A school leaders’ professional development project The first year: Progress in researching the professional development needs of secondary school headteachers

Ted Wadsworth is a professional counsellor, educator and trainer. He has taught and counselled in schools for many years before taking up his present position in 1976, and has had a long‐standing interest in the personal and social development of adolescents, a sympathy for their teachers and headteachers and a concern for the organizational health of secondary schools. He has concerns also for equity in education and a desire to see much greater participation by minority groups in a more empowering form of education. As a counsellor educator he has had many contacts with schools and headteachers and has worked to integrate counselling and pastoral care within schools as organizations.

This paper describes the first stage of an investigation into the professional development needs of secondary school heads. The time period is November 1986 to November 1987. The aims of the research are to ascertain what professional development needs the heads have and what strategies might be used to meet them. The style of the investigation is ethnographic and action research. The researcher convened and ran seminars/workshops for the heads, their deputies and sometimes other school leaders twice a term for the year, acted as a consultant to two heads and conducted a school development exercise (in the school of one of the heads to whom he was a consultant). Also 12 heads were interviewed in depth about their professional development needs. Finally, a questionnaire was developed from the total findings and sent to all 60 heads in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Central Plateau areas. A two‐year programme for school leaders was developed and has already commenced.     

School psychological services: An empirical comparison of two models

In this study, the traditional diagnostic model of school psychological services was compared with the emerging consultant service model. The study was conducted in an effort to determine the effectiveness of each model in working with teachers in the elementary grades. The two delivery systems were evaluated by comparing them on two variables: (a) the number of school days that elapse from the time of referral until the teacher receives feedback, and (b) the effectiveness of the recommendations as measured by brief questionnaires. The results revealed that the consultant model with its de-emphasis on the administration of time-consuming tests resulted in more immediate feedback for teachers. Responses to the follow-up questionnaires revealed that the consultant service model was as effective, if not more effective, in the teachers' perceptions, when comparing the effectiveness of the recommended intervention strategies. Although the data are more favorable for the consultant service model, they are not conclusive. Since each model meets some teachers' needs, a merging of these two approaches seems more justifiable than abandoning one model in favor of the other.     

Intervening with school problems: A family systems perspective

Viewing children's behavior from a systems perspective allows the school-based consultant an expanded perception of the contextual function of the behavior. The two key systems in a child's life, home and school, often overlap, and what occurs in one system can affect the child's behavior in the other system. By considering the relationships of the child to both home and school, a more holistic view of the child is obtained, and greater opportunity for family involvement is provided. This article explains the differences between systemic and linear approaches to behavior, and provides examples of how the school-based consultant can intervene from a systems perspective, using interviews, short-term family counseling, and teacher consultation. Issues and cautions about using a systemic approach are presented, and the need for data-based research is explored.     

Taking a Return to School: Using Self-Study to Learn about Teacher Educator Practice

The work of teacher educators is complex and multifaceted and requires knowledge of pedagogy and practice in both schools and teacher education institutions. This complexity, combined with calls for teacher educators to work in close partnership with schools, sees some in teacher education working in hybrid roles and across the boundaries of schools and universities. Drawing on a self-study conducted over a one-year return to teaching, I explore my return home to teach in a secondary school and I examine the continuing impact of this experience on my practice as a teacher educator. Using the concept of tensions as a conceptual framework to analyse the data I explore three tensions in this article: (1) teacher as technician versus teacher as pedagogue; (2) challenging versus being responsive to other’s views of learning; and (3) teacher versus teacher educator identity. I explore how a return to teaching in school and the tensions I experienced enabled me to develop my practice and understandings as a teacher educator. I argue that rich professional learning can result from using self-study to examine teacher educator practice, particularly for teacher educators working in hybrid roles and partnership contexts.     

学校发展视阈中的校长素养提升之路

校长素养的构成,决定于学校发展。学校的内涵发展呼唤校长追求教育家的境界,而外在发展要求校长认同经营家的角色。中学校长素养是教育家素养与经营家素养的整合。守望教育理想、提升实践创新能力、陶冶人格操守是校长的教育家素养提升之路,而知人善任、多谋善断、协调公关三方面能力的养成则是校长经营家素养提升的着力点。     

A Review of: “Practical Theology: On Earth as It Is in Heaven”

The nature of adult religious education has been expanding in recent years, requiring adult religious educators to be more flexible and expansive in their practice. This article describes how the traditional “expert” role of the educator can no longer be the only role or image of an adult religious educator; rather, to be a good adult educator requires that one be more of a learning consultant, operating within a matrix or kaleidoscope of roles.     

