learning for school leadership: using concept mapping to explore learning from everyday experience*
TRANSCRIPT
This article was downloaded by: [University of Calgary]On: 07 October 2014, At: 07:45Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
International Journal of Leadership inEducation: Theory and PracticePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tedl20
Learning for school leadership: usingconcept mapping to explore learningfrom everyday experienceAnn Elizabeth PeggPublished online: 13 Jul 2007.
To cite this article: Ann Elizabeth Pegg (2007) Learning for school leadership: using conceptmapping to explore learning from everyday experience , International Journal of Leadership inEducation: Theory and Practice, 10:3, 265-282, DOI: 10.1080/13603120701257412
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603120701257412
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to orarising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
INT. J. LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION,JULY–SEPTEMBER 2007, VOL. 10, NO. 3, 265–282
International Journal of Leadership in EducationISSN 1360–3124 print/ISSN 1464–5092 online © 2007 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journalsDOI: 10.1080/13603120701257412
Learning for school leadership: using concept mapping to explore learning from everyday experience*
ANN ELIZABETH PEGGTaylor and Francis LtdTEDL_A_225653.sgm10.1080/13603120701257412International Journal of Leadership in Education1360-3124 (print)/1464-5092 (online)Original Article2007Taylor & Francis1000000002007Ann [email protected]
This study explores concepts of learning used by leaders, focusing on learning for leadershipthrough day-to-day workplace experiences. The participants were drawn from the seniormanagement team within a school, the chair of governors of the school and the local authorityschool improvement advisor. Concept mapping was used as a participatory research method.Maps were created by the participants and linkages discussed. The maps indicated that learn-ing for leadership from experience was multifaceted. The language used to describe conceptsof learning reflected generic and everyday concepts, rather than the language of pedagogy orconcepts used in professional training/the literature. The study alerts us to the difficulties inembedding concepts used in formal training in the everyday life of educational professionals.It also highlights the use of concept mapping as a technique for exploring workplace learning.
Introduction
Understanding how educational leaders learn and how they can be bestsupported to continue learning in the workplace requires that educationalresearchers pay particular attention to the way that leaders connect theorieslearnt through training programmes to practice. Current attention to thecontinuing development of school leaders suggests that the division betweentheory and practice can be overcome by incorporating the experientiallearning of leaders in their schools. Yet, understanding how this happens,how educational leaders make sense of their own development as leaders inthe day-to-day world of the school, is not fully clear. An examination of howtheoretical ideas about learning from experience are utilized by leadersnecessitates an understanding of how theory is applied in practice andshould contribute to the development of pedagogies of continuing develop-ment for educational leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore theconcepts of learning from experience used by educational leaders duringtheir everyday work.
*Editor’s note. This paper was a finalist in the journal’s graduate student manuscript competition for2006. Congratulations Ann! For information on how to submit manuscripts for the competition or onhow to volunteer to be a reviewer please visit the journal web site or contact Dr Michele Acker-Hocevarat [email protected] Elizabeth Pegg began her Ph.D. programme at the Open University Centre for Educational Policy,Leadership and Lifelong Learning, Stuart Hall Building, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK 7 6AA, UK,in October 2005. Email: [email protected]. She has a background in adult education and lifelonglearning and is currently a chair of governors at a local school and a distance learning tutor.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
266 A. E. PEGG
This case study builds upon McLay and Brown’s (2003) work usingconcept mapping to evaluate the formal training of headteachers in the UK.McLay and Brown used maps in the context of a formal programme andsuggested that it would be useful to use practitioners’ own terminology whenconcept mapping. The technique is used here to investigate concepts usedby educational leaders in the workplace and focuses on concepts of learningrather than models or concepts of leadership. The research questions were,therefore, located around the understandings of the participants:
● how did leaders conceptualize learning from experience;● what were individual motivations to learn about leadership;● was learning from experience recognized as a pedagogic strategy to facilitate
learning for leadership for the school?
The participants had differing leadership roles at a small primary school, andthe focus of investigation was on the leader’s own learning at school duringroutine organizational practices. Interviews were used to collect data onparticipants’ lives and learning histories, and concept maps were used as away to develop and explore meanings for the participants. Rather than usingmapping as an evaluative tool, as McLay and Brown did in their study(measuring how successfully concepts had been acquired and linked follow-ing training sessions), I intended the maps to become objects that repre-sented the range of concepts that the participants drew upon to conceptualizelearning situated in the context of being a leader at work. Leaders were notbeing evaluated as to how well they had incorporated theories of learning intotheir own practice; I was trying to establish a picture of the way in whichconcepts of learning were used and, perhaps shared, by leaders in theirworking lives. This method would establish an essentially descriptive base ofconcepts in use.
In this paper I discuss the place of learning from experience in thecontext of the professional development of educational leaders. I then covercareer stages and concept mapping as a measure of learning. The researchmethod and data are discussed. In my conclusion I reflect on the value ofusing concept mapping to capture learning from experience and on the diffi-culty of embedding concepts used in formal training in the everyday lives ofprofessionals.
