Connecting with the Standard for Middle Leadership

Talking trusted teaching - Middle Leadership resource

This resource is aimed at teachers in or aspiring to middle leadership roles, providing you with an opportunity to discuss and reflect on the Standard for Middle Leadership, with a particular focus on 2. Professional Knowledge and Understanding and 2.2 Professional Responsibilities.

In this professional discussion Jacqueline Morley, Teaching Standards Education Officer at GTC Scotland, and Kathleen Kerrigan, Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, explore the role of middle leadership and how we ‘understand and demonstrate self-awareness and inspire and motivate others’. (2.2.2)

Kathleen Kerrigan leads and teaches a number of programmes including the Postgraduate Certificate in Middle Leadership and Management in Schools and the MEd in Educational Leadership. She has taught in Scottish secondary schools for over 20 years, and during this time held middle leadership posts. This grounded the focus of her Doctoral thesis on ‘Learning to lead – the leadership learning of secondary school middle leaders in Scotland’.

Using the outline of 2.2.2, the discussion explores 4 key themes:

The role of the Standard for Middle Leadership as an underpinning framework to ‘becoming, being and growing’ as a middle leader (5:55 – 10:04)
The professional and personal credibility of a middle leader as the lead learner (10:05 – 20:55)
The middle leadership role in growing leadership skills and capacities in others (25:50 – 30:33)
The professional responsibilities for Middle Leadership as a learner and a leader for helping colleagues engage meaningfully with the suite of Professional Standards (30:35 – 41:20)

You can view each individual theme’s chapter using the timestamps listed, or by using the chapters in the video.

Discussion questions

Part 1

How do you see the Standard for Middle Leadership as a framework to guide our professional journey — from aspiring to experienced middle leader?

Part 2

What does it mean to be recognised as the “lead learner” within our teams or departments?
How can middle leaders balance the dual role of being both a learner and a leader—remaining open to feedback while guiding others?
In what ways does the Standard for Middle leadership support reflection on who we are becoming as leaders and just on what we are doing?

Part 3

The Standard for Middle Leadership says ‘as a middle leader you - encourage and enable the development of leadership skills and capacities in others and cultivate trust and respect among colleagues by creating leadership opportunities across and beyond the school. What do you understand by this?