班主任对学生家庭教育进行指导的策略研究

家庭教育和学校教育是学生接受的两种最为重要的外部教育。班主任作为学生的直接教育者,是沟通学校和家庭的桥梁。班主任应该对家长的教育思想、教育方法给予必要的指导,使家庭和学校的教育形成合力,使每位学生都能健康成长。文章从实践出发,论述了家庭教育中存在的主要问题,以及班主任对家庭教育指导的必要性和指导的有效策略。     

Perspectives on working with parents of handicapped children

Several different approaches to working with parents of handicapped children have developed over the years out of a broad range of perspectives. This review of literature examines perspectives from the early 1960s, from the stage theorists' point of view, and from current research in family/child/environment interactions. Implications for school psychologists to enhance relationships with parents through a broader understanding of this literature are discussed.     

Structural and strategic approach to school phobia/school refusal

Different theoretical approaches to school phobia/school refusal are reviewed briefly. A structural and strategic approach is presented in which school phobia and school refusal are viewed as two ends of a continuum of progression from “involuntary” symptoms on one end to “willful” refusal on the other. In later stages of school phobia/school refusal, the symptom becomes no longer a fear response, but takes on a protective function for the entire family. A treatment case is reported to demonstrate the strategies of reestablishing the proper parent-child hierarchy, strengthening the sibling subsystem within the family and increasing the involvement of peripheral family members, and establishing positive links with the school system, as well as the principles of effective case management. A vigorous and intensive treatment of school phobia/school refusal is advocated.     

The role of National Strategy Behaviour and Attendance consultants with regard to training and professional development in special educational needs

The year 2003 saw Behaviour and Attendance (B&A) consultants beginning work across the country, supporting (mostly) mainstream secondary schools. They are part of an extensive advisory team which is instrumental in improving standards in schools through the Government's Secondary National Strategy. Their brief was to develop and improve the systems, strategies and approaches for managing and improving behaviour and attendance, and thereby have a positive impact on learning and attainment. This approach has been confirmed in the fourth Steer Report which highlights improving behaviour and attainment via better understanding and provision for special educational needs and additional needs in mainstream schools. Each B&A consultant draws on their own strengths and strategies to work with school staff at many levels and support a wide range of focuses; some draw on their extensive experience of working with special educational needs and additional needs. This article provides an illustration of the role of such consultants specifically in relation to training and professional development in special educational needs or additional needs. It covers areas such as staff support, school management and systems, use of data and, of course, the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL).     

Teacher Educator Identity Development of the Nontraditional Teacher Educator

The development of a professional teacher educator identity has implications for how one negotiates the duties of a teacher, scholar, and learner. The research on teacher educator identity in the USA has been largely conducted on traditional teacher educators, or those who have started their careers as public school teachers and then went on to the collegiate level as teacher educators. This auto-ethnography considers the professional identity formation of a nontraditional teacher educator, one whose professional career did not include a career as a public school teacher. Although there are common influences on professional development between the traditional and nontraditional teacher educator, such as biography, institutional contexts, and personal pedagogy, there are significant differences in the process as those influences are experienced. This research proposes an extended process for nontraditional teacher educators, including the search for legitimacy and belonging in the community of educators.     

Instruments for Determining Reaction of Students,Parents, and Teachers to the Program of a Regional Hebrew High School

The rabbi-educator relationship is a major concern to the Jewish educator. The quality of the working relationship fluctuates from synagogue to synagogue. In some congregations it is excellent. However, in most synagogues the rabbi-educator working relationship is far from satisfactory. Many talented and creative educators have left congregational education in order to escape the tension and frustration associated with congregational school administration.     

Corporate practices and ethical tensions: Researching social justice values and neoliberal paradoxes in a ‘no excuses’ charter school

In recent years, there has been growing debate over the corporatisation of schooling, specifically the managerial practices of expanding charter school networks in the USA, often referred to as charter management organisations (CMOs). By definition, CMOs are consistently high-performing, well-financed networks of small schools operating in urban spaces, which adhere to a very specific ‘no excuses’ (NE) model of education in serving primarily students of colour living in poverty. This article is an autoethnographic account of my work as a leader in a CMO, which I theorise as a neoliberal project. We know very little of how neoliberal policies and ideologies are enacted in daily school life. I consider how the ethical responsibility of an educator is positioned within the daily practices and lived experience of leaders and educators working in a CMO. In focusing on my own ethical tensions, the article captures how this corporatised model of schooling influenced my values as an educator, my conflicted sense of social justice and the emotional labour of enacting a model of schooling founded on surveillance and accountability.     

