Alma Harris

University of Bath, Department of Education, Faculty Member

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Alma Harris, PhD., FAcSS, FLSW, FRSA, has held Professorial posts at the University of Warwick, Institute of Education, University College London, the University of Malaya and latterly, the University of Bath. She is internationally known for her research and writing on educational leadership and school improvement. In 2009–2012, she was seconded to the Welsh Government as a senior policy adviser to assist with the process of system-wide reform. She co-led the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) programme with Dr. Michelle Jones, and also led on the development and implementation of a Master's qualification for all newly qualified teachers in Wales. Since 2009, she has worked for the World Bank contributing to development and research programmes aimed at supporting schools in challenging contexts in Russia. Professor Harris is a Visiting Professor at the Moscow Higher School of Economics. Dr. Harris is Past President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and School Improvement (ICSEI), which is an organisation dedicated to enhancing quality and equity in education. In January 2016, she received the ICSEI honorary lifetime award. She was appointed as a member of International Council of Education Advisers (ICEA) to the First Minister (Scottish Government) in 2016-2020.

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University of California, Santa Barbara

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University College Cork

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Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Wellesley College

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University of Exeter

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David Seamon

Kansas State University

Babette Babich

Fordham University

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

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Papers by Alma Harris

System Recall: Leading for Equity and Excellence in Education

Teachers Leading Educational Reform: The Power of Professional Learning Communities

Routledge eBooks, Jul 31, 2017

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The reform of initial teacher education in Wales: from vision to reality

Oxford Review of Education, Jan 2, 2021

ABSTRACT Over the last four years, initial teacher education in Wales has been fundamentally refo... more ABSTRACT Over the last four years, initial teacher education in Wales has been fundamentally reformed. The stimulus for those reforms were concerns about the quality of current provision, but more importantly a recognition by the Welsh Government that if their wider reforms of curriculum and assessment were to succeed, then teachers themselves had a key role to play. Teachers would no longer be simply required to ‘deliver’ a curriculum defined by others; they themselves would need to become active agents in realising that curriculum in ways that were appropriate for the children and young people they taught. What is being required is a new vision of teacher professionalism in Wales. But what are the implications of these changes for initial teacher education? The Welsh Government has taken the view that they demand a fundamentally different conception of how initial teacher education is organised, with both universities and schools working closely together to support student teacher learning. This paper sets out the background to these recent reforms, and then examines the way in which three key dimensions of the new model are being implemented in practice. They are: co-construction and governance; integrating university and school perspectives; and re-visioning mentoring.

Leading All-Through schools – the same or different?

School Leadership & Management, May 27, 2022

Distributed leadership and networking

Routledge eBooks, Jul 6, 2021

Managing to Lead? Contemporary Perspectives on Principals’ Practices in Russia

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. eBooks, Mar 24, 2017

This chapter outlines findings from two new empirical studies that illuminate firstly, how princi... more This chapter outlines findings from two new empirical studies that illuminate firstly, how principals in Russia currently view their role, and secondly, how far the preparation and training that principals receive shapes their day-to day practice. It focuses on the findings from a contemporary international study that is exploring how principals are prepared and trained in different education systems. Then, the chapter outlines evidence from the 7-System Leadership Study (7SLS) to outline the approaches to principals' leadership preparation and development being adopted in Russia. As qualitative data collection continues, in all 7SLS countries including Russia, analyses thus far are offering important insights into principals' training and their professional practice in different contexts. Findings show that while the apparatus of change has clearly arrived in the form of new principal standards and new policy expectations, in reality, principals in Russia are still expected, and indeed trained, to be managers rather than leaders.

Leading underperforming schools

School Leadership & Management, 2022

Like underperforming companies, relationships or governments, the judgments on underperforming sc... more Like underperforming companies, relationships or governments, the judgments on underperforming schools are often swift and ruthless. Underperforming school chools are frequently polarised as good or bad, and those schools that fail to hit the mark are fair game for media attention and ripe for some sort of public, external intervention. Yet, the whole idea of underperforming schools is so contextually bound, that to group them generically as ‘underperforming’ is meaningless and ultimately, counterproductive. They are far from the same. The fact remains that most schools labelled as underperforming tend to be located in areas of significant disadvantage, whether in rural, coastal, or urban locations. Their poverty levels may be similar, but other contextual factors can vary dramatically. Even so, their performance is weighed and measured in standard ways that assume that contextual factors are unimportant or do not affect the daily lives of the leaders and teachers that work in such settings. This is not to suggest that we accept low standards because of disadvantages but there must be some acknowledgement and acceptance that this is far from a level playing field. Without question, underperformance is a highly sensitive issue. Despite the sensitivities and complexities, in many countries, there is now renewed policy interest in improving schools that are deemed to be underperforming. From various vantage points, underperforming schools are judged as failing to deliver a good educational experience for most students in their care over time. Clearly, this must be addressed, but the measures are taken to ‘improve’ such schools often are intrusive, invasive, and top-down. International evidence suggests that there is no single, comprehensive, definition of an underperforming school, as the contextual factors and influences vary considerably from school to school and from context-to-context (Leithwood, Harris, and Strauss 2010). Whether categorised as schools in difficulty, schools facing challenging circumstances, failing schools, turnaround schools, and schools in special measures, the fact remain that there is no uniformity about underperformance and no silver bullet to address it. Also, the labels do not help. Categorising schools this way is simply a way of devaluing and demeaning them, rendering them publicly as unfit for duty, in some imperfect and unpalatable way. It negates what these schools can do into a negative discourse of what they cannot do. The research tells us that underperforming schools will have moved through various stages of decline, which will be clearly visible to all supporting them, where their ability to accomplish their primary goals steadily diminishes. School failure tends to be a steady and often predictable downward spiral rather than a sudden plummet in performance. Yet, in most cases, only at the point of abject failure does the rescue cavalry come over the hill. Disruption of a steady decline is always perfectly possible given the early warning systems that such schools display, yet often interventions only occur when the school is failing so badly that the situation cannot be ignored any longer (Leithwood, Harris, and Strauss 2013).

