'We're not Sheep': Illuminating the nature of the adolescent peer group in effecting lifestyle choice

This study investigates adolescent peer leadership in the context of health and social education affecting lifestyle choice. Cognate studies are summarised and reviewed and the study reported here is referenced to prior work in this area. The paper reports on a case study of a single school during the first stage of a two-stage study. Interview data illuminate how adolescent peer group members influence and shape the dynamics of the peer group and are in turn influenced by it. This is constructed from the perspectives of the pupils themselves. It is concluded that, while prior research identifies peer leaders who influence the lifestyle choices of members of the reference group, peer leadership is essentially an adult concept. Peer leadership as such is not acknowledged by adolescents as they reflect on and make sense of the social realities of life reflected within the peer group.     

Learning to lead: Self‐ and peer evaluation of team leaders in the human structure didactic block

Increasing emphasis on leadership in medical education has created a need for developing accurate evaluations of team leaders. Our study aimed to compare the accuracy of self‐ and peer evaluation of student leaders in the first‐year Human Structure block (integrated gross anatomy, embryology, and radiology). Forty‐nine first‐year medical students at Mayo Medical School were assigned to learning teams of three or four members. Teams worked together on daily laboratory dissection, clinical projects, embryology presentations, and daily group quizzes. Student team leaders were responsible for leading laboratory dissection, reviewing radiographic findings, and organizing group assignments. Weekly electronic surveys were administered to evaluate team leaders on altruism, compassion, respect, integrity, responsibility, commitment to excellence, and self‐reflection. Results demonstrated that team leaders rated themselves lower than their peers rated them in multiple aspects of leadership. Peer evaluation of team leaders was statistically higher than self‐evaluation in all traits measured except respect. Female leaders were rated higher by their peers in the areas of responsibility and self‐reflection compared to male leaders. This study demonstrates the need for increased communication between team leaders and members, along with creation of a mutually respectful environment, to improve leader awareness of their abilities and foster team success. Anat Sci Educ 2:210–217, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Using Multimedia Cases to Invigorate School Leaders’ Organizational Learning

Creating meaningful learning opportunities for school leaders (principals, teachers, peer professionals, and community members) is a central goal of educational staff developers. Involving principals and school community leaders in the systematic study of their own context‐specific leadership challenges using digital multimedia and a perspectivist learning approach may offer potential as one technology‐integrated means for facilitating positive school community vision building and decision making. This article describes results of one prototype collaborative effort to design and use multimedia cases to invigorate school leaders’ organizational thinking and learning     

Confessions of the ‘unhealthy’ – eating chocolate in the halls and smoking behind the bus garage: teachers as health missionaries

By drawing on interviews with administrators, faculty and staff at one school in the northeastern United States, this qualitative work considers the ways in which school leaders negotiate, resist or draw upon discourses associated with health, weight, nutrition and fitness to understand and experience their own bodies and interpret their roles and responsibilities at the school. Analysis of the narratives suggest that school leaders saw themselves as public examples from which students might resist and/or mimic (ill‐)health. Further, school leaders believed that it was only through their active engagement in and display of health that they were able to effectively evangelize their commitment to the social project of self. Thus, while schools could provide an important venue for young people to experience diverse notions of health and well‐being, without a school leader’s knowledge of or commit to exploring these alternatives, this outcome is unlikely.     

Effects of Mutuality of Control Orientation between Leaders and Group Members

Abstract

This study assessed the effect of mutuality of control orientation between group leaders and group members. Mean change scores for group members were analyzed using a 2X2 factorial analysis of variance. No significant interaction between the control orientation of the group leader and the group members was found. However, there is an indication that group members classified as externals changed more than did internals. Further, group members working with external leaders became more internal than did group members whose leaders were internal.     

