Southworth, Geoff. (2004). Primary School Leadership in Context. Leading small, medium and large sized schools. Reviewed by Roland Vandenberghe, University of Leuven, Belgium

Southworth, Geoff. (2004). Primary School Leadership in Context. Leading small, medium and large sized schools. London-New York: RoutledgeFalmer 192 pp. $39.95 Paperback     ISBN 0-415-30396-6 Reviewed by Roland Vandenberghe University of Leuven, Belgium January 6, 2005 The title of the book indicates that nowadays context matters for school leaders; leadership is strongly influenced by the context in which it is exercised. “The school as an organisational context for the work of leaders is complex. It requires leaders to deal with multiple variables which combine and interrelate in subtle and shifting ways so that leaders must always be watchful and aware of what is happening”( p.158). But context also refers to the turbulent national policies. School leaders need to understand national policies and to know what is expected of them and must be able to develop a local policy for the implementation of not always clear and sometimes continuing changing national policies. The purpose of this book, written by Geoff Southworth, Director of Research at the National College for School Leadership in the UK, is to focus on one feature of context, namely the size of the school and this feature is chosen because it is “an important factor in the primary sector” (p.2). According to the author little empirical work has been devoted to leading different-sized primary schools; consequently we need to study carefully how different contexts influence leadership by examining the variable effects of school size upon leaders. The first part of the book consists of an introduction, with a well-balanced presentation of the questions to be studied, and chapter 1. This chapter explains in a more elaborated way why context is important and also reviews the literature about school size and how it is related to leadership. Part two covers the chapters 2, 3 and 4 and reports and reviews the findings from three studies conducted in small-, medium- and large-sized primary schools. After having looked at leadership in small, medium-sized and large primary schools, the author explores in part 3 similarities and differences that exist between the three groups of schools and how they affect certain key aspects of school leadership. Chapter 5 is devoted to a vital question for school leaders: how can they influence what happens inside classrooms (learning-centred leadership)? Chapter 6 focuses on the relationship between leadership, school structures and systems and school size. Using findings presented in the previous chapter, Southworth very well explains, although the leader as an individual is still important, leadership also involves the creation of organizational, curricula and staff development structures and systems. Chapter 7 explores a very important theme, namely how leaders develop professionally while doing the job. And the author rightly remarks: “The focus of this chapter could easily form another book” (p.139). Those of us who believe (or wrongly assume) they don’t have enough professional time to read the whole book, should read chapter 7. In a first part of this chapter the author discusses what the research into small, medium-sized and larger primary schools implies for developing leaders of these different school sizes. The second section contains an elaboration of a theme already introduced in chapter 5, namely “learning-centred leadership” and looks at the implications for leadership development . And in the third section, under the heading “Developing leadership capacities in schools” three interrelated themes are presented: schools as learning organizations, distributed leadership and teacher culture. Chapter 8 contains a well-structured overview of the main themes in the research findings and presents a set of conclusions. Part 3 and 3 are of a different nature. In part 2 the main findings of three studies (ch.2, 3 and 4) are presented in a reduced version and in the concluding section of each chapter we find a limited number of references to other studies. By contrast, in part 3 research findings, other related studies and personal reflections are combine in a fruitful way. The reader gets a good summary of several studies, is confronted with challenging questions and useful ideas about school leadership. By doing so, the author explores in a successful way future research themes and questions and creates a useful framework for those of us who are interested in training programmes for school leaders. Chapter 2 reports on the findings of research conducted into 10 successful head teachers in small-sized (less than 150 pupils) primary schools. The author spent one day in each of the selected schools and interviewed the heads, two teachers and one governor. The chapter contains an interesting overview of the main themes (illustrated by many quotations) from the head teacher, teacher and governor interviews. And the end of the chapter eight interrelated themes, emerging from the findings, are summarized and discussed. One of this these themes relates to the finding that all interviewed heads were improving their schools and that each of them used a number of strategies to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the school. Three broad strategies stand out from what all the respondents said: modelling, monitoring and discussion. And on page 46 – and also in an insightful way in chapter 5 – these three strategies are analysed and elaborated in terms of specific tactics. By doing so, the author not only specifies what successful head teachers actually do (and how successful actions are experienced by for instance teachers), but he also creates a framework which leads to an understanding of successful leadership and how learning-centred leadership influences what happens in classrooms. Already in chapter 1 Southworth remarks that, in order to understand how school improvement occurs, it is not only important to analyse what school leaders do, but also to look at how they put in place school structures and systems. The findings presented here confirm a well-known observation that structures and systems ( organisational and curricular structures and systems; systems providing opportunities for professional development for teachers and leaders) create a range of organisational conditions and capacities which work in combination with a head’s leadership and management. And Southworth concludes: “Together, the leadership strategies, organisational and curricular structures and systems were the processes by which shared educational values and goals were created , the ways in which consistency in teaching and high expectations were put in place and the means by which improvement in pupils’ learning outcomes and progress were achieved” (p.47). Chapter 6 focuses in a more detailed way on the relationship between