From support to strategy: middle leaders’ roles in fostering teachers’ professional learning and development in schools

This study examined the leadership practices of middle leaders with a particular focus on three roles: staff development, supervision, and strategy. The aim was to explore how these roles, together with relational practices of middle leaders, support teachers’ professional learning in primary Trust Schools in Malaysia. Employing a qualitative approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 middle school leaders in primary schools in Perlis, Malaysia and analysed using thematic analysis. Our findings reveal that middle leaders in Malaysian primary Trust Schools enact their staff development, supervisory, and strategic roles in ways that are relational and dialogic. By advocating for teachers, customising support, facilitating collaboration, modelling supervisory practice, utilising data-informed decision-making, and sustaining a culture of growth and innovation, they enable teacher professional learning in schools. This research provides important insights into recognising and strengthening the relational aspects of middle leadership as they are enablers for effective teacher professional learning and development.