Professor TOBY GREANY's Outputs (18)

Moral purpose in performative times: Do school leaders’ values matter? (2024)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2024). Moral purpose in performative times: Do school leaders’ values matter?. British Journal of Educational Studies, 72(5), 587-606. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2024.2374074

School leaders are expected to act with integrity, but values are always contested: one person’s ‘moral purpose’ is not the same as another’s. Researchers have explored these issues from different angles. One approach focusses on individual leaders,... Read More about Moral purpose in performative times: Do school leaders’ values matter?.

Local learning landscapes: conceptualising place-based professional learning by teachers and schools in decentralised education systems (2024)
Journal Article
Greany, T., Cowhitt, T., Noyes, A., Gripton, C., & Hudson, G. (2024). Local learning landscapes: conceptualising place-based professional learning by teachers and schools in decentralised education systems. Journal of Educational Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-024-09508-x

This article sets out an original conceptual framework for place-based professional learning by teachers and schools in decentralised education systems. High quality Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CDPL) by teachers is associated wi... Read More about Local learning landscapes: conceptualising place-based professional learning by teachers and schools in decentralised education systems.

The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times (2024)
Journal Article
Thomson, P., & Greany, T. (in press). The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432231218544

The COVID 19 pandemic created new challenges for school leaders. They worked very long hours in difficult circumstances. Improvising and responding quickly to poorly timed central guidelines had an adverse effect on their health and wellbeing. Our mi... Read More about The best of times, the worst of times: Continuities in school leaders' work in uncertain times.

Storytelling With Networks: Realizing the Explanatory Potential of Network Diagrams Through the Integration of Qualitative Data (2023)
Journal Article
Cowhitt, T., Greany, T., & Downey, C. (2023). Storytelling With Networks: Realizing the Explanatory Potential of Network Diagrams Through the Integration of Qualitative Data. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22, https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231189369

Network visualizations are alluring yet deceptively difficult to interpret. This article demonstrates several strategies for integrating qualitative data into interactive network diagrams for the purposes of providing contextual information about act... Read More about Storytelling With Networks: Realizing the Explanatory Potential of Network Diagrams Through the Integration of Qualitative Data.

Do informal networks become formalised over time? Analysing school networks and multi-academy trust membership in England using ego-centric analysis (2023)
Journal Article
Greany, T., Cowhitt, T., & Downey, C. (2024). Do informal networks become formalised over time? Analysing school networks and multi-academy trust membership in England using ego-centric analysis. Journal of Educational Change, 25, 151-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-023-09485-7

Recent decades have seen a global shift in educational policy and practice towards various forms of ‘joining-up’, through partnerships and networks. These networks have differing aims but are broadly geared towards increasing quality and/or innovatio... Read More about Do informal networks become formalised over time? Analysing school networks and multi-academy trust membership in England using ego-centric analysis.

Working with complexity: Leading school networks in Aotearoa New Zealand and England (2022)
Journal Article
Greany, T., & Kamp, A. (2024). Working with complexity: Leading school networks in Aotearoa New Zealand and England. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 52(5), 1047-1061. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221124746

Inter-school networks have been promoted in many school systems globally to facilitate: knowledge generation and dissemination; responsiveness to increasingly diverse student and societal needs; and emotional and practical peer support for educationa... Read More about Working with complexity: Leading school networks in Aotearoa New Zealand and England.

Teacher learning in a shifting school landscape: The implications of academisation for professional development in primary mathematics (2022)
Journal Article
Gripton, C., Hudson, G., Greany, T., Noyes, A., & Cowhitt, T. (2022). Teacher learning in a shifting school landscape: The implications of academisation for professional development in primary mathematics. Forum: for Promoting 3-19 Comprehensive Education, 64(3), 32-41. https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2022.64.3.04

Alongside new models for government-funded professional development, England's academisation policy has significantly changed access, provision and responsibilities for teacher learning. This article reviews this impact on professional learning in pr... Read More about Teacher learning in a shifting school landscape: The implications of academisation for professional development in primary mathematics.

Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences (2022)
Journal Article
Thomson, P., Greany, T., Cousins, S., & Martindale, N. (2023). Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 55(2), 215-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2022.2071849

The work of school leaders during lockdown has been emotionally charged and emotionally draining, affecting immediate well-being and longer term career plans. In order to communicate the emotions that we were told about and which were obvious during... Read More about Vox Poetica: bringing an arts-based research method to school leaders’ lockdown experiences.

Editorial for Special Issue - Leadership in Multi-School Organisations (2021)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2021). Editorial for Special Issue - Leadership in Multi-School Organisations. School Leadership and Management, 41(4-5), 285-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2021.1981110

This special issue focusses on governance, leadership and improvement in Multi-School Organisations (MSOs). Three types of MSO are examined across the five articles - Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) in England, Boards of Multiple Schools (BMSs) in the Ne... Read More about Editorial for Special Issue - Leadership in Multi-School Organisations.