Taking a distributed perspective on leading professional learning networks

School Leadership & Management, Aug 2, 2019

Leadership is an essential contributor to effective professional networking within education. In ... more Leadership is an essential contributor to effective professional networking within education. In the pursuit of school and system improvement, leaders at all levels are being challenged to collaborate and network in order to secure the best positive outcomes for students. Professional learning networks are one of the main developments in many education systems in recent years. The article takes a distributed perspective on leading professional learning networks. Firstly, the article explores the contribution that leadership makes to effective networking and productive collaboration; secondly, it considers the challenges of leading collective action; and thirdly, it proposes that distributed leadership could offer an important theoretical framing to understand, in greater depth, the nature and impact of professional collaboration, particularly but not exclusively, in the form of networks. Consequently, the article argues that distributed leadership offers a useful framework for future empirical enquiry and analysis into the effective leadership of professional learning networks. Finally, it proposes that the knowledge base on networks and networking should move away from largely normative descriptions, selfreport and over assertion to far more sophisticated data collection and analytical processes that would generate more rigorous and reliable evidence on the intentions, processes and outcomes of professional learning networks.

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Compassionate leadership

School Leadership & Management, May 27, 2023

Schools as Learning Organisations in Wales: A Critical Exploration of the International Evidence Base

Wales journal of education =, May 31, 2022

CRYNODEB ACADEMAIDD Yn system addysg Cymru, mae ‘Ysgolion fel Sefydliadau sy’n Dysgu’ (YSD) yn pa... more CRYNODEB ACADEMAIDD Yn system addysg Cymru, mae ‘Ysgolion fel Sefydliadau sy’n Dysgu’ (YSD) yn parhau i fod yn un o gonglfeini’r polisi addysg presennol. Mae’r erthygl hon yn ystyried rhywfaint o’r sylfaen dystiolaeth allweddol neu (rai o’r sylfeini tystiolaeth allweddol) sy’n cysylltu â’r model YSD yng Nghymru ac sy’n sail iddo. Nid adolygiad o’r llenyddiaeth yw hwn ond yn hytrach trosolwg o’r brif dystiolaeth empirig sy’n atgyfnerthu’r dull YSD yng Nghymru. Mae’r erthygl yn tynnu sylw at y ffaith bod sylfaen dystiolaeth gefnogol ac empirig ar gyfer pob un o 7 dimensiwn model YSD Cymru. Daw i’r casgliad, fodd bynnag, fod angen mwy o ganllawiau ymarferol, yn enwedig ynghylch prosesau gweithredu, i gynorthwyo ysgolion ar eu taith tuag at ddod yn sefydliadau sy’n dysgu cryfach. CRYNODEB YMARFEROL Ar hyn o bryd, mae ysgolion yng Nghymru yn ceisio dod yn gymunedau sy’n dysgu cryf. Mae’r erthygl hon yn ystyried y dystiolaeth sy’n sail i’r syniad o ysgolion fel sefydliadau sy’n dysgu yng Nghymru. Nid adolygiad o’r llenyddiaeth yw hwn ond yn hytrach mae’r erthygl yn edrych ar y sylfaen (sylfeini) tystiolaeth allweddol sy’n cysylltu â’r syniad o ysgolion fel sefydliadau sy’n dysgu. Mae’r erthygl yn atgyfnerthu’r syniad bod yna sylfaen dystiolaeth gref sy’n cefnogi’r syniad o ysgolion fel sefydliadau sy’n dysgu yng Nghymru. Mae’n dod i’r casgliad, fodd bynnag, fod angen mwy o ganllawiau ymarferol i helpu ysgolion i symud ymlaen ar eu taith tuag at ddod yn sefydliadau dysgu cryfach.

Disciplined collaboration and inquiry: evaluating the impact of professional learning

Journal of professional capital and community, Oct 16, 2017

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline a Development and Research (D and R) approach to ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to outline a Development and Research (D and R) approach to systematic and focused professional collaborative inquiry developed as part of an externally funded project, Disciplined Collaboration and Evaluation of Professional Learning (DCEPL), and highlight a model of professional collaboration that was aimed at generating meaningful teacher engagement within, between, and across schools. The “Disciplined Collaboration” (DC) approach was designed to prepare and equip teachers to work with a model of collaborative inquiry that was highly structured and had built-in assessment measures to help teachers judge the impact and progress of their collaborative work. The literature on professional learning highlights that superficial models of collaboration, unstructured approaches to collective learning, and a lack of adequate evaluation measures are some of the reasons why teachers’ professional collaboration may not have the impact anticipated or expected. Design/methodology/approach The DCEPL program was a D and R project that aimed to support teachers in generating their own local approaches to school-based innovation and change. As a D and R project, a framework for collaboration that became known as “DC” model was developed and shared. The project involved eight schools in different states and territories in Australia. In the first two years, the schools engaged intensely with the “DC” model, in ways that aimed to promote innovation and change. Subsequently, in a phase of consolidation, schools have refined and extended their collective work. From the outset, a range of data sources were available to schools to assist them with gauging the progress and impact of their collaborative inquiry. Data sets included a baseline assessment, a maturity model that charted progress against a rubric, documentary analysis, and an online portal. A sequenced data collection and evaluative approach, every six months, routinely captured the process and the progress of the inquiry work in each of the schools. It also illuminated progress across the D and R project. Findings The feedback from the project and data analyses suggest that all eight schools in the project engaged with the “DC” model; and in most cases, used a whole school approach to improvement. More generally, the findings point to several conclusions about working within a DC framework: first, that authentic collaborative inquiry, i.e., which makes a positive difference to learners, benefits from a clear operational model and consistent rules of engagement for teachers. Second, that the DC model, offered teachers clear guidelines about the process of active collaboration and its evaluative requirements from the outset. Third, while inevitably, the process of DC varied across schools, the focus upon improving learning and learning outcomes was central. Originality/value The DC model presents a new framework or a new approach in supporting teachers’ collaborative inquiry. The DC model emphasizes improvements in student learning as the main outcome of teachers’ collaborative work. In addition, it has feedback and impact measurement within its design thus, allowing teachers to naturally evaluate progress and outcomes.

Review of conceptual models and methodologies in research on principal instructional leadership in Malaysia

Journal of Educational Administration, Nov 23, 2017

Purpose Over the past several decades, instructional leadership has gradually gained increasing c... more Purpose Over the past several decades, instructional leadership has gradually gained increasing currency as a key role of school principals throughout much of the world. This is also the case in Malaysia where educational research, policy and practice have brought the instructional leadership role of the principal front and center. The purpose of this paper is to assess the conceptual models, research methods, and foci of scholars in the study of principal instructional leadership in Malaysia over the past 30 years. Design/methodology/approach Systematic methods were used to identify all studies conducted in Malaysia that had used the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) (Hallinger, 1982/1990/2015) as the data collection instrument. This search yielded a database of 120 studies completed between 1989 and 2016 written in both English and Bahasa Malay. Common data were extracted from the 120 research reports, coded and entered into a MS Excel spreadsheet for analysis. Quantitative methods were employed to analyze modal trends and synthesize patterns in the data across the studies. Findings The search identified 120 PIMRS studies, 90 percent of which had been conducted since 2005. This represented a surprisingly large corpus of studies. Over 75 percent of the Malaysian studies of principal instructional leadership had been conducted as graduate (master and doctoral) theses, relatively few of which had achieved publication in journals. The authors’ analysis found that most studies had used lower order (i.e. bivariate, direct effects) conceptual models and relied heavily on descriptive and simple correlational statistical tests. The lack of consistent results within the database of studies was attributed largely to limitations in research design and quality. Research limitations/implications The 120 PIMRS studies conducted in Malaysia comprise a surprisingly large corpus of research on principal instructional leadership. Indeed, the Malaysian corpus is second only to the USA in terms of the number of PIMRS studies of principal instructional leadership. Nonetheless, limitations in the research models and methods employed in these studies suggest a need for stronger methodological training before Malaysian scholars can achieve the goal of contributing useful knowledge to the local and global knowledge base. Specific recommendations are offered for strengthening the quality of research. Social implications The recent expansion of higher education in Malaysia – like other developing societies – has yielded progress in the scope of research production. However, numerous challenges remain in transforming the potential for useful knowledge production from graduate research into reality. Originality/value This is the first review of research on principal leadership conducted in Malaysia. The review follows efforts by scholars to systematically identify the boundaries of knowledge in educational leadership and management within East Asian societies (e.g. China, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong). Moreover, this is the first review of research that examines the use of the PIMRS in a single society.