North Sydney area), less affluent areas (Sydney west and Sydney south west), regional New South Wales (NSW), and two Schools for Specific Purposes (SSPs) to capture insights into how demographic factors affect school leadership. The participants identified themselves as having strengths in a number of the qualities they regarded as essential for school leaders today: inclusive education, communication, adaptability and flexibility, and relational and people skills. They also identified skills deficits and development needs in organisational capacities: self-leading capabilities such as strong resilience and emotional intelligence, time management to attain a work-life balance, conflict management and handling difficult situations, talent management and succession planning, collaboration, and the application of systems thinking to effect collective leadership. The data captured reflected only minor demographic differences in participants' perceptions of their leadership strengths and development needs. The findings of this study confirm the applicability of the School Leadership Pipeline Model to school-led or self-led professional development for school leaders at all levels of leadership. This model supports both horizontal and vertical leadership development and illustrates how teachers might function at each increasing level of leadership. This thesis is significant because it redefines leadership development via a new model that is holistic and systemic in the context of school leadership in Australian schools. The study broadens the concept of leadership development to include talent management and succession planning as a holistic lens for school leadership development. It provides a School Leadership Pipeline Model as a theoretical concept to define a systemic approach to leadership development. Finally, it has created the SLCS to provide a line of sight for individual school leaders to plan their professional development and career advancement, and for schools to plan essential talent management strategies and processes to optimise human capital planning and implementation.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English