Sustaining leadership learning : the tutor and mentor voice on NPQICL

The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a programme that supports children's centre leaders to develop their own leadership capability. This research highlights the effect the particular constructivist teaching and learning methodology has had on individual tutors' and mentors' professional development. By examining the challenges they encountered whilst delivering this programme in the first year of the national 'rollout', the study explores the impact of the delivery process on tutors' and mentors' practice and its future implications. Based on narrative inquiry into their experiences during the first year, the article identifies central issues in terms of sustaining the programme's philosophy and quality, whilst at the same time retaining its fundamental responsiveness. Its conclusions demonstrate how the design of the programme has influenced the professional identities of those involved and the sustainability of transformational change across regional provider teams.