Leading School Renewal

Steffan Silcox has had an eclectic career in education including roles as both a primary and secondary school principal, district superintendent and Director of schools. He was a lecturer and coordinator of Curtin University’s education degree practicum programme. Silcox gained his PhD from Curtin University with ground-breaking research in the area of school pedagogic leadership.Neil MacNeill is a high-performing school principal, and has been a school superintendent, principal consultant, and lecturer in university Master of Education courses. A prolific writer, Neil constantly looks for better ways to promote teaching and learning, and he encourages younger teachers to write by offering co-authoring opportunities. Neil is currently a principal of a large primary school in Western Australia.

• INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 DEFINING CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE: RENEWING SCHOOL RENEWAL Differentiating School Renewal from School Reform Leadership of School Renewal Concluding Remarks on ChapterCHAPTER 2 SCHOOL LEADER LEADERSHIP AND THE PROCESSES OF LEADING A SCHOOL RENEWAL AGENDA School Renewal School Leader Leadership in Framing the School Renewal Agenda School Leaders’ Behaviours Influencing the Teaching and Learning Enterprise Building a Sense of Cohesion and Team in the School Concluding Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 3 SCHOOL LEADER EFFICACY AND CHANGE School leader and Teacher Pedagogic Efficacy Teachers’ Pedagogic Knowledge Bases. Student Learning and Teachers’ Efficacy. Working with Teacher Self-Efficacy Instruments Teacher Efficacy and Change Putting it all Together: Collective Efficacy Concluding Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 4 MORAL LEADERSHIP GUIDING SCHOOL CHANGE AND VISION SETTING The Mission and Vision as the Starting Point of Change The Purpose Statement and Pedagogy The Impact of a School Leader’s Personal Motivation and Flow on their Change Predisposition School Leader Leadership and Flow The Importance of Moral Leadership in School Vision Setting Moral Purpose and Shared Leadership What is a Shared Moral Purpose? Shared Leadership Moral Leadership and Authentic LearningCHAPTER 5 SYSTEM REFORMS AS CATALYSTS FOR SCHOOL RENEWAL The System Reform: Moving Towards Greater Local Empowerment Advantages of a Devolved System of Education Building Classroom Relationships The External Factors Influencing Classroom Culture Pedagogy: A Better Way to go Supporting Teachers The Failure to Recognise that Business Models Provide a Better Understanding of What is Happening in Some Education Change Models The Illusion of AutonomyCHAPTER 6 SITUATIONAL FACTORS AND THEIR IMPACT ON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE Barriers to Change Staff Resistance Staff Union Resistance Parents System Level Barriers Piggy in the Middle (Keep Away) Toxic Management: A Culture Devouring Its Future! Toxic Management Toxic School Culture Toxic, Reluctant Managers and Toxic, Self -promoting Managers Toxic Culture Survey: A Culture of Sycophantocracy is a Barrier to Change Initiatives Leaders’ Achilles’ Heels Sycophantocracy in School Systems Developing a Field Guide for Identifying the Sycophantocracy What to Do General Comment on ChapterCHAPTER 7 PEDAGOGIC LEADERSHIP: A VIEW OF WHAT REAL SCHOOL LEADERS DO. Towards an Understanding of Pedagogic Leadership Pedagogy and Curriculum Pedagogic Obsolescence: School Leaders as the Endangered Species The Public Management Movement and its Implications for School Leadership Pedagogic Leadership and Public Management Policy Role Discontinuity: Killing School Leaders Softly The Way Forward: The School Leader as a Significant and Credible ‘Other’ in the Work of Teachers Staff Resilience and Work PracticesCHAPTER 8 THE "PEDAGOGIC WARS": A CHALLENGE FOR SCHOOL LEADERS The "Pedagogic Wars": Deskilling Teachers Using a Full Repertoire of Teaching Strategies: Tiger Woods’s Golf Bag Audit of Teachers’ Pedagogic Skills Performance Management is a Conversation with a Purpose. Coaching Mentoring and Peer Observation Pedagogic Profile and Performance Management Rationale Behind the Pedagogic Profile General Comment on ChapterCHAPTER 9 DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP IN MODERN SCHOOLING CONTEXTS: DELEGATION IS NOT DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP. Revisiting Distributed Leadership: All Hands to the Lifeboats. High Stakes Testing and the Concept of Good in Education School Leadership: The Importance of a School Leader’s