Driving change from ‘the middle’: middle leading for site based educational development

ABSTRACT

Educational researchers have invested much in isolating the specific ‘drivers’ that influence school change and teacher professional development. In this vein, this article draws attention to necessarily situated understandings of practice development through research into the nature of ‘middle leading’ for site based education development in one primary school district in regional Australia. Drawing on practice theory, the analysis reveals how developing and sustaining change in schools is contingent on middle leaders’ insider knowledge, shared responsibility and capacity to sustain and ‘drive’ teachers’ learning. The article argues more situated understandings of middle leading practices are essential for sustainable educational reform.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle leading
• practice
• practice architectures
• professional change
• site based education development
• teacher leaders

View correction statement:

Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Christine Edwards-Groves http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3527-9756

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2020.1763601)