Announcements

Announcement 01 - Welcome

Academy Documents

Please access the Students' Policies & Forms through this link. The following documents are all available in the link - Student Handbook, Student Code of Conduct,  Students' Privacy Notice, Deferral, Suspension, and Cancellation Policy, Assignment Extension Policy, Re-Sit Policy, Complaints Procedure Policy, Equality Policy and Student Disciplinary Policy

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Online Sessions' Link

To connect to the online sessions of this study programme please click on this link. You will be asked to register your attendance for each session you join, if you are not already signed in into your Zoom account. You will also be asked for the password which is below.

Meeting ID: 965 3474 9021
Passcode: 780364

Make sure that you show with your name & surname as you have been registered for the study programme. This is very important for attendance purposes

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Lecture Schedule & Notes

Lecture notes will be available during the week following the respective lecture. Schedule dates are indicative and may change. All changes, if any, may be communicated via email, SMS or telephone calls.

LectureDateTimePresentationNotes (If Any)Session Recording
Lecture 0119 October 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 01Request
Lecture 0226 October 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 02Request
Lecture 039 November 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 03Request
Lecture 0416 November 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 04A. Harris_ Assistant & Deputy Heads 1
Assistant Principals The Case 2
What is the role of the middle level assistant principal, and how should it change?
Preparation for Headship?
Middle leadership and its challenges		Request
Lecture 0523 November 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 05Model for Educational Leadership
Correlational Analysis of Servant Leadership and School Climate
Who is the Servant Leader?		Request
Lecture 0630 November 202216:30 to 19:30hrsEducation Act
A National Curriculum Framework 2012
For All Children to Succeed
Sectoral Agreement
National Children's Policy
Job Descriptions Handbook		Request
Lecture 077 December 202216:30 to 19:30hrsPresentation 07The Road Less Travelled by Chris Bezzina
Motivation Begins from Within by Chris Bezzina
Developing the Inner Edge by Alan Scerri		Request

Lecturer 

Ms Ruth Mansueto

Rev Dr Alan Scerri

 

Lecture Summaries & Suggested Reading

 

Lecture 1 - Roles and Duties of Middle Leaders in Educational Institutions Ms Ruth Mansueto

Lecture Summary

This lecture will be discussing/addressing the following questions regarding the Roles and Duties of Middle Leaders in Educational Institutions:

Questions for reflection

What is the role of the middle leader?
What is the role of leadership in educational institutions?
What is middle leadership in education?
Who are the middle leaders?
What is the role of the middle leader in the Maltese context?

Daniel Robertson on Middle Leadership in Schools – March 14, 2022

“The middle leadership role is varied and focuses on the leading of both teaching and learning within the classroom development and implementation of strategies across a team of educational professional”

Looking at Literature on the defining role of a middle leader
How has this role developed/evolved? In the past decade internationally? Locally?

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 2 - Challenge in appointing teachers as middle leaders Ms Ruth Mansueto

Lecture Summary

Discussing the developing of middle leaders.
The programmes offered by educational bodies with regards to developing the middle leader.
The informal and informal roles of middle leaders.

Assumption of middle leaders filling the gap between senior management and teachers.

The challenges of appointing middle leaders and their preparation for succession.

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 3 - Role which is not yet defined and middle leaders in schools Ms Ruth Mansueto

Lecture Summary

Middle leaders in the international context and related research with regards to the roles of middle leaders in educational institutions.

The role of middle leaders in the Maltese context.

Discussion regarding the role of the middle leaders in the Maltese educational system which varies from one school to another.

Styles of leadership which promote middle leaders.

Middle leadership  in a context of middle leadership.

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 4 - Middle leaders as preparation for senior leadership Rev Dr Alan Scerri

Lecture Summaries

This lecture will be discussing/addressing the following aspects:

  • Purpose and Position of Middle Leadership.
  • “In the last decade, assistant head teacher’s role has served a much stronger institutional presence” (A. Harris et al 2003, p.6)
  • Operational role and Strategic role in Leadership. Where do Middle Leaders fit?
  • The HEAD, HANDS AND HEART of Leadership (Sergiovanni 1992)
  • “The Leader’s positions are not only based on their knowledge, but they are also based on the beliefs and the values that the Leader upholds (A. Scerri, 2013)
  • Need to develop Leadership Confidence, Character and Competence.
  • Develop Confidence.
  • Develop Character Traits
  • Build Positive Relationships
  • Develop Effective Communication
  • Foster good relations with parents.
  • Leading for Instructional Improvement
  • Sharing Leadership and build a community of practice

“Effective leadership requires an intelligent head with an intelligent heart” (Day; 2000, p. 24).....these leaders escape impersonal and bureaucratic relationships in favour of conversations and a caring ethic to develop personal relationships within the learning community.

