Perceptions and practices of collaborative leadership styles

Abstract

Collaborative leadership is a process which allows stakeholders to contribute and be actively involved in decision-making. It is grounded in a constructivist belief that to sustain effective change, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Research suggests that leaders should use power rather than authority to influence and empower stakeholders, elicit teamwork, support, build trustworthy relationships, communicate effectively and sustain interdependency. The need and importance of collaborative practices are highlighted and celebrated in the Maltese National Curriculum Framework (NCF). The NCF (2012) encourages leaders to develop a collaborative culture based upon the professional skills of the members of the organisation and encourages all stakeholders to collectively engage in critical discourse to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This qualitative study seeks to explore insights and broaden the knowledge base on the perceptions and practices of collaborative leadership styles employed by senior leadership team (SLT) members in Maltese secondary educational settings. Six secondary schools were purposefully sampled to take part in the study. Eighteen face-to-face semi-structured interviews were carried out with SLT members and teachers. This study seeks to unpack concepts related to collaborative practices in schools. These include perceptions on collaborative strategies employed by SLT members to sustain collaborative practices as well as challenges faced when implementing such practices. Findings in this study show that the concept of collaboration is welcomed by all schools which implement various strategies to sustain collaboration. SLT members consider increasing professional development (PD) sessions and finding further spaces as ways to improve collaboration whilst teachers see lack of communication as well as inactive listening as obstacles. Additionally, resistance and lack of time were identified as major challenges in promoting and practising collaboration. This study holds the potential to help SLT members reflect on leadership strategies and empower them to critically think of ways to manage collaboration effectively at their workplaces. The way forward should challenge the obstacles which hinder and/or slow down this phenomenon. A proposed suggestion explores instilling a constructivist approach to teaching and learning, an objective within the NCF, targeting to enculture collaborative practices at an early stage of development.