It is with great pleasure that I introduce our projects’ second round of articles in the projects’ blog series, Educators in Educational Governance (E-EDGE). In this round, we present articles covering important governance concepts such as educational perspective in secondary school governance (Ouafa, 2023), and Communities of Governance Practice by Bernadette Reilly and the professional capital of Academic/Teaching Staff Governors (ASGs) in educational governance. In the research project, we have now collected survey and interview data from four educational institutions in Birmingham - a primary school, a secondary school, a college and a university. Following the first round of data analysis we have begun to collate tentative findings regarding the theme, professional capital of academic staff in governance.
Abdulla Sodiq
Lecturer in Education Studies
In this article, I cover deliberations in the governance roundtable I chaired at BCU’s CSPACE Conference on 05/07/2023. In the roundtable I was joined by Ethel Inyang (Lecturer in Business Education, BCU) Ouafa Morabit (MA in Education student, BCU), Amy Slater-Mcgill (MA in Ed, BCU and Student Outreach Staff, Aston University) and Deborah Outhwaite (Director, Developing Teachers, Academies and Schools) The discussion revolved around the types of professional capital that an academic/teaching staff governor might defer to while accomplishing the role as a governor. The relevant literature identifies three types of professional capital, which are:-
- Human capital / individual capital (HC): individual talent and the power of individuals to change the education system at the institution; this encompasses teacher/educator qualifications, teaching and governance experience; governor training; ability to teach and govern (Iredale, 2018; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Odden, 2011, Leana, 2011).
- Social Capital: patterns of interaction amongst ASGs and other educators, administrators and governance colleagues; interactions focused on education; this type of capital is argued to be more powerful than human capital (Caldwell, 2022)
- Decisional Capital (DC): ASGs have competence, judgment, insight, inspiration, and capacity for improvisation; working with colleagues and teams, with collective responsibility and openness to feedback and transparency; they are not afraid to take risks to learn with pride while trusted / respected (Dickson et al., 2021) by their peers.
The roundtables discussion led to the understanding that ASGs as educators at a given institution may be in a unique position to influence teaching, learning and assessment policies of the institution given the first-had nature of their experience with learners, teaching, learning and assessment. This is while recognising that some institutions such as schools may have policies enforced externally, for instance, by the local government in the case of policies at maintained schools and in the case of multi-academy trusts (MATs), the governing body of the trust may be the policy approving body. Therefore, regardless of ASGs’ human or social capital arising from their status as an educator, their decisional capital may not be activated in governance.
We also discussed three of the emerging findings of the project and questions / issues arising from the findings. The first finding is that the four ASGs in the project feel that their governance role enhances their own individual professional capital and status. They often cite the role as an enjoyable part of their career. Secondly, ASGs’ regular and direct interaction with teaching colleagues regarding governance matters is limited and not routine. Teaching staff do not routinely approach the ASG on governance matters. In some institutions, especially big organisations such as universities and further education colleges, many in the staff body may not be aware of who the ASGs are in their governing body. Robust and regular election processes may address this issue. However, the point is that in line with governance protocols, ASGs do not feel that they can or should represent the interests of the staff body, although they can present educational perspectives to the governing body. The roundtable did consider the opportunity for ASGs to share their fulfilling experiences with the staff body and this may raise awareness of the importance of teaching staff having a presence in governance and influencing strategic decisions where possible.
Following the discussion of the above emerging findings, the roundtable felt it is important to identify three issues around ASGs’ relationship with the institutions’ senior leaders; ASGs’ areas of governance activity and the level of impact that ASGs could have on strategic decision-making of their own institutions. In terms of relationships, participants expressed concerns around repercussions for ASGs openly expressing their views in governing boards. For instance, ASGs may openly raise issues that contrast with senior leaders’ positive depiction of the education institution’s situation. This is a difficult issue since it is both ASGs’ and senior leaders’ responsibility to consider a true picture of the status quo of their institution.
The second issue revolved around the idea that, even though an ASGs’ human capital may align with educational or specific subject matters, it is important to have an interest in other critical topics such as finance, remuneration, and in particular statutory matters such as safeguarding and health and safety. With regard to finance, this should be in any governor’s radar as it is finance that ensures the institution has enough resources in a variety of areas including teaching, learning and assessment matters.
Finally, the participants expressed a slight concern with the finding that none of the four ASGs in the study had felt that they made a significant contribution or impact on the strategic decision-making of the institutions even though they enjoyed the role and benefitted in terms of the enhancement of their professional capital. This finding suggests ASGs may be choosing to contribute to low-level or routine matters. There is a suggestion that if their presence is all about their own human capital development, the role may be seen as a self-serving role centred on self-promotion and career development; thus, affecting the purpose of educational governance. However, the interview data suggests that all four ASGs aim to make a positive contribution to their institution’s governance, that is even if in their experience, the ultimate outcome of their roles had not resulted in significant influence or contribution to the governance of the institution.
We hope to return to you with the third and final series of the E-EDGE blog around October 2023 with emerging findings from the project on some of the other themes such as how ASGs contribute to governance. We also aim to consider issues of democratic governance, whether ASGs at the four institutions in the project are a group restricted professionals embroiled in net of bureaucracy, intuitional politics. We will also deliberate on if ASGs are not in a restricted role, in what sense the role is a freeing and invigorating role for them. Wider questions that we hope to address include researching educational governance and improving the field through exchange of ideas between educational governance and tangential fields such as corporate governance.
References:
- Caldwell, H. K. (2022). A BEACON OF HOPE FOR A DIVERSE COMMUNITY: Manual High School. American educational history journal, 49(1-2), 51-65.
- Dickson, B., Mussio, C., & Kotsopoulos, D. (2021). Systems approaches to professional and decisional mathematics capital. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 6(1), 79-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-11-2019-0030
- Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. G. (2012). Professional Capital : Transforming Teaching in Every School. Teachers College Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bcu/detail.action?docID=3545010
- Iredale, A. (2018). Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning: Developing Professionalism as a Democratic Endeavour. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65819-3
- Leana, C.R. (2011). The missing link in school reform. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9(4), 34.
- Odden, A. (2011). Strategic Management of Human Capital in Education: Improving Instructional Practice and Student Learning in Schools. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203835692