E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

SECTION 2
PROFESSIONAL SELF-DEVELOPMENT
Studying Section 2 should take you about 17 hours.
Section 2 addresses all three key questions.
After studying this section you should:
• have a better understanding of the nature of professional learning and
of the relationships between management theory and practice;
• appreciate the role of reflection on practice in professional self-
development and be able to begin to reflect on your own work context
and management practice;
• be able to do an initial self-assessment of your management
development needs using criteria derived from the course material
studied so far or from other sources.
All the readings for this section are in Reader Part

2.1 INTRODUCTION
This section of the Study Guide engages you in the issue of professional self-
development and looks in more detail at reflection on practice as a key process
in professional development and improvement. Some of the readings are quite
theoretical, and you may find some of the ideas presented in this section difficult
to grasp immediately. However, these ideas provide the foundations for
professional learning and development. You will find that spending time at this
stage trying to understand the ideas introduced here will pay dividends for your
study of the rest of the course, and particularly for the assignments through
which you integrate your professional practice with the course material.
In this section, as in others, the activities are designed to help you to relate the
concepts, theories and procedures presented to your own work context and
management practice. You will find that the activities in this section will help you
to achieve the aims set out above. In particular they should help you to build up
a classification of behaviours' and 'deliberative processes' (concepts
explained by Eraut in Chapter 3 of Reader 1), which should help you in assessing
your own management development needs and in undertaking the assignments.
You should continue to bear in mind the three key questions posed in Section 1
as you work through this section and the rest of the course. Consider what each
reading adds to your understanding of these three key questions. This will be
useful for your assignments and for reflection on practice.

2.2 THE PERSONAL DIMENSION

Section 1 drew your attention to personal development as an inseparable part of
professional development in management (and in teaching, for that matter) and
to the importance of the interpersonal dimension.

Reading 1
This theme is further developed in Chapter 1 by Whitaker in Reader 1. Drawing on the
major writers in humanistic psychology Whitaker considers what characteristics are
required of effective managers and leaders in order to create organizational cultures in
Section 2 Professional self-development 17

which individuals take responsibility for their own work and its development in ways
consistent with organizational goals.
As you read, make notes on:
• McGregor's X and Y theories;
• multiple forms of intelligence and the qualities associated with them;
• the issues of motivation, human potential, self-concept and empowerment;
• the importance of managers taking account of the life cycle and the stage
that individuals have reached, and checking on how they are coping;
• the implications Whitaker derives from humanist psychology about the
characteristics needed for an educational organization to motivate people to
work effectively.

Activity 1
(This activity relates to key question 3: how do individuals improve?)
From your experience, what attributes does a person need to possess or develop in
order to be 'self-actualized' (Maslow's fifth element in his hierarchy of personal need)
and capable of continuous personal and professional development? To what extent do
your views agree with Whitaker's?

2.3 EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND

THE ROLE OF THEORY
Whitaker argues that the process of continuing professional and personal
development depends on a supportive organizational culture. Senior managers
have a particular responsibility for establishing and maintaining such a culture.
I now address more fully key question 1 'What are leadership and management
in education?' and in doing so I consider the role of theory in relation to practice.
Bennett (Reader 1, Chapter 5) provides a justification for management in
education, while acknowledging the existence of hostility among some
educationalists to the concept and practice of management. 'Managerialism' (see
Kydd, Reader 1, Chapter 9) is a term often used in a critical sense to refer to a set
of values and practices that seek to control teachers and learning processes by
subordinating them to the power of managers, who reflect the values of business
and the marketplace and who operate at a distance from the teachers and
lecturers whom they manage.

