The programme is designed to support you in developing your understanding of aspects of leadership through facilitating a collaborative enquiry with colleagues. The programme contains an element of reading of professional literature and current educational policy to inform your rationale for collaborative enquiry, professional learning and continually evolving perspective. The programme spans a school session, which is to allow you to reflect and evaluate the impact of your collaborative enquiry over almost a full academic year.

The programme considers the key aspects for effective teacher leadership and the key ingredients for improvement. The course has been developed in response to the findings outlined in Teaching Scotland’s Future (Donaldson: 2011) and the Professional Standards for teachers in Scotland (GTCS 2021), in particular the Standard for Career-long Professional Learning. It aims to develop and maintain an enquiring stance by teachers whilst beginning to introduce the theory of leadership. By delivering sessions within the course which contain both the theory of leadership and the practical elements of collaborative enquiry we aim to make the links between theory and practice more relevant to you.

You are expected to engage with one core text:

• Street, H & Temperley J (2005) Improving Schools Through Collaborative Enquiry London, Continuum

You will also be expected to read around the collaborative enquiry theme and around teacher leadership.