The place of experience in professional development programmes
Over the last 10 years the professional development of school leaders in theUK has become increasingly centralized and transformed through the Labourgovernment’s determination to improve school effectiveness by raising thequality of school leadership. The establishment of the National College forSchool Leadership (NCSL) in 2000 as the coordinating body for leadershiptraining and development and as a major sponsor for practitioner andacademic research has had an impact on the field. Links are being madebetween theoretical approaches and the reported experiences of practitioners,yet the distinction between theoretical approaches and prescriptions for action
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 267
are often blurred and confusing (Day 2001, Harris 2003, Leithwood andLevin 2004). For example, despite the theoretical interest in distributed andshared leadership, this has often been hard to identify empirically. Leadershippractices are more often described as a mixture of transactional, transforma-tional and distributed leadership, rather than neatly fitting into one theoreticalframework (MacBeath 2005, Muijs et al. 2006). In the field of learning forleadership there is an increasing recognition that contextual factors are crucialand that a major part of the learning that leaders do takes place in the work-place. The NCSL (2004: 1) position on leadership in the strategy documentLearning to Lead outlines this approach: the ‘NCSL recognises that most lead-ership learning takes place in school, while doing the job, through engagingactively in leadership practice. The College’s role is to support, extend andenrich this leadership development through activities, reflection and collab-orative working’.
However, this focus on the context for learning as in school and as partof working life places particular demands on both the learner and the way inwhich learning is directed. There are assumptions here that learning will takeplace through activity, reflection and, above, all joint working, but how peda-gogical approaches fit with this contextualized understanding is unclear. Thisis a particular problem when types of leadership vary and have a significantimpact on the context for learning in an individual school. Recognizing themultiplicity of contexts, the NCSL (2004: 1) are less specific about thepotential methods for achieving learning ‘on the job’, adding that this occursthrough ‘Using as many different and complementary ways as possible tofacilitate learning’.
At the same time as the importance of learning as occurring through every-day school life has gained increased recognition there have been policy moveswhich encourage the development of distributed leadership practices,conceptualizing leadership as an organizational practice rather than the prop-erty of particular individuals. Linking these two emerging positions is anemphasis on talk, shared responsibility and individual development throughcooperation and reflection to enhance the leadership capabilities of anindividual school. Theoretically these two lines are linked through sharedunderlying assumptions that approach language as constituting meaning andlearning as occurring through shared interaction (Wertsch 2001, Billett2004). Experience and context are, therefore, both highly valued, but asworking concepts are under-theorized (Eraut 2000, Edwards 2005). As indi-cated above, it is unclear how educational leaders are using theoretical ideasin their day-to-day work and how they understand learning from experienceand make connections between this and their theoretical understanding oftheir own learning or leadership concepts. Educational practitioners continueto comment that research about leadership learning does not reflect their livedday-to-day lives and the approach taken here argues that educational leaders’concepts of learning at work may differ from the assumptions inherent in theliterature of experiential learning.
This literature dates back to Dewey and Lewin, and established modelssuch as Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle and Schön’s (1983) reflective practitio-ner have been revisited and updated by many researchers, particularly in thefield of adult education (Boud and Walker 2002). More recently, rather than
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
268 A. E. PEGG
using the key concept of reflection to learn from experience, attention hasbeen given to the way in which the nature of the workplace itself acts as astructuring pedagogy for learning. This draws attention to the ways thatpeople learn through working together. Networks, communities of practiceand the organizational environment are increasingly recognized as structuringexperience for individuals and, consequently, impacting upon and shapingtheir learning.
Billett (2004) adopted a social perspective on learning that proposes an‘ongoing interaction’ between the inter-psychological plane (social interac-tions) and the intra-psychological. This ongoing interaction contributes tothe individuals’ ongoing ontogeny (evolving life history) and attitudes toengagement in learning. Billett suggested that learning at work is dynamicallycomposed of both the ‘affordances’ available (the ways in which the organi-zation distributes and invites members to participate in learning experiences)and the learners’ motivations to engage with these opportunities.
These seem important points to bear in mind when considering thecomplex organizational and contextual influences on leaders’ learning: notonly are the individuals differently positioned by their life histories, experi-ences and intra-psychological processes, but their different positionswithin the local and national contexts offer them different experiences andopportunities for learning.
Career stages and concept mapping
Research by Ribbins (2003) and the approach taken by the NCSL clearlylink career stage to developmental needs and learning. The NCSL frameleadership development through a five-stage process: emergent leadership;established leadership; entry to headship; advanced leadership; consultantleadership. Ribbins also linked career stage to motivation to learn, suggest-ing that in the latter stages of a headteacher’s career an alternative path toconsultancy may be disengagement from learning. Through each of thesestages leaders take responsibility for planning and implementing their ownlearning.
Early and Budd (2004: 174) investigated what school leaders consider tobe positive development activities. They identified working with an effectiveheadteacher, working in an effective leadership team, everyday work experi-ence, working in a good school and being an acting headteacher as the topfive on-the-job activities. However, these are individual responses, anddeveloping a systematic approach to leadership development is an area thatthe NCSL identify as needing more work. Identifying benchmarks forcurrent practice and assessing the learning that is taking place for individualsand schools is hard to measure, particularly as most of the learning takingplace is experiential and not formally assessed. McLay and Brown (2003)suggested that concept mapping offers a tool for both benchmarking andassessing learning over time, as it can capture the use of theoretical concepts.
Concept mapping was developed for use in education as a teaching toolthat can identify the fragmentary nature of individual learner’s understandingand it allows a constructivist approach to learning (Novak and Gowin 1996).
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 269
In research the tool has been used with both groups and individuals to assesslearning programmes, to develop conceptual models, to identify stakeholderperspectives and for planning and evaluation (in education Kinchin and Hay2000, in management Trochim and Cabrera 2005). It is a participativemethod that is ‘inductive, allowing shared meaning to emerge; it is based ona simple set of rules (operations) that generate complex patterns andresults’ (Trochim and Cabrera 2005: 12). This process begins with thedevelopment of a focus statement or prime descriptor, in this case ‘how doI learn to lead through experiences at work?’ Participants then generate avisual representation of the way in which they identify linked ideas andconcepts.