Bennett outlines two basic approaches to management, broadly classified as

'cerebral' and 'insightful'. Bennett includes in the category of cerebral all broadly
rational approaches to management, from Taylor's 'scientific management' to its
modification by the later humanist school. Some models of management within
the cerebral approach, in particular Taylor's 'scientific management' and its
modern counterparts, are associated with the concept of 'managerialism'. The
cerebral approach is much broader than 'managerialism' as defined above and
need not be related to it at all. The chief characteristic of the cerebral approach is
rationality. Rational behaviour is purposive behaviour designed to meet some
clearly defined ends. A rational approach to management or to decision making
has three distinct sequences:
1 organizational goals, objectives and priorities are agreed;
2 alternative ways of achieving the objectives are assessed;
3 the best means of achieving the objectives are then selected.
In contrast, insightful approaches apply when goals are unclear and/or
qualitative, impressionistic information is used and intuition is relied upon.
18 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

Reading 2
You should now read the first part of Chapter 5 by Bennett in Reader up to Two
competence-based models of management'. Think carefully about how these two
approaches to management relate to McGregor's X and Y theories, discussed in
Whitaker, and to right-brained and left-brained thinking. You should also consider how
Bennett's discussion of managerial effectiveness extends that provided by Whitaker.

Bennett introduces some concepts commonly used in discussions about

management. Make sure you have understood:
• theories-in-use and espoused theories;
• assumptive worlds;
• single- and double-loop learning.

Activity 2
Make a note of your main management activities for a week and classify them
according to one or more of the taxonomies of the processes that constitute
management (i.e. Gulick and or Mintzberg's).

Here is an example provided by a primary headteacher, who commented that the

above frameworks miss out the role of lead teacher.
Together with the County Link and the Chair of the Governors'
Finance Committee I looked at the budget for next year and
considered how we would organize the school with reduced staffing.
I discussed with the maths co-ordinator how we might review the
teaching of maths and we planned an in-service day to start the
process.
Organize: I arranged for the music adviser and library adviser to give
inputs to various children in school at the same time.
Command: I told one person to see that their children recorded neatly
and dated their work.
Co-ordinate: I arranged for parents to have the use of the TV room for
one afternoon to prepare handicrafts for sale at events.
Control: I am not very good at this. I expect responsible adults to
follow agreed rational procedures without being checked all the time.
I control informally as I am aware of what goes on and formally when
I have to speak to someone about something.
The issue of theory in relation to practice, which Bennett discusses, is of vital
importance. A theory refers to a relationship between a set of abstractions or
concepts. There are several distinct types of theory.
1 Predictive theories. These relate cause to effect and can be tested
against empirical evidence. They are of the form: 'If X happens then Y
will or is likely to For example, Whitaker uses humanist
psychological theories in this way to argue that how an organization is
managed determines the extent to which its members are empowered,
motivated and therefore effective in their jobs.
2 Theories as metaphors. These are theories used in the social sciences to
enhance understanding by the use of simile and metaphor. In his well-
known book Images of Organization, Gareth Morgan (1986) uses
different metaphors for different forms of organization. For instance, an
organization run along Taylor's 'scientific management' lines is likened
to a machine. In Section 3 you will come across more metaphors to
help understand organizations, such as organism, culture, collegium and
political system.
Section 2 Professional self-development 19

3 Normative theories. These are recommendations or principles setting

out what should happen. They reflect values and ethical principles.
4 Personal theories. As Bennett explains, personal theories are 'assumptive
worlds', which guide people with respect to what they consider to be
'good' or 'appropriate' actions. They depend both on values about how
one should behave and on the assumptions one makes about how
other people react. Thus personal theories can be cause-and-effect
abstractions or moral principles that guide action.
Personal theories are distinct from the other three types of theory in being
private. Predictive theories, theories as metaphors and normative theories are
publicly available in publications, lectures and discussions. For example,
Whitaker's arguments derive from the public domain of knowledge: they form
part of an academic subject matter, are supported by academic research and
diffused through writing and lecturing. This type of knowledge Eraut (Reader 1,
Chapter 3) calls public propositional knowledge.
As Bennett notes, personal theories are derived from a number of different
sources, including the three kinds of theory already listed. People also learn from
experience what they expect to happen in similar circumstances in the future and
what is morally to those around them or concurs with social norms.
Individuals may or may not be fully aware of and acknowledge their personal
theories. Espoused personal theories may therefore differ from the actual theories
that influence a person's practice. Personal theories are an important
consideration in situations of change. If future events are completely different
from people's past experience then they are likely to feel confused because their
personal theories no longer offer guidance.
Bennett makes the important point that management theory and practice are
integral to one another. The management practice of individuals is necessarily
influenced by their personal theories, which reflect their values and their
assumptions about how people within organizations behave. Therefore it is
incorrect to argue that theories are impractical and have no applications to
practice. Personal theories underpin practice, though they can induce ineffective
management - for example, if a manager assumes that McGregor's X theory of
human behaviour always applies. However, other types of theory, such as
predictive theories, which come from the domain of public propositional
knowledge, may be irrelevant and have no useful application to a particular
management situation. An important aspect of effective management is having
sufficient knowledge and understanding of management theory and being able to
select appropriately from this body of public propositional knowledge so as to
inform management practice in a specific context.

