Rereading Professional Capital by Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves reminded me why this book remains a staple on my shelf. Its central message is clear: putting teachers and teaching at the heart of school improvement is not optional, it’s essential.
When teachers work in isolation, improvement stalls. When they collaborate, engage in meaningful dialogue, and share responsibility for learning, schools thrive. That’s the shift this book advocates: raising the status of teachers through a professional culture built on trust and support.
Start with the Teacher
Even a struggling teacher will bring about some student growth across a year. But in a truly great school, the bar is set much higher and that starts with how we support the people in front of students every day.
Here, the role of the educational leader becomes critical. Are they visible? Do they get into classrooms, ask questions, and lead learning? Or are they buried under bureaucracy, distant from daily practice? In high-performing schools, leaders and teachers work side by side. These are not schools built on compliance, but on shared purpose.
From Good Teachers to True Professionals
Fullan and Hargreaves urge schools to do more than develop good teachers. They call for professionals who think deeply, work collectively, and lead change. But that doesn’t happen without leadership.
Educational leaders need to model the same professional learning they expect from their teachers. It’s not enough to hand out resources and hope for improvement. Real growth comes from engaged, deliberate action: professional conversations, peer observations, and shared strategy.
The Leadership Gap
The book also highlights a persistent challenge: many leaders are promoted from roles with little connection to the work of developing teachers. When leadership pathways fail to build real instructional expertise, schools suffer. And with fewer aspiring leaders in the pipeline, we risk placing managers into executive roles without the skills to lead learning.
That gap is still visible in many schools. Professional Capital reminds us that sustained improvement comes from professionals leading professionals with learning, not logistics, at the core.
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Great stuff Jake, is that your head with the regrowth?
Thanks Paddy. Great to hear from you. Sometimes the fast pace of learning requires a rethink about hairstyle!
So agree Jake. Don’t know why. ..but maybe my starting years in Cabramatta plus a business management background has had me love… but find teaching frustrating in past years. It seems to have taken most of my teaching life for the pedagogical initiatives of a student outcome, data based and collaboratively taught curriculum to at last come to the forefront. Cheers