The Ecological Arrangement of Middle Leading Practices

Abstract

In this chapter, middle leading practices are considered in relation to other practices that are apparent in the particular educational site. Indeed, the interaction between middle leading practices and other practices was evident in the previous chapter, where the focus was on practice architectures, and, for example it was clear that the practices of principals enabled and constrained the practices of middle leaders. In turn, the practices of middle leaders enabled and constrained the practices of teachers. Of course, the relational web between the practices of middle leaders and others in the educational site is more complex than these simple linear connections—they are ecologically arranged (Kemmis & Mutton, 2012). So, it could be argued that to understand education as it unfolds discursively, physically and socially in particular school sites, the range of educational practices that are evident in the school landscape should be considered, not as independent practices, but as complex and ecologically related (Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson, & Hardy, 2012). In this chapter, there are three main sections that collectively address the ecological nature of middle leading practices in educational sites. First, the ideas of this chapter are linked forward from the discussion in the previous chapter on practice architectures. Second, to allow a more complex understanding of the ecological nature of middle leading practices, Capra’s (2005) ecological principles are employed to investigate and discuss some of the empirical data. Last, middle leading practices are considered as part of the Education Complex (Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy, Grootenboer, & Bristol, 2014), by picking up some of the ideas briefly introduced in the first section.