Theory plays a vital part in the process of personal development and

improvement, especially when double-loop learning is involved, since this
requires a re-examination of the assumptions and values on which practice is
based. Reflection as a means of improving practice encourages us to make our
theories-in-use explicit to ourselves and to assess them against our espoused
theories. Reflection on practice may lead us to change espoused theories and/or
to make theories-in-use closer to espoused theories. In order to reflect on and
reassess personal theories we need more than personal experience. We also need
to use ideas obtained from public propositional knowledge. This is why it is
essential for your management development that you integrate the public
propositional knowledge you gain from E838 with your practice so as to build up
a wider and possibly amended range of personal theories.
20 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

2.4 PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND

ITS ACQUISITION
The next three readings address the question: how do individuals improve their
professional practice (key question 3)? Answering this requires you to think about
what knowledge is required for effective professional practice and how it is
learned. The reading by Michael Eraut is a key article as it sets out the
foundations of professional learning on which E838 is based. Eraut distinguishes
two basic forms of knowledge that are relevant for professional practice: public
propositional knowledge and personal knowledge.
Public propositional knowledge is necessarily explicit as it is available to all and
is transmitted openly through writing, broadcasting and speech. Personal
knowledge comes in two forms; explicit and tacit. It is explicit when the
individual is able to articulate what he or she knows and communicate it to
others. It is then personal propositional knowledge.
Personal knowledge is tacit when individuals are not fully conscious of what they
know. Eraut makes the important point that much of what skilled artisans or
professionals do that makes them competent or expert cannot be explained by
them. For example, I can touch-type - badly - but I could not tell you the order
of the letters on the keyboard. Similarly, teachers and managers are not fully
aware of all the skills and behaviours they are using when in action in the
classroom or in a meeting.
The importance of tacit knowledge in professional practice poses problems in
learning how to perform skilfully. One is that if expert practitioners themselves
do not consciously know what it is that makes them experts, it is difficult for
them to pass on to others their skill or knowledge of how to practise effectively.
One solution to this problem is the traditional apprenticeship model of 'sitting
next to Nellie' - that is, observing and learning skills by working under the
tutelage of a skilled practitioner. Another problem arises when existing ways of
doing things are actually dysfunctional. However, if people are not conscious of
what aspects of their knowledge are blocking their path to improvement then it
is very difficult for them to 'unlearn' the dysfunctional behaviour. Tacit
knowledge therefore needs to be made explicit in order to both diffuse good
practice and correct bad practice. Reflecting on one's actions is an important
process in making implicit knowledge tacit, and hence for turning it into personal
propositional knowledge.

