Autonomy and accountability: the cross-hierarchical School Improvement Group in schools 'facing exceptionally challenging circumstances'

Cullen, Jane and Swaffield, Sue (2007). Autonomy and accountability: the cross-hierarchical School Improvement Group in schools 'facing exceptionally challenging circumstances'. In: ICSEI Conference: Professional Challenges for School Effectiveness and Improvement in the Era of Accountability, 03-06 Jan 2007, Portoroz, Slovenia.

Abstract

The potential benefits of a cross-hierarchical school staff group to engineer change in a school have long been recognised. For the work of such a group to be successful, there needs to be belief in the advantages of both collective and shared leadership, and a concomitant relinquishing of control. However, the benefits which a School Improvement Group (SIG) can bring are usually premised on stability in the circumstances of the school and the instability brought about by the ‘challenging circumstances’ faced by schools in poor neighbourhoods affects the long-term sustainability of such a group. This paper draws on evidence from a school improvement project involving eight schools 'facing exceptionally challenging circumstances' to suggest that there are serious obstacles to the development of a school improvement group in situations of institutional instability and external pressure.

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