Paying attention to moral purpose in leading learning: Lessons from the leaders transforming learning and learners project

The Leaders Transforming Learning and Learners (LTLL) project explores the ways in which moral purpose, authentic learning and educative leadership work together in schools to transform the lives of learners, making use of a conceptual framework that embraces these elements. This article takes up the issue of how schools view their moral purpose, what they see as evidence of their endeavours in this area, and how these perceptions change over time. A team from each of the 11 participating schools completed a reflection instrument on commencement, and towards the end of their formal engagement with the project. Two major sections of this instrument tap into aspects of moral purpose: values and ethics. The article summarizes and analyses school perceptions of six of the LTLL schools both before and after the LTLL intervention, and examines changes which took place as a consequence of participation in this important dimension of school life. Broadly speaking, over the course of the program perceptions of the extent to which moral purpose was being realized were more positive, and a wider range of types of evidence was utilized. Within this overall pattern, however, there were some variations in individual schools.