Practitioners act on the basis of personal knowledge, and this is acquired both
through experience and through learning public propositional knowledge. The
literature on leadership and effective educational organizations reviewed in
Section 6 is an example of this. Public propositional knowledge becomes
personal propositional knowledge when it is understood by practitioners and used
in their work. This distinction between public and personal propositional
knowledge is crucial for the kind of study you are undertaking - a university
course as part of professional development. The knowledge we provide in E838
is public propositional only you can turn it into personal
propositional knowledge. To do this requires reflection.
Eraut, in common with many others, argues that professional education courses
that divorce the acquisition of public propositional knowledge from practice are
ineffective compared with management programmes that succeed in integrating
the two. This integration can be done only if the professional learner mixes
periods of work with periods of studying public propositional knowledge and
then uses the latter in their work setting. A key role for public propositional
Section 2 Professional self-development

knowledge is to contribute to the conceptual frameworks that professional

people develop as their personal theories-in-use. These conceptual frameworks
(or theories) also provide mental structures for reflecting on practice. Theoretical
perspectives help in interpreting, understanding and deciding on how to practise
management. This is a two-way relationship. Practice helps individuals constantly
to develop and reform their theories-in-use.
A part-time programme of professional development has the great advantage of
providing opportunities for the interaction between public propositional
knowledge and experience which is needed to build up a repertoire of personal
professional knowledge that underpins effective practice. This is why the
assignments on E838 are so important: they are a vital means by which you make
the public propositional knowledge in E838 personal by combining it with other
personal knowledge built up from your own experience. The framework for
professional development shown in Figure 2, Section 1, should help you in this.

Reading 3
You should now read Chapter 3 by Eraut in Reader This is an important article and
you should make sure you understand the concepts and the analysis. In particular,
make notes on:
• public propositional knowledge;
• personal knowledge (propositional and tacit);
• Eraut's classification of the four processes by which knowledge contributes to
professional performance. As you will be expected to use Eraut's
classification of these four processes you should note them carefully.

In Reading 2 by Bennett your attention was drawn to the importance of people's

assumptive worlds and the theories-in-use that inform their behaviour. Eraut
makes essentially the same point, for example with reference to the importance
of assumptions and personal frames of reference in influencing how information
is acquired and interpreted. This point will crop up again, particularly with
reference to communication (Section 5) and strategic management (Section 8).
As one of E838's three dimensions is the interpersonal one, it is important to note
Eraut's singling out of skilled behaviour as an important aspect of professional
performance. He defines it as: 'a complex sequence of actions which has become
so routinised through practice and experience that it is performed without much
conscious thinking'. This is both a strength of expert practice and a potential
weakness when routines become dysfunctional. Change can require 'unlearning'
certain routines.
Eraut's examination of deliberative processes picks up on themes we have
already met:
• the importance of context and situation in deciding on appropriate
courses of action;
• the need for alternative theoretical perspectives;
• the divergence of actual practice from the linear rational view of
problem solving;
• the value of team work.
The meta-processes of self-knowledge and self-development are important for
reflection on practice. They are particularly important for gaining feedback and
using it to reduce the gap between espoused and actual theories.
 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

Activity 3
Use Eraut's fourfold classification of acquiring and interpreting information, skilled
behaviours, deliberative processes and Over the next few days jot
down examples of your personal engagement in the four processes. Note occasions on
which you acquired and interpreted information, used a skilled behaviour, engaged in a
deliberative process or had to direct yourself.

Here is the response of a primary headteacher to this activity.

Acquiring and interpreting information
I received the comments of inspectors and interpreted what they were
saying in the light of my knowledge of the performance of the staff.
They did not make reference to individuals but I needed to be clear
about their meanings.

Skilled behaviours
As the inspectors completed reporting back to the staff there was a
deathly silence. I immediately jumped in and said we would not
discuss what they had said but we would go away and reflect, saving
comment for a meeting already scheduled for this. I am convinced
that we needed a digestion period and was commended by the
inspectors for this intervention. The act was not premeditated. It came
as the result of handling staff meetings over a number of years.

Deliberative processes
I planned the agenda for the follow-up meeting with considerable
care, thinking how to approach each aspect of our discussions in turn
so as to focus forward and not allow for recriminations. I planned
what I needed to say to individuals and how to say it. I took on board
what I needed to hear and laid plans to make changes.

