The current pace of change in education places immense pressure on school leaders. Unfortunately, limited resources mean the innovative thinking the education sector needs is hard to achieve. In the public sector and corporate sphere, organisations increasingly recognise the complexities of the world in which we operate and are developing their leaders using adaptive, human-centred approaches. Education, unfortunately, has lagged behind. Currently, however, there are several MATs and organisations who are individually and collectively thinking about what it might mean to rethink leadership in their settings and collectively across the system.
In 2022, I devised and developed New Capabilities for a New World, a leadership development journey that supports school leaders to explore the capacities and conditions that help them lead change in their specific context.
The programme – developed in partnership between Greater Manchester Combined Authority Careers Hub, Ashoka, The Edge Foundation, and the Careers and Enterprise Company – is helping school leaders approach strategic challenges around learner engagement, equity, and social justice in new ways. It encourages school leaders to step back, pause with awareness, and think through new approaches for leading change. A tangible outcome is a school-based strategy that equips all young people to thrive in a complex world. You can learn more about the pilot here.
An adaptive framework not a prescriptive model
Traditionally, education leadership development tends to focus on building the particular competencies leaders need to become better at what they are already doing. Unfortunately, this prescriptive, horizontal approach fails to equip leaders with the broader capabilities necessary for leading change in a complex, adaptive and unpredictable system. The best protection we have against becoming overwhelmed in such a volatile world is to know ourselves and what we stand for so that we can ‘read’ the nuances of our context and use this to guide our strategic action.
The New Capabilities methodology that emerged from the programme was informed by the experience of international NGO Ashoka’s network of social innovators, changemakers and other system leaders. It highlights self-awareness; conscious empathy; strategic, systems-level thinking; and deployment of collaborative problem-solving in ways that unlock the potential in oneself and others.
The new leadership practice that emerged from the programme was strengths-based, developmental and intentional about the cultural conditions that allow colleagues (and young people) to grow authentically, learn deeply, and function well. This is a ‘vertical’ approach to leadership development that integrates the layers of self, school and system to build changemaking capabilities that are rooted in agency and empathy and a wider sense of purpose.
What has the pilot taught us?
Through the pilot, we have become clearer about the capacities leaders can become more conscious of as they lead change and grow themselves through that process. We have seen the conditions and cultures that nurture changemaking become manifest in leaders’ innovation projects. We have also seen how co-leadership with young people allows new ways of collaborating to unfold.
Leaders highlighted the value of being able to pause, step back and really consider young people’s emerging needs and how to respond to them. Participants said they felt better equipped to lead change and
“think beyond the curriculum and do things differently, looking at individual needs.”
At the school level, this has translated into strategy and emerging practices around personal development and careers. Leaders have broadened the scope of their career programmes to give learners more agency. They’ve also created learning experiences using real-world and project-based learning, placing careers at the centre of the curriculum. This emerging practice gives learners access to new ideas, places and opportunities, allows them to build their own social capital, and access a wider range of future possible careers. Transforming destination possibilities for working-class students offers a powerful route to overcome intractable inequality in educational outcomes.
Finally, at a system level, the programme has shifted many headteachers’ leadership styles to be more outward-facing, while encouraging them to enact their own role in effecting improvement in the wider system. It has also spurred a raft of ongoing collaborations and partnerships. One example is EcoVida Routes – an organisation offering eco-literacy consultancy and support to schools. The programme is also informing strategic thinking within the GMCA Careers Hub.
What next for New Capabilities?
A full report, just released, covers the pilot’s methodology and findings in detail. It would be interesting reading for MAT CEOs or other leaders seeking to adopt a more sustainable, responsive approach to leadership development and school strategy. For parents, teachers and young people, the report should also reveal glimpses of what can happen when we listen carefully to the articulated needs of young people and put this at the heart of our thinking.
The New Capabilities framework for leadership development could complement the existing NPQ offer, adding a transformational dimension by integrating the levels of self, school, and system. This is a work in progress. Next steps are to continue developing and refining the methodologies that support this capabilities-based approach in order to evolve the framework further. We have also convened a network to collaboratively rethink leadership development that can engender an authentic sense of purpose, commitment and contribution. This is an urgent imperative if we want to support leaders, at all levels of the system, to respond to the complex problems of our time, and to equip learners to do the same.
Collaboration remains at the heart of this. If you would like to learn more, please do get in touch with the School Effectiveness Team at the Institute of Education, University of Worcester, or email me directly: s.mcinerney@worc.ac.uk
Shaun McInerney was Programme Lead for the New Capabilities Programme and is currently at the Institute of Education, University of Worcester. He works closely with the Edge Foundation and Ashoka UK.