One issue with this approach is that the maps alone don’t explain whyconnections or links have been made. By recording the process and gettingparticipants to talk through and make explicit their reasons for connectingconcepts I hoped that participants would be reflective and make explicit tacitknowledge. Concept maps are linked to the constructivist approach to learn-ing, they start from the participants’ own concepts of learning arising out oftheir experience. In discussion with the researcher the maps begin the processof benchmarking the way in which theoretical ideas about learning fromexperience are used by practitioners.
In summary, to inform professional development programmes whichseek to draw on the experience of participants there is a need to better under-stand how theoretical ideas about learning from experience are used andunderstood by educational practitioners in the workplace. Learning fromexperience is a problematic area, composed of the interrelationships betweencontext and ontogeny, and this study aimed to use concept mapping toinvestigate leaders’ own perceptions of learning through experience.
Research method
Using interviews and concept mapping
Although the interviews were likely to be an appropriate method for investi-gating the life history, attitudes and motivations to learn for the participants,I wanted to adopt a more participatory approach for the identification ofconcepts. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, to avoid the criticismthat research often does not reflect leaders’ day-to-day experience I wantedto give the participants a tool that could fully express their ideas. Unlikeinterviews, the ideas were captured visually at the time, and this allowed theparticipants to revise and build their explanations as they talked. Second, bytaking an approach that recognized learning as occurring through sharedinteraction, I recognized that the interviews were inevitably a learningprocess in themselves for the participants and me. Concepts and ideas woulddevelop through the talk, and concept mapping, together with the tapedconversations, offered a way to capture that at the time. Returning the mapsfor comments offered a far more accessible way for participants to access,check and change the data than interview transcriptions, which are lengthyand difficult to follow.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
270 A. E. PEGG
Fieldwork was undertaken during June and July 2005 in a medium sizedprimary school (ages 5–12) which was regarded as having ‘good’ leadershipby the UK inspecting authority OfSTED and where achievements wereaverage for the local area. As interactions between leaders were potentiallyimportant to the way in which concepts of learning were constructed in thegroup, I used a distributed leadership perspective (Spillane and Orlina 2005)and participants were chosen from a range of leaders for the school. Of thesix participants, the headteacher, the deputy headteacher and two seniormanagement team members worked closely together on a daily basis. Thechair of governors for the school and the school improvement advisorconnected less frequently with the school and interacted mainly with theheadteacher and deputy, but each had a potentially significant influence onhow the leaders of the school should, and could, continue to learn. Althoughthis particular description of leadership ignores other informal leaders—students, teacher leaders and others in the governing body—those selectedwere clearly engaged in decision-making for the school.
The interviews took place at the school, in empty classrooms, in theoffices of the headteacher and the school improvement advisor and at thehome of the chair of governors. Sites for interview were chosen by the partic-ipants. All the interviews were recorded. Each interview was clearly dividedinto two parts. First, an initial open question was asked inviting the partici-pants to describe their life and learning history—how they came to be in theircurrent role as a leader. These data were intended to inform me of individualexperiences of learning, illustrating the type of experience that the partici-pants meant when they referred to learning from experience. Second, theidea and process of concept mapping was explained to the participants, allbut one of whom were familiar with the process from teaching others. Thetechnique adopted was that of free-range concept mapping (McLay andBrown 2003: 75), where only the prime descriptor was given to the inter-viewee. McLay and Brown (2003: 75) have explained that keywords orprime descriptors can be linked by lines indicating relationships or causalpropositions to the next statement or concept. No concepts or ideas areexcluded and connections do not have to be made to other concepts.
This inclusive approach enabled me to include what may be categorizedas either formal or informal learning within any one map. The compositemaps were organized by adding to one map all the concepts identified byeach participant. Where identical terms were used, concepts were onlyentered once. Each concept was numbered. Cluster headings emerged fromthe participant’s individual maps where a number of links were made toparticular concepts.
The leaders developed their conceptual exploration of this prime descrip-tor: ‘how do I learn to lead through experiences at work?’ The verbal supportfor the mapping process was unstructured, with me asking open questions inresponse to the candidate’s inscriptions and comments. The questions wereintended to elaborate on linkages and terms mapped by the interviewee. Theinterviews lasted between 50 and 75 minutes, and the transcriptions wereentered as data into N6™ (an ethnographic software). The concept mapswere organized using computer software (Decision Explorer™). Conceptmaps were returned to all the participants (after being recorded in the
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 271
software) for confirmation of accuracy and the addition of any commentsthat they felt necessary. No changes were made at this point. (See Appendixfor more details about the software.)
All participants completed one map. Participants completed more thanone map when they wished to illustrate a linked issue in depth or felt thatthere was another separate area that they had not adequately explained. Forexample, the deputy head completed one map, ‘learning to lead’, and asecond map centred on his role as continual professional development leaderfor others. He suggested that this showed how he was involved in influencingothers’ learning for leadership as part of his school role and how this roleimpacted on his views about learning at work. As I wished to follow up lead-ers’ own concepts of learning to lead in the widest possible sense I allowedthe participants to use this tool as they wished. The recording of the sessionsmeant that the reasons for moving from one map to another could be locatedin the discussion.
