A repertoire of middle leading practices: A large‐scale investigation of middle leadership in schools

Abstract

This article presents findings from an Australian study investigating the practices of middle leaders responsible for facilitating school development. Despite middle leaders being increasingly recognised as essential in the development of teaching and learning in schools, middle leadership remains under‐researched and comparatively overlooked within the broader educational leadership field. Framed by the theory of practice architectures, which attends to the site‐based conditions which enable and constrain how practices happen, a multimethod, multiphase, multisite study was designed to investigate the practices of middle leaders. Reflexive thematic analysis across five research phases produced five central themes forming what we described as a repertoire of middle leading practices. These broad practices include advocating and negotiating; building productive teams; coordinating, organising and managing; developing teaching practice; and evaluating evidence. Evidence showed that these practices were multifaceted, interdependent and complex and held together by conditions described as ‘threads’. Threads were found in the relational, dialogic and responsive nature of middle leading. Findings presented at participant dialogue conferences held in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden endorsed these practices as high leverage practices that were universally understood, recognised and practised across school levels, systems and geographical locations. These findings have implications for the future development of middle leader policies, models and professional learning for these important educational leaders.