Governance, leadership, and management in federations of schools

In England, federations are defined as groups of schools that have a formal agreement to collaborate with the aim of raising achievement and promoting inclusion and innovation. This paper presents a number of findings from the case study strand of a 3-year study investigating the impact of 37 federations (see Lindsay et al., 2007). Maximum variation sampling (Maykutt & Morehouse, 1994) was used to select 10 case study federations. Key stakeholders were interviewed during 3 rounds of field visits. Documentary evidence from each case provided important contextual information and provided a source of triangulation. Within- and between-case analyses from case studies (Miles & Huberman, 1994) highlighted a number of key themes, patterns, and trends that have implications for the development of collaborative strategies attempting to restructure and reculture schools and their communities. This paper explores issues of leadership, management, and governance in federations. Findings suggest localised ownership and control of the process within the context of interdependent relationships have supported the development of a range of models of governance, leadership, and management in school federations.