Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools Arnoud Evers and Frank Hulsbos Symposium EAPRIL Conference November 2014

KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTIVITY Knowledge productivity (Kessels, 2001) Improvements and innovations in the school (Workplace) learning that leads to these outcomes Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY “Heroic leadership” (Spillane, 2006) Focus on leaders in formal position, for example: -Traits -Behaviours Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

CRITICISM TO HEROIC LEADERSHIP Knowledge (Manville & Ober, 2002; Uhl-Bien, Marion, & McKelvey, 2007) Conceptual (Gronn, 2002; Spillane, 2006) Emancipatory (Kneyber & Evers, 2013) Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP Leadership is accessible to all organizational members Organizational members claim and grant leadership according to expertise Leadership is an emergent property of a group of interacting individuals Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

SUPPORTIVE CONDITIONS OF DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP The emergent property of distributed leadership leads us to study conditions in the school that support it, rather than strategies to implement it Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

INDIVIDUAL CONDITIONS: INTRINSIC MOTIVATION (DECI & RYAN, 2000) Basic psychological needs: Autonomy Competence Relatedness Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP (GEIJSEL ET AL., 2009) Three dimensions: Vision building Individual support Intellectual stimulation Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

PROPOSITIONS 1.Feeling autonomous, competent and related is a necessary individual condition for participating in a DL practice. Vice versa: participating in a DL practice satisfies the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. 2.Transformational leadership supports DL in teacher teams through vision building, individual support and intellectual stimulation 3.Distributed leadership supports teachers’ knowledge productivity Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

RESEARCH MODEL Transformational leadership Distributed leadership Intrinsic motivation: -Autonomy -Competence -Relatedness For example: -Experimenting -Reflection -Improvements -Innovations CONDITIONS WORKPLACE LEARNING OUTCOMES Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION SO FAR What do you think of this model? How do formal leadership and distributed leadership relate to one another, in your opinion? In a distributed practice, how can we realise alignment? What literature or perspectives may support or contradict some of the propositions we presented? Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

The development and validation of a scale measuring Teacher Autonomy Arnoud Evers, Peter Verboon and Andrea Klaeijsen Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

WHY CARE ABOUT TEACHER AUTONOMY? Autonomy essential for…… -Professional development -Innovative behaviour -Commitment to the organisation Autonomy under pressure….. -Increasing accountability (“Audit Society”) -Performance management (  De-professionalisation?)  Need for a valid measurement instrument Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

DESIGNING THE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT Teacher autonomy complex multifaceted concept > need for a literature review Based on literature review we defined teacher autonomy as: -The freedom to act as a professional; the discretionary freedom to organise their job. More specifically, the influence of teachers to organise their work activities. Teacher autonomous behaviour consists of four categories. It is the influence of teachers on…. -Primary work processes in the class -Curriculum implementation -Decision making at school -Professional development activities Items developed in each category based upon Kwakman (2003) and Pearson & Moomaw (2006) Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

VALIDATING THE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT Executed a survey among sample of Dutch teachers in primary, secondary and vocational education (N = 1111) Validity tested by: -Confirmatory Factor Analysis -Scale’s reliabilities -Cross-validating the study in mentioned educational sectors -Convergent, discriminant, and predictive/construct validity Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

RESULTS I Confirmatory Factor Analysis (with SEM) confirmed the hypothesized four dimensions (CFI =.928, TLI =.917, RMSEA =.078) Reliabilities: ScaleCronbach’s alpha Primary work processes in the class.87 Curriculum implementation.89 Decision making at school.86 Professional development activities.94 Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

RESULTS II Cross-validation: Convergent validity: The Autonomous behaviour dimensions were moderately (.445) to highly (.614) related to the variable: Feeling of autonomy (Deci & Ryan) Discriminant validity: weak relationship (-.114 to -.290) with variable Procedures GroupNc2c2 CFITLIRMSEA 1 Primary Secondary Vocational Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

RESULTS III Predictive/construct validity (Regression analysis): Transformational leadership facilitates teacher autonomous behaviour (b =.24**) Workplace learning Teacher Autonomy subscales ExperimentationReflectionCollaborating for school development Primary work processes in the class Not sign. Curriculum implementationb =.199**b =.187**b =.119** Decision making at schoolb =.152**Not sign.b =.488** Professional development activities Not sign. Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

CONCLUSIONS Empirical results confirm four dimensions of teacher autonomous behaviour derived from theory Good psychometric properties of our instrument in three educational sectors Especially autonomy in curriculum implementation and decision making at school influence workplace learning Transformational leadership facilitates teacher autonomous behaviour, although only weakly Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION In you opinion, what are the boundaries of teachers’ autonomy and distributed leadership? Where does autonomy end? How important are DL and teacher autonomy? For example: are you familiar with examples of powerful and charismatic leaders that created a fruitful context for learning and innovating? Teacher autonomy and distributed leadership as supportive conditions of knowledge productivity in schools