Dr Deirdre Torrance
- Senior Research Fellow in Educational and School Leadership (Educational Leadership & Policy)
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9223-6701Biography
Dr Deirdre Torrance is Senior Research Fellow in Educational and School Leadership (part-time) in the School of Education. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh where, until recently, she was Senior Lecturer and lead expert in the field of educational leadership in the School of Education. Deirdre held the contemporaneous posts of Director of Teacher Education Partnerships; Director of the Masters in Educational Leadership and Management; and Co-Director of the Masters in Leadership and Learning. She has a substantial professional background across primary, secondary and special education, as well as local government, developing important perspectives in educational leadership and leadership development. As Director of Teacher Education Partnerships, she was instrumental in securing a large number of significant grants to support innovative partnership developments, and to expand Masters level learning opportunities across the professional development spectrum. Deirdre continues to be engaged in a number of collaborative research and writing projects. Her primary research interests include leadership preparation, school leadership and management, teacher leadership, middle leadership, distributed leadership (PhD focus completed in 2012) and social justice leadership. She is the lead researcher for the Scottish contribution to the BELMAS UCEA international research project, International School Leadership Development Network. Deirdre is also the lead researcher for the Scottish contribution to the BELMAS Comparative Review of Educational Leadership and Administration in the United Kingdom.
Research interests
Dr Torrance is engaged in a number of collaborative research and writing projects. Her primary research interests include career-long professional learning, with a particular focus on leadership preparation; school leadership and management, teacher leadership, middle leadership, distributed leadership; and social justice leadership. Deirdre is a principal researcher for the Scottish contribution to the BELMAS UCEA International School Leadership Development Network (2013 – ongoing). She has a key role in the overall project and is principal researcher for the Scottish contribution to this international research project and in particular, the Social Justice Leadership strand, involving researchers in over twenty countries. The ISLDN research project seeks to better understand how conceptualisations of social justice are articulated by school leaders, and how such articulations inform the actions of school leaders. Moreover, it seeks to better understand what school leaders do when there exists a dislocation between their own sense of social justice and, for example, the notions of social justice articulated in policy discourses. The project is sponsored by the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (UK), and by the University Council on Educational Administration (USA). Dr Torrance is also a principal researcher for the BELMAS Comparative Review of Educational Leadership and Administration in the United Kingdom (2017 – ongoing). She has a key role in the overall project and principal role for the Scottish contribution to this comparative review across the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, which is funded by the British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society.
Grants
2017-2018
Awarded as project lead role, £108,000 of Scottish Government funding to develop the new national ‘Into Headship’ programme for aspirant headteachers.
2017-2018
Awarded as project lead role, £142,516 of Scottish Government funding to support increased opportunities for teachers to undertake professional learning at Masters level through a number of innovative initiatives.
2016-2017
Awarded as project lead role, £90,000 of Scottish Government funding to develop the new national ‘Into Headship’ programme for aspirant headteachers.
2016-2017
Awarded as project lead role, £131,600 of Scottish Government funding to support increased opportunities for teachers to undertake professional learning at Masters level through a number of innovative initiatives.
2015-2017
Awarded as project lead role, £48,000 of Scottish Government funding to develop the new national ‘Into Headship’ programme for aspirant headteachers.
2015-2018
Awarded as project lead role, £186,782 of Scottish Government funding to support increased opportunities for teachers to undertake professional learning at Masters level through a number of innovative initiatives.
2015
Awarded as expert consultant £1,000 to complete analysis work for the new national headship programme for the Scottish College for Educational Leadership.
2014
Awarded as project co-lead role together with colleagues from the Business School and the School of Social and Political Science £1,100 of University of Edinburgh Innovative Learning Week Funding for the ‘Inviting Venture Philanthropist to the Ivory Tower’ initiative.
2014-2015
Awarded as project lead role, £118,325 of Scottish Government funding to support career-long professional learning including Masters-level learning.
2014-2016
Awarded as project lead role, £147,552 of Scottish Government funding to facilitate an increase in Masters-level learning.