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 5 - Appreciation of middle leaders Rev Dr Alan Scerri

Lecture Summary

This lecture will be discussing/addressing the following areas:

  • Defining Leadership;
    - The continuous of one’s beliefs is a journey that allows leaders to reflect on their spirituality, professional and emotional needs by enlarging their human potential .... the leader’s behaviour lies on a spectrium. At ne end of the spectrium is the autocratic leader ...at the other end is the collaborative leader (Greenleaf)
  • The traditional perspective and the modern perspective of leadership:
    - (Paradigm shift) Leaders who embrace their role as servant leaders should focus on creating work scenarios in which employees are working together towards a shared vision whilst committing themselves to their self and others (Taylour and al; p.402).
    - The central principle of any organisation has changed from that of supervision and management with a focus on control to a new leadership which seeks ot bring out the best in people and seeks to respond efficiently to change.
  • Servant Leadership:
    - “If you want to govern the people, you must speak to them humbly. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them” (Gary J. Stewart; 2017)
  • Servant Leadership Models.
    - Characteristics of a Servant Leader.
  • Servant Leadership in Education.

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 6 - Middle Leaders in Maltese Schools Rev Dr Alan Scerri

Lecture Summary

This lecture will be discussing/addressing the following areas:

Study, reflect and discuss documents issued by the Maltese Educational Directorate re. Middle Leadership in the Maltese educational system.

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

 

Lecture 7 - Middle Leadership and Teamwork Rev Dr Alan Scerri

Lecture Summary

This lecture will be discussing/addressing the following questions regarding Leadership as team building.

Areas for discussion:

  • Leadership as team building
  • Need of alignment (work as a team rather than as a group) especially where a culture of individualism prevails. Unaligned teams are waste of energy.

“Teams are the sum of their members but with the potential to be greater than the sum.” (P. Senge: 1994.

  • Nine characteristics of effective teams.
  • Stages in team maturity FORMING, STORMING, NORMING, PERFORMING.
  • How teams learn:

“Within teams.....it is not the achievements that should be acknowledged, though these are important in encouraging the group, but all the efforts and participation of every member”.  (P. Senge: 1994.

 

Core Reading List

Supplementary Reading List

  • Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C. and Newton W. (2007) Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.
  • School Leadership and Management, Vol.27, No.5, pp.453-470.
  • Brooks, Z. and Cavanagh, R. (2009) An Examination of Middle Leadership in Western Australian Secondary Schools.
  • Earley, P. (1990) Piggy in the middle: middle management in education.
  • Malta Review of Educational Research
  • The Educator

Methods of Assessment

1 Assignment of 2,500 words. 100% of final score

Assignment

The assignment title is available in the Assignment Submission form below. Assignment should be submitted by not later than Thursday 26 January 2023. The assignment has to be submitted together with the Assignment Submission Form through 21 Academy's plagiarism software turnitin. Please indicate the questions which you have addressed in the Assignment Submission form and upload assignments in pdf format. Do not scan assignment but convert/save it directly to pdf. We ask you to keep the similarity percentage very low and definitely below 20%. You should  review and rephrase any assignments which show more than 20% similarity. Any assignments submitted above 20% similarity will not be scored and considered as failed.

Assignment Submission Form

Please read further below in how you are expected to plan, design and submit your assignment and how your assignment will be assessed.

 

Assignments

If you need information on how to plan, draft and submit your assignment follow the 21 Academy presentation on Writing and Submitting your Assignment.

We are also making the 21 Academy's Assignments Rubric available for your guidance. This is a performance-based assessment tool. Tutors will use the rubric to assist them to allocate scoring while it allows students to understand what is required in the assignment and how it will be graded.

 

Referencing Style

Your assignments, presentations and reflective noted should be referenced using the Harvard Referencing style. Please follow this video to understand this referencing style.  Harvard Referencing Style.

 

Submitting Assignments - turnitin

The Academy will notify you that assignment questions are available through an email. Through another email sent to you by turnitin (probably on the same day) you will be notified that you have been added to a "class" where you may upload your assignment/s. Assignments should be submitted by not later than 23:59hrs of the assignment submission deadline shown on the Assignment Submission form and/or the "class".

At 21 Academy you can submit more than one draft of your assignment before the submission final deadline. The last version left uploaded at the submission deadline will be considered to be your final submission paper and will be the one which will be assessed. Make sure that your final submission does not go beyond 20% similarity when including direct quotations (the sentences in-between quotes).

Follow this very short video to understand how to submit your assignment through turnitin - submitting a paper

To understand the similarity report generated by turnitin follow this 1 minute video - understanding the similarity report