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Introduction to Middle Leading

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The Practices of School Middle Leadership

Abstract

Leadership is an area of focused attention in the educational literature, and it is widely acknowledged that effective leadership is essential for the provision of quality education in schools (Leithwood et al., 2006; Robinson, Hohepa, & Lloyd, 2009). Indeed, there is a plethora of books and articles that are based both on research studies and scholarship, which focus on school leadership, its forms and functions, and models for best practice. It appears that we know quite a lot about school leadership, but we seem to know relatively little about the leading work of middle leaders. Most of the educational leadership literature focuses on principals (Brent, Deangelis, & Surash, 2014; Cranston, 2009; Ribbins, 2007) whereas this book centres on the roles of middle leaders—those in the so-called middle management positions in schools (e.g. syndicate or team leaders, heads of departments and lead teachers).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this book, the terms ‘middle leadership’ and ‘middle leading’ are used, and in many respects, these are interchangeable in the text. My preference is for ‘middle leading’ (i.e. as a verb), but the field seems to prefer ‘middle leadership’, and so this term has also been sparingly used (particularly in Chap. 2).

  2. 2.

    These are reviewed vis-à-vis middle leading in Chap. 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

    Peter Grootenboer

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  1. Peter Grootenboer
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Correspondence to Peter Grootenboer .

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Grootenboer, P. (2018). Introduction to Middle Leading. In: The Practices of School Middle Leadership. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0768-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0768-3_1

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