Welcome to this edition of Researching education: 5 further readings. In this series, we take a look at some further readings available on a particular topic, including open access research papers from various online catalogues, and Teacher archive content you might not have come across yet.
While the term ‘middle leadership’ can mean different things in different school contexts, we know the role of middle leaders is important in supporting both student outcomes and teacher practice.
In the list below, you can read a paper from AITSL that unpacks middle leadership, view a report looking into middle leadership in New South Wales, catch up on research from New Zealand, and read 2 reviews of existing research on the topic.
- Middle leadership in Australian schools. This 2022 Spotlight research report from AITSL explores the role of a middle leader, middle leader practices and competencies, who becomes a middle leader, and professional learning and development for middle leaders. The paper describes middle leaders as ‘highly experienced educators who continue to hold classroom teaching responsibilities alongside their middle leadership role. This “balancing” of roles requires most middle leaders to practice leading teaching and learning, whereby they are both practicing effective teaching in their own classrooms while supporting their peers to do the same.’
- School middle leadership: A systematic review revisited 2020–2024. Setting out to refine understanding of middle leaders, their impact, and their professional development needs, this systematic review is an update from an early systematic review of the same topic. The authors say this update reflects the rapid evolution of the role of middle leaders. They say their findings strengthen definitional understanding by framing middle leaders as powerful ‘conduits’ or ‘bridges’ between organisational levels, emphasising the highly relational and emotional nature of their roles.
- Formal Middle Leadership in NSW Public Schools. Over in New South Wales, this report prepared by researchers from the University of Wollongong, Macquarie University and the University Of Sydney explores why middle leadership matters, the desire teachers have to hold a middle leadership role, which teachers are being elevated to these positions, how middle leaders are collaborating with and influencing others, and more. It also provides recommendations for policy and practice.
- The role of middle leaders in shaping effective professional learning and development in curriculum departments in secondary schools. Focusing specifically on curriculum middle leaders working in New Zealand, this paper presents findings from 30 interviews conducted with curriculum leaders from varying school contexts. Themes that emerged from the interviews include middle leaders’ strong commitment to developing relationships with teachers, their dedication to providing leadership opportunities to support the professional learning of teachers and the importance of mentoring and coaching. Another key finding was that middle leaders thrived in their leadership position when support for their own professional learning was consistently available.
- Middle level leadership in schools: a scoping review of literature informed by a complex system perspective. This paper published in 2023 confirms that middle leadership has a wide variety of definitions. The research involved a scoping review of 32 papers published between 2002-2021 which were analysed for geographical location, research methods, definitions of middle-level leadership, theoretical perspectives, organisational objectives, relationships between middle-level leadership with decision-making processes and central themes. Findings show a variety of theoretical perspectives and research methods. The authors conclude with recommendations for future research in the area.
Some of the resources featured in this article can be found through Cunningham Library Catalogue and EdResearch Online. At the links below, you can search for more resources on the topic of middle leadership in these 2 online databases.
You can also browse other education topics at this page.