Individual transcripts were used with the maps to confirm linkages andto explore the reasons for links between concepts. A composite map was alsodrawn up from the six individual maps locating concepts used under genericheadings. Concepts were grouped under headings where identical or similarwords had been used on individual maps or where transcription data indi-cated that there were common ideas. As the research developed, a secondcomposite map was drawn up to investigate the possible institutional aspectsof learning from experience. This map included concepts from the head-teacher, deputy head and two senior leaders within the school, but excludedthe chair of governors and the school improvement advisor, who did not visitthe school on a daily basis.
Data: the maps and interviews combined
Career stories and motivation to learn
Ontogeny brings together life histories and learning, and the career storiesrevealed a wealth of experience within the group, as one would expect fromestablished leaders.
The participants and a brief indication of their career position are indi-cated in Table 1. Interestingly, the headteacher and one of the women inthe senior management team (SMT3) had been in their positions for theshortest time. The two other members of the senior management team(the male deputy head and one female manager) had previously held actingheadships, but for various reasons were not now planning to apply forother deputy or headship positions. Both women expressed no desire toseek promotion at the present due to family commitments. The careertrajectories of the two women managers were more complex than that ofthe men in the group, reflecting women’s differential experience of work-ing lives. Outside the school group the chair of governors had been ateaching assistant, but was now retired and coming to the end of her gover-norship, and the school improvement advisor was also in the latter stagesof his career.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
272 A. E. PEGG
The relationship between career position and individual motivation tolearn was complex, and interest in learning was only tangentially linked tocareer history or future plans. Stories about learning here were not restrictedto learning for leadership at work, despite the initial question, but recognizedformal training and personal interests as contributing to personal develop-ment. The participants in this study did not fit neatly into the five stageframework for learning used by the NCSL in its leadership developmentprogramme and identified by Ribbins (2003). SMT1 and SMT2 were‘established’ and not looking to pursue headships. SMT3 could be said tobe ‘emergent’, but was also not looking to advance at the present. The head-teacher, chair of governors and school advisor were all ‘advanced’ leaders,but only the headteacher was currently interested in learning in relation tocareer progression, and intended to pursue this via a formal course outsidethe school.
Concept mapping: learning from experience
Concept maps were very effective as a tool for drawing out what participantsidentified as learning for leadership, often rephrased as learning from expe-rience. Although the concepts were identified with one or few words, themultiple links drawn between them by the participants and the elaborationof the meanings of the words in the recorded interviews developed a complexpicture of learning. Shared meaning emerged from the interaction during themapping process. I asked questions about why linkages were being made andwhat the meaning of various terms were, leading to further elaboration.McLay and Brown identified concept maps as having a useful role in identi-fying hierarchical layouts for concepts, moving away from the linear form ofinterview transcripts and many written documents. I found that the linkagesin concept maps also offer a visual representation of circularity, self-sustain-ing and complex links over time that are hard for interviewees to track andfocus on during conversations and interviews. Creating the maps together
Table 1. Participants, gender and experience
Participant Gender Experience
Headteacher (HT) Male 14 years teaching experience, 6 years as headteacher
Chair of Governors (CG) Female Over 40 years experience of working in schools and 18 years of governance
Deputy Headteacher (SMT2) Male 20 years of teaching experience, including some time as acting headteacher at this school
Senior Management Team (SMT1) Female 18 years of teaching experience, including deputy and acting headships
Senior Management Team (SMT3) Female 10 years of teaching experience, with 2 years in senior management
School Improvement Advisor (SIA) Male Over 30 years in education, with over 15 years as a schools advisor
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 273
with the participants enabled me to review and identify concepts that wereinterlinked as they emerged or later, following the conversations, when themaps were returned to the participants for checking. Participants often cameback to a ‘line’ of thinking and linked it back into other areas of the map,developing a complex picture to their own satisfaction. The recording of theinterviews made explicit many of the explanations for links betweenconcepts as they were being placed on the maps. Verbalizing encouraged theparticipants to make clear their thinking as they explained why they werelinking or adding certain concepts to the maps to me. An example of aconcept map for one of the senior management team can be seen in Figure 1.Figure 1. Concept map 1: arrows indicate ‘connected to’ or ‘contributes to’; lines indicate a loose connection or associated ideas [TA, Teaching Assistant in the classroom; HT, Headteacher; SMT, Senior Management Team; OfSTED, Office for Standards in Education (England)]
This senior manager emphasized learning from role models, courses andtrying out ideas on others. In contrast, the headteacher’s map locatedconcepts linked to working with ‘good people’ as a major facet of learningfor leadership in terms of both his own experience and how he woulddevelop others. The concept maps suggested that participants integratedconcepts of formal and informal learning and that they perceived a relation-ship between the internal and external environments. One member of thesenior management group clearly illustrated how, in developing her ownlearning, she had attended exhibitions and collected software in her owntime, bringing this into the school environment and sharing problems anddiscoveries with a colleague. In this extract she starts by commenting on theinitial training (formal) for interactive whiteboards:
Ann Were they valuable courses?SMT1 Yeah, they were. Those were valuable. Just showed how to, erm, use a whiteboard and
showed us resources that were available. And then I suppose after that a lot of it has beensort of self-motivated learning so I just explored new software and you know, sort of just
1 Learning forLeadership
2 Learning fromcourses
3 generates ideas4 being open toideas
5 being realistic
6 reflection
7 resources
8 how does this fitinto school
9 is it possible
10 deciding who tofeed back to
11 trying out onothers first - HT
and SMT
12 ideas fromtalking to others
13 observing otherpeople teach
14 observing othersuse TA in different
ways
15 learning fromprevious experiences
16 changes in thisschool
17 support at work-personal
understanding
18 HT style
19 how HT madechanges
20 How HT deals withpeople
21 Asking whatpeople thought/think
22 dealing withpeople
23 other leaders -helping school ready
for OfSTED
24 Role models
Figure 1. Concept map 1: arrows indicate ‘connected to’ or ‘contributes to’; lines indicate a loose connection or associated ideas [TA, Teaching Assistant in the
classroom; HT, Headteacher; SMT, Senior Management Team; OfSTED,Office for Standards in Education (England)]
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
274 A. E. PEGG
worked through things with G, who is the other teacher. So we were the only two for ayear that had the whiteboards.
