Abstract:
While much has been published about the topic of leading literacy (most of this from the USA), little has been produced that links literacy leadership practices to improved outcomes for learners. This thesis addressed the gap in the evidence about what works, and adds to what is known about literacy leadership in New Zealand schools. It explored the processes literacy leaders used to support teaching and learning in secondary schools with different patterns of English achievement in the New Zealand qualification National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). If we know what effective literacy leadership practices look like we can concentrate on building these amongst our school leaders as part of the priority of raising achievement in New Zealand. The hypothesis explored in this research is that effective leaders of literacy make use of a set of core practices to support teachers to implement high quality literacy teaching practices. These teaching practices, in turn, impact positively on the literacy engagement and achievement of learners. In this research, literacy leadership was explored through a case study approach. Through a process of analysing NCEA achievement, three schools were chosen that had high NCEA English achievement. A further three schools with low NCEA English achievement were also chosen. Data about literacy leadership practices were gathered through interviews with six literacy leaders, and twelve teachers (two in each school) with whom these literacy leaders had worked. Interview data were allocated to coding categories using NVivo 10 software. These categories, named the Practices of Effective Literacy Leadership (PELL), had been identified from a set of 43 studies about literacy leadership. Results show that literacy leaders in high achieving schools were more likely to use a greater range of the PELL compared to low achieving schools. These included: building teachers content knowledge about what to teach, when and how; helping teachers to understand literacy learning across curriculum; challenging teachers to think of different ways of doing things; acquiring resources that align to students’ needs; building the trust and engagement of teachers and other leaders; constructing a vision for literacy learning in the school; engaging in curriculum evaluation; planning a school literacy curriculum; solving school problems related to teaching and learning; advising teachers about resources for students in their classes; guiding teachers in the use of smart tools; drawing on their experience as a leader; and drawing on their expertise as a leader Further analyses showed that these differences could be grouped into three broad categories of practice. These three categories are - focusing on improving students’ attainment and improving the engagement of learners; fostering organisational coherence; and creating a culture for improvement. They are critical for building teachers’ capabilities in secondary schools, and for reducing current inequities in students’ attainment in New Zealand secondary schools. This research found that shifting curriculum priorities and senior leadership changes in low achieving schools impacted on the opportunities literacy leaders had to work with teachers. Literacy leaders in high achieving schools faced fewer organisational barriers to working with teachers and with other leaders. The ability to answer the research question has been potentially impacted by two limitations. Neither of these limitations could be dealt with in the context of a time-bound doctoral thesis, or where participants volunteer to take part in the research. The first limitation relates to sampling design. It was not possible to control for teacher or literacy leader background variables such as prior participation in professional learning and development, and this may have impacted on the results obtained. Secondly, teachers who took part in the research were only partially responsible for the school-based NCEA results used in sampling. Other teachers, in the English department and other departments, may have also contributed to outcomes. This thesis identifies further possibilities for research on literacy leadership. These include more case study research that examines literacy leadership in a range of schooling contexts (for instance larger and smaller secondary schools with different infrastructure); longitudinal studies that examine the changes that schools make, including improvement rates in students’ literacy, as a result of literacy leadership practices; studies that look in detail at the ways literacy leaders (and other curriculum leaders) work with principals and senior leaders to bring about change and improvement in literacy achievement. New Zealand does not have a standalone programme for building literacy leaders’ capability. Whether it is practical or desirable to have such a programme is debatable. It would be beneficial to consider, however, how literacy leaders and other curriculum leaders can be supported in their important roles of guiding other teachers.