Perception on learning for leadership development of middle managers

Abstract

Developing leadership capacity of middle managers is crucial for any school because they are pillars’ of foundation and ‘agents’ of change (Bush, 2003). Often, they are also drivers to implement change and transform school and they play multiple roles in planning, implementing initiatives and empowering teachers (Brown & Rutherford, 1998; Burke & Lowenstein, 2012). Day, Sammons, Hopkins, Leithwood, Harris, Gu, & Brown (2012) have advocated the effective middle managers can create processes and pedagogies that will have positive pupil outcomes.<br> In Singapore, the leadership development for a middle manager is encapsulated in the Leader Growth Model (LGM) developed by Ministry of Education (MOE). This model takes into account of the needs of leaders in a school, builds and sharpens their competencies through reflection, practice and learning from a role model (MOE, 2014). No research to date has studied learning for leadership development of middle managers in schools of Singapore in alignment to LGM. In this regard, this research study seeks to bridge this gap and proposes to examine the learning for leadership development of middle managers.