Leading on the fly: research exposes the messy, unseen work of middle leaders

Griffith University’s Professor Peter Grootenboer, along with a team of researchers, have set about changing this.

As part of a wider investigation into the nitty-gritty work of this unique cohort, the former teacher turned academic has teased out the messy and ‘on the fly’ nature of middle leadership in schools.

Shadowing middle leaders for five days proved an especially eye-opening method of data collection, Grootenboer reports.

“We saw one middle leader, in the space of three hours, she had like 150 transactional shifts that she had to do. Between working with parents, working with senior managers, working with students, working with other teachers.

“And so they were constantly just changing (tack) and trying to respond to things that were happening in the moment.”

Much of this leadership was done informally, the researcher says, with middle leaders grappling with an influx of decisions that needed to be made on the spot.

This core work is notably absent from the newly implemented AITSL Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, the study concludes.

“A lot of their actions can’t be ‘oh, I’ll write that down and then I’ll come back to you tomorrow with a thought-out response’,” Grootenboer explains.

“They had to give people an in-the-moment response and make decisions quickly … they’re always being pulled and pushed, and they have to make [calls] off the cuff.

“And in a sense it makes it difficult, because it’s not thoughtless decision making, but you can’t have a nice reflective practice where you sit [on situations],” he says.

As a former head of mathematics, the research carries a personal dimension for Grootenboer.

He recalls the time he was appointed as a middle leader and the confusion that enshrouded the role. 

“[Senior leadership] said, ‘You’re a good teacher, become the head of the maths department’.

“And I said, ‘Great!’ And then they just let me go – I had no idea what I was doing, so I just continued trying to be a good teacher, but I didn’t really know how to help other people teach it,” he reflects.

Much of the messy core work that middle leaders undertake is notably absent from the newly implemented AITSL Professional Standards for Middle Leaders, Professor Peter Grootenboer, pictured above, says. 

Indeed, the study found participants had engaged in little professional development in how exactly to lead the improvement of teaching across a team.

In fact, six out of the 25 participants spoke about how they intentionally organised their own professional learning outside of their school context, spurred on by the desire to improve their leadership skills.

Navigating power dynamics amongst colleagues is a crucial – and extremely delicate – aspect of middle leaders’ role, Grootenboer adds.

Likening them to the captain of a sports team that has to fulfill the coach’s commands while simultaneously acting as a model and advocate for teammates, the expert says middle leaders must somehow provide leadership and inspiration in schools while also ‘playing the game’.

“That gets relationally complex, because often senior managers will try and pull them up to do more of the administration and managerial work at the school and draw them away from the classroom, the very things they were good at.”

Tricker still is being thrust into a coaching position for teaching staff with whom you’ve always worked alongside as an equal, Grootenboer notes.

“These are often your colleagues and your mates, and it can be hard to then be seen [in this way].

“So, you’ve got to sort of work alongside them rather than be a leader who works over them, in a sense.”

Participants in the study commonly described engaging in practices that involved managing people, including supporting teachers when student behaviour issues emerged.

As one middle leader put it:

“You know, you’re counsellor to your staff. They come back, they’ve had a bad lesson, you let them download, you offer some suggestions on how they might deal with it next time or next time you actually go into the classroom with them, you might go and see some of the students that have caused issues, so these things are things that will pop up.”

Senior leaders have a critical responsibility to support and endorse the work of middle leaders in their school, Grootenboer flags.

“Publicly and privately, just acknowledging that that’s an important role, that they’re not just another member of the senior leadership, but they have a particular and important job to do related to what happens in classrooms.”

With more bureaucratic demands being lumped upon senior school leaders, there can be a temptation to hand this work down the chain – but ultimately this draws middle leaders away from their key work and impact in the classroom, Grootenboer says.

“So, giving them some protection around their job and the fidelity of their work (is crucial).”

It also pays to be mindful of the nuanced relational aspect of middle leaders’ roles, he adds.  

“To be a middle leader you really need to work alongside and ‘at the elbow’ with your colleagues.

“But if you also then every year expect [middle leaders] to do a performance appraisal of their colleagues, you’ll find that makes it very difficult to establish a collegial relationship.

“They can’t be the judge and the assessor for two weeks a year, and then a buddy and a colleague working alongside them for the other 50.”

The researcher is now calling for strengthened PD and support for middle leaders. These offerings should targets their ‘actual practices’ in schools, be they formal or informal, and not blindly assume a generic ’one-size-fits-all’ view that sees the cohort as aspiring principals. 

“We think a lot of people in these roles actually quite like being a curriculum and professional leader in their school site.

“They like working with their colleagues and still having connection with the kids on a first-hand basis,” Grootenboer says.