leadership, school structures and systems and school size. In chapter 3 nineteen school heads, working in primary schools (with 150 to 330 pupils) facing challenging circumstances and where there was evidence of sustained improvement in pupils’ achievement, were studied. The data were collected during three twenty-four-hour residential workshops and several one-day seminars. During these meetings the participants wrote short notes about themes such as: “How they led their schools”, “How they shared leadership with others in schools”, “What they learned from working together”, etc…(p.50). In other words, the project (the ‘Heads in Essex Leadership programme’) produced a wealth of material, “…grounded in the heads day-to-day practice and the fruit of their deep professional knowledge and understanding” (p.51). It is quiet clear from the findings presented in chapter 3 that the larger the school, the more important structures and systems become and consequently “context matters”. One strong point of this chapter is that information supplied by the heads in the context of a training programme, was particular detailed and thus very valuable. From these data we learn that structures and systems do not only serve bureaucratic purposes, but they enable teachers to work together, share ideas and day-to-day experiences, work on individuals concerns, etc… Structures and systems create many opportunities for professional development and lead ultimately to a culture of collaboration and learning. The relationship between structures and systems and professional development and a learning culture is more extensively described in chapter 6. And here we especially refer to figure 6.1 in which the development towards a “learning and teaching school” is summarized in an attractive way. Another attractive theme presented in chapter 3 concerns the descriptions of the changes heads had introduced and which had a positive effect on children’s achievements (p.62-64). And it is no surprise that actions related to improving constantly the quality of the teaching staff are considered as the most important strategy. Other important strategies are: the development and use of a monitoring system, effective curriculum planning, the use of data, target setting, positive behaviour management, etc… Chapter 4 is devoted to leadership in large (more than 400 pupils) primary schools. Already in chapter 1 Southworth noted that in the last five years the number of large primary schools is increasing rapidly, an observation that is confirmed in the introduction of chapter 4. The data presented here are based on interviews of the heads and deputies in approximately one-third of the very largest primary schools in England. From the analysis of the interview data, a questionnaire was constructed and sent to all remaining heads in the largest schools (601-plus pupils). And the same questionnaire was also dispatched to a random sample of 25 percent of primary schools with 401-600 pupils (p.70). Two conclusions are worthwhile to mention here. The author concludes that in large primary schools effective management of communications systems is very important. In large schools there are not only more teachers, but also more ‘leaders’. In such an organisational context formal communication channels must be used and it is “inadvisable to rely on informal communication channels” (p.89). And secondly, large and particular very large schools are characterized by shared and distributed leadership. Shared leadership means that the head works in partnership with the deputy and for instance a few senior teachers. However in very large schools, given the size of the staff and the different tasks and related responsibilities, there are many additional leaders. Thus leadership is distributed across the school. One of the consequences of this greater organisational complexity in terms of leadership is that heads and deputies of (very) large schools are responsible for and need to support the development of other leaders. To create and sustain a distributed model of leadership are difficult tasks and according to Southworth it is necessary to develop specific training programmes for heads of large primary schools. This theme is further explored and analysed in chapter 8. And especially the combination of this theme with the ‘learning centred leadership’-theme leads to valuable perspectives on school leadership in general. It is not possible to give a complete overview of the many findings, well formulated conclusions, suggestions for future research and for the development of training programmes for school leaders. This is a publication that everybody who is interested in school leadership has to read. The author presents an evidence-informed portrait of leadership in small, medium and large primary schools. He sets out the main features of each category based on the views and experiences of heads, deputies and governors. But at the same time, using this trilogy of related research projects, he explores three other related issues: learning centred leadership (the main question here is: how to influence what happens in classrooms?); structures and systems in schools (the main question is here: how do leaders develop and use structures and systems in schools and especially in large and very large schools?); developing leaders and leadership (the main question is here: how to build leadership capacities?). I can imagine that some colleagues researchers would like to read something more about the development of the interviews and questionnaires (chapters 2, 3 and 4) and also about the way data were analysed. I also can imagine that some of us, reading the conclusions and discussion sections of chapter 2, 3 and 4 will experience a kind of unnecessary repetition. But repetition is an acceptable teaching strategy and well formulated conclusions have sometimes a stronger influence (for instance on policy-makers) than a long description of data and observations. This is a very informative book because it combines empirical findings, an exploration and useful synthesis of relevant literature and above all a thoughtful presentation of important interrelated leadership themes. Academics and students of school leadership will find this book useful. But this publication is also valuable for headteachers, deputies and those who aspire to a leadership position About the Reviewer Roland Vandenberghe University of Leuven, Belgium Center for Educational Policy and Innovation Email: rvandenberghe@pi.be Professor Roland Vandenberghe is, since October 2004, Professor Emeritus of the University of Leuven (Belgium). He was Chair of the Center for Educational Policy and Innovation of the Department of Educational Sciences. His main research interests are related to school improvement and professional development of teachers and principals. At this moment he is still involved in a study about professional development of beginning primary school principals.