Educational Leadership

Postgraduate Certificate/Postgraduate Diploma/MEd

Leadership is seen as an essential for the delivery of educational reform across the globe. This explains how leaders, leading and leadership have moved from obscurity to centre stage over recent years. The leadership field is a rich one and yet a singular view of leadership ‘effectiveness’ seems to prevail within education. This course takes a critical approach to currently popularised notions of what constitutes ‘leadership’, who educational ‘leaders’ are and what they do to achieve results with and through other professionals working in or connected with, educational organisations broadly defined. The purpose is to develop a deep understanding of leadership as a social and ethical practice with profound implications for learning, school and society.

The course will equip you with the knowledge and capabilities needed for informal leadership and for a range of promoted posts, from subject leader, through deputy head teacher and head teacher, to senior leadership roles within local and national and international educational organisations. The MEd is studied part-time over three years. Each module is taught over a weekend, Friday to Sunday, and supported through web-based materials and email guidance from your tutors. You will be assessed through written coursework and project-based assignments. These link theoretical concepts to your professional practice within your own workplace, so you will be studying what you do in your individual context and seeking to improve it for the benefit of your students.

If you have an NPQH certificate, you may claim 60 credits at Masters Level towards a Diploma or MEd in Educational Leadership upon completion of an academic bridging assignment designed to help you with the transition to postgraduate work. If you are already in a leadership or management role within the education sector, or you are seeking promotion into such a role in the near future, the course leader can help you discover if this is the course for you.

There are alternative routes to the modules. These are the intensive Work Based Learning (WBL) route, available to school groups only and is taught and supported in the school, and the fast track Advanced Practitioner Pathway (APP) which has an exclusively oral examination based on core and elective reading.

Some of our modules

Developing Leadership
Leading and Managing Change
Professional Mentoring

Benefits

development and application of analytical thinking
impact at workplace level
builds confidence and capability related to promoted posts

Career paths

Depending on starting point:

subject leader/subject co-ordinator
assistant head teacher
deputy/head teacher

Entry requirements

To apply, you should have one or more of the following: a good Honours Degree or equivalent; a professional or postgraduate qualification; appropriate employment experience; an ability to undertake and benefit from study at postgraduate level.

Mode of attendance

Extended weekend attendance

Location

Francis Close Hall

Enquiries & applications

Student Recruitment Office
Waterworth Building
The Park, Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL50 4BS
Tel: 01242 714500
Fax: 01242 714827
Email: postgrad@glos.ac.uk

Profile: Helena Arnold

"I chose to study at the University of Gloucestershire because it offered flexible ways of accrediting learning..."

I chose to study at the University of Gloucestershire because it offered flexible ways of accrediting learning; I initially completed a module on School Self Evaluation before transferring on to the Masters course. Having completed NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Head Teachers) I felt that studying at masters level would provide another challenge to my professional practice. In addition, it was the university that was closest to my place of work and, as I was in full time employment, I appreciated the flexibility afforded by the course.

I valued the opportunity to network and meet with colleagues from other educational establishments and share experiences. Working in a rural school on the edge of Gloucestershire, opportunities to meet with and share best practice were quite limited. The Self Evaluation module provided not only the opportunity to meet with colleagues but to learn together in a supportive environment. I also enjoyed being made to think very critically about my evidence base and reflect on appropriate methodology. As someone who was relatively new to school leadership at the time I started the course, completing further academic study gave me a better understanding of how to move my own professional practice forward.

Also, I think the course gave me the opportunity to place my work in school in a broader national context. It gave me the chance to reflect on the latest educational research and made me stop and think about alternative approaches to my own work. It gave me a kind of benchmark by which to evaluate my own professional practice. As a result of this, I grew in confidence throughout the course.

Undoubtedly, studying for my masters degree has supported my career development through Deputy Headship and into my current post as Director of Children and Young People for the Diocese of Gloucester.

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