Positioning or positioned: teachers’ perspectives on the leadership of Sixth Form Colleges

Abstract

Together with the former Polytechnic sector and General Further Education Colleges, Sixth Form Colleges have witnessed major change since the enactment of the Further and Higher Education Act (1992). Change within the post‐compulsory education system has taken place on different levels in the UK: at the macro level with change manifest in the structural relationships between the State, the sectors of the post‐compulsory education system and individual institutions; at the meso level with changes that have taken place within the Sixth Form College sector; and at micro level within individual institutions through the redefinition of roles and responsibilities. This research was concerned with an investigation into how teachers in Sixth Form Colleges viewed the practice of ‘leadership’. It is a term that has been promoted by Central Government as it has re‐engineered the education system and presented as a critical factor in raising performance levels within the education system.

Keywords:

• Sixth Form College
• leadership and management
• New Public Management
• teachers’ perspectives
• Postmodernist and New Modernist organisations