ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the roles and dispositions required by school leaders when implementing practitioner enquiry. We consider what various researchers have to say about the importance of school leaders in any school and professional development activities. We consider knowledge and understanding, their engagement with professional reading and research, as well as their roles as both leaders and managers. Their approaches to professional development and continuous professional development (CPD) activities, and their role as active participants in this process. We consider the ‘drivers’ for school development, and how leaders need to gate-keep to protect staff from what Fullan calls ‘initiativitis’. We also look at why school leaders need to be both morally and professionally courageous, to bring about the improvements we all seek, and how they need to get the balance right between support and challenge. They need to support and promote collaboration within and across schools and to develop their system leadership understandings and role. Crucially, we consider why school leaders need to keep developing a deep understanding of learning, and the deconstruction of this.
