A study of two frameworks for supporting the personal development of school leaders: Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)

摘要

This thesis is a study of two training courses and their role in supporting the personal development of school leaders. It compares a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner course with the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).udKey drivers for school improvement are the quality and style of the leadership and management of the school (OFSTED reports1993-2008). Furthermore, the most recent development in the literature on leadership (Begley, 2008; Hargreaves, 2008; Boyatzis and McKee, 2005; Looman, 2003) suggests that there is a need for leaders to demonstrate the skills of knowing one’s own feelings and how one might react to events with the ability to understand and recognise emotions in others which are key features of emotional intelligence or inter and intra personal intelligences. Leadership development courses should therefore contain elements which would support the acquisition of these skills. NPQH (the National Professional Qualification for Headship) was the mandatory training for prospective head teachers until 2012.udThe research involves in-depth interviews with five leaders in education who have undertaken a full NLP practitioner programme and compares their responses to five leaders who have undertaken the NPQH leadership programme. The interview questions were designed to draw out examples of any changes in the self in both behaviours and perspective as an individual and as a leader, using Transformational Learning as a lens to understand the data. The selection of the ten individuals was based upon purposive sampling with individuals selected because they met a particular criterion; they are leaders in education who have either completed an NLP practitioner course in the past three years or have completed the required NPQH qualification. The structure and content of both courses were also analysed and compared.udThe critical review of literature highlights issues surrounding the research basis for claims about NLP, and the data collection and analysis identifies differences between the two cohorts of leaders. This analysis in turn raises questions about the content and structure of leadership training courses and makes recommendations for the future development of NPQH leadership training. The thesis also suggests ways in which the NLP community could demonstrate the effectiveness of NLP with greater rigour and suggests links between content in the training courses and the development of critical self-reflection through the use of reflective journaling.