Meta-processes
Much of what happened above could only be done as I engaged in
higher levels of thinking in order to manage the changes required.
What did we need to do to address the issues raised by the inspectors?
What was priority? What had they misunderstood and therefore what
could we justify in our present practice? My thought processes were
certainly working overtime as I sought to discuss delicate matters with
individuals and staff as a whole.

Reading 4
The discussion of the nature of professional learning is taken further in Chapter 2 by
Jarvis in Reader 1, which you should read now. This is not an easy article: the
argument is sophisticated and needs careful studying. It develops the points made by
Eraut and is highly relevant to the issue of how one learns about educational
management and how to manage.
After reading Jarvis you should be clear about the following:
• The nature of pragmatic or practical knowledge; the two dimensions of
practical knowledge and how it is learned.
• The significance of reflective learning compared with non-reflective learning
and non-learning. You should in particular study the different routes through
Figure of reflective skills and experiential learning, because you will be
using these learning processes in your assignments for E838.
• The six ways of learning practical knowledge.
Which of Jarvis's nine categories of learning are consistent with either single-loop
learning or double-loop learning (see Reading 2)?
Section 2 Professional self-development

Jarvis distinguishes three kinds of knowledge: rational-logical, empirical and

pragmatic. The last is gained by a person through action - it is what is perceived
to work in order to achieve a particular result. Therefore pragmatic or practical
knowledge is necessarily forged from the link between theory and practice. Jarvis
echoes Eraut in stressing that practical knowledge is learned through experience.
Jarvis distinguishes two types of practical knowledge: knowing how to do
something and being able to do it: these are not synonymous. As noted by Eraut,
being skilled at something does not necessarily mean that one has explicit
knowledge of how it is done. Hence Jarvis refers to being able to perform a skill
as tacit knowledge, which it is not easy to transmit to others. Jarvis goes on to
distinguish three types of learning: non-learning, non-reflective learning and
reflective learning, each with three categories, making nine types in all. With
reflective learning 'individuals are able to stand back, make decisions and
evaluate their own learning'.
There is an important distinction to be made between reflection in practice and
reflection on practice (Eraut, 1994, pp. 142-52). Reflection in practice is the rapid
response to the specific context and situation that skilled professionals
continually make in undertaking their work, selecting skilled behaviours, routines
and processes from their repertoires. This resonates with Mintzberg's
characterization of management as fragmented episodes in which information
processes are pivotal. The further along Dreyfus's five stages of development
(novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert) a professional is,
the wider the personal repertoire and the more marked the ability to select
appropriately. However, this is done mostly unconsciously and 'pre-conscious
learning' occurs through these processes of thinking about actions, which result
in the development of a body of tacit knowledge within practitioners' minds
(Jarvis, Reader 1, Chapter 2).
In contrast, reflection on practice is deliberative and requires conscious
monitoring of one's actions. Often it is stimulated by a gap between the expected
and the actual results of a particular action (or by the assessment requirements of
E838!). This difference between reflection in and reflection on practice is
indicated by the different routes through Jarvis's Figure 2.1 for learning reflective
skills and experimental learning. Reflective skills learning goes from experience
straight to practice experimentation whereas experimental learning goes from
experience direct to reasoning and reflecting. The crucial difference between
reflection in and reflection on practice is that the latter requires time for the
deliberative process through which evidence is gathered and analysed and for the
further experimentation decided on the basis of this information.

Activity 4
Imagine that you are responsible for managing a change of practice in a school or
college. What do you consider are the implications for this of Jarvis's analysis of
learning practical knowledge?

Reading 5
Read Chapter 4 by Bullock ef in Reader 1, which is a practical application of the
ideas on educational management development examined so far. The authors
investigated the professional learning of educational managers at different stages of
their careers. As you read, make notes on:
• the ways in which the management practices of experienced and less
experienced educational managers differ;
• how these differences relate to the processes of professional learning
examined by Eraut and Jarvis.
In relation to your own stage of experience in educational leadership and management,
consider how far your experiences match or differ from those reported in the chapter.
(Activity 5 also asks you to make notes on this chapter, so you will need to look through
that activity before you begin reading.)
24 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

Activity 5
As you go through the chapter in Reading 5, try to identify specific examples of Eraut's
four processes and note these in the grid below. You will find this useful when you
come to consider your own repertoire of management processes for the assignments.