Ann When you said worked through things with G, do you mean you, like, sat down togetherand … ?
SMT1 No, it was more like—‘Oh god I don’t know what’s happened here. Can you pop downto my classroom and just help me?’ It was that sort of help me, you know. My whiteboardhas just gone off. Problem sharing together.
Ann Problem sharingSMT1 And also things like making things you know. She would make things and give them to
me on a floppy or a disc and sharing of resources that we’d made.(extract 1, 272–278, transcript 36)
The concept map in Figure 2 shows how she had developed herself exter-nally and brought this back to the internal environment of the school.Figure 2. Concept map 2 (DfES, Department for Education and Skills)
The interactive nature of the concept map is illustrated by her emphasisin discussions on the impact of this for her leadership—experience leadingto evaluative skills and leadership decisions. She expands and adds to themap by identifying both her own investment and her contribution to schoolspending:
25 Learning forLeadership
26 Developing staffand curriculum
27DfES 2 day course - very valuable
28 Interactivewhiteboards, firstto get one in thisschool, needs tolearn
29 Invests ownresources inteaching andlearning - self
motivated learning
30 Downloadssoftware
31 Discusses ownlearning with
another teacher
32 works withanother teacher
33 enlivens teachingpractice/pace
34 Results in advice to school on
resources for ICT -evaluations of
software in schience
35 Visits educationshow and buys
software
36 Researchessoftware and
collects informationfrom exhibition
Figure 2. Concept map 2 (DfES, Department for Education and Skills)
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 275
SMT1 I also had a big role to play in buying resources. I mean I invested a lot of my own … .Ann This is your own (pointing to concept map).SMT1 But I had a big say in investing sort of the school’s money in curriculum resources. I was
the one that recommended the maths scheme that she uses and, I’m not the mathscoordinator, used across the school. And then this year I have (?) and bought the inter-active literacy scheme for the whole school as well and I also bought the science as well.(extract 2, 309–311, transcript 36)
Composite maps
The composite maps worked well as an expression of the large range ofconcepts which were used by the group. The cluster headings were conceptswith large numbers of links to them made by participants and where termsthat were identical were used. Table 2 indicates the range of all conceptsused by the six participants and the clusters that emerged from their maps.
Whilst all learning broadly counted as experience, this included conceptsabout learning from courses as part of school life (training days) and generalsocial interactions, such as listening and talking. The high value given to talkas learning (including listening, talk and interpersonal relationships)contrasted with the fewer and more negative references to reading.
I was particularly interested by the identification of a specific category bythe participants: ‘learning from experience’. This complex concept was elab-orated in detail and included multiple aspects that were interrelated. Thisconcept contrasted with descriptive accounts of the ways in which peoplerelated (talking, listening, observing clusters; see Table 2), as it oftencontained values and recommendations of the ways in which people shouldor could work together. For example, concepts related to talking and listen-ing were not directly linked to interpersonal relationships. Interpersonalrelationships as a category clearly related to relationships and roles, a groupof concepts with dynamics which included ‘being able to influence people’(concept 68), ‘conflict should be avoided, learn to work to consensus’(concept 71) and ‘leading an area-wide group’ (concept 84). Sub-headingclusters for the concept ‘learning from experience’ were developed aroundadditional responsibilities, curriculum knowledge, whole school activitiesand moving across to learn from the external environment (courses, localnetworks and other schools). The tabular form does not do justice to the
Table 2. Cluster headings and concepts
Cluster heading Number of concepts directly linked
Learning from courses 8
Writing 7
Reading 10 (3 of these were ‘don’t learn by’ comments)
Listening to people 9
Observing others 10
Talking to people 9
Learning by doing 11
Learning from experience 4 sub-headings = 31concepts (see Table 3)
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
276 A. E. PEGG
inter-linkages and fine discrimination between concepts. The sub-headingsfor learning from experience contained concepts as in Table 3.
SMT1 encapsulated learning from experience as ‘exposure to certainthings—being expected to do them’ (concept 74). The rather clear pictureimplied by the concept maps was sometimes imprecise and blurred when theaccompanying transcripts were added to the analysis. For example, SMT3suggested that ‘imagination, what is the potential of this’ and ‘where do Iwant to be’ (concepts 54 and 55) are reflective elements of learning fromexperience when talking, but interestingly located these ideas under ‘learn-ing from doing’ on her concept map. Her idea about learning from experi-ence was very much located in the present ‘doing’, rather than reflecting onthe past.
Through comparison of the transcripts, listening to tapes and consider-ation of the individual and composite maps the theme of ‘boundary crossing’emerged as an important factor contributing to learning for this group. Acomposite map was developed for the four school employees focusing on thecluster ‘learning from experience’ and the cluster sub-headings. Conceptswere coded for boundary crossing—internally, externally and both internallyand externally. Ten concepts related to the crossing of external boundariesemerged, five to internal boundaries and twelve to both internal and externalboundaries. The remaining four concepts related to self-awareness (2) andjob practicalities (2). Moving out of the classroom, or out of the school, toexplore alternative ways of working, to develop local links with schools andother agencies and to work with a wider range of people seemed to be akey element that participants recognized as underpinning learning fromexperience.
