The role of leadership in prioritising and improving the quality of teaching and learning in further education

One of the key findings from the project is that teaching
staff are best placed to improve teaching and learning by
identifying and targeting their own professional needs.
Senior leaders and managers have an important role to play
in establishing the conditions in which this can take place.
Leadership approaches to improving teaching and learning
need to actively involve those that teach, drawing on their
expertise and experience. The improvement of teaching and
learning is an activity that has to originate with and be owned
by teachers. A key driver of any such improvement is collegial
collaboration. The evidence from the case studies in this report
reveals that if improvements to teaching and learning are to
occur, then the creation of time and space (both physical and
mental) is a fundamental factor. Teaching staff need to be
released to try out new ideas, skills and interventions and to be
able to reflect on and discuss their impact and effectiveness with
colleagues. In order to do this, there needs to be a greater balance
between centralised systems and policies that control how
teaching and learning is monitored and improvement is planned,
allowing space and flexibility for teachers to discover things
themselves and work collaboratively on targeted improvements.

In the case of ‘Hill Top College’ (the first case study discussed
in this report), the notion of structured autonomy was at
the heart of its success and the college-wide improvements in
teaching and learning. A loosening of top-down control and a
devolving of leadership to teachers was realised through the
introduction of an initiative known as ‘teaching triangles’, where
staff were empowered to take ownership of their professional
development. Senior leaders at Hill Top created the necessary
conditions to support structured autonomy, whereby teachers
were able to exercise professional agency.

Another key finding to emerge from the project was that FE
providers need to view and duly construct improvements to
teaching and learning as a long-term narrative that unfolds
incrementally and transcends the straitjacket of annualised
funding arrangements and the omnipresent spectre of Ofsted
inspections. An important ingredient of any organisational
strategy is the creation and consolidation of stability as part
of this narrative. Admittedly, this is not easy in a climate of
continued austerity and a sector fraught with external pressures,
competing agendas and relentless policy intervention. As such,
it requires strength of conviction and courage on the part of
senior leaders to create the necessary conditions in which
collegial collaboration can thrive and teaching staff are given
the autonomy and space to take ownership of and drive forward
their own professional learning. But it can be done. The three case
studies presented here all dealt with unstable environments. But
only one of these effectively fostered an environment in which
teachers themselves were habitually discussing their everyday
practice.

In short, improving teaching and learning is about creating an
environment in which collegial interaction can flourish. It is
a process that is locally defined and invariably rooted in subject
specific/course contexts. It is socially situated and is shaped by
sustained human interactions. To flourish, it requires adequate
time for teachers to share thoughts and reflection on their
practice, not in single events scattered throughout the year, but
in regular, ongoing informal interactions that have allocated time
and space. The role that leaders have in creating and protecting
this time and space is absolutely fundamental to ensuring
meaningful and sustained improvements to teaching and
learning in FE.