Middle Leadership in Schools

Elizabeth Benson is an educator, school middle leader and founder of Pivotal Leadership, offering coaching and professional development for middle leaders. In 2018, Liz established the ACELQ Pivotal People Middle Leaders network, facilitating networking and learning opportunities for aspiring and middle leaders.Patrick Duignan is Emeritus Professor at Australian Catholic University, Australia, life member of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders, and Director of Leading to Inspire.Barbara Watterston is CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. She has a long and distinguished career in education and has held several executive leadership positions across Australia within the education and not-for-profit community sectors.

“Middle leadership in schools: Ideas and actions for navigating the muddy waters of middle leading” is a unique book in that it brings together practitioners, researchers, consultants, and administrators, to share their stories and ideas about middle leadership in schools. Thus, each chapter is both theoretically robust and pragmatically relevant. This is important because in each case the wisdom that is shared is reliable and relatable, and written in a style that is accessible to all. Middle leaders provide crucial leadership in schools – in and around classrooms where the purposes of education are enacted and fulfilled, so this is an important volume in that it provides needed professional learning for these key leaders. Furthermore, the chapters cover some of the fundamental practices of middle leadership, including the development and maintenance of trust, how to lead change and innovation through action research, and strategic thinking and planning. I commend the chapters in this book to school middle leaders, as important insights that can help you reflect upon, and develop, your own middle leading practices in your own educational site.

• Leading Other and Empowering Yourself Chapter 1. Middle Leader Identity; Samuel Alexeeff, Emma Dearing, Dr Kylie Lipscombe, and Dr Sharon Tindall-Ford Chapter 2. Learning About and Leading from the Middle: Stories from Three Women Middle Leaders; Danielle Cioffi, Nichole Tiller, Lucy Warnock, and Barbara Watterston Chapter 3. Middle Leaders can Influence What Really Matters in Their Schools; Jodie Schafer and Patrick Duignan Chapter 4. Developing Middle Leaders in Catholic Schools; Michael Harrison and Louisa Rennie Collaborating and Communicating Chapter 5. Relational Trust as Community Building Practice; Jessica Pound and Christine Edwards-Groves Chapter 6. Leading Out, to Lead In: Developing in the Absence of Strong Leadership; Steven Kolber and Stephanie Salazar Chapter 7. Using Action Research to Drive Teacher Professional Learning; Sarah Gunn and Pamela Macklin Leading Learning and Leading Change for Improvement Chapter 8. Middle Leaders: Strategic Thinkers and Strategic Planners; Elizabeth Benson Chapter 9. Middle Leaders as Innovators in Curriculum Improvement; Wendy McKay and Donna Pendergast Chapter 10. Middle Leaders, Professional Standards and Leadership Growth; Elizabeth Benson, Jenny Lewis, and Danny Pinchas