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How school leaders perceive the leadership role of middle leaders in Singapore primary schools?

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Abstract

Middle leaders are ‘recognised as a significant source in ensuring that quality education reaches out to pupils’ (Low and Lim 1997, p. 77) for they are ‘the human link between national education policy as manifested in school-level strategic planning … and the teaching staff whose ‘field tactics’ are used to implement such strategies’ (Chew 2008, p. 135). This study investigated the leadership role of middle leaders in Singaporean primary schools, as seen from the perspectives of principals and vice principals. Principals’ perceptions are important as they are the ‘ultimate school leader’ (Hammersley-Fletcher and Brundrett 2008, p. 13) and ‘the extent of the middle leadership remit is delimited by the range and extent of tasks on offer and this is controlled by the head teacher’ (Hammersley-Fletcher and Strain 2009, p. 5). This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology (van Manen 1997) to examine the leadership role of middle leaders in Singapore primary schools. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were used to collect data from 12 principals and vice principals. The interview data were analysed using an interpretational analysis system adapted from in Tesch (1990, pp. 92–96). The purpose of this paper is to provide a rich description of the leadership role of middle leaders as perceived by the school leaders. Seven major themes were identified: (1) teaching and learning; (2) building vision and setting directions; (3) leading and managing teachers; (4) communicating; (5) continuing leadership development; (6) changing role; and (7) challenges. The findings reported in this paper corroborated with the findings presented in other studies of middle leadership (e.g. Adey and Jones 1998; Blandford 1997; Busher 2005; Busher and Harris 1999; Glover et al. 1999) and illustrated the complexity of the leadership role within the middle of the school hierarchy. The paper concludes with a discussion on the connections with the broader successful school leadership literature.

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Notes

  1. Teach Less Learn More (TLLM) concept or vision was launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 22 August 2004. It is about teaching better, engaging the learners, building their character and preparing them for life. See Chua and Baldauf (2007), J. Tan (2007) and K. H. K. Tan (2007).

  2. Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) is a performance management tool to help education officers develop and improve key professional competencies. EPMS was rolled out for school management in 2003 and introduced for all teachers in 2005. See Ong et al. (2008).

  3. Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) tests students on the English language, mother tongue languages (Chinese, Malay or Tamil), mathematics and science and is taken by all students in Singapore at the end of their final year of primary school education. Students are allotted to various secondary schools in Singapore on the basis of their results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Hak Hiang Koh, David Gurr, Lawrie Drysdale & Li Li Ang

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  1. Hak Hiang Koh
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  2. David Gurr
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Correspondence to Hak Hiang Koh.

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Koh, H.H., Gurr, D., Drysdale, L. et al. How school leaders perceive the leadership role of middle leaders in Singapore primary schools?. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 12, 609–620 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-011-9161-1

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