Professional Development and Organizational Learning in Schools -

​

​

Unique Perspectives of Middle-level Leadership

László Horváth

assistant professor

horvath.laszlo@ppk.elte.hu

​

Co-authors: Sándor Lénárd; Márta Héreginé Nagy; Nóra Rapos

Project no. 128738 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the OTKA-K_18 funding scheme.

Participation at the ECER2023 conference was supported by the Youth International Conference Support 2023/III of the Hungarian Academy of Ssciences.

Problem statement

• Recent research highlighted the increasingly diversified role of middle leadership in schools (Lipscombe 2021; DeNobile 2018; Bryant and Rao 2019; Gurr and Drysdale 2013)
• Organizational context (structure, culture, responsibilities, decision making, power) (Gurr and Drysdale 2013; Lipscombe et al. 2023; Gronn 2022)
• Important role in building strong professional learning communities (supporting teaching and learning, serve as experts, lead research-oriented professional learning, cross knowledge boundaries etc.) (Battilana et al. 2009; Hargreaves and Fullan 2012; Soekijad et.al. 2011; Stoll et.al. 2015; Talbert 2010)
• specificities and models of learning of middle managers are less understood (Lipscombe, Tindall-Ford and Lamanna, 2023)

Roles of middle leadership

(De Nobile 2018)

Aims of the research

Research gap: understanding of the role of middle management in schools from an organisational perspective.

• RQ1: What characterizes middle managers' perceptions of organisational learning processes in schools compared to staff and principals?
• H1.1. Middle managers show a unique pattern of how they perceive organisational learning in their schools compared to staff and principals.
• H1.2. Middle managers' perceptions of organisational learning are dependent on organisational-level contingency variables (school type, school size).
• RQ2: What extra roles and responsibilities characterize the middle management role in Hungarian schools considering organisational-level contingency variables?
• H2.1. Middle management takes on extra roles and responsibilities compared to staff.
• H2.2. The extra roles and responsibilities assumed by middle management depend on organisational-level contingency variables (school size, school type).

​

Research methodology

Part of a comprehensive research project focusing on CPD models of teachers at organisational and individual levels

• Quantitative phase: representative sample of Hungarian public education institutions (stratified random sample based on profile and regional dispersion, weighted based on maintainter and school size)
• Sample: 5063 teachers from 656 schools (at least 20% or at least 5 teachers completed the survey from each school)
• 3186 staff members (78,5% female; average age 49,1)
• 983 middle managers (84% female; average age 52) --> defined as a formal role (leaders of committees)
• 894 (vice-)principals (72,7% female; average age 53,72)
• Instrument (selected variables): organizational level contigency factors (school type, size), extra role responsibilities, characteristics of organisational learning (based on Marsick and Watkin’s DLOQ)

Preliminary checks: Testing the learning organisation scale (invariance and internal consistency)

Configural (factor structure), metric (loadings) and scalar (intercepts) invariance were tested and established using R (RStudio 2022.07.2 Build 576 and R version 4.1.2) with the semTools (Jorgensen et al. 2022) and lavaan (Rosseel, 2012) packages.

Internal consistency (McDonald’s ω) of the scales accross subsamples are acceptable (> 0,7)

​

Understanding organisational learning from different perspectives

Interaction not significant for:

• Leadership position * school type
• Leadership position * school size (only for PL)
• Leadership position * school type * school size

​

Some significant interactions regarding school type and size: TL, EM, SC, PL

MANOVA for DLOQ scales based on position, school type, school size and their interactions:

Understanding organisational learning from different perspectives

​

H1.1.

• middle managers have similar views to staff on the aspect of leadership that supports organisational learning

H1.2.

• based on different organisational-level contingency factors and to a small extent, on leadership position, different patterns emerge in the interpretation of leadership supporting organisational learning processes

The role of middle management (extra-role behaviour)

The role of middle management (extra-role behaviour)

​

H2.1.

• middle managers take on extra roles and responsibilities compared to staff members

H2.2.

• clear patterns of middle managers taking on different internal extra tasks in different types and sizes of schools

Discussion

• organisational learning is conceptualized the same (scalar invariance) among staff, middle managers and principals, 🡪 significant differences along contingency variables
• middle managers’ answers were more like staff members’, = perceive themselves primarily as teachers and less as leaders 🡪 leadership role is not primarily based on formal frameworks, but rather on their subject knowledge and expertise (e.g., as a subject team leader)
• often take on mostly administrative tasks from the principals 🡪 role conflict

🡺 Strengthen supervisory and staff development roles

• more likely to apply their strategic role in contexts where a more cohesive community can exist (smaller schools)

🡺 empower middle managers in large organisations (trust and support from principal)

• take school type/size into consideration (e.g. small primary schools: focus on interpersonal cooperation and communication, community building; large vocational school: connecting to the external environment)

🡺 Considerations for middle leadership development programmes

Thank you for your attention!

László Horváth

assistant professor

horvath.laszlo@ppk.elte.hu

​

Co-authors: Sándor Lénárd; Márta Héreginé Nagy; Nóra Rapos

Project no. 128738 has been implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the OTKA-K_18 funding scheme.