Discussion: individual motivations to learn
Motivations for learning were complex, particularly as four of the six partic-ipants in the study placed themselves at the latter stages (or end) of theircareers. Motivation to learn was not directly related to career concerns, butwas often described more functionally, linked to tasks, problems at work orpersonal interests. The exception to this was the headteacher, whoexpressed a personal goal relating to learning for leadership during his inter-view and identified a formal course as the means to achieve this. All otherparticipants in the study had no specific goal for learning in relation to lead-ership at the time of the interviews, although SMT3 felt that this might
Table 3. Learning from experience cluster sub-headings
Learning from experience cluster sub-heading Number of directly linked concepts
Expected to take on additional responsibilities 4
Interpersonal relationships, including working with staff and building teams
16
Attending external meetings 6
Developing own learning about the curriculum 5
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 277
change for her at some point in the future. These findings confirm Ribbins(2003) view that motivations to learn are closely linked to career stage, withthe additional note that career trajectories for women do not easily fit intothis linear pattern.
How the organization structured learning from experience
Unwin et al. (2005: 2) reminded us that ‘The primary function of anyworkplace is not learning but the production of goods and services and theachievement of organisational goals’. This is true of schools as a workplaceand when considering educational leadership. The fact that the educationof children is a function of schools does not mean that we can assume thatstaff learning is an organization goal. This was sharply illustrated bySMT2 discussing his role as CPD (continuing professional development)coordinator. CPD was clearly constrained by budgets, curriculum targetsand organizational targets for children’s achievements. Personal goals weresometimes discussed, but viewed individualistically and subsumed to thepragmatism of keeping the organization on track. There was no overallstrategy for the development of individuals as leaders or for the develop-ment of the leadership of the school. The headteacher had a clear view oflearning as developing people within the staff group and he conceptualizedpromoting interactions and specific opportunities to achieve tasks as partof this development. Again, this was in a generic way; there were noexplicit learning goals here.
In fact, there was a mismatch between individual motivations anddesires to learn, organizational goals and the national agenda emphasizingleadership development. Organizational goals centred around improvingchildren’s achievements through quality of teaching in the classroom,improved through curriculum and specialist interventions. The nationalagenda of developing the quality of leadership in the school was mentionedby the school improvement advisor, but not pursued in the face of othercompeting pressures (e.g. school goals and financial constraints).
The lack of a direct link between leadership and improved children’sperformance has been widely commented upon (Leithwood and Jantzi2000, Leithwood and Levin 2004) and within this school participants didnot make a direct link between learning for leadership and school improve-ment, although this was implied and perhaps a normative assumption. Thislack of a direct relationship meant that learning for leadership was not anissue for the organizational agenda, and only an issue for CPD if related toindividual motivation.
Billett’s (2004) idea about the congruence between individual motiva-tion and the affordances of opportunity offered by a workplace seemed verypertinent here, however, the opportunities offered by the workplace werealso influenced by competing national agendas. It seemed that learning fromexperience was not explicitly recognized as a pedagogic strategy to facilitatelearning for organizational leadership. In the drive for more immediate andmeasurable examples of organizational success certain forms of learning forleadership lost out.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
278 A. E. PEGG
Concepts of learning
Early and Budd (2004: 174) asked school leaders what they thought was the‘single most powerful development opportunity of their career’ (originalemphasis) and concept maps from this group of leaders identified every oneof the top five on-the-job activities and referred to many of the off-the-jobopportunities that Early and Budd identified. These were locally provided,such as visiting other schools, specialist tasks and whole school training.Only the headteacher mentioned NCSL courses, more regional and nationalin nature, and no participants mentioned other regional and national post-graduate courses. For this small group the horizons for learning at workseemed to be, first, institutional or personal and, second, locally provided.
Whilst the maps did show a high degree of concordance about conceptsof learning for leadership at the level of generic terms—such as talking,listening, observing, doing and experience—what was interesting to me wasthe absence of professional concepts of learning. This contrasts with McLayand Browns findings and supports their assertion that the immediate envi-ronment of the course had influenced the concepts that were used by theirparticipants. My participants seemed to avoid using professional terminol-ogy when describing their everyday experience, even though they knew thatI had a teaching background. Concepts about learning for leadership weredrawn from everyday vocabulary and grounded in illustrations of personalactions.
With the exception of the chair of governors, all participants were well-qualified teachers and all were regarded as good leaders, yet none used thevocabulary of pedagogy to describe their concepts of learning for leadership.There was no mention of reflective practice (Schön 1987) or learning cycles(Kolb 1984), nor was there any mention of networking or communities ofpractice, which have more recent currency in professional education. As aresearcher it was possible to read these terms into various places within theconcept maps, but they were not used by the participants. The lack oftheoretical or professional terms used here does not necessarily imply thatthe interviewees were not aware of them, but rather that they were deemedinappropriate to describe everyday learning from experience. The currencyof the vocabulary of the courses that they had attended was short-term, notembedded in school or daily life. Boud (2003) suggested that naminglearning as such brings it into focus and is a learning activity and I wasincreasingly aware throughout the data collection that I was focusing theparticipants’ attention on learning through experience and creating anopportunity for reflection—a learning experience in itself. Even so, the termsstill did not appear in the maps.
