The primacy of leadership in effecting change and improving outcomes for young people is seen in ongoing investment in building leadership capacity and capability across education systems, including Scotland. While leadership challenges and solutions are context specific, approaches to leadership development reflect global trends. Given the scale and speed of systemic change in education, the place and role of research in informing such approaches and supporting the development of leaders can be often be partial or post factum. This new SERA network will provide a forum to articulate and discuss leadership and leader learning and development; to connect academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers; and to interact nationally and internationally with cognate research associations. A key feature of the network will be its interdisciplinary and interprofessional leadership focus to promote research engagement and collaborations in education and with the wider public sector.
SERA LiSEN was formed in November 2014 under the joint stewardship of Co-Convenors Dr Joan Mowat, University of Strathclyde and Professor Margery McMahon, University of Glasgow. It has grown from strength to strength and currently has over 150 members drawn from academia, the policy community and practitioners in schools. In November 2019, Professor Margery McMahon stepped down as Co-Convener to be replaced by Dr Zoe Roberston, GTCS, currently seconded to the University of Edinburgh.
Nov 2019 – Nov 2020
A key aspect of our work this year will be to focus on the future direction of leadership education in Scotland post the draft revision of the Professional Standards and Code of Practice and the revised model of Professional Development. Emeritus Professor Christine Forde will be leading an initial session on this theme. Details to follow.
To mark the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) taking place at the University of Glasgow on the 25th – 28th August. We are intending to host a symposium or workshop jointly with the Teacher Education Network focussing on ‘Leadership of and for Learning: Professional Learning as Critical Enquiry to further school improvement.’
Nov 2018 – Nov 2019
Much of our work in this session focussed on alleviating the poverty-related attainment gap through a series of events jointly hosted with the Scottish Universities Insight Institute, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Edinburgh and the SERA Poverty Network. This included a workshop at the SERA Conference at the University of Edinburgh led by Dr Joan Mowat, University of Strathclyde, Dr Gale MacLeod, University of Edinburgh and Professor Stephen McKinney, University of Glasgow. Access to the full range of materials, research briefs and key recommendations can be found via this link.
Nov 2017 – Nov 2018
Nov 2016 – Nov 2017
Network conveners
- Dr Joan Mowat, School of Education, University of Strathclyde
- Dr Zoe Robertson, GTCS, University of Edinburgh