Leading educational partnerships Leading educational partnerships

What’s new? What’s difficult? What’s new? What’s difficult? What’s the reward?What’s the reward?

Professor Ann BriggsProfessor Ann BriggsNewcastle UniversityNewcastle University

ann.briggs@ncl.ac.uk

What’s new?

Partnership working is currently an anchor-point for Government policy in many public-sector areas, including education

‘The term covers a range of working arrangements, which involve multiple organisations, agencies, groups and individuals working collaboratively of co—operatively to achieve common goals or purposes’ Audit Commission, 1998

Educational partnerships have been seen as ‘the indefinable in pursuit of the unachievable’ Powell and Dowling, 2006

Educational partnerships

Extended schools Children’s Centres Federations School improvement partnerships Knowledge transfer partnerships Multi-agency working Networked learning communities 14-19 partnerships

Nature of leadership

Single-organisation leadership: the organisation is at the heart of a cluster of providers, working for the benefit of learners in a single institution

Collaboration between single organisations: may be of mutual benefit, but each institution is led separately

Collaborative leadership: leaders have joint responsibility and accountability for a range of learner outcomes

Collaborative leadership is not simply a ‘bigger model’ of single-organisation leadership

The nature of collaborationDegree of strategic vision

Degree of group identity / area identity

Enduring organisational structure of collaboration

Significant professional collaborative activity

Penetration below senior leader level

Strategic innovation

Normalisation of collaboration as part of the cultureAdapted from Woods et al (2006)

Research base for this paper

The baseline study for 14-19 education in England, funded by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in 2007-8

‘Leading partnerships for 14-19 education:’ research funded by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership in 2006-7

Interim and final evaluations of the Flexible Curriculum Programme in Tyne and Wear, funded through Gateshead Borough Council in 2007 and 2008

What’s difficult?

Government policy encourages single-organisation accountability and competition between providers

Leaders who have largely developed their professional experience in single-institution models of leadership may find it hard to adapt to strongly collaborative ways of working

Leaders at all levels of the organisation have to understand and adapt to collaboration, not just senior leaders

The effect of difference between the cultures of collaborating organisations should not be underestimated

English 14-19

Educational Partnerships

Learning and Skills

Councils

Training agencies

Employers

Local Authorities

Universities

Schools Colleges

Connexions Service

Charities

Tensions barriers

ambiguities

Ambivalence and fear of risk

Resource issues

Level of workforce development

Time to build partnership activity

Power issues

Contradictory Government

policies

Level of trust between partners

Multiple agendas

Differing cultures

Logistical issues

Communication issues

Single-institution models of strategy and

operation

What’s the reward?

No one organisation can provide for all the complex needs of learners

Collaborative working brings benefits to the partner organisations and their communities, to staff and – most importantly – to learners

Collaborating under conditions of mutual and joint accountability opens up new ways of conceptualising and enacting leadership

Benefits to organisations and staff

Partners learn from one another and share best practice

Opportunity for collective planning, increasing the strengths of each partner

Cost-effective and coherent curriculum and systems of underpinning support

Wider staff development opportunities and career structures

Improved senior and middle leadership

Adapted from Arnold, 2006

Potential benefits for

learners

Variety of types of provision

Specialist facilities

Mix with other learners

Individualised provision

Difference of learning culture

Increased autonomy

Increased curriculum range

Focus on the learner not the organisation

Potential benefits for learnersMix with other

learners

Individualised provision

Increased learner

autonomy

Improved self-image

Increased independence

Social benefits of learning

Improved teacher / learner

relationship

Increased stimulation

Increased aspiration

Variety of specialist facilities and

learning locations

Range of learning cultures

Increased curriculum

range

Increased chance of relevance

Better match of learner to provision

Improved engagement

Improved achievement

Collaborative leadership

Mutual trust

Understandingpartner

organisations

Common purpose

Accepting others’

leadership

Governmentpolicy & resource

Compatible cultures

Flexible systems

Shared expertise

Partnership energy

Collective responsibility

Individual partner benefit

Collaborative leadership

Mutual trust Mutual understanding of

partner organisations

Focus on common purpose

Accepting others’ leadership

Government policy and resource

Compatible cultures

Flexible systems

Shared expertise

Partnership energy

Collective responsibility

Benefit to individual partners

Collective responsiveness

Org

anis

atio

ns

Lead

ers and

staff

Aligned organisational goals

Inclusive, collective decision-making

New models of leadership

Multi-faceted, not generic Based on mutual trust and

experience of partnership working at all levels of leadership

Democratic and facilitative, not competitive and hierarchical

Focus on equity, mutuality and shared purpose