Abstract
The Principal takes themes from Machiavelli’s The Prince to explore leadership and learning in further education, but many of its arguments apply to schools and higher education as well. The contributors provide a thoughtful, informative and challenging collection of critical analysis, research and discussion of leadership in state education. The book’s strength comes from the authors’ roots in further education, drawing lessons from a particular experience, institution, time or place with stories, statistics or skirmishes at the frontline. Their insights have a wider relevance for leadership and learning in the UK.
Every institution is a political entity, which navigates a complex, unforgiving political environment. Further education has a tougher time than most sectors, apart from adult and community education, which has almost been annihilated. Independence from local authorities since 1993 favoured powerful principals with a top-down management style, while external targets and cuts in funding after 2009 added to the demoralisation of staff. Although colleges are more like self-governing colonies in a bureaucratic empire than competing city states run by dominant families in renaissance Italy, they have much to learn from Machiavelli’s Prince about leadership and the use of power. But when it comes to what matters, we can learn more from the soft power of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince, of which more later.
Further education colleges serve 2.2 m learners at 257 establishments in England alone, providing GCSEs, A-levels and English as a Second Language (ESOL) as well as skills for people who cut your hair, fix your plumbing, build homes or maintain nuclear power plants. We take their work for granted, but its quality matters for our everyday lives.
This is a book of reflection for action, drawing on the work of many practitioners and thinkers to inspire leaders to use power differently, as principals and senior managers or teachers in the classroom. It is impossible to do justice to 25 diverse essays, or the remarkable images by 12 student illustrators from the Rochester’s University for the Creative Arts, so get a copy to stimulate thinking and enrich your practice. To whet your appetite, I would like to discuss key points from several contributors.
To start with, turn to the Coda at the end, where Shakira Martin, president of the National Union of Students, offers seven pieces of advice on how principals can listen to, and strengthen, student voices. These can be read here: bit.ly/2IKmZhv. Every teacher should put this list on the agenda of their department or board, to begin the process of transformation from within.
In his Preface, Geoffrey Elliott reminds us that education has at its core a moral purpose – to make a difference, bring about improvements and be transformational – so that its leadership must be rooted in values. This includes the need to challenge compliance with reductionist policies and champion the sharing of knowledge and skills which make life worthwhile.
One recurring theme is that leadership of FE lacked the political skills to protect the sector from crushing constraints and controls, or ensure that every learner leaves with skills and knowledge to flourish in the modern world. Joel Petrie introduces a recurring theme, that the ‘sector must steal back its fire from any authority that limits its agency to transform’ through ‘principled democratic leadership of powerful FE professionals’. Rob Smith reflects on the era of incorporation since 1993, the spending cuts since 2009, the more recent area reviews and the lack of ability of principals and governing bodies to operate in a highly regulated and straitened funding environment. He calls for a new kind of leadership to revitalise the sector, which is not spelt out but developed in later essays.
Many will recognise the machinations described in Geoff Brown’s cynical guide for careerists in old school entrepreneurial leadership. His is a warning, not a model: ‘Forget the foolishness of Investors in People, think rather of Investors in Property’. However, with scruples, a spirit of collaboration and inclusion, Brown’s wily tactics may be the real politick needed to outwit the dominant culture of compliance and control.
Carol Azumah Dennis offers advice on how to do the right thing in a complex context, with competing demands, in a situation ‘characterised by paradox, creativity, surprise and emergence’. No easy solutions here, but powerful ways of thinking.
Damien Page’s defence of the principal argues that in times of fierce competition, government performance targets and austerity, there is no place for lambs, but principals who are, in Machiavelli’s words, both fox and lion – ‘fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves’. Principals can keep the neo-liberal wolves from the door.
Part two contrasts different types of principality in Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with case studies on technical education, apprenticeships, the impact of the financial crisis, community education, ESOL and the loss of trust in professional structures. In his introduction, John Field also contrasts the turbulence in these countries with the more settled, regulated systems in Germany and Scandinavia, where adult and further education are fundamental to nation-building.
Part three explores questions of professionalism, citizenship and community. Gary Husbands challenges the use of language, particularly the words ‘excellence’, ‘collaboration’, ‘enterprising’ and ‘innovative’, to disguise a narrowing of what constitutes education. He calls for more emphasis on high quality, robust teaching. Alex Dunedin describes the challenges of running free, independent, open informal education through the Ragged University, a grassroots community organisation, in the face of bureaucratic gate-keeper.