Beliefs Distributed Leadership One External Education Agency View of School Leadership Distributed Leadership and Our Take on it. CHAPTER 10 SCHOOLS AS LEARNING ORGANISATIONS: GROWING ORGANISATIONAL AND BUILDING PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL Defining a Learning Organisation What Learning Organisations Look Like Leadership in a Learning Organisation Schools as Learning Organisation Implementing Practices that Characterise the Learning Organisation at the School Level General Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 11 NEW SCHOOL LEADERSHIP: JETTISONING THE COMFORTABLE PRESENT The Wild, Non-conformist Characteristics of Entrepreneurial School Leadership Formal Performance Management of the School Leader Concluding Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 12 VALUE ADDING AND STUDENT VOICE Measuring Value Added Assumptions Underpinning Value Adding in Educational Context General Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 13 PROFILING SCHOOL LEADERS’ LEADERSHIP QUALITIES Self-Assessment Issues in Profiling Leadership Behaviours Profiling Professional Growth Using the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders General Comments on Chapter CHAPTER 14 SCHOOL LEADERS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH Lessons on Resilience from a Military Context The Lessons for Education School Leaders Dealing with a Range of Mental Health Issues Presenting in Schools The Growth of Mental Health Problems in Schools The American Case of Adam Lanza The Australian Case of Martin Bryant Systemic Early Identification and Risk Management General Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 15 ‘CATALYTIC TEACHERS’ AND THE X FACTOR OF TEACHING AND LEARNING How Teachers Learn and Accept Changes to their Practice Catalytic Teachers and Teacher Leadership The Characteristics of a Catalytic Teacher Build the Capacity Catalytic Teachers and the X Factor of Teaching and LearningCHAPTER 16 ACCOUNTABILITY AND PUBLIC CONFIDENCE The Tightening "Loose Coupling" Relationships of Schools Venomous Accountability General Comments on ChapterCHAPTER 17 INTRODUCING THE UNIVERSAL FIVE KEY STEPS TO SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL RENEWAL: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Leadership and Change Distributing the Leadership. A Vision with a 13-Year Horizon Pedagogic Leadership. The Accountability Context Introducing the Planning for School Renewal The Universal Five Phases of Successful Sustainable Change The Human Aspect of the Five Phase Change Model Sequencing of Planning Development Adaptable, Multi-skilled LeadershipCHAPTER 18 CONCLUSION Sustainable School renewal – An Ongoing, Continuous Improvement Orientation A Summary of Our Beliefs About Educational Renewal and Change and School Leaders’ Pedagogic LeadershipAPPENDIX

This is a ‘must read’ for school practitioners, students, academics and policy makers and others whose central concern is renovation of schools. Authors Silcox and MacNeill have a wealth of experience academically, as school leaders, and in supervisory and administrative roles – together they have more than 40 years’ experience of leading schools and school systems. The central concept of the book – ‘school renewal’ – is nuanced and significant – indicating that the focus of school leaders should be on formulating a school improvement agenda which secures collaborative commitment of stakeholders, and as a process is continuous and step-wise, touching all aspects of their schools-Prof. Clive Dimmock, Professor of Professional Learning and Leadership, School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK; Emeritus Professor, University of LeicesterThis book is about focusing all stakeholders in the school in a common narrative, mission, evidence based and relentless focus on the learning lives of the students; it is about putting the impact of teaching at the forefront. Consequently, it is an illustration of collective efficacy in action-Prof. John Hattie, Laureate Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Melbourne University"Leading School Renewal" offers mentoring that is aimed at the heart of what brilliant principals do to improve outcomes for students. The authors describe the nitty-gritty bits of school leadership that only practising leaders actually see and do. This is a great guide for all school leaders, aspirant leaders, academics and school community members who are seeking a construct on which to renew their schools-Ray Boyd, Western Australian Principal of the Year