Middle Leading in Education

In our last post we suggested that middle leading is a crucial, but under-appreciated and not well understood in educational settings. Specifically, we posit that middle leading practice cannot be comprehended or developed by relaying on educational leadership principles and theories that relate specifically to principals or positional heads. For example, a popular educational leadership model like “distributed leadership” (Spillane, 2006) talks to the practice of education leading as exercised by the principal, but it does not really address those to whom leadership is devolved. So, while some aspects of middle leading practice can be examined and understood through theories like distributed leadership, they really are not adequate given the different positioning and relating of the middle leader. Also, we think it is timely to think about educational leading, and in particular middle leading, not by focusing on the qualities and characteristics of effective leaders (i.e., the person who is the leader), but rather the practices of leading.

Through our weekly posts we will explore the practices of middle leaders – what they do and say, and how they relate to their colleagues, and how these aspects are enabled and constrained by the various arrangements in their school sites. What we will not focus on is the leader as a hero or crusader who leads their school ‘from the front’ – we will focus on ‘leaders in the middle’.

Spillane, J. P. (2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass