Structure and Content
For the award of the MSc you must complete the four School Leadership and Management (Scottish Qualification for Headship, SQH) modules and either:
- Professionalism and Reflective Practice: leadership and Constructing Professional Knowledge: developing Teamwork (see Professional Enquiry: Leadership) or
- Supporting Professional Growth, and developing Processes to Support Professional Growth (see Professional Enquiry: Supporting Professional Growth). These modules can be undertaken before or after completion of the four School Leadership and Management modules (SQH).
You will reflect upon, analyse and evaluate your experience and your own leadership practice and will apply what you have learned. You will also be expected to draw on the ideas and experience of others through dialogue with your peers, mentors/coaches and tutors, and access other sources of information.
By using a variety of sources you will begin to formulate principles of leadership and management in relation to specific professional actions, which you are required to undertake, and subject these to further evaluation.
The Postgraduate Diploma is made up of the four SQH modules:
- Educational Leadership: Establishes key principles underpinning professional practice: self-evaluation and reflection, and the development of evidence-informed practice, both on an individual and institutional basis, to promote the effective management and enhancement of learning. Headship is established within a wider context of debates and policy decisions about the nature and purpose of education and the role of teachers and school leaders. A central theme is your self-evaluation and your planning of personal professional development within the context of your school.
- Developing Capability for Improvement: Leaders and managers are faced with multiple changes occurring concurrently in a school which is striving to improve year on year. Therefore the ability to lead and manage change that improves this environment is essential. This module incorporates national perspectives provided in the first module with the particular needs and priorities of your own school. This will lead to an analysis of your school’s capability and capacity for change. Finally, on the basis of your analysis and a literature search, you will plan a strategic, work-based project which you will lead in your school over the next 15 months.
- Leading and Managing to Improve learning Part I: This module provides experience in initiating a whole school intervention focused on improving learning and teaching. The bulk of the work will consist of carrying out the agreed project and individual study targeted at the development of your capacity to reflect critically on your own practice. The module will allow you to practise the key professional actions defined by the Standard for Headship and receive detailed feedback so that you can develop a robust command of these actions by the end of the final module.
- Leading and Managing to Improve learning Part II: This module continues the improvement intervention introduced during the previous module. The purpose is to enable you to practise and demonstrate competence in both the professional actions of the headteacher and other essential elements as outlined in the Standard for Headship. Emphasis is placed on evaluating the extent to which strategic intervention has enhanced the school’s improvement capability.
Candidates for the Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Enquiry: School Leadership & Management will complete the first two of the SQH modules.
Delivery and Assessment
The programme is delivered through a mixed mode of seminars, self-study materials and work-based learning. Progress is assessed in a number of ways through peer and self evaluation.
Timetable
Contact the School for information on your timetable and reading lists.