Students' views of leadership and their vision for a future school

: an institutional case study from an English independent school

Abstract

This is an institutional case study of students’ views of leadership and influence within a co-educational, 11-18yrs, independent school in England. Through my role as a researcher and as a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team, a vision for their school in the future is co-constructed with students; one that supports their desire to develop their leadership for a thriving society and a flourishing planet.

The study draws on systems theory (e.g. Senge, 1997) and uses qualitative research, adopting a bricolage approach within a case-study methodology. Twelve students were involved across the age ranges in the school, and engaged in both focus group interviews and collaborative, co-constructive activities. Additional data was sourced from institutional documents, and my own reflexive journal, all of which were analysed through a Reflexive Thematic Analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006). The participative study design aimed to empower the students, to enable their voices to be heard and their visions articulated; it also provides an example of collaboration and co-construction between different stakeholder groups within a formal school setting.

This thesis is a contribution to debates surrounding education transformation for schools in England in the 2020s. From the perspective of an English independent school, it provides insight into how students imagine their school could change to support their leadership and influence, as well as the enabling and hindering factors to the realisation of this. Emerging from the research, students described a school ‘bubble’, characterised by a bureaucratic management culture that nurtured and protected, but also restricted their abilities to engage with the outside world. In what this study positions as an emerging concept for schooling, students felt the bubble needed to become permeable to a more collaborative ‘real-world’, where leadership and influence are born out of human connection and shared purpose, and where their agency is developed through transgressive pedagogy (hooks, 2007) and expansive activity (Engeström, 2007) with other nested systems. The implications of this study are considered for educators, students, parents and for those involved in future research and policy development.

Key words: Secondary schooling; student voice; school leadership; systems leadership; educational futures

Date of Award	9 Dec 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Rafael Mitchell (Supervisor)