Department networks and distributed leadership in schools

Abstract

Many schools are organised into departments which function as contexts that frame teachers’ professional experiences in important ways. Some educational systems have adopted distributed forms of leadership within schools that rely strongly on the departmental structure and on the role of the department coordinator as teacher leader. This paper reports a study of department networks and distributed leadership in two schools. The study collected two types of data on teacher networks in the schools: attributions of the influence of colleagues on one another's professional development and joint professional practice. Measures included actor centrality and network density. The study identified distinct leadership configurations in different departments. The implications for the study of distributed leadership and for the distribution of leadership roles in educational organisations are discussed.

Keywords:

• social networks
• distributed leadership
• department heads

Notes

1. The study was part of an international research project partially supported by SALTSA. SALTSA is a joint programme for working life research in Europe. It is a joint undertaking by the three Swedish confederations of employees (Trade Unions) – LO, TCO, SACO – and the National Institute for Working Life, which is based in Stockholm. The purpose of the programme is to facilitate problem-oriented research collaboration on working-life-related issues in Europe.

2. Basic Integrated Schools are a recently created model of school organisation in Portugal that brings together several levels of basic (i.e. compulsory) education, organisationally, under the same school, the same senior management team and the same educational project. The aim is to provide pupils with continuity and coherence in their experience of schooling, from kindergarten until the end of compulsory education (grade 9). The Basic Integrated School that participated in the study (School B) employed primary teachers (who were organised into a department), a well as staff teaching in the second cycle (grades 5 and 6) and in the third cycle (grades 7 to 9). In the latter cycles, teachers were also organised into departments, on the basis of the subjects or curriculum areas in which they taught.

3. The small number of staff and of departments in School A meant that each department comprised teachers teaching different subjects (usually, similar subjects within a broadly similar curriculum area).

4. These results are restricted to perceptions of a strong or very strong impact (scores 4 or 5, in a scale of 1 = nil impact to 5 = very strong impact).