Unseen worlds. Looking through the lens of childhood

This case study records the voices of a group of young people from an isolated rural community as they reflect on their experiences of secondary school. The study was driven by a desire to develop an understanding of the human connections young people make (or not) at school, to help develop understandings of how schools can be better places for their students. The data reveal that the students report their school experience almost entirely as a social activity. In the context of this study it is argued that the emotional support and ‘protection’ that peer relationships seem to offer young people maybe a key element in motivating them to attend school and supporting their well-being. With the focus of schools directed by inspection, standards and marketisation agenda, the importance of these peer relationships to young people may not be fully recognised by school leaders. Acknowledgement of the importance of these interactions to the students and accommodation of these needs physically and pedagogically in school may well be a key to developing positive relations between all members of the school community.     

School Leader Appraisal — A Tool to Strengthen School Leaders' Pedagogical Leadership and Skills for Teacher Management?

With increasing school autonomy, often coupled with greater accountability requirements, school leaders are increasingly responsible for new human resource management tasks. Policies to improve the teaching workforce, therefore, cannot do without policies to improve the school leadership profession. Teachers' effectiveness depends, among others, on effective school leaders who shape teachers' working environment and influence their motivations. Furthermore, as recent research indicates, school leaders are the second most important school-level factor affecting, even if mainly indirectly through their influence on teachers, student learning after classroom instruction. Considering the role school leaders play for the effective school-level management of teachers and for teaching and learning through their pedagogical leadership, it is essential that school leaders are adequately prepared and supported for their role. As part of their school reform programmes, more and more countries have been introducing a range of evaluation and assessment policies to improve school, school leadership and teaching practices. The individual appraisal of schools leaders and teachers is a key component of evaluation and assessment policies. This article explores if, and how, individual school leader appraisal can develop school leaders' pedagogical leadership, a key element of which is teacher management. It analyses the policy approaches of several European countries and the extent to which formal frameworks in these countries focus on developing pedagogical leadership. The article concludes with ideas for policy to strengthen appraisal as a tool to improve school leaders' practices and behaviours and their competencies for pedagogical leadership and teacher management.     

The peer group as a context for the development of young adolescent motivation and achievement

This study investigated the peer group as a context for the socialization of young adolescents' motivation and achievement in school. Social network analysis was used to identify peer groups of adolescents in middle school whose members regularly interacted with each other (N = 331). Actual reports from these peer group members were used to assess peer group characteristics. Multilevel analyses indicated that peer groups did socialize some academic characteristics, controlling for selection factors. Students' peer group context in the fall predicted changes in their liking and enjoyment of school (intrinsic value) and their achievement over the school year. Students' peer group context was unrelated to changes in their beliefs about the importance of school (utility value) or expectancies for success over the school year.     

The school leader’s role in school-based development

ABSTRACT

Background: While the school leader’s role is undoubtedly instrumental in school effectiveness, the specific influence of formal leadership on pupil learning is indirect and can be difficult to determine. Research findings suggest that school leaders can influence school organisation and pupil learning by acting catalytically, thus unlocking their schools’ existing potential. In school-based development, school leaders and their staff undergo a workplace development process, using school resources to contribute to it.

Purpose: This article explores the concept of leadership in school-based development, focusing on leading teacher learning processes in relation to pupil learning. The research problem is formulated in the following question: How is the school leader’s role enacted and experienced when enhancing teachers’ learning in school-based development? The intent of the study was to further the understanding of leadership in school-based development.

Sources of information and method: A qualitative interview study was conducted with teachers and leaders from three lower secondary schools, roughly 2 years after the schools participated in a formal school-based development project which was initiated by the Norwegian education authority. To present the findings based on the collected data, narrative texts were constructed.

Findings: The findings draw attention to the importance of leaders’ participation in the teacher learning processes of school-based development. The study highlights the importance of leaders building trust in their schools: development processes must be collegium-rooted with common goals for the whole school. The interplay of culture, structure and content is found to be necessary for successful school-based development. Furthermore, school leaders need to balance internal and external accountability, moving school practices towards local goals, which are constructed within national overall aims.

Conclusions: The study suggests that leaders require an overview of developmental processes to manage to support and progress development; leadership needs to be distributed. Further research on leaders’ learning in relation to school-based development can generate knowledge that serves as a thinking tool, thereby informing leaders’ actions in support of school-based development.     