Everyday relationships and workplace learning
Relationships with other people were valued highly as a site of learningthrough talking, listening, observing and more complex interactions. Theselearning relationships were not confined to the leadership group and incor-porated a wide range of other people, offering evidence of historical learning
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 279
and current and future possibilities. Concepts of learning which identifiedrelationships within the leadership group as sites of ongoing learning wereless common. The most inexperienced senior manager identified the head-teacher as a positive role model and the headteacher valued individuals forthe specific specialist input that they brought to the leadership team.Although there were only a few reported instances of collaborative learning,the high value given to talk by all participants suggested that this was embed-ded within the informal life of the school, rather than being enacted at themore formal business meetings (Eraut et al. 2000).
Wenger (1998) suggested that, as learning is always present in social life,it is hard to identify, and sometimes only apparent when there are problemsand clear attempts to negotiate meaning. During the routine life of theschool, unless learning is brought into focus by the individuals, it remains‘unnamed’ (Boud 2003), an unspoken resource that may be bought into playat a later date. For example, following a discussion during this study, theheadteacher changed his views concerning the minuting of meetings. Noexplicit decision was made at that time, but he spoke to people individuallyand there was a change in practice by the next full staff meeting. The head-teacher had also learnt about an award for organizations (Investors inPeople) but had held onto his ideas about this for three years before pursuingthis as a school aim. As Eraut (2000) pointed out, even professional workhas routines and repetitions that do not offer an obvious possibility for learn-ing. The rhythm of school life is often cyclical, time constrained and repeti-tive—experience is partly built up like this, as is learning, in relation torhythms and routines (Spillane et al. 2004). These features of experiencemay also form a barrier to learning, as a space in time, routine and place areneeded for new actions or reflections that can bring learning to the fore.
Experience, boundaries and time
Analysing the maps and interviews also revealed how the issue of time wasused inside and outside the school. This temporal element, together withthe crossing of internal and external boundaries to learn and the connectionof talk and interaction with the crossing of these boundaries, was an impor-tant aspect of the way that leaders learnt in the day-to-day life of the school.Learning for leadership did not only take place within school, but at home,in other institutions and through community relationships; ‘in my owntime’, as one senior leader put it. This was illustrated by the boundarycrossing concepts which seemed to be points at which learning occurredthrough creating time and space to move outside routine classroom ormanagerial activities and to encounter new ideas and new people or tocreate time to talk to people about particular issues in depth. This couldoccur through observations of other teachers, by becoming involved in localschool networks to improve practice, by organizing out-of-school activitiesor even by socializing with ex-colleagues from another school.
Learning in the past was very much mixed up with current relationshipsand learning in the present. There was also a view of learning in the future,and thinking about this I began to consider the difficulty of conceptualizing
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
280 A. E. PEGG
experience as having a trajectory over time that increases knowledge. Thisseems to be an underlying assumption of much pedagogy, which seeks to drawon previous experience to inform future actions, and is often the assumptionunderpinning ideas about learning at work. This assumes that our pool ofpersonal experience is static and that individuals build on experience byadding to the pool in a linear and non-conflicting way. Usher et al. (2002:86) described this view of experience as ‘monological’, a view of the self asseparate from the world and as able to objectively reflect on experience andtransform this into personal knowledge. However, when language is seen asthe shared means through which individuals constitute meanings and viewsof the self ‘we learn to give voice—meaning to our experience and to under-stand it according to particular ways of thinking, particular discourses whichpre-date our entry into language’ (Usher et al. 2002: 88, citing Weedon).Because of this these authors suggest that ‘Experience can be invested witha multiplicity of meanings’ and ‘Even within any one articulation, the mean-ing of experience is never permanently fixed’.
Learning from experience was composed of many concepts that wereelaborated in detail by the participants. Their use of generic everyday termsmeant that the ways in which these concepts were understood were open tointerpretation and reinterpretation, as participants brought them to theirattention to inform learning or in relation to their own ontogeny.
Conclusion
Assumptions about learning from experience, and in this case learning atwork, are easily maintained as they carry within them generic concepts thatcan be used by individuals across a wide variety of contexts and in a widevariety of situations. In order to facilitate learning for leadership in schoolsthese assumptions need to be unpacked in relation to the concepts used, thepurpose of learning for the particular individuals concerned and the organi-zational goals that are, or are not, supporting learning within a particularcontext.
The NCSL seeks to facilitate a greater pool of leaders to improve theleadership of schools within the UK, and McLay and Brown (2003: 86)argued that to achieve this learning should be ‘grounded in the learningenvironment of the school context itself’. There is an assumption hereabout learning from experience and how this is supported within schools;the findings from this study suggest that this assumption needs furtherconsideration. Realizing leadership potential requires a greater congruencebetween the immediate organizational goals to improve teaching in theclassroom and the longer term goal of facilitating leadership learningthrough experience. An important question raised by the study is why lead-ers are not using well-established theoretical concepts connected to learn-ing from experience to describe their own learning. Do leaders need moresupport in the use of theoretical concepts that can be used to make sense of,and enhance, their own learning in the workplace? Perhaps offering aneclectic mix of pedagogies to meet the variety of individual learners needs ina variety of contexts does not help us to establish how learners best learn
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
LEARNING FROM EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE 281
from experience. The challenge for leadership education seems to be inmaking concepts about educational pedagogy relevant, useful and used inthe everyday experiences of leaders at work.
References
Billett, S. (2004) Co-participation at work: learning through work and throughout working lives. Studiesin the Education of Adults, 36(2), 190–205.
Boud, D. (2003) ‘I don’t think I am a learner’: acts of naming learners at work. Journal of WorkplaceLearning, 15(7/8), 326–331
Boud, D. and Walker, D. (2002) Promoting reflection in professional courses: the challenge of context,in: R. Harrison, F. Reeve, A. Hanson and J. Clarke (eds) Supporting Lifelong Learning, Vol. 1,Perspectives on Learning (London: RoutledgeFalmer), pp. 91–110.