Information Deliberative
processing Skilled behaviours processes Meta-processes

2.5 MANAGEMENT COMPETENCES

The management competence movement emphasizes the importance of learning
management on the job and being assessed on the quality of management
practice. This approach therefore rejects an 'academic' approach to management
development in which the subject matter of management is studied and assessed
independently of the practice of management. The competence movement
addresses aspects of all three key questions: what is management? what is
effectiveness? how do individuals improve? It does so in one of two ways: by
specifying either what constitutes satisfactory performance of the tasks of
management or what the qualities of an effective manager are. Management
development is the process by which the individual attains the required
competences.
Section 2 Professional self-development

Reading 6
First, read the second part of Chapter 5 by Bennett in Reader from Two
competence-based models of management' onwards. After reading this you should be
clear as to the difference between the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) and McBer
approaches to management competence. The MCI approach is classified by some
writers as behaviourist and the McBer approach as generic.
Now read two further articles on management competences: Chapter 6 by Ouston and
Chapter 7 by Cave and Wilkinson, both in Reader 1. Ouston relates management
competences to school effectiveness research (which you will meet in Section 6) and
provides a critique particularly of the behaviourist approach to competences. Chapter 7
is a practical exemplification of the generic approach to educational management
competence, which concludes with a taxonomy of three elements of 'management
capability'. These are:
1 knowledge about management functions and processes and the
organizational context;
2 skills - which can be acquired through training and improved through
practice;
3 higher order cognitive abilities, which determine appropriate action in the
specific context.
While reading Chapters 6 and 7, and reviewing Bennett on competences (Chapter 5),
make notes on the following questions:
• What are the differences between (a) the MCI approach (called 'behaviourist'
by Eraut, 1994, pp. 169-77, and 'fundamentalist' by Ouston, Chapter 6) and
(b) the McBer approach to managerial competences (called 'liberal' by
Ouston and 'generic' by Eraut)?
• What is the knowledge base from which the competences are derived?
• What assessment procedures do the two approaches use?
• What are their respective strengths and weaknesses?

The following activity will help to consolidate your learning about managerial
competences. It will also be helpful for your assignments.

Activity 6
Look back at the readings in Reading 6 and classify the specific 'competences' and
they include in their discussion according to the four categories listed
below:
• competence in task performance;
• deliberative process;
• skilled behaviour;
• (Eraut)
• higher order cognitive ability (Cave and Wilkinson).
Note that there is no one correct classification as people will justifiably differ in their
interpretations.

The next activity pulls together the ideas contained in the readings for Section 2
and could also be a useful discussion topic for a tutorial.

Activity 7
Develop and write a short critique of both the behaviourist and the generic approaches
to management competence. Show how each approach relates to particular aspects of
the analysis of the nature of professional knowledge provided by Bennett, Eraut and
Jarvis. Also, indicate any weaknesses in either approach that are due to its failure to
address key aspects of professional knowledge and its acquisition.
26 E838 Effective Leadership and Management in Education

2.6 PROFESSIONAL CAPABILITY

As you will now be aware, there are a number of difficulties with the
'competence' approach to defining and assessing effective management. Two in
particular concerned us in developing this course. The first problem is that
behavioural competences are atomized. The approach therefore fails to take
account of the holistic nature of management and the need to employ a range of
meta-competences in deciding on an appropriate action in a specific situation
and context. As the work of Eraut, Jarvis and others in field shows, effective
practice draws on different types of knowledge. A pure behavioural competence
approach assumes that all types of professional knowledge will be revealed in
performance: therefore knowledge and understanding can be assessed by means
of evidence taken from performance alone. The second problem is that assessing
both behavioural and generic competences has to be done either in the
workplace for the former or in a simulated work environment, such as an
assessment centre, for the latter. This process can get very elaborate, generate an
enormous amount of paperwork and require a good deal of time from qualified
assessors, all of which will greatly increase costs.