The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic (2021)
Journal Article
Thomson, P., Greany, T., & Martindale, N. (2021). The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 53(3-4), 296-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2021.1975366

Limited research has assessed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on school leaders specifically. Working together with England's two leader associations, we designed and conducted a national survey of almost 1500 leaders in summer 2021 to assess th... Read More about The trust deficit in England: emerging research evidence about school leaders and the pandemic.

Structural integration and knowledge exchange in multi-academy trusts: comparing approaches with evidence and theory from non-educational sectors (2021)
Journal Article
Greany, T., & McGinity, R. (2021). Structural integration and knowledge exchange in multi-academy trusts: comparing approaches with evidence and theory from non-educational sectors. School Leadership and Management, 41(4-5), 311-333. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2021.1872525

This article analyses the ways in which leaders in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) in England work to develop shared improvement practices across the schools they operate. It draws on case study evidence gathered as part of a larger mixed methods study b... Read More about Structural integration and knowledge exchange in multi-academy trusts: comparing approaches with evidence and theory from non-educational sectors.

Place-based governance and leadership in decentralised school systems: evidence from England (2020)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2022). Place-based governance and leadership in decentralised school systems: evidence from England. Journal of Education Policy, 37(2), 247-268. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2020.1792554

Relatively few studies have explored the ways in which 'middle tier' institutional arrangements in education, such as school districts and local authorities, are responding to New Public Management reforms characterized by centralization, decentraliz... Read More about Place-based governance and leadership in decentralised school systems: evidence from England.

Balancing the needs of policy and practice, while remaining authentic: an analysis of leadership and governance in three national school leadership colleges (2018)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2018). Balancing the needs of policy and practice, while remaining authentic: an analysis of leadership and governance in three national school leadership colleges. Cylchgrawn Addysg Cymru / Wales Journal of Education, 20(2), 63-98. https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.20.2.5

The contribution that school leadership can make to school and teacher quality - and thereby to pupil learning - is widely recognised. Pressures on school leaders have increased in recent years, as a result of increased accountability and higher expe... Read More about Balancing the needs of policy and practice, while remaining authentic: an analysis of leadership and governance in three national school leadership colleges.

Evidence-informed innovation in schools: aligning collaborative research and development with high quality professional learning for teachers (2017)
Journal Article
Greany, T., & Maxwell, B. (2017). Evidence-informed innovation in schools: aligning collaborative research and development with high quality professional learning for teachers. International Journal of Innovation in Education, 4(2/3), 147-170. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijiie.2017.088095

Innovation efforts in schools commonly wrestle with two challenges: how to secure ownership of change among teachers and how to ensure that improvements are based on evidence. This paper draws on findings from a two-year collaborative research and de... Read More about Evidence-informed innovation in schools: aligning collaborative research and development with high quality professional learning for teachers.

The evidence-informed school system in England: where should school leaders be focusing their efforts? (2017)
Journal Article
Brown, C., & Greany, T. (2018). The evidence-informed school system in England: where should school leaders be focusing their efforts?. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 17(1), 115-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2016.1270330

This article examines the impetus for schools to engage in and with evidence in England’s self-improving school system. It begins with an examination of how the education policy environment has changed, shifting from predominantly top-down approaches... Read More about The evidence-informed school system in England: where should school leaders be focusing their efforts?.

Innovation is possible, it’s just not easy: Improvement, innovation and legitimacy in England’s autonomous and accountable school system (2016)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2018). Innovation is possible, it’s just not easy: Improvement, innovation and legitimacy in England’s autonomous and accountable school system. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 46(1), 65-85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143216659297

This article reviews the literature and explores the institutional and systemic factors that help and/or hinder change and innovation across school systems, with a focus on evidence from England. A number of authors have argued that schools and schoo... Read More about Innovation is possible, it’s just not easy: Improvement, innovation and legitimacy in England’s autonomous and accountable school system.

Rebels against the system: leadership agency and curriculum innovation in the context of school autonomy and accountability in England (2016)
Journal Article
Greany, T., & Waterhouse, J. (2016). Rebels against the system: leadership agency and curriculum innovation in the context of school autonomy and accountability in England. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(7), 1188-1206. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-11-2015-0148

Purpose – This paper describes and analyses the development of school autonomy, school leadership and curriculum innovation in England over the past forty years. It provides a baseline picture for the wider international study on school autonomy and... Read More about Rebels against the system: leadership agency and curriculum innovation in the context of school autonomy and accountability in England.

More fragmented, and yet more networked: Analysing the responses of two Local Authorities in England to the Coalition's 'self-improving school-led system' reforms (2015)
Journal Article
Greany, T. (2015). More fragmented, and yet more networked: Analysing the responses of two Local Authorities in England to the Coalition's 'self-improving school-led system' reforms. London Review of Education, 13(2), 125-143. https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.13.2.11

This paper explores school reform in England under the Conservative-led Coalition government, elected in 2010, through a focus on the changing roles and status of Local Authorities (LAs). The Coalition's stated aim was the development of a 'self-impr... Read More about More fragmented, and yet more networked: Analysing the responses of two Local Authorities in England to the Coalition's 'self-improving school-led system' reforms.