Developing school leaders: responses of school leaders to group reflective learning

ABSTRACT

Throughout the past decades, the profession of school leader has become more complex. To deal with these increasing complexities and the challenges school leaders encounter, it is important that school leaders are provided with effective professional development. However, research on school leaders’ learning and professional development, and especially on school leaders’ group reflective learning, is still rather limited. Based on findings of a few previous studies considering school leaders’ professional development, a group reflective learning programme was developed. The current qualitative study unravels school leaders’ reactions with regard to group reflective learning programmes through interviewing the 19 participants of the programme.

The study of the school leaders’ reactions shows that school leaders set particular preconditions for group reflective learning, that they value recognition and support of fellow school leaders, and that they appreciate the programme because they were able to learn from their own, and their fellow school leaders’ daily-life experiences. Group reflective programmes have the potential to develop knowledge, skills and/or attitudes and seem to satisfy the statement that school leaders need to be provided with appropriate professional development programmes to prevent job related psychological issues.

KEYWORDS:

• School leaders’ learning
• professional development
• reflective learning
• collaborative learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Umbrella organisation: In Flanders, there are four main umbrella organisations: the Catholic Umbrella Organisation, Umbrella Organisation of the Education of Flemish Community, the Umbrella Organisation of Education of Cities and Municipalities, and the Umbrella Organisation Provincial Education. These umbrella organisations (UO) support and represent school boards and teams, prepare curricula and class schedules. The UO develop among others initiatives to support schools, to improve the quality of education and to strengthen the professional skills of staff members. (Flemish Ministry of Education. Officieel en vrij onderwijs, onderwijsnetten en koepels. Retrieved November 2019).

Additional information

Funding

The study was conducted as part of the KU Leuven project Leadership development for public sector performance: A longitudinal field experiment in an educational context (project ID: C14/16/013).