Machiavelli said those who remain ‘poor and scattered’ are never able to injure the prince and warned ‘there should not be free debate, for that is the principal instrument of sedition’. Jim Crawley argues that overthrowing princes would be exhausting and ‘more damaging to many than helpful to some’. Instead, teachers need to connect and collaborate to build ‘principalities of people’. He advocates ‘marginal learning gains’ to aggregate small improvements which together make a real difference. He provides three examples of projects which strengthened connection and advocates four connections for professionals in FE:
Practical abilities underpinning teaching and learning Democratic engagement with colleagues to achieve common goals Civic engagement with the broader community Networked – active engagement with other professionals and the wider community.
David Powell takes this further, describing five ‘ecologies of practice’ – leadership, student learning, teaching, professional development and researching. These five practices constitute ‘sayings, doings and relatings’ in the classroom, staffroom, boardroom and other spaces. They enable teachers to ‘be the change they want to see in the world’ (Gandhi).
Rajiv Khosla investigates the damaging effects of performance management systems on FE, particularly Ofsted, which inhibit genuine innovation, and advises principals to adopt a coaching style of teacher observations and reflective discussions among staff.
Vicky Duckworth concludes this part by showing how teachers can promote social justice and challenge inequality by giving people opportunities to learn and transform.
Finally, part four searches for an FE Utopia, with new democratic republics of learning communities open to all. Craig Hammond draws on another Italian, Gramsci, and the Situationists to propose tactics for teachers to enable students to challenge received ideas. Peter Shukie goes further, arguing for a ‘new order of learning that broadens who can be involved in the creation of learning spaces’ through Community Open Online Courses (COOCs) and learning outside institutions, like the Ragged University (and pubs). Hammond appeals for ‘authenticity of purpose’ to escape ‘tired and conforming practices’ to create a ‘new, distributed concept of learning’.
In many ways, this is already happening. The world’s biggest open education platform is YouTube, through which billions of people learn anything from algebra to jihad. The Khan Academy is probably the world’s biggest education provider, used by 100 million people every year with more than 10 million subscribers worldwide and translated into dozens of languages. The challenge for FE practitioners is to enable learners and contributors to cultivate this flourishing wilderness of online learning, through study circles, action learning sets and guided study tours to find what they need to transform their lives.
Rania Hafez calls on teacher education to ‘create teachers as independent audacious thinkers and actors’, as ‘Trojan horses’, ‘philosopher kings’ and ‘horse whisperers and guides for the future leaders’ to transform education institutions from within. She argues that principals and senior managers need to go back to the basics of collegiality and escape the strict hierarchies of managerialism.
Rob Peutrell draws on lessons from the merger of colleges in Nottingham to advocate democratisation of colleges with lifelong learning systems, suggesting five resources to draw on:
Our shared identity as educators and finding common purpose in our fragmented professional culture, through subject specialist bodies and professional associations; The democratic potential of social media, to give people access to fresh ideas, share problems and good practice; Coalition building between teachers, students and community groups advocating change or defending provision; Our forgotten democratic traditions, of participatory education and the social dimension to vocational education, to which I would add collegiality as mentioned by Rania Hafez, negotiating the curriculum and electing student reps in each course; Our knowledge of professional learning and the importance of autonomy, responsibility, dialogue, criticality and reflection.
Lou Mycroft and Jane Weatherby warn against looking for heroic, charismatic leaders to transform education, but to ideas and anti-heroes to create digital and real spaces for ‘careful and deliberative listening’ which is key to ‘thinking and acting differently’.
Finally, James Avis presents a thoughtful reflection of the effects of removing colleges from local authority control in 1993 and warns against ‘comfort radicalism’ which rails against neoliberalism but fails to use opportunities build alliances for social justice in the classroom, college and communities.
Ann-Marie Bathmaker concludes by encouraging us ‘not to give in to despondent cynicism, but to continue to work for the in-between spaces in which alternative practices are possible’.
While most contributors are critical of the dominant leadership style in further education, it is important to remember that there are exceptions, with many colleges, departments and teachers providing transformative education to their communities. As Jim Crawley argues, teachers (and leaders) can connect and collaborate to build ‘principalities of people’, aggregate small improvements into a movement for transformation. Instead of power games from The Prince, college leaders could apply lessons from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, who repeats questions until they are answered. The little prince observes that grown-ups are too fond of numbers and don’t care for what matters, such as relationships, compassion and the planet. Further education must connect with the needs of their local communities by recognising that the most important things can only be seen with the heart, not the eyes. Reorientating our economy after the shock of Covid19 and a decade of austerity depends on leaders in further education winning over princes in central government and their agencies. The Principal offers many useful insights and provocations to support learners and citizens through the turbulence ahead.