Investigating instructional leadership in Kuwait's educational reform context: school leaders’ perspectives

This study explores the practices of Kuwaiti school principals acting as instructional leaders during education reforms, using qualitative content analysis of standardised open-ended interviews with 28 randomly selected school principals. The results showed that principals faced obstacles related to the deeply-ingrained centralised structure in the Ministry of Education, whose mandates conflicted with the stated goal of building principals’ capacity. There were variations in instructional leadership dimensions, including defining the school’s mission, managing the instructional programme, and creating a positive climate for teaching and learning. A gradual, planned decentralisation is recommended to improve educational leadership practices in Kuwait.     

How do principals make sense of school leadership in Norwegian reorganised leadership teams?

A growing body of research has emphasised the importance of school leadership practice for quality improvement in schools. Yet, little attention has been paid to the investigation of how principals reshape their leadership role and leadership practices when schools reorganise the leadership team with the purpose of increasing the number of formally assigned leaders. As such, this study provides additional insight into how moments of transitions may reshape institutional logics regarding principal leadership practice. Drawing on interviews and contextual observations of five principals in lower secondary schools, framed within a distributed perspective and theory of sense-making, we address this issue by demonstrating that regulative changes influence the normative and cognitive aspects of institutions. We argue that principals re-conceptualise leadership when they move from being solo leaders to sharing leadership, and this allows for subjective interpretations. We have identified two approaches for principal leadership practice which the reorganised leadership team can provide – the exchanging information – and collaborative discussion approaches.     

A shift in Hong Kong principals ’ leadership conceptions

Schools in Hong Kong are now undergoing many educational reforms. With so many ideas and demanding tasks ahead, principals have been expected to bear the responsibility for implementing change. In 1991, the leadership of Hong Kong principals was described as “dictatorial” in a government document, which painted a bleak picture of the leadership being offered by Hong Kong principals at that time. However, this recent study showed that teachers perceived that principals as exerting some degree of transformational leadership in schools. All the eight dimensions of the leadership were above the mid-point on the rating scale. It seems that there is a shift in Hong Kong primary school principals leadership conceptions. This paper describes the extent to which teachers perceived their principal ’s to be exercising transformational leadership. Issues concerning principal development are discussed.     

A feel for the game – a Bourdieuian analysis of principal leadership: a study of Queensland secondary school principals

Educational leadership discourse has for sometime been the major intellectual pillar of what was once known as the field of educational administration. An examination of the postgraduate coursework programmes available to aspiring principal leaders at every Australian university supports such a contention. While this discourse does shed light on the ubiquitous concept of leadership, it does little to explain the context in which leadership theory is supposed to contribute to the operational environment of schools. This is where Bourdieuian scholarship is particularly helpful. By shedding light on the complex social space in which principal leaders function, Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital are particularly helpful thinking tools. For a variety of reasons the economic field has held philosophical dominance for much of the last 30 years. This has impacted significantly on the work space of principal leadership and needs to be understood if the familiar narratives of leadership theory are to be of contextual use. When investigating the social space of contemporary principal leadership, my recent study of two sets of Queensland‐based principals will be used. The emergence of enterprise bargaining into the workspace of these principals will be used as a means by which to demonstrate the cross‐field contagion of the economic field on to the field of schools. The paper contends that the field of educational administration must endeavour to view leadership theory critically and contextually if the complexities associated with contemporary principal leadership practice are to be understood.     

Leading professional learning in an Australian secondary school through school‐university partnerships

As the limitations of one‐off and disconnected professional learning programs for teachers are recognised, there is widespread interest in building learning communities and professional learning teams within schools. When considering how to build local learning communities, school and university partnerships are seen as offering rich possibilities for transformative professional action. Set in the context of the international agenda of “Education For All” (UNESCO, 2005 UNESCO. (2005). Education for all: Global monitoring project. Retrieved January 8, 2007, from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php‐URL_ID=36004&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=36004&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)  [Google Scholar]) a model of sustained on‐going professional learning, developed in one large secondary school in Australia, is analysed. The social practices that generate action and participation for partnership members are then scrutinised for the legitimacy of school‐university partnerships and the contribution to enhancing teacher learning.     

Contextualising change through a common strategy: Lecturers’ perceptions and key role in supporting academic reform

European universities are currently going through a process of change in order to meet the common goals set for higher education by the European Commission. They are revising their educational models to adjust them to the guidelines of the “Bologna Process” and are devising an institutional strategy for its implementation. In practical terms, this means aligning former national degrees and diplomas to standard European Bachelor and Masters degrees and PhD doctorates, by creating acknowledged professional qualification benchmarks that also include adjusted course lengths and contents. This process, in the end, mostly affects academic staff members who have a fundamental role to play in carrying out the pedagogical reforms on the teaching front. Besides presenting a commentary on the institutional approach of one particular technical university in Spain, the purpose of this paper is to propose, from the authors’ point of view as lecturers, a strategy which has the potential to create a favourable atmosphere for carrying out such a reform. The article’s main objective is to highlight a series of action points which may serve to reinforce and advance the main institutional strategy by relying on the powerful influence of its academic staff members.     