2014-2017
Awarded in a project support role for £271,416 of Scottish Government funding to support Early Phase professional learning.
2013
Awarded as principal expert £12,000 to develop and deliver teacher leadership; Faculty PT leadership; and Headship CPD across Midlothian Council, developing its Local Authority educational leadership strategy.
2013
Awarded, as co-principal (with Dr Gillian Robinson) £159,000 ‘to support increased Masters level study by teachers’.
2013
Awarded, as co-principal (with Dr Gillian Robinson) £109,440 in ‘to support increased Masters level study by teachers’.
2013
Awarded as principal expert £2,400 to develop and deliver Faculty PT leadership CPD across Midlothian Council, developing its Local Authority educational leadership strategy.
2012
Awarded as principal expert £8,400 to develop and deliver Teacher Leadership CPD across Midlothian Council, developing its Local Authority educational leadership strategy.
2010
Awarded as principal investigator £3,000 as consultant to Fife Council, developing its Local Authority educational leadership strategy.
2007
Awarded £1,772 as a project team member for a research project commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland, Headteachers’ Professional Development: provision, barriers and needs.
2007
Awarded, as co-principal investigator (with Prof. Jim O’Brien) £126,100 for the ‘DARE pilot to develop alternative routes to achieving the Standard for Headship’.
Awarded, together with Dr Jim O’Brien, Tony van der Kuyl and Alex Alexandrou an undisclosed amount from Highland Council funding for the project ‘Quality Indicators of Leadership: QuIL’.
Supervision
I am able to supervise doctoral theses relating to educational leadership and management, related to my areas of research interest as outlined above. Specific areas include:
- headteacher / principal development
- developing early / teacher leadership
- developing middle leadership
- school leadership and management
- social justice leadership
- women in leadership
- school improvement processes
- Professional Standards
Teaching
My current contract is research only. Previously, in my role at the University of Edinburgh, I taught on several Masters courses and was also engaged in PhD supervision. Most of my teaching was related to the programmes I was Co-Director and Director for: the Masters in Leadership and Learning; the PG Certificate in Leadership and Learning: Into Headship (Specialist Qualification for Headship); the PG Certificate in Developing Educational Leadership and Learning (Teacher Leadership).
External Examiner
2018-2019: External Examiner to the University of Glasgow's School of Education, for the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) programme.
Since 2019: External Examiner to the University of Coventry's School of Education, for the new PhD in Global Education programme.
Additional information
International Invitations:
September 2015 - ongoing: Member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Intercultural Studies in Education series published by Palgrave McMillian. The Editorial Advisory Board reflects the interdisciplinary nature and global reach of the series (including new markets from the global south). The Board serves as expert advisors, reviewers, and conduits for identifying potential authors for the series.
February 2018: International Guest Scholar for the University of Tennessee’s ‘Comparative Studies in Global Leadership’ Programme.
April 2016: Appointment as resident visiting academic to the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
August 2015: Nominated for the William Evans Fellowship, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
July 2015: Member of the Invited Experts Panel. BELMAS 2015 Conference, Wokefield Park, Berkshire, UK.
July 2013: Represented SELMAS at the BELMAS Inaugural International Congress of Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Societies.
Media/ Press:
During February 2015, together with Dr Rowena Arshad, Deirdre featured in the Universities public blog entries and a number of India media opportunities, representing the School of Education and the University in its efforts to stage its most ambitious series of events in India. One example: Arshad, R. and Torrance, D. (2015) Where are the women leaders in higher education? EDU Teach Article (For Leaders in Higher Education).
Deirdre has been quoted in a number of GTCS and TESS articles over the years. She also wrote an article for TESS: Humes, W. and Torrance, D. (2013) All aboard the leadership bandwagon?
Deirdre was also quoted in a FEdS Report in January 2012: The Scotland Briefing under teacher employment, education and development. FEdS Consultancy Group.
On 18 September 2013, Deirdre was interviewed by David Noble on the subject of distributed leadership (broadcast, then downloadable podcast): 'The Problematic Nature of Distributed Leadership'. Guest interviewee for Radio Edutalk (http://www.edutalk.info).