Gu, Q;
Colman, A;
(2023)
Accountability, autonomy and organisational practice: How principals of successful schools enact education policy for improvement.
In: Woods, Philip A and Roberts, Amanda and Tian, Meng and Youngs, Howard, (eds.)
Handbook on Leadership in Education.
(pp. 115-128).
Edward Elgar Publishing
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Abstract
This chapter considers the ways in which recent English education policy has positioned autonomy as a concomitant of accountability. Following a critical examination of the conceptual relations between accountability, autonomy and leadership, the chapter investigates, from the perspective of senior and middle leaders, how secondary principals lead their schools to achieve sustainable performance despite policy shifts. Drawing upon longitudinal interview data from case study schools in England, the chapter discusses how successful secondary schools—in different socioeconomic contexts and led by principals with similar, strongly held moral purposes and principles of social justice, but with different histories and values—incorporate and use externally generated policies to support their own educational agendas, as they assert their right to apply their own educational values in practice for the improvement of teaching and learning and pupil progress and outcomes. The research suggests that what the principals were perceived to be doing successfully was to use policies as opportunities—purposefully, progressively, and strategically—to regenerate coherent cultures and conditions which support the staff to learn to renew their practice. Key in this regard is how principals broaden and deepen their organisational, social, and intellectual capacities for the improvement of quality and standards in teaching and learning, despite rather than because of externally generated reforms.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Accountability, autonomy and organisational practice: How principals of successful schools enact education policy for improvement |
| ISBN-13: | 9781800880412 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.4337/9781800880429.00015 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880429.00015 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Successful school leadership; Leadership accountability; Leadership autonomy; Policy enactment; School improvement; Education reform |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204867 |
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