Reconceptualizing leadership in the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum: implications for school leaders

Abstract

This article explores the challenges for school leadership posed by the New Zealand Curriculum document, and investigates some implications for practice focusing on the themes of ‘distributed leadership’ and ‘teachers as leaders’. The study is situated within the wider Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project on conceptualizations of knowledge and learning in the integration of the new curriculum in teacher education, which examines shifts in educators’ understandings of knowledge and learning in the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum in eight settings within initial and in-service teacher education. The project paired senior researchers with in- and pre-service teacher educators to develop collaborative inquiries that challenged dominant discourses of knowledge and learning in their educational fields. This paper presents part of one of such inquiries focusing on leadership support. We offer a collaborative analysis of themes that emerged in data collected with school leaders after a professional learning day designed to interrupt common ideas associated with leadership, and curriculum documentation, development and implementation. The conclusion offers a practitioner’s perspective outlining the implications of the findings for leadership support and curriculum decision-making.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wayne Freeth

Wayne Freeth, leadership advisor, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 4800, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]. He was a school principal in Aotearoa/New Zealand before working as an educational advisor in in-service education focusing on leadership, a role he performed during this research project. He is currently working in in-service teacher education in the United Arab Emirates.

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 2000, Oulu FIN-90014, Finland. Email: [email protected]. She is a professor of global education at the University of Oulu, in Finland. Her research is based on postcolonial and poststructuralist theories and focuses on translating inter-disciplinary critical debates related to globalization, diversity and education into educational thinking and practices. She has published widely in the areas of global citizenship and development education.

Kathleen Quinlivan

Kathleen Quinlivan, School of Educational Studies and Leadership, College of Education, University of Canterbury, Private Bag, Christchurch 4800, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]. She researches sexuality education within and across a range of secondary school and informal educational sites. She is particularly interested in the conditions of transformational learning related to genders, sexualities and differences with young people.