Creating Learning Without Limits by Swann Mandy;Peacock Alison;Hart Susan;Drummond Mary Jane;

Author:Swann, Mandy;Peacock, Alison;Hart, Susan;Drummond, Mary Jane;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2012-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

5 Putting learning first: creating a school-wide culture of learning

In Chapter 2 we explored some of the structures introduced in the early days of Alison’s headship that laid foundations for an alternative approach to school development. We found embedded in those structures the core Learning without Limits principles that guided Alison’s leadership and noted that her approach was based on trust that, given the right conditions and support, colleagues would be stimulated to do their own thinking, without being directed towards particular strategies and practices. In Chapters 3 and 4 we looked in detail at some of the developments in teachers’ thinking and practices that evolved during the period of the research, and saw how work in the area of relationships was crucially important in these developments. Many of the changes taking place clearly had their roots in the contexts created by the new structures. However, it would be wrong to imply that these structures, in themselves, were sufficient to nurture and sustain continuing development work. Trust in the teaching team did not mean that the headteacher simply stood back and waited for learning to happen. On the contrary, she explained that there was important ongoing work to be done: namely, to create the conditions for the growth of a school-wide culture of learning which would support everybody’s learning and foster developments in thinking and practice within the teaching team, individually and collectively. In this chapter we explore the nature of the leadership task in creating this school-wide culture of learning. We examine the range of strategies employed and how a stable environment was created to free everybody to focus on learning. We draw out how these strategies were helping to build a strong community of professional learners, while also engaging children and parents as active participants in the life of the school. We conclude by recognizing the important moral underpinnings that increasingly have come to inspire the work of whole-school development.

In exploring the role of leadership in this chapter, we are drawing primarily on the headteacher’s thinking and experiences as recorded in her journal and interviews, and comments that staff made about her leadership. This is not to imply that Alison was the only person exercising leadership during this period. Alison would be the first to say that the tasks of leadership were carried out through teamwork; however, it is still important to explore the role of the headteacher in shaping the nature of school development and professional learning. We focus first and principally on what was done, in building the school-wide culture, to foster the learning of the staff team. Later in the chapter, we consider how these developments also helped to engage children, parents, governors and all members of the school community.

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