Towards a Better Future

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Chapter Six: Educational Leadership and Governance resourceful arrangements made internally within schools during the austerity period: the in-house leadership wisdom that developed in a new key when necessity gave birth to more than a few inventive solutions. Fullan makes a provocative point, but also a thought-provoking one, in declaring that ‘the moral imperative will never amount to much unless school leaders also take it on the road’ (2003, p.47). For Fullan this primarily means school leaders taking their leadership insights beyond the school to work together in school districts and regions in ‘closing the performance gap beyond their own narrow bailiwick’ (p.47). For a smaller country like Ireland, with national associations of school leaders at primary level (IPPN) and post-primary level (NAPD), educational leadership beyond the school would have a national scope as well as a regional one. This arguably gives a more concentrated potential to the work of both bodies than would be possible for national associations in much larger countries. As suggested earlier, moreover, the work of educational leadership beyond the school would include a richer conception of moral purpose than that of closing performance gaps. A research-informed agenda that would do more justice to the view of leadership being advanced here would embrace actions like the following wider ones, in addition to taking development initiatives within schools: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Encouraging the profession to take ownership of the induction and probation of newlyqualified practitioners (e.g. Droichead – primary schools mainly) Working actively with policy initiatives which seek to redress the inequities and other shortcomings of a misshapen assessment system (post-primary schools mainly) Promoting professional learning communities between schools as well as within schools, including web-based communities Articulating and promoting new ideas for policy and practice on how time in school might best be spent (including examples from other jurisdictions) Contributing ideas to Teaching Council, Education Centres, DES/TES and other bodies on new forms of CPD and its accreditation Engaging proactively with national support agencies and the Inspectorate to enhance the learning environments of formal education. In the Irish context,the establishment of the Centre for School Leadership in April 2015 on a partnership basis between IPPN, NAPD and the DES augurs well for the advancement of ideas and actions like those considered above. Crucial to the success of the Centre is the provision of highquality leadership courses for established and aspiring school leaders. No less crucial is the building up of a strong research dimension, informed by the most promising leadership developments at home and internationally. Fundamental to the longer term-success of such a Centre, moreover, is its freedom to speak fearlessly for and with school leaders. — 107 —
Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System GOVERNANCE AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP The governance structures in our primary and post-primary education clearly bear the stamp of Ireland’s 19th century educational history. This is especially evident in the prominence of the role of patron, or patron bodies – a concept that is not common in governance structures in education internationally. The roles and powers of the patron were acknowledged and specified in the 1998 Education Act, so any developments in governance structures or policies have to take place within the legal framework established by that Act. The various patron bodies in Ireland are keenly conscious of their own traditions and distinct identity. There are cases, however, where the lack of a statutory governance tier within some patron bodies can have negative consequences. It is widely acknowledged that too much of the time of school leaders at present is taken up with activities that leave only limited opportunity to deal with the primary concern of promoting high-quality learning in the school. It is important to recognise that changes in some governance structures in recent years have allowed significant inroads into this problem to be made in some schools. For instance, the reorganisation of VECs into ETBs has lessened the burden of administration on school principals, thus enabling a more successful and “ The governance structures in our primary and post-primary education clearly bear the stamp of Ireland’s 19th century educational history. ” sustained engagement of educational leadership at school level with priorities such as the following: school self-evaluation, mentoring of student teachers and newly-qualified teachers; new initiatives in assessment and in feedback to students; and inventive use of ‘Croke Park hours’ for professional development purposes. ETBs are ‘patron bodies’, but what has empowered them here is their function as statutory governance authorities. There has been notably less progress made in situations where the patron body is not such an authority. All too frequently here, school leaderships have been hampered by a plethora of tasks that might be handled by the governance authority, or have otherwise lacked the capacity or opportunity to identify and take educational leadership initiatives. On governance more generally, it is instructive to compare, or rather to contrast, the changes promoted in England & Wales after the 1988 Education Reform Act with those that have taken place in Finland since 1990. Schools in Britain were encouraged to leave Local Education Authorities, thus becoming more autonomous. However, autonomy here was linked to a more centralising thrust: government-mandated performance targets on which individual schools could be ranked in league tables, and then rewarded or penalised through funding mechanisms. Meanwhile, in Finland, longterm measures were being enacted to entrust governance more decisively to federated municipalities. — 108 —
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Towards a Better Future

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