Independence and professional action

The findings of this study support the claim that mentoring in the CSLA has a career enhancing function, building independence and supporting effectiveness of novice

headteachers and depute headteachers. This study used the Standard for Headship in Scotland as the basis for describing the professional actions of headteachers. Analysis indicated that the main effect of mentoring in the CSLA was in leading and developing people and leading change and improvement. There is no direct comparison to other studies which have considered forms of employer-led mentoring against specific elements of the Standard for Headship in Scotland. Findings can, however, be compared to a study undertaken by Luck (2004) on mentoring of new headteachers in England which used the National Standards for Headteachers as a framework to evaluate the outcome of the process. The findings from this thesis are similar to that reported by Luck (2004) who describes the main benefits of mentoring in being in ‗Leadership skills – the ability to lead and manage people to work to common goals‘ (p 13).

In this study, mentoring did not focus upon leading learning and teaching – a finding which differed from Ehrich et al. (2004). In their review of formal mentoring programmes in education, assistance with classroom teaching was the second most cited positive outcome with 35% of studies reporting this as a benefit (p.523). However this review did not differentiate between mentoring for pre-registration, post registration or school leadership roles; the high emphasis on learning and teaching is likely to be attributed to mentoring for novice classroom practitioners. For those assigned to a leadership role, having authority over learning and teaching beyond their own classroom, the new challenge is to improve learning and teaching indirectly - by power or influence.

This thesis has already considered that leadership is a process of influence and offered a working definition in Section 1.1. Many models of leadership have been described, theorised and critiqued in the literature and this study did not set out to examine these but did establish (Section 2.3) that the conceptualisation of being a headteacher in Scotland has changed - with virtues of leadership in Scottish Education being heralded over the possibly less lofty merits of management. Notions of management, authority and legitimate power do not appear to be welcomed in the post-McCrone era where the expectations of ‗re-professionalised‘ teachers are recognised. If what is sought is system-wide change to tackle the global challenge for education, it is perhaps unsurprising that thinking about transformational leadership predominates. Concepts of transformational leadership appear to fit with received wisdom about school leadership - writers highlighting the need for shared vision, common goals, professional confidence, supportive cultures, capacity building, participation and facilitation, emotional intelligence and resilience in order to deal with complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty (e.g. MacBeath 1998, Tomlinson 2004, Bush 2008). Rather than assuming a

technical approach to change with metaphors of factory processes, this more human form of leadership is attractive to thinkers grappling with current educational challenges in the people industry but is by no means a new concept¹⁷. The role of the follower in leadership development and examination of the interaction between the leader and the social environment has formed the basis of much of the more recent discourse around 21^st century leadership. Cavanagh (2010) offers an insightful and progressive analysis of collegiality and school leadership in Scottish Schools which informs debate on the leader-follower milieu.

Transformational leadership appears to have become the normative model of leadership in schools today with empowered teachers, inspired and motivated by those in assigned roles but also moral authority, to not only meet their professional responsibility but to go beyond, to meet higher standards and take on broader roles in the leadership of learning. It is argued that some of the current thinking around authentic leadership and spiritual leadership can also be traced to a basis in transformation leadership. The central theme of this new leadership paradigm is influence, not authority.

It is proposed that influencing the ‗big people‘ in schools requires technical, conceptual and human skill. Credibility to be the head teacher encapsulates skill and competence in teaching and being the lead learner but this is not enough. As the findings from this study indicate, leading teachers through a change process is the challenge for novice school leaders, moving beyond the management transactions in order to build positive relationships which affect the actions, behaviour, attitudes and feelings of others.

Prescribed forms of leader development can help headteachers with ‗knowing that‘ and

‗knowing how‘ but more emergent forms of development can support the higher order capacities which are required to change behaviours or work on attitudes or feelings (Lewis and Murphy 2008). This study found that mentoring is a form of leadership development which can build independence and professional action in the technical skills of headship but it is proposed that mentoring also supports the development of people skills – the higher order relational capacities needed to influence and motivate others.

This section began by reiterating the original question - if mentoring ‗worked‘ for new school leaders. Summing up, findings from this study uphold the claims that mentoring

17 Transformational leadership was originally differentiated from transactional leadership by sociologist James McGregor Burns in 1978, where he considered the importance of the needs and motives of followers.

builds independence and supports the development of effective professional action, confidence and self-belief in newly appointed headteachers and depute headteachers in the CSLA. Results fit the conceptual frame (Daresh 2004) and definition of mentoring (Kram 1985) used in this study which anticipated both socialisation and developmental perspectives, with psychosocial as well as career enhancing, task related functions.

However, findings indicate the emphasis between the ‗doing‘ and ‗being‘ aspects of mentoring differs between and within relationships with the consequence that conflicting understandings about the psychosocial or task related constructs influences the process and outcome of mentoring in the CSLA. Mentoring appears to be understood through a socialisation and developmental frame but the perspective is not balanced – the lenses can have a greater focus on either socialisation or development depending upon a range of factors at different points in time.

Findings also indicated that the quality of mentoring relationships was inconsistent, with some better i.e. encapsulating more functions (Kram 1985) than others. Although most mentoring was considered positively, and only rarely cases of distress reported, some relationships did not meet the expectations of both parties and became spoiled.

As this is not expected to be the initial intent of any party involved in mentoring in the CSLA, it is important to explore how relationships evolve in relation to the learning that takes place.