About LEAD-IN
The Problem
School leaders in socially disadvantaged schools face significant challenges in creating equitable, inclusive, and high-quality educational environments. These schools often experience high teacher attrition, limited resources, cultural and social barriers, and lack of targeted professional development for leaders.
Some of the factors that contribute to this situation include:
- limited leadership training tailored to disadvantaged school contexts;
- high turnover rates due to burnout and insufficient support for school leaders;
- poor connection to peer networks for knowledge sharing and collaborative problem-solving;
- insufficient recognition and professional development opportunities for school leaders, leading to suboptimal educational outcomes.
The Purpose
LEAD-IN addresses the lack of targeted leadership support and professional development in socially disadvantaged schools by equipping school leaders with inclusive leadership skills, fostering collaboration, and creating networks for sustainable improvement in educational outcomes.
The Approach
The LEAD-IN approach builds upon the following principles:
- Research-Driven:
Conduct qualitative needs assessments and interviews to design tailored training programs that address the specific needs of school leaders in high-need schools.
After a thorough literature review and need assessment, the LEAD-IN consortium will develop a continuous professional development (CPD) programme. Each Teach For All partner will recruit at least 10 school leaders from disadvantaged schools to participate in the programme and develop their inclusive leadership skills. The CPD programme includes the following components:
- Capacity-building:
- developing and implementing workshops and training programs that focus on leadership, equity, and inclusion;
- providing personalised coaching and mentoring to enhance individual leadership capacities.
- Collaborating and Networking:
- facilitating peer learning through national and transnational communities of practice;
- organising two mobility activities for school leaders;
- leveraging private-sector partnerships to integrate practical insights into training.
To increase the reach and impact of the project, the partners will focus on gathering their learnings and resources and spreading them to the broader system at national and European level, following the principle of:
- Dissemination and Scalability:
- sharing guidelines, reports, and good practices through EU platforms to ensure broader impact and scalability across Member States;
- engaging policymakers, educators, and stakeholders to institutionalise the project’s outcomes.
