Establishing a Repertoire of Middle Leadership Practices for School Development: The Role of Dialogue Conferences

• In Event: Teacher and Middle Leadership

Abstract

It is well established that middle leaders make a difference in school development, but understanding their specific leading practices has remained less clear. This paper examines the efficacy of dialogue conferences as a participatory research methodology employed in a four-year project investigating the repertoire of practices of middle leaders in Australian schools. In this study, dialogue conferences are used as a collaborative research method involving researchers and stakeholders, specifically middle leaders and principals, to determine the day-to-day practices middle leaders enact when supporting teaching change. The methodology has three purposes: i) member checking, ii) dissemination, and iii) data gathering. Thematic analysis of participant dialogues showed how these interrelated research activities generated new knowledge about the repertoire of middle leading practices.

Authors

• Christine J. Edwards-Groves, Griffith University

• Peter John Grootenboer, Griffith University

• Sharon Tindall-Ford, University of Wollongong

• Catherine Attard, Western Sydney University