Moral Frameworks for Leaders of Gifted Programs and Services

Given the complexities of being an educational leader and, specifically, an educational leader of a gifted program or school, should there be a moral guide or framework that can inform the daily practices of leaders within an ever-changing educational context of competing demands? Should leaders of gifted programs employ the same ethos as any leader or by virtue of leading a program of a special interest group, be guided by a different, moral approach? This article posits that leaders of gifted programs and schools should operationalize an integrated approach drawing upon a variety of historical and more current theories of moral reasoning and intuition coupled with theories that draw on distributive, transformational, and situational leadership in order to make their advocacy and leadership more effective.     

Redefining leadership in schools: the Cheshire Cat as unconventional metaphor

ABSTRACT

Moving away from the study of the principal as the central leader figure in schools, this article argues for an alternative narrative for school leadership. It draws on empirical data from a doctoral study to propose a new way of thinking about the school leader through the unusual metaphor of the Cheshire Cat.

Examining the stories of 11 school leaders from one independent PK-12 Western Australian school, including middle leaders who are often absent in school leadership literature, this article provides insights into school leaders’ perceptions of themselves as leaders, and their private processes of decision making. These leader stories challenge the notion of school leadership as an archetypal story of a central figure, showing that it can instead be quiet, subtle, fluid, and even deliberately invisible.

The visible-invisible Cheshire Cat school leader enacts collective vision, action, and transformation by acting as a deliberate and skilled collaborator in a complex, networked web. This reimagined school leader is one who makes careful decisions about how to best serve their communities, how to foster trust, and how to distribute power and agency, including when to appear and disappear, when to step forward and step back, when to direct and when to empower.     

Positive Peer Support or Negative Peer Influence? The Role of Peers Among Adolescents in Recovery High Schools

Evidence from previous research suggests that peers at times exert negative influence and at other times exert positive influence on drug and alcohol use among adolescents in recovery. This study explores recovery high school staff members’ perceptions of peer support among students in recovery high schools using qualitative interview data. Themes of peer support are discussed in terms of positive peer support, negative peer influence, peer relationships, and sense of community. In general, recovery school staff members discuss peers in the school as sources of positive support and peers outside the schools as sources of risky influence. Themes and quotes are presented to highlight the diverse ways that staff members discussed peer influence. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Redesigning the role of deputy heads in Norwegian schools – tensions between control and autonomy?

A substantial body of research emphasises school leadership as a major influence on quality improvement in schools. Although numerous studies have identified the importance of the principal, fewer studies have examined the middle management level within schools, the deputy heads and assistant principals. Influenced by international trends, local education authorities in Norway have reorganised a traditional administrative deputy head role into a new role with expanded leadership responsibility for teacher staff and for performing instructional leadership. The primary objective of the present qualitative study is to provide additional insight into how deputy heads make sense of increased responsibility and power distribution as members of the leadership team and as leaders of the teachers in lower secondary schools. Drawing on focus group interviews and observations, the findings show that the reorganisation may open for a change from traditional administrative roles towards becoming learning-focused leaders. However, the findings also indicate that the shift can produce tensions between autonomy and control for the new leader role in the middle.     

A Study of Supervised and Nonsupervised Programed Instruction in the University Setting

Abstract

Thin study examined the effects of Interaction with “warm” teachers or “friendly” peer leaders on the scholastic achievement and conformance of underachievers. One experimental group of 28 seventh, ninth and tenth grade underachievers was assigned to “warm” teachers for nine months; each member of a second group of 31 underachievers was paired with a friendly peer leader for four months. Following treatment periods, experimental and control groups were compared on achievement and conformance variables. Significant differences were noted In teachers’ grades, tardinesses and severity of disciplinary offenses for the peer leader treatment and In frequency and severity of disciplinary offenses for the “warm” teacher condition.     

School leadership and special education: challenges,dilemmas and opportunities from an Australian context

This article examines the personal and professional attributes of school leaders in relation to special educational needs and disability (SEND) and assesses the extent to which these might be sufficient to give such professionals the confidence necessary to be role models for their staff. Data were collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of Australian school leaders, in both special and mainstream schools. This included principals from all sectors of the Australian school system. The study was based on the premise that school principals place as much importance on the need to be instructional leaders as they do on being managers. The study was informed by an assumption that in order to be successful as a school leader in respect of SEND, a school principal requires a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children's developmental milestones. The study found that school leaders expressed a need to develop further understanding of how to differentiate the taught curriculum in order to identify and support school‐wide quality teaching and learning processes for students with SEND.     

