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COLUMBA 1400: HEAD TEACHER LEADERSHIP
ACADEMY: DEVELOPING ENTERPRISE CULTURE
CHAPTER EIGHT: RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 The conclusions have some implications for policy
and for the nature of the programme; therefore, the authors
have identified some recommendations for the Scottish
Executive and the Hunter Foundation and for Columba
1400.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE AND THE
HUNTER FOUNDATION
- The study indicates that the Columba 1400 programme
is a unique, but powerful, leadership academy,
facilitating individual development of leadership
capacity and potential. Both the time required and the
location on Skye is important to ensure that maximum
value is obtained from the investment that will be made
should the programme subsequently be made available to
all HTs and DHTs in Scotland. A large investment is
required in personal time by each participating HT or
DHT. The full cost of the programme was not made
available to the research team, but the opportunity
costs involved alone suggest that maximum benefit
should be sought by careful consideration of the
selection and invitation of any future participants for
HTLA.
- Careful consideration should also be given to the
nature of the programme in relation to the framework to
teacher CPD that has been established. It may be
appropriate to either select or encourage teachers to
participate by the nature of their previous CPD
experience, rather than specifically HT or DHT.
Consideration should be given for increasing the
diversity of experience that is brought to each
HTLA.
- Although the pilot programme was being undertaken
by each HTLA cohort at an early stage in the roll out
of DtS, the link between the programme and that of E in
E could be made more explicit. This may just reflect
the early stage of the ambitious E in E programme and
there will be less need for this, perhaps, as teachers
become more fully aware of the breadth of DtS.
- A further consideration, for the selection of
participants for each HTLA, could be their previous
training and experience with E in E. There may be value
in having a mixture of experience and more opportunity
could be given to allow this sharing of experience to
be developed.
- Further research should be undertaken on the
impacts of the programme. The research team understands
that the full DtS will eventually be evaluated and
further research can be incorporated into that
evaluation. Of course, this study has only examined
initial impacts; the full impacts can only be studied
through more longitudinal research that will track the
effects of changes in attitudes, behaviour and
practices over time within selected schools.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COLUMBA 1400
- All the elements of the programme had some value,
but the findings indicate that the value of the
psychometric profiling session is limited. If this
element is retained, it is recommended that it be more
fully integrated into the programme, perhaps through
more follow-up sessions.
- We have suggested that the aims of the HTLA could
be clearly identified to participants before the
residential on Skye. We understand that there may be a
desire to retain a deliberate vagueness on the aims of
the programme since it is centred on the development of
the individual, however, some reassurance to
participants of what the programme is concerned with,
coupled with a more explicit relationship to the E in E
programme would be beneficial.
- There is a heavy emphasis on individual coaching in
the residential on Skye, to the exclusion of team
coaching. This was introduced in the two-day
preparation and some focus on this in the six-day
residential on Skye could be introduced without losing
the balance of the programme.
ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF
COLUMBA 1400 WITH TEACHERS
8.2
The authors have been asked to identify
alternative strategies that might be adopted for the
development of the Columba 1400 programme with teachers.
These will influence the nature and composition of
delegates for the Columba 1400 programme and each HTLA. The
reader should note that these are not recommendations but
are for further consideration by the Scottish Executive and
the Hunter Foundation.
National implementation of the
programme
8.3 National implementation offers the greatest
opportunity to include greater diversity in programme
members, drawing on the range of teacher experience that
would be available. There would be some benefits from
including different experience, maximising the diversity of
each cohort on the HTLAs. This greater diversity would need
to be set against the limited capacity for each HTLA of 15
teachers, which would limit the impact across different
areas, different institutions and different localities.
Targeting: selection by experience
8.4
To overcome the capacity and time
constraints, a number of targeting criteria could be
adopted that would seek to pre-select a target group of
teachers. One targeting strategy could be to use minimum
levels of experience as a selection criterion. This
strategy has the advantage of ensuring extensive experience
within each HTLA, although it may be seen as relatively
rigid and inflexible by serving schoolteachers and it might
have disadvantages of building some resentment among those
not chosen.
Targeting: selection by institution
8.5
An alternative is to select by
institution; for example, the programme could be restricted
to specific schools, such as new community schools or by a
minimum size criterion of schools. Any targeting of
selection by institution would cause concern about the
accuracy of criteria used to select the school and hence
programme members. In addition, it may lead eventually to
the development of an enclave of those teachers who have
achieved graduation on Columba 1400 compared to those that
have not.
Other targeting strategies
8.6
A number of other targeting strategies
are possible, for example by targeting under-achieving
schools, by targeting schools with specific geographical
catchment areas or by targeting through further selection
of teachers within schools. These alternative targeting
strategies all contain some dangers of being tied to
criteria, which may be under dispute. These are factors
that will need to be weighed carefully in any further
discussion on the development of the Columba 1400
programme.
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