Professor Mel West
Professor of Educational Leadership
Personal Assistant: Georgia Irving
Phone: 0161 275 3785
Email: georgia.irving@manchester.ac.uk
Main research interests:
School management; school improvement; education structures and systems in developing countries, teacher development, impact of educational policy on practice .
Main teaching interests:
His work has principally been in the fields of school management and school improvement. In the mid-nineteen eighties, he was one of the architects of the influential Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) programme. This programme, which is still going strong in several parts of the world, has been used by some hundreds of schools, and has become one of the most widespread approaches to school development. He has contributed to school improvement and management development programmes in Iceland , Laos , Chile , Hong Kong , China , Puerto Rico and Malawi , working with a number of international agencies including the British Council, DfID, OECD, UNESCO and Save the Children. Current projects include school improvement programmes in Beijing (DfID funded) and Hong Kong (Hong Kong Education Ministry) and a headteacher development programme in the West of China (APEC). He is also co-directing the Leadership Development Unit, set up by the DfES and the National College for School Leadership, to support schools and LEAs facing challenging circumstances.
International experience:
Chile, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Laos, Malawi, Norway, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, USA.
Selected recent publications:
'Working with the Grain - Creating a Sustainable Improvement Model for the Self-managing School' in International Handbook of Educational Change, Ed Fullan, M. (1998), Kluwer
'Micropolitics and All That - Increasing the Micropolitical Skills and Awareness of School Leaders' (1999) in School Leadership and Management, Vol 19, No 2
'Leadership for Sustained School Improvement' with Jackson, D. (2000) in Perspectives on School Leadership, Myers, K. and Seashore Louis, K. (eds),
Open University Press
'Supporting School Improvement: Observations on the Inside, Reflections from the Outside' (2000) in School Leadership and Management, Vol 20, No 1
'Creating the Conditions for School Improvement' with Ainscow, M., Beresford, B., Harris, M., Hopkins , D.S. (2001), David Fulton
'Developing School Leaders: A Critical Review of Current Practices, Approaches and Issues and Some Directions for the Future' with Huber, S. (2002) in Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration Leithwood, Hallinger (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers
'What Leaders Read: Key Texts from Education and Beyond' with Ainscow, M., and Notman, H., (2003), National College for School Leadership
'Reconceptualizing School Effectiveness and Improvement' with Hopkins , D., (2003) in Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management, Davies, B., and West-Burnham, J., (eds), Pearson Longman
'Sustaining Improvement in Schools in Challenging Circumstances: a Study of Successful Practice' with Ainscow, M., and Stanford, J. (in press) in School Leadership and Management