Teachers’ and principals’ reflections on student participation in a school science and technology competition

Background The European Union asks for renewed pedagogies in schools according to teaching strategies and necessary competences for the twenty-first century, instead of the often-used transmissive pedagogies. The national Swedish competition in science and technology for grade eight, The Technology Eight, provides an opportunity for teachers to work with instructional strategies in line with suggested pedagogies.

Purpose To investigate teachers’ and principals’ reflections on the competition in schools.

Sample Seventeen secondary school teachers and three principals from districts in the south-western part of Sweden participated in the study. All teachers had long experience of the competition, and their classes had reached at least the regional finals during the last year.

Design and methods Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then analysed using content analysis. Focus was put on why the teachers decided to participate, how the teachers integrated the competition in their education and roles of the principals.

Results There were various reasons for participating in the competition. Teachers reported development of twenty-first-century skills such as better cooperation between the students. They also noticed an increased interest in science and technology and how learning in the subjects was stimulated. Furthermore, the teachers found participation in the competition to be positive for them too. They integrated the competition in ordinary education and gained teaching ideas as well as found connections to the curriculum. Participating in the competition seemed to be a tradition in most of the schools. The principals’ role was to facilitate the organisation around the competition and to provide social support.

Conclusions Participation in a school competition was considered as an instructional strategy with several positive outcomes. Use of this strategy can be supported by earlier suggestions to use pedagogies that are opposite to transmissive methods, enhancing students’ development of important skills for the future.     

The reflexive adaptations of school principals in a ‘local’ South African space

This paper is an analysis of the work of three principals in an impoverished black township in post‐apartheid South Africa. Based on qualitative approaches, it discusses the principals’ entry into the township, and their navigation of their schools’ surrounding social dynamics. It combines the lenses of ‘space’ and ‘performance’ to analyse the reflexive basis on which they establish their principal roles. The paper suggests that their identities as principals were established in light of a range of engaged pedagogical performances. It is argued that these were enacted based on nuanced readings of their discursive environment and the enactment of strategic practices that provided them an authoritative platform for their principal roles.     

Framing research on school principals’ identities

This paper provides a basis for a tentative framework for guiding future research into principals’ identity construction and development. It is situated in the context of persisting emphases placed by government policies on the need for technocratic competencies in principals as a means of demonstrating success defined largely as compliance with demands for the improvement in student test scores. Often this emphasis is at the expense of forwarding a broader view of the need, alongside these, for clear educational values, beliefs and practices that are associated with these. The framework is informed by the theoretical work of Wenger and Bourdieu as well as recent empirical research on the part played by professional identity and emotions in school leadership. In the paper, we highlight different lines of inquiry and the issues they raise for researchers. We argue that the constructions of school leadership identities are located in time, space and place, and emotions reflect complex leadership identities situated within social hierarchies which are part of wider structures and social relations of power and control.     

Understanding change through a high school mathematics teacher’s journey to inquiry-based teaching

This article focuses on an experienced high school mathematics teacher who changed her practice without participating in planned interventions aimed at producing this change. It reports on the nature of the teacher’s change from her perspective and an interpretation and understanding of the change from the researcher’s perspective. It illustrates how meaningful change can occur when the process is initiated and rooted in the teacher’s experience based on a tension in self and/or practice that is personal and real to him or her. It discusses three types of change that are possible depending on the level of engagement of the teacher in professional development opportunities: instrumental change, conceptual change, and foundational change.     

A follow-up study on vocational high school principals’ opinions about 360 degree evaluation feedback and their leadership effectiveness and behavior change

Asia Pacific Education Review - This pilot study revealed that most vocational high school principals accept using 360 degree evaluation feedback as the mechanism for evaluating leadership...     

Teachers’ innovative change within countrywide reform: a case study in Rwanda

This article presents practical perspectives on mathematics teacher change through results of collaborative research with two mathematics secondary school teachers in order to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwanda. The 2006 national mathematics curriculum reform stresses pedagogies that enhance problem-solving, critical thinking and argumentation. Teachers need to use new teaching strategies. This article is a case study looking at issues around developing teachers’ use of interactions in mathematics classrooms independently of the national programme. Outputs of the study include teachers’ awareness of the need for change and their increased flexibility to accept learners’ autonomy in shifting from teacher-centred to learner-centred pedagogy. Geometer’s Sketchpad challenged teachers’ practice and then provoked reflection to improve student learning.     