A Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education
Since my term as ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders) President finished I have mainly gone back to my ‘day job’ as a headteacher. However, I have continued my involvement in one national project because it seemed such an important area to focus upon.
Around two years ago a range of leadership groups came together to form the Commission for Ethical Leadership. The group formed as a direct response to the many pressures that our increasingly diverse system creates upon those who exercise leadership - not just school and college leaders, but also those working for local authorities, taking a role in governance or working across groups of schools or other educational institutions.
I was one of 18 commissioners and worked alongside Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, a member of the Commission for Standards in Public Life, Professors of Education, the National Governors Association, faith groups and a cross section of school leaders. Together we grappled with the challenge of how to foster the highest standards of ethical behaviour in those who lead education.
Our report, 'Navigating the Educational Moral Maze', was launched as part of a conference at the University of London in January. Rather than looking to create a charter mark or getting overly caught up in specific cases, we decided that the best way forward was to offer a framework which provided a description of what ethical leadership might look like. Drawing heavily upon the Nolan Principles for Public Life, this was the structure that we came up with:
The Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education
Selflessness School and college leaders should act solely in the interest of children and young people.
Integrity School and college leaders must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. Before acting and taking decisions, they must declare and resolve openly any perceived conflict of interest and relationships.
Objectivity School and college leaders must act and take decisions impartially and fairly, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias. Leaders should be dispassionate, exercising judgement and analysis for the good of children and young people.
Accountability School and college leaders are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
Openness School and college leaders should expect to act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from scrutiny unless there are clear and lawful reasons for doing so.
Honesty School and college leaders should be truthful.
Leadership School and college leaders should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles, and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs. Leaders include both those who are paid to lead schools and colleges and those who volunteer to govern them.
One colleague summed up the dilemma we all face as leaders when they said: "ethical leadership is easy, just do the right thing. The trouble is, how do you know what the right thing is?" The framework helps all of us involved in leadership within Warwickshire, at whatever level, to answer that question, providing a routemap that helps us ‘do the right thing’ in the interests of the young people that we serve.
Peter Kent
Chair of the Education Challenge Board and Headteacher at Lawrence Sheriff School