Distributing Leadership for Personalizing Learning

This book makes a unique contribution to current thinking by making a link between two current key policy drivers in education: personalized learning and distributed leadership. Ron Ritchie and Ruth Deakin Crick put forward the idea that an effective means of implementing personalizing learning is to adopt distributed approaches to school leadership. The book builds on the other titles in the NCE Personalizing Learning series, particularly Personalizing Learning: Transforming education for every child by John West-Burnham and Max Coates.Personalizing learning remains a contested concept, interpreted in many different ways by policy makers, researchers and practitioners. However, it is generally agreed to be desirable if, as a result of its implementation, students' individual learning needs are more effectively addressed and it impacts positively on their learning.

Professor Ron Ritchie is Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of the West of England. Having taught in both primary and secondary schools, he has now been involved in CPD for the last twenty years and currently works with subject leaders and headteachers in a variety of projects. He has authored books on assessment, science, design & technology, subject leadership and school improvement. Recent research projects include case study work on distributed leadership and succession planning in schools.

Dr Ruth Deakin Crick is Senior Research Fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol. Before joining Bristol University in 2000, Ruth was Director of a Values Development Unit in Bristol. She has taught in primary and secondary schools and spent eight years as a headteacher. Her research has focused on the impact of values, worldviews and culture on learning and teaching, and has included the qualities and characteristics of effective learning and effective learning communities. She leads the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) Project which has had an impact on school practices throughout the UK and in other parts of the World.