One way of resolving these difficulties is to work with the broader concept of
professional capability. This concept refers to the capacity to perform effectively
rather than to the performance itself and hence is able to encompass a much
richer range of knowledge and qualities than the behavioural competence
approach. Eraut defines capability as the qualities that enable performance of the
professional job and role and that also provide the basis for developing future
competence. This definition covers the following categories of capability:
• underpinning knowledge and understanding of concepts,
theories, facts and procedures;
• the personal skills and qualities required for a professional
approach to the conduct of one's work; and
• the cognitive processes which constitute professional thinking.
(Eraut, 1994, p. 200)
Another advantage of assessing professional capability rather than competence is
that it does not need to be assessed solely in the workplace (Eraut, 1994).
Applying Ouston's critique, professional capability is likely to be more valid as a
set of criteria, though possibly less reliable, than behavioural competence. (Valid
means that the criteria accurately reflect the phenomenon being measured or
assessed. Reliable means that the criteria will be interpreted in the same way by
different people.)

2.7 VALUES AND DILEMMAS IN EDUCATIONAL

MANAGEMENT AND THE ROLE OF REFLECTION
The final reading brings together a number of themes examined in this section:
reflection as a process for improving practice; the practical realities of being
an educational manager; the distinction between espoused theories and
theories-in-use; and the qualities required to be an educational leader managing
in the context of contradictory social pressures and competing values.

Reading 7
Now read Chapter 8 by in Reader 1, which describes an action research project
in which a group of headteachers was engaged in reflecting on the practice of
educational leadership. analyses their responses through the concept of
dilemmas. She defines a dilemma as a choice in which there are conflicts of objectives
and/or values. A given situation may be seen in relation to several dilemmas. By
definition ethical principles do not provide clear guidance in these situations or there
Section 2 Professional self-development 27

would be no dilemma. There may be a conflict between different values, such as that
between valuing a culture of teacher collaboration and respecting the rights of
individual teachers to put their own beliefs into practice. On other occasions morality
may be 'suspended' when the wish to avoid undesirable personal or organizational
consequences of an action takes precedence over ethical principles.
As you read, make notes on:
• the similarities between Mintzberg's view of what being a manager involves
and what is described here;
• the different types of dilemma that M0ller distinguishes;
• the role of values and ethical principles in dealing with dilemmas.

Activity 8
Write a short statement (about 300 words) on your own values as an educational
manager. How difficult do you find it to put these values into practice? Can you think of
any dilemma from your own practice that involved competing values or a conflict
between an ethical principle and other considerations?

2.8 CONCLUSION
At this point you should reflect and make notes on what this section has added
to your understanding of the three key questions:
• What are leadership and management in education?
• What are effective leadership and management in education?
• How do individuals improve and become more effective?
The emphasis in Section 2 is very much on the individual and his or her
professional development as an educational manager. You have been introduced
to some conceptual analysis of what constitutes professional knowledge and how
it is acquired. In particular, the importance of a deliberate process of reflection
on practice, buttressed by a supportive organizational culture, has been stressed.
Having done the activities in Section 2 you should now be in a position to
attempt your own self-analysis of where you are as a manager, what your
development needs are and how you can best address these using the resources
provided by E838. The framework in Figure 2 at the end of Section 1 should
provide some guidance.
At this point it would be useful to turn to the booklet Reflecting and Reporting
on Management Practice: a guide to the assignments. Here you will find the
assignments you need to complete and guidance on how to do this. This
guidance includes the audio-cassette 'Preparing to write your assignments', which
you can usefully listen to at various points in your studies. Reflecting and
Reporting on Management Practice also contains a summary of the theory of
experiential learning, on which the concept of reflection on practice is based,
together with a case study describing one person's attempt to carry out the
process of reflection on their own practice.