leading

Lead article

Leadership for powerful learning

Introduction Learning (Hopkins and Craig 2015a) and the ten Theories of Ac-
It’s often said that educational change is technically simple, but tion for teaching and learning that provided the substantive fo-
socially complex. In many ways it is relatively easy to identify and cus for our school improvement work, and are described in detail
describe the features and benefits of productive change in teach- in Curiosity and Powerful Learning (Hopkins and Craig 2015b),
ing or curriculum. But change in schools is not brought about two of the other manuals in the Powerful Learning series.
by technical prescriptions or mandates from above. Change hap- Schools in Melbourne’s north were adopting the Theories of Ac-
pens through and with people in the school – students, teachers tion for teaching and learning. Professional learning for teachers
and school leaders being engaged collaboratively in purposeful was provided to develop their understanding of preferred practic-
and productive activity. Creating such a work culture is in the es. Yet framing Theories of Action, and ensuring access to profes-
gift of leadership. When leadership of the types described in this sional learning, did not necessarily mean that student achievement
paper are not present, then social complexity is not addressed was enhanced. Nor did these steps necessarily lead to the Theories
and the common paradox in education of ‘change yet no change’ of Action becoming embedded in a school’s professional practice.
takes hold. What was missing? Why did our thoughtful plans fall short?
We encountered the challenge of social complexity and the We took these questions to our principals, and to colleagues who
phenomena of ‘change yet no change’ when working on the Pow- worked across many schools in the local system. In response,
erful Learning School Improvement Strategy in northern sub- school leaders posed a question for us:
urbs schools in Melbourne, Australia. In Leadership for Power- • What leadership strategies effectively bring people on board
ful Learning (Hopkins and Craig 2015c) of which this paper is and expand their repertoires of professional practice for the
a précis, we share with you the know-how that emerged as we, long haul?
together with our gifted principals and teachers, sought ways to The Theories of Action provide a map, and professional learn-
progressively achieve sustainable school reform. ing provides an itinerary. But this was not enough to break the
paradox of ‘change yet no change.’ Our school leaders were seek-
The power of leadership ing ways of dealing with the kinds of social complexity that often
We founded our Powerful Learning Strategy on the school im- derail school improvement.
provement framework outlined in The System and Powerful Working with our principals and school improvement teams in
14 AEL 37 (2)
 innovation, change and improvement
Melbourne and elsewhere we proceeded to develop a set of lead-
ership strategies that addressed a range of challenges. How to:
• Develop, nurture and embed the reform narrative about stu-
dent learning – Instructional Leadership
• Create professional learning opportunities relevant to each
teacher’s development needs that align with the school’s de-
velopment priorities – Adaptive Leadership
• Ensure consistency and rapid development by precise diagno-
sis of the school’s progress along a well-defined improvement
pathway – Strategic Leadership
Moral purpose
• Nurture system wide reform through the adoption of a variety
of ‘out-of-school’ roles and the purposeful use of networks –
System leadership. 1
With their assistance we developed and deployed the styles
of leadership and concomitant strategies described in Leadership 2
for Powerful Learning. Taken together they provide a compre-
hensive set of leadership resources for shaping, embedding and 3
spreading productive change.
1 Inner ring:
Before exploring these four forms of leadership in a little more
Moral purpose
4
detail, and briefly describing their concomitant implementation
2 Second ring:
strategies, it is important to take a more comprehensive view of Reflective development
school leadership in a framework that includes and links togeth- Strategic acumen
er these various perspectives. 3 Third ring:
Managing teaching & learning
An emerging model of leadership Developing people
This way of thinking about and implementing school leadership Developing the school as an organisation
is validated in international research, such as the OECD’s Im- 4 Fourth ring:
proving School Leadership study (Pont, et al. 2008) which inves- Enact network leadership
tigated this question: ‘School leadership: why does it matter?’ The Lead & improve a school in difficulty
Lead in a school improvement project beyond own school
investigation yielded these three responses:
At the school level – Leadership can improve teaching and Figure 1: Model of school leadership
learning by setting objectives and influencing classroom practice
At the local level – School leadership can improve equal oppor- Key behaviours of instructional leaders
tunities by collaborating with other schools and local communities The attributes of moral purpose, reflective personal development,
At the system level – School leadership is essential for successful and strategic acumen are expressed in three key behaviours of in-
education reform structional leaders (Leithwood, et al. 2004):
Thinking about the influence of school leadership at the • Managing teaching and learning
school, local and system levels has led to the development of the • Developing people, and
model of school leadership in Figure 1. • Developing the school as an organisation.

