Constantinides, Michalis; (2021) System Leadership in Multi-Academy Trusts: Leading Educational Organisations in England. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Abstract

This study identifies and maps empirically grounded key conditions and components of ‘system leadership’ in the English context. It explores the role of ‘system leaders’, identified here as executive leaders who enhance provision and provide support for a group of schools, at different levels of seniority through Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). The study provides insight and understanding on how these professionals enact their leadership and use their knowledge, experience and values in order to establish, manage and sustain school improvement across groups of schools. This research was guided by an ecological systems-centred approach which investigated the ways in which system leadership practices are (or are not) able to contribute to school improvement processes, conditions, and cultures of the schools within MATs. It emphasises the connections among all levels and components and thus attempts to capture the dynamic relationships and the influences of personal, interpersonal, and social contexts on the different perspectives that exist around system leadership. An ecological model, therefore, examined interactions between the micro-, meso-, macro-, exo-, and chronosystems, and was used to develop context-sensitive accounts of leadership across groups of schools. A qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design was adopted using a sample of five MATs. This involved an interview-based multi-perspective, multiple case study of MAT CEOs and members of the MAT executive leadership team exploring their roles and practices and a survey questionnaire of middle and senior leaders investigating whether and to what extent their MAT CEOs and executive leaders contribute to the individual schools’ processes, culture and improvement conditions. The primacy of leadership at the executive level was central to efforts for school and MAT transformation and that was evident throughout the results of the study. System leadership was multi-faceted and was understood through the multiple layers of the organisational structure of MATs. Four major domains of practice highlight the efforts of these leaders to address complex, systemic challenges. These are: setting strategic directions, developing people and organisational capacity, providing instructional guidance, and establishing organisational infrastructure to support schools’ improvement efforts.

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