School and college leaders, governors and trustees will be
helped to navigate the educational moral maze through a new set
of principles developed by a commission on ethical leadership
which delivers its final report today (Friday 25 January).
The commission was launched by the Association of School
and College Leaders (ASCL) in 2017 and included senior
representatives from across the education sector. Its final
report will be unveiled at a summit in London this
afternoon.
It was established because of concerns expressed by ASCL
members and others about the lack of guiding principles for
ethical leadership in education.
They felt this lack was particularly noteworthy in a school
leadership climate where structures are diverse, accountability
measures and their consequences are severe, and in which
decisions are often taken under great pressure with competing
demands in play.
The resulting Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education
provides the profession with principles to support leaders in
their decision-making and in calling out unethical behaviour. It
comprises a set of values and virtues, against which leaders,
governors and trustees can evaluate their decisions and actions.
The framework is intended to act as a counterpoint to the
data-driven culture that too often blights our schools and
colleges.
The report sets out how the framework will now be embedded
across the school and college system:
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A pathfinder project has been launched through the
National Governance Association (NGA) which invites school
leaders to sign up to the framework and provides training
resources about how to build its values and virtues into
working practices. The project will be promoted through the
NGA, ASCL and Chartered College of Teaching (CCT)
websites.
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The framework will be embedded in leadership and
governance programmes developed by the organisations involved
in the commission and hopefully, over time, throughout the
teacher and leadership development landscape.
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An ethics forum will be established at the CCT to discuss
and disseminate thinking about ethical issues in education
leadership.
Carolyn Roberts, a headteacher in London and chair of the
ethical leadership commission, said: We all have a duty to behave
ethically, but the bar for school and college leaders is
particularly high because they are setting the standards for the
young people in their care and in turn the sort of society that
we become in the future.
While school and college leaders are motivated by ethical
principles, we have not had shared language to guide us. At a
time when there are huge pressures and demands on school and
college leaders, as well as stories in the media about unethical
behaviour such as the off-rolling of pupils, it is even more
important that we do something about that.
The ethical leadership commission and its framework is our
answer. It wont solve every issue, and it is the nature of school
leadership that difficult decisions have to be made and that
there will always be people who disagree with those judgements.
But it is a touchstone which we hope will help to support school
leaders in making those difficult calls and in speaking out if
they see poor behaviour from colleagues.
The framework isn’t a diktat from government. It is formed
by the profession and for the profession. It is an example of a
school-led system in action and we are immensely grateful to
everybody on the commission who has given up their time and has
put so much thought into a task which was by its nature complex
and sensitive.