Day, C. (2003) The changing learning needs of heads: building and sustaining effectiveness, in: A.Harris, C. Day, D. Hopkins, A. Hargreaves and C. Chapman (eds) Effective Leadership for SchoolImprovement (London: RoutledgeFalmer), pp. 26–52.
Day, D. V. (2001) Leadership development: a review in context. Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 581–613.Earley, P. and Bubb, S. (2004) Leading and Managing Continuing Professional Development. Developing
People, Developing Schools (London: Sage).Edwards, R. (2005) Learning in context—within and across domains, paper presented at the Economic
and Social Research Council Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TRLP) Thematic SeminarSeries (no. 1), Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, February.
Eraut, M. (2000) Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. British Journal ofEducational Psychology, 70, 113–136.
Eraut, M., Alderton, J., Cole, G. and Senker, P. (2000) Development of knowledge and skills at work,in: F. Coffield (ed.) Differing Visions of a Learning Society, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Policy Press), pp. 231–262.
Harris, A. (2003) The changing context of leadership. Research, theory and practice, in: A. Harris,C. Day, D. Hopkins, A. Hargreaves and C. Chapman (eds) Effective Leadership for SchoolImprovement (London: RoutledgeFalmer), pp. 9–25.
Kinchin, I. M and Hay, D. B. (2000) How a qualitative approach to concept map analysis can be usedto aid learning by illustrating patterns of conceptual development. Educational Research, 42(1),43–57.
Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall).Leithwood, K. and Jantzi, D. (2000) The effects of transformational leadership on student engagement
with school. Journal of Educational Administration, 38(2), 112–129.Leithwood, K. and Levin, B. (2004) Approaches to the Evaluation of Leadership Programs and Leadership
Effects (London: Department for Education and Skills).MacBeath, J. (2005) Leadership as distributed: a matter of practice. School Leadership and Management,
25(4), 349–366.McLay, M. B. and Brown, M. (2003) Using concept mapping to evaluate the training of primary school
leaders. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 6(1), 73–87Muijs, D., Harris, A., Lumby, J., Morrison, M. and Sood, K. (2006) Leadership and leadership
development in highly effective further education providers. Is there a relationship? Journal ofFurther and Higher Education, 30(1), 87–106.
National College for School Leadership (NCSL) (2004) Learning to Lead: NCSL’s Strategy for LeadershipLearning (Nottingham: NCSL).
Novak, J. D. and Gowin, D. B. (1996) Learning How To Learn (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress).
Ribbins, P. (2003) Biography and the study of school leaders careers: towards a humanistic approach,in: M. Brundrett, N. Burton and R. Smith (eds) Leadership in Education (London: Sage).
Schon, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner (London: Temple Smith).Schon, D. A. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass).Spillane, J. P. and Orlina, E. C. (2005) Investigating leadership practice: exploring the entailments of
taking a distributed perspective. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 4(3), 157–176.Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R. and Diamond, J. B. (2004) Towards a theory of leadership practice: a
distributed perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36(1), 3–34.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4
282 A. E. PEGG
Trochim, W. M. K. and Cabrera, D. (2005) The complexity of concept mapping for policy analysis.Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 7(1), 11–22.
Unwin, L., Felstead, A., Fuller, A., Lee, T., Butler, P. and Ashton, D. (2005) Worlds within worlds:the relationship between context and pedagogy in the workplace, paper presented at the Economicand Social Research Council Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TRLP) Thematic SeminarSeries (no. 1), Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, February.
Usher, R., Bryant, I. and Johnston, R. (2002) Self and experience in adult learning, in: R. Harrison,F. Reeve, A. Hanson and J. Clarke (eds) Supporting Lifelong Learning, Vol. 1, Perspectives onLearning (London: RoutledgeFalmer), pp. 78–90.
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning, and identity (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press).
Wertsch, J. (2001) The multivoicedness of meaning, in: M. Wetherell, S. Taylor and S. J. Yates (eds)Discourse Theory and Practice—A Reader (London: Sage).
Appendix
Decision Explorer
This is a concept mapping software which offers an approach to data entrywhich is not hierarchically or ‘tree’ structured. The researcher can enterconcepts up to 159 characters long and connect each concept using a varietyof ‘connectors’ that can be changed to represent different types of connec-tion. These do not have to be causal. Each map can become very large andsections can be taken out and copied to different views. Concepts can becoded via colours and styles and are automatically numbered by the program.The program also offers analytical possibilities through the identification ofmap features such as ‘clusters’ (links to a concept), ‘loops’ (where conceptsare linked in a circle) or a variety of relationships (e.g. how many concept‘steps’ there are between the starting and ending concepts). For this projectI used the straightforward mapping and ‘cluster’ capabilities. For those whowould like to know more, there are descriptions at www.banxia.com.
QSR N6
N6 is qualitative software, and compatible with Decision Explorer. Tran-scription data were entered into this program and appear as a text documentwhich can be coded. Data sections can be extracted and ‘parcelled’ intocoding nodes or texts can be searched for identical words. I used the codingfacility to match sections of the talk to the cluster headings and thenconcepts, which here became ‘node’ headings. This was an efficient way tomatch transcription sections to the concept map headings. Again, for moredetails about the software see www.qsrinternational.com.
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
Uni
vers
ity o
f C
alga
ry]
at 0
7:45
07
Oct
ober
201
4