当前北京市中学教研组长素质状况及其影响因素研究

本研究从专业领导者素质的角度,调查分析当前北京市中学教研/备课组组长的素质状况。调研发现,教师心目中的教研/备课组长的素质基本达到了专业领导的水平,但并不十分令人满意。表现在组长拥有优秀教师的基本素质、专业领导者的多数品质,但其专业领导力尚显不足。大多数的组长认可自己的专业领导力,但认为作为专业领导者的素质仍需要提高。究其原因,本文认为学校的行政组织构架,教研组半行政半专业的组织性质,以及培训渠道狭窄等是造成组长素质有待提高,专业领导作用发挥有限的主要因素。     

From school leader to educational leader

ABSTRACT

This study builds on research which contends that just as effective principals must lead across a broad purview of responsibilities in order to build successful schools, so too must middle leaders. Decentralisation of school management has resulted in an expansion of school principals’ responsibilities, contributing to a further distribution of leadership responsibility to middle leaders. This conception of middle leadership requires a shift in understanding of the nature of middle leaders’ work. There is vast potential for middle leaders to contribute to their schools beyond subject administration, yet the research base yields limited insight on such work and on how middle leaders can be supported to accomplish it. This research finds that middle leaders who expand their leadership responsibilities do so in contexts that utilise school mission, policy enactment and organisational design as platforms for enhanced middle leadership.     

Leadership development programs: investing in school principals

Considering that some university-based principal preparation programmes may not be properly training principals for leadership roles, “grow your own” leadership development programmes have become more popular across the US. This study provides a contribution to previous research in terms of the specific components a district leadership development programme may incorporate into its curriculum in order to positively influence school principals’ effectiveness as school leaders. A purposeful sample of second-, third- and fourth-year campus principals working in a large urban school district in the south-west region of the US who had participated in their district’s leadership development programme were administered the Principal Effectiveness Survey and participated in semi-structured interviews to examine the influence of the programme on the participants’ effectiveness as leaders. Survey results indicated that principals consider training activities related to human capital, executive leadership, school culture and strategic operations as having a “high” influence on their effectiveness as school leaders. In addition, interview data revealed the importance of supervisor support and building relationships with peers as critical to their continued success as leaders.     

An Attributional Intervention to Reduce Peer-directed Aggression among African-American Boys

An attributional intervention was designed to reduce aggressive males' tendency to attribute hostile intentions to peers following ambiguously caused peer provocations. African-American elementary school boys ( N = 101), aggressive and nonaggressive, were randomly assigned to the attributional intervention, an attention training program, or a no-treatment control group. Data were collected on subjects' attributions about hypothetical and laboratory simulations of peer provocation, disciplinary referrals to the school office, and teacher ratings of aggressive behavior. Aggressive subjects in the attributional intervention were less likely to presume hostile intent by peers in hypothetical and laboratory simulations of ambiguous provocation. They were also less likely to endorse hostile retaliation on judgment measures and to engage in verbally hostile behaviors in the laboratory task. Further, intervention subjects were rated as less aggressive by their teachers following the treatment. Both the benefits of attributional change and its limitations in the African-American population are discussed.     

Peer Group Norms and Accountability Moderate the Effect of School Norms on Children's Intergroup Attitudes

The present study examined the interactive effects of school norms, peer norms, and accountability on children's intergroup attitudes. Participants (n = 229) aged 5–11 years, in a between‐subjects design, were randomly assigned to a peer group with an inclusion or exclusion norm, learned their school either had an inclusion norm or not, and were accountable to either their peer group, teachers, or nobody. Findings indicated, irrespective of age, that an inclusive school norm was less effective when the peer group had an exclusive norm and children were held accountable to their peers or teachers. These findings support social identity development theory (D. Nesdale, 2004, 2007), which expects both the in‐group peer and school norm to influence children's intergroup attitudes.