A study of how middle leaders in a secondary school are making sense of their role in relation to teachers’ professional development

At a time when the provision for initial teacher training and the continuous professional development of new and experienced teaching professionals is increasingly becoming more school-based, it would appear that a central piece of knowledge concerning teachers’ professional development has been overlooked: middle leaders, who are acknowledged as playing an important role in teacher development, have received little consideration in the academic discourse. In response to this lack of attention, this thesis examines how a small group of four experienced middle leaders in a mainstream secondary school are making sense of their role in relation to teachers’ professional development.

The data collected within the study was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which allowed the middle leaders’ perceptions, reasoning and feelings to be revealed in one master theme and five super-ordinate themes. To further strengthen the thematic analysis, the master theme of relationships was considered against Hoyle’s conceptual framework of extended and restricted professionality.

Teacher voice is central to this thesis and its findings. The research provides evidence to suggest that due to a lack of recognition of teacher voice, the middle leaders in this study are closing down external professional learning opportunities and are predominately looking inwards towards their departments and colleagues to facilitate teacher development. In doing so, the middle leaders are able to remain true to the relationshipcentred practice that they value, but are failing to perceive teacher development as a holistic process that has the potential to project their professionalism outwards across professional boundaries.