Pathways, steps and STAIRS: A study of the impact of developing teacher professional learning for senior and middle school leaders in the digital environment

Vanessa Goucher, School Improvement Professional, School Development Service, Northern Ireland Education Authority, UK SITUATION (S in the STAIR model)  Senior and middle leaders in schools in Northern Ireland have the opportunity to register for a professional learning course to develop their leadership skills. ‘Steps into Leadership’ for middle leaders and ‘Senior Leadership Pathways’ for senior leaders have been devised and delivered by the Leadership Management and Governance (LMG) team from the Education Authority’s (EA’s) School Development Service (SDS) and offered in various models of delivery since 2010.  The LMG team, working under priorities established by the Department for Education, are committed to ‘build leadership capacity at all levels’ (Department for Education for Northern Ireland, 2016, policy commitment 10), along with other leadership opportunities provided by the EA. ‘Pathways’ and ‘Steps’ are very popular courses, with 350 teac