Bilingual Speech-Language Pathology Consultants In Culturally Diverse Schools: Considerations On Theoretically-Based Consultee Engagement

Culturally and linguistically diverse students develop in bilingual and bicultural environments, often not fully understood or acknowledged in testing. To increase diagnostic accuracy in these circumstances, official guidelines mandate the use of unbiased assessment procedures and multidisciplinary diagnostic input. "Bilingual speech-language pathologists" (BSLPs) are consultants on the multidisciplinary school teams evaluating bilingual students. BSLPs gather crucial diagnostic data to distinguish language differences from genuine language deficits. This article describes the consultant role of school BSLPs as consultant—consultee partnerships guided by bilingualism principles. The article discusses theoretical principles of bilingualism, applies such principles to engage consultees as key diagnostic informants, and concludes with implications of consultant—consultee collaborations in bilingual speech-language services and a diagnostic framework for consultant BSLPs in schools.     

Refugee education and justice issues of representation,redistribution and recognition

This paper examines justice issues of representation, redistribution and recognition within a specialised secondary school for immigrant and refugee students in Queensland, Australia. Fraser’s three-dimensional model of justice – towards the ideal of ‘participatory parity’ – is drawn on to analyse interview data gathered from a study that sought to identify productive approaches to addressing cultural diversity. Through these lenses, injustices created by mainstream/dominant discourses within and beyond the school are highlighted. The paper details the school’s efforts to support greater equity for these students through educator advocacy, critically reflective practice and a centring of students’ perspectives. The significance of educators identifying and challenging the limits and exclusions of these discourses to support these efforts is highlighted. Fraser’s theorising is presented as useful in capturing, understanding and addressing justice and marginality in schools amid the broader social context where matters of justice are characterised by uncertainty, complexity and contention.     

体育锻炼对高三学生心理健康的影响

通过问卷调查的形式对当前高三学生进行调查,探讨体育锻炼对高中毕业学生心理健康的影响。结果发现,高三毕业班学生中有轻度心理障碍者大约占10%,高考和家庭的压力是造成高中毕业生心理障碍的主要原因。体育运动是一种积极的心理卫生措施,参加体育锻炼的形式和内容对他们的心理状况各有不同的影响。为此,体育教学者应根据实际制定出更加切实的教学计划并付诸实施。     

Not with a bang but a whisper: Mental health consultation with a selectively mute child

This article describes the role of the mental health and educational consultant in the case of a 5-year-old selectively mute child in Head Start. The syndrome of selective mutism is defined as well as the challenges of the consultant in preschool. Strategies implemented in the interdisciplinary work with the teachers, parent, speech therapist and child are described in detail. The implications suggest that the more flexible and adaptive the consultant, the more accepted he or she will be within the school environment.     

Designing Rural School Improvement Networks: Aspirations and Actualities

Rural school educators are often isolated and have few opportunities to learn from neighboring schools or colleagues. This is an especially daunting challenge for low-performing rural schools faced with implementing significant reform efforts (e.g., turnaround approaches, educator effectiveness systems, college- and career-ready standards and assessments). This paper discusses the design and start-up of a large-scale project to connect “like with like” rural and remote schools within the northwest region of the United States to identify and share promising and innovative school reform practices. The authors present a network design framework based on previous work supporting and studying similar educational networks for innovation and improvement in the United States and beyond. They also present lessons learned about designing and launching a network that others might consider when initiating a school improvement network.     

教师教育者:内涵、身份认同及其角色研究

教师教育者是指教师的教师,既包括基础教育阶段中的教师教育者,也包括中等师范层面和高等教师教育机构中的教师教育者。教师教育者模糊的身份认同是教师教育者专业发展的重要阻力之一。教师教育者是教师教育知识的生产者、教师专业发展的引领者以及教师教育文化的推动者。教师教育者角色的探究是增强教师教育者身份认同的重要途径,也是教师教育者从事教师教育工作的逻辑前提。