Moral purpose Working across schools for the benefit of all students
The model above exhibits inside-out logic. Leaders are driven by As they make progress on the school improvement journey in
a moral purpose about enhancing student learning. Moral pur- their own school, school leaders increasingly assume system
pose activates the passion to reach for the goal and prompts lead- leadership roles. They are committed to their own school and to
ers to empower teachers and others to make schools a critical the whole system.
force for improving communities. Outstanding leaders exemplify the aspirations and commitments
embedded in the outer ring of our emerging model of school leader-
Reflective development and strategic acumen ship. They work across schools for the benefit of all students.
Yet moral purpose is insufficient on its own. As the model shows,
the practice of our best system leaders has two characteristic be- Leadership for powerful learning
haviours and skills that impact moral purpose: The logic behind Leadership for Powerful Learning and this paper
• First, they engage in reflective personal development, usually is to emphasise the importance of integrating both leadership
informally. They benchmark themselves against their peers and implementation in the pursuit of sustainable school im-
and develop their skill base in response to the context they are provement. We have therefore begun with presenting both our
working in. leadership model above, as well as emphasising the importance
• Second, all the system leaders we have studied have strategic of implementation.
acumen. This means they know how to translate their vision, The leadership model provides a framework for action and
their moral purpose, into operational principles that have understanding for our school leaders. It helps them appreciate
tangible outcomes. They can also think simultaneously in the both the purpose of school leadership and how the various lead-
short and medium term. ership strategies complement each other.
AEL 37 (2) 15
leading
Leadership Leadership Implementation Strategy Effect Size1 Setting direction Ensuring that the school’s vision sees every learner
Model Style reaching their potential.
Translating this vision into a whole school curriculum
Managing Instructional Five phase framework 0.22
and high expectations.
teaching and
learning Managing teaching and Ensuring a high degree of consistency by planning,
learning implementing and using specifications of practice.
Developing Adaptive Infrastructure for Professional 0.21
People Learning Supporting innovation in teaching practices that
enable personalised learning for all students.
Developing the Strategic Improvement Pathway 0.27
Expanding the repertoire of teaching practice to
Organisation
include high leverage practices that influence the
Working across System Networks 0.27 learning of all students.
Schools
Developing people Enabling students to become active learners.
Table 1: Leadership for Powerful Learning Creating a school that operates as a professional
learning community for teachers.
In Table 1 we demonstrate how the leadership style and strategy Developing the organi- Creating an evidence-based school and an effective
relates to the various aspects of the overall leadership model. We sation organisation.
also provide in the right hand column a summary of the research Participating in collaborative networks that build cur-
evidence by McREL (Waters, Marzano and McNulty, 2003) of the riculum diversity, professional support, and extended
services.
impact of these leadership effects on student achievement.
This analysis allows us in Leadership for Powerful Learning to Table 2: Repertoire of basic leadership practices
provide a comprehensive approach to school leadership as well
as suggesting practical strategies to assist with the various as- Five conditions for achieving an inquiry focus
pects of implementation that we have found in our own work to Embed the story of the curiosity journey
be of crucial importance. Select the key pedagogic strategies that promote inquiry
Place professional learning at the heart of the change process
Instructional leadership
Achieve consistency in inquiry focused teaching practice
We need to remind ourselves occasionally that school leaders
make a very real difference to student learning and achievement. Culture changes and develops to embrace inquiry
Because their influence is usually indirect, however, it is often Table 3: Five conditions for achieving an inquiry focus
difficult to link their actions directly to student outcomes. Fortu-
nately the research on the link between leadership and learning school improvement work.
has developed rapidly in the recent past. In particular the work These leadership practices are critically important. They are
of Ken Leithwood and colleagues has been important in defining practices that assemble the tools a school needs for the journey
‘instructional leadership’. Their original definition captures the that puts powerful learning in the hands of all students. Hav-
concept well – ‘the behaviours of teachers as they engage in activ- ing described the parameters of Instructional Leadership we
ities directly affecting the growth of students’ (Leithwood, Jantzi now turn to a brief discussion of the Five Phase Implementation
& Mascall 1999, p. 8). Framework that our instructional leaders have employed to give
In Seven Strong Claims about Successful School Leadership, more precision and sustainability to their work (Table 2).
Leithwood and colleagues (2007), offered a more detailed char-
acterisation of the influence of school leaders on student learn- Implementation Strategy2 – Five conditions for achiev-
ing. The claims are these: ing an inquiry focus: the goal of instructional leadership
1 School leadership is second only to classroom instruction as Our implementation strategy related to instructional leadership
an influence on student learning. was developed as we tried to understand why achieving inqui-
2 Almost all successful leaders draw on the same repertoire of ry focused teaching across a school was the toughest Theory of
basic leadership practices. Action to implement. We found five interlinking conditions that
3 It is the enactment of these basic leadership practices – not the seem to be in place when schools realise this desired objective.
practices themselves – that is responsive to the context. The five conditions are shown in Table 3. It is useful to note
4 School leaders improve pupil learning indirectly through that conditions 1–4 are purposefully directed at changing the
their influence on staff motivation and working conditions. work structures in a school. Taken together the first four con-
5 School leadership has a greater influence on schools and pu- ditions have a cumulative and positive impact on the fifth con-
pils when it is widely distributed. dition, the culture of the school. We have developed leadership
6 Some patterns of leadership distribution are much more effec- tools for both enhancing and measuring each of these conditions.
tive than others. When working at scale with many schools we also found that it
7 A small handful of personal ‘traits’ (such as being open mind- is most effective to follow a sequenced or phased implementa-
ed, flexible, persistent and optimistic) explain a high propor- tion plan for these conditions – condition 1 is the platform for
tion of the variation in leader effectiveness. achieving condition 2, condition 2 is the platform for achieving
Leithwood and his colleagues (2004) in their research for the condition 3, and so on.
Wallace Foundation also defined four instructional leadership
practices closely associated with powerful learning and enhanced Adaptive Leadership
student outcomes. These are the repertoire of basic leadership Although Instructional leadership practices are necessary to en-
practices referred to above, that we elaborated through our own sure pedagogic change, at times they are not quite sufficient. We
16 AEL 37 (2)
 innovation, change and improvement
1 Foster the intrinsic motivation of teachers
Technical solutions
Adaptive work 2 Engage educators and students in continuous improvement of
instruction and learning
System Leadership 3 Inspire collective or team work
Technical problems can be solved through applyng existing know how – adaptive 4 Affect ALL teachers and students.
challenges create a gap between a desired state and reality that cannot be closed using This is of course the territory of adaptive leadership and fostering
existing approaches alone the ‘intrinsic motivation of teachers’ is at the heart of it all. Intrinsic
Figure 2: Leadership as adaptive work motivation is the gift that keeps on giving, because once teachers are
in the grip of it their passion for teaching becomes inexhaustible.
have found that there are two other dynamics that leaders must
grapple with: Implementation strategy – building an infrastructure
• Responding to the resistance caused by the personal and pro- for teacher learning: the achievement of adaptive
fessional challenges faced by educators who engage in peda- leadership
gogic change Happily, intrinsic motivation is a relatively operational concept
• Creating a work culture tor ‘infrastructure’ that welcomes and that is amenable to ‘fostering’ if adaptive leadership creates the
sustains change in the repertoire of teaching practice. appropriate conditions within the school. We know from Dan
To navigate such resistance and social complexity we must look Pink’s (2009) book Drive that intrinsic motivation leads to im-
to these broader conceptions of leadership, in particular ‘adaptive proved work performance and enhanced job satisfaction, be-
leadership’, as a navigation aid for leading school improvement. cause the individual is enabled to experience higher levels of:
In 1994, Ron Heifetz of Harvard University drew a valuable • Autonomy – the opportunity to be self directed
distinction between adaptive challenges and technical problems. • Mastery – feelings of competence through the exercise of skill
An adaptive challenge is a problem situation for which solu- • Purpose – knowing that one is contributing to the common good.
tions lie outside current ways of operating. Adaptive leadership These feelings, dispositions and behaviours are self evidently
is adept at responding to adaptive challenges that require funda- motivating, but do not occur by accident. Adaptive leaders create
mental changes to work organisation, work structures, culture, the conditions in their schools whereby most of their teachers feel
and objectives. Tackling adaptive challenges requires leadership this level of job satisfaction, professional pride and personal con-
and increasing levels of collaboration. fidence. In the schools that we have worked with on the Powerful
This is in stark contrast to a technical problem for which the Learning and similar school improvement programmes we have
know-how already exists. Resolving a technical problem is sim- helped school leaders consciously develop structures, processes
ply a management issue (Figure 2). and ways of working, specifically designed to lead to these feelings
Among the skills of adaptive work is the ability to discern how of professional and personal self worth and competence. As part of
old habits detract from our efforts to secure change. Often we this implementation strategy we provide advice and materials for
force technical solutions onto adaptive problems and find that leaders in creating such an infrastructure for teacher learning by:
the changes we introduce fail to endure – and familiar ways of 1 Establishing structures for scaffolding teacher development
going about our work reassert themselves. 2 Making peer coaching ubiquitous
The more demanding challenge is to move from prescription 3 Creating protocols for both teaching and learning
to enduring change in highly competent professional practice. 4 Incentivising teacher teams
That involves working through the social complexity of change 5 Ensuring that observations are non-judgemental.
and requires close attention to building teacher capability. Ulti- All of these conditions need to be in place and mutually sup-
mately, adaptive leadership and adaptive work require us to re- portive for intrinsic motivation to flourish.
flect on our shared moral purpose as educators. Drawing again
on Heifetz’s words (2003): Strategic leadership
• Adaptive challenges demand learning, because ‘people are the Our voyage continues. Schools are on an improvement pathway
problem’ [as well as the solution!] and progress requires new – a journey to excellence. The Five Phase Implementation Frame-
ways of thinking & operating. work sets a course for that journey and the Infrastructure for
• Mobilising people to meet adaptive challenges, then, is at the Professional Learning provides a reliable way of ensuring that all
heart of leadership practice. teachers can learn. Each school however begins their journey at
• Ultimately, adaptive work requires us to reflect on the moral a different point. A successful school improvement journey com-
purpose by which we seek to thrive and demands diagnostic mences with an honest appraisal of its starting point. Our School
enquiry into the realities we face that threaten the realisation Improvement Pathway is a performance continuum. It assists a
of those purposes. school to determine its starting point, and to navigate its path to
We have found that the priority outcome from such ‘adaptive excellence from that starting point. The performance continuum
reflection’ is an honest diagnosis of how well our existing cul- describes schools as falling somewhere along this spectrum:
ture and beliefs are suited to making considerable progress to- • Awful to adequate
wards realising our moral purpose. Having made the diagnosis, • Adequate to good
a deeper level of leadership skill is required to assist colleagues • Good to great
in acquiring ‘new ways of thinking and operating’ and meeting • Great to excellent.
‘adaptive challenges’. Managing progress towards excellence demands thoughtful and
In his essay on the crucial drivers for whole system reform strategic leadership. Progress requires clarity about both the start-
Michael Fullan (2011) proffers the following advice – ing point and what is necessary to move from that starting point
AEL 37 (2) 17
leading
to higher levels of performance. To make progress, school leaders • Leadership.
are asked to think of the present and the future at the same time – We identify the key issues that emerge at each step along the
and of course the future is less certain and concrete than the pres- Pathway and suggest a series of questions to help progress devel-
ent. Making progress in these testing circumstances is best done opment. These questions will assist school leaders to:
through the practice of ‘strategic leadership’. The concept of stra- • Complete an honest diagnosis of their school’s current performance
tegic leadership is complementary and mutually supportive of the • Prepare a plan for progress towards excellence.
notions of instructional and adaptive leadership already discussed.
It just extends the range of skills and perspectives available to those System leadership
school leaders committed to sustainable school improvement. We are now bringing together a number of themes in our review
Professor Brent Davies and his colleagues have over the years of leadership for powerful learning:
considerably deepened our understanding of the nature of ‘strate- • Expressing the moral purpose of enhanced student achieve-
gic leadership’. They define strategy as “a process of both looking ment through instructional leadership
forward to a new way of operating for the school and of developing • Embracing personal and professional change through adaptive
the means of planning a journey to get there” (Davies, et al. 2005) . leadership that emphasises capacity building and sustainability
Davies and his colleagues’ research points to five critical ac- • Ensuring the drive towards both sustainability and excellence
tivities that successful strategic leaders in the study identify as by progressing on the improvement pathway through strate-
prime activities. These are: gic leadership.
i Setting the direction of the school Collectively, these elements lead us to consider system leader-
ii Translating strategy into action ship – that is, how school leaders work with schools other than
iii Aligning the people, the organisation and the strategy their own to improve the whole system.
iv Determining effective strategic intervention points System Leaders are those head teachers who are willing to
v Developing strategic capabilities in the school. shoulder system-wide roles in order to support the improvement
We have already discussed a number of these activities in of other schools as well as their own. As such, system leadership is
previous sections. What however adds value to the previous dis- a new and emerging practice that embraces a variety of responsi-
cussion is what they call, ‘Determining effective strategic inter- bilities that are developing either locally or within discrete nation-
vention points’. Here the leadership challenge of when to make al, state or regional networks and programmes that when taken
a significant strategic change is as critical to success as choosing together have the potential to contribute to system transformation.
what strategic change to make. Such judgements are manifested In Every School a Great School (Hopkins 2007) it was suggest-
in not only knowing what and knowing how but also knowing ed that the five striking characteristics of system leaders, those
when and, just as important, knowing what not to do. Unfortu- distinguishing them from broader collaborative activity, are that
nately, there are not many metrics to assist the school leader in they deploy their experience, knowledge and skills to:
making and refining these judgements. That is why we developed • Actively lead improvements in other schools and measure their
the ‘School Improvement Pathway’ as a tool to allow school lead- success in terms of student learning, achievement and welfare.
ers to become more precise in strategic development. • Commit staff in their own and other schools to the improve-
ment of teaching and learning.
Implementation strategy – moving along the school • Lead the development of schools as personal and professional
improvement pathway: the work of strategic leadership learning communities.
With this implementation strategy we unpack the performance • Lead work for equity and inclusion through acting on context
continuum. and culture.
In the System and Powerful Learning (Hopkins and Craig 2015a) • Manage strategically the impact of the classroom, school and
we argue that school improvement is a journey to excellence – it system on one another, understanding that in order to change
is not a final destination. No school or system can be at rest. Our the larger system one has to engage with it in a meaningful way.
circumstances are evolving continually and our students’ needs are Our own research (Higham, Hopkins and Matthews, 2009)
never static. As a consequence all schools are on a performance has pointed to five distinct yet overlapping categories of system
continuum or school improvement pathway. As a result of our on- leadership and leads to the following taxonomy of roles.
going school improvement work as seen in Exploding the Myths of • First, are those principals and head teachers who develop and
School Reform (Hopkins 2013), we have gained specific knowledge lead a successful educational improvement partnership be-
about the combination of strategies needed to move a school and a tween several schools. These are most usually focused on a set
system along the continuum from ‘awful to adequate’ to ‘adequate of specific themes that have clear outcomes and reach beyond
to good’, then ‘good to great’ and eventually to ‘great to excellent’. the capacity of any one single institution.
When systems and schools use this knowledge strategically they • Second, are principals who choose to lead and improve a
make significant and rapid progress. school in extremely challenging circumstances. A dual objec-
In the Implementation Strategy, we describe the four phases tive of system leadership is to both raise the bar and close the
of performance continuum through investigating five improve- gap(s) in systemic student achievement.
ment dimensions that are relevant at each step along the School • Third, are those head teachers who partner another school facing
Improvement Pathway. They are: difficulties and improve it. This includes both Executive Princi-
• Curriculum pals and leaders of more informal improvement arrangements
• Teaching who are differentiated from category 1 on the basis that these
• Learning leaders work from a lead school and support a low achieving or
• Assessment/data and accountability underperforming school (or schools) that require intervention.
18 AEL 37 (2)
 innovation, change and improvement
• Fourth, are head teachers who act as a community leader to broker Network Type 1 Groups of teachers join together for a common curriculum
and shape partnerships or networks of wider relationships across purpose and to share good practice.
local communities to support children’s welfare and potential. Network Type 2 Groups of teachers and schools join together with the explicit
• And fifth, are those head teachers who work as a change agent aims of: • Sharing practice • Pursuing school improvement by
or expert leader. The focus is on providing practical knowl- enhancing teaching, learning, and student achievement.
edge and guidance as well as the transfer of best practice with- Network Type 3 System leaders collaborate in knowledge transfer about:
in a formalised school improvement program. • School improvement • Planning and implementing school
The skill bases of system leaders comprise a synthesis of those improvement.
Other stakeholders may join with system leaders to implement
behaviours and approaches previously described under instruc- specific school improvement policies locally or more widely.
tional, adaptive and strategic leadership. Effective system leaders
Network Type 4 Together, groups of networks (within and outside education)
have, however, incorporated this amalgam of skills into a per- pursue system improvement that targets specified objectives
sonal repertoire of leadership capabilities as seen in our original such as social justice and inclusion.
leadership model. The additional skill set that they add to this Network Type 5 Groups of networks collaborate as agents for school system
cornucopia is the ability to generate, manage and lead networks renewal and transformation.
in the pursuit of moral purpose. Table 4: Network types
Implementation Strategy – Enabling school improve- Hopkins, D 2007, Every school a great school, Open University Press,
ment through networks: the focus of system leadership McGraw Hill Education, Berkshire.
Networks are the basic organisational unit for system reform. Hopkins, D 2013, Exploding the Myths of School Reform, Open Univer-
Networks are the means by which a school system becomes a sity Press, McGraw Hill Education, Berkshire.
consciously effective learning system. Hopkins, D and Craig, W 2015a The System and Powerful Learning, Mel-
System leaders need to identify which kind of network is best bourne: McREL International
suited to advance their goals. Five types of networks are emerging Hopkins, D and Craig, W 2015b Curiosity and Powerful Learning, Mel-
from practice and research (Hopkins 2003) and these are described bourne: McREL International
in the Implementation Strategy together with advice on how to es- Hopkins, D and Craig, W 2015c Leadership for Powerful Learning, Mel-
tablish them. These five network types refer to the roles each type bourne: McREL International
plays in contributing to change within school systems, and in wid- Leithwood, K, Jantzi, D, Mascall, B 1999, ‘Large scale reform: what
er social systems (Table 4). Networks enable school improvement. works?’, unpublished manuscript, Ontario Institute for Studies in Edu-
And system leaders enable networks. System leaders empower cation, University of Toronto.
school networks to invest every school with the capability to deliver Leithwood, K, Seashore Louis, K, Anderson, S, Wahlstrom, K 2004, How
leadership influences student learning: a review of research for the learning
high leverage pedagogies that nourish powerful learning.
from leadership project, Wallace Foundation, New York.
Leithwood, K, Day, C, Sammons, P, Hopkins, D, Harris, A 2007, Seven
Reprise
Strong Claims about Successful School Leadership, Nottingham: National
This reflection on Leadership for Powerful Learning has highlight-
College for School Leadership.
ed the overwhelming importance of leadership in the pursuit of
Pink, D 2009, Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us, New
realising our collective moral purpose – the enhancement of York: Penguin Books.
student achievement and potential, irrespective of background. Pont, B, Nusche, D, Moorman, H 2008, Improving School Leadership –
In doing this, we have stepped through four contrasting, but Volume 1: Policy and Practice, OECD.
complementary styles of leadership each tasked in their different Waters T, Marzano R and McNulty B, 2003 Balanced Leadership – What
ways with achieving this goal, the underlying proposition being 30 years of research tells us about the effect of leadership on student
that a synthesis of these styles and skills should overcome both achievement, Denver, Co: McREL.
the challenge of ‘social complexity’ and the paradox of ‘change
and no-change’ noted in the Introduction. Notes
And so they should – being as they are based on decades of
1
This is an estimate based on distributing the 21 McREL leadership respon-
both accumulated wisdom and the evaluation of best practice. sibilities via a content analysis evenly across our four leadership styles.
But even this should not lead to hubris.
2
Each of these Implementation Strategies provides practical tools for
leaders to use in each of the four domains. They are described in oper-
References ational detail in Leadership for Powerful Learning (Hopkins and Craig
Davies, B, Davies, BJ, Ellinson, L 2005, Success and Sustainability: Devel- 2015c) and for obvious reasons of space are only briefly described here.
oping the strategically-focused school, National College for School Lead-
ership, Nottingham.
Fullan, M 2011, ‘Choosing the wrong drivers for whole system reform’,
About the author
CSE Seminar Series paper no. 204, May, Centre for Strategic Education, Among many educational roles, David Hopkins has served as Chief
East Melbourne. Adviser to the UK Secretary of State on School Standards, Dean of Ed-
Heifetz, R 1994, Leadership without easy answers, Belknap Press, Cam- ucation at the University of Nottingham, an Outward Bound Instructor
bridge, Massachusetts. and an International Mountain Guide. With Wayne Craig, David led the
Powerful Learning school improvement initiative in the northern sub-
Heifetz, R 2003, Adaptive work in the adaptive state, Demos, London.
urbs of Melbourne, Australia. David is Emeritus Professor at London’s
Higham, R, Hopkins, D, Matthews, P 2009, System leadership in practice,
Institute of Education, and founded the Adventure Learning Schools
Open University Press, McGraw Hill Education, Berkshire.
Charity. In 2013 he completed his school improvement trilogy with the
Hopkins, D 2003, ‘Understanding Networks for Innovation in Policy and publication of Exploding the Myths of School Reform (ACER Press).
Practice’, in OECD, Towards New Models for Managing Schools and Systems.
AEL 37 (2) 19