Results of audit

The overall outcome of this audit of completed ALTC leadership and cross-disciplinary projects is that there is evidence of a spectrum of alignment of projects to the ASERT varying from -0.44 to 1.81.

Given the diversity of projects included, they have been grouped into three categories:

Group 1: Distributed Leadership Projects that contributed to the design of the ASERT:

Table 1 Projects involved in ALTC Project 11-22: Synergies in distributed leadership

As may be expected, the four projects that underpinned the synergies project from which the ASERT was designed) each demonstrated a high degree of alignment to the ASERT. However, none of the projects showed a perfect alignment with the ASERT each fall short in some way. The GREEN project  and use of student feedback showed the highest degree of alignment. This is despite that fact that the GREEN project used distributive leadership as it underlying approach, in terms of the items in the ASERT there seemed to be very little difference between distributive and distributed leadership. The project which showed the least alignment but still positively correlated to the ASERT was on the project on online learning.

This suggests a limitation in the audit process as it relied solely upon the information provided in the written Reports. This finding provides support for the national survey that will form the second phase of this project that will enable direct responses to questions related to the ASERT.

Group 2: Projects funded as Institutional leadership –distributed leadership projects (not included in the synergies project)

Table 2 Institutional leadership –distributed

One project that was extension of one of the projects included in the synergies project (Sustaining distributive leadership in learning and teaching: cascade and perpetual effectiveness of the faculty scholar model) similarly demonstrated a high degree of alignment with the ASERT (1.5). The other two projects identified a positive alignment, although to a lesser extent. The reasons for this remains open to further analysis. discussion. a question as to whether these two projects, given their emphasis on

Group 3: Projects funded as Disciplinary leadership-national network projects

Table 3 Disciplinary leadership-national networks

The range of scores for the disciplinary leadership-national network projects was higher than for the institutional leadership – distributed category. This is perhaps not surprising as the disciplinary projects were not directly identified as focused on adopting a distributed leadership approach to building leadership capacity. In one case, in the mathematics and statistics project, the focus on the improvement in learning and teaching of mathematics and statistics appeared to subsume the focus on building leadership capacity. In the second case, the leading for effective partnering in clinical contexts project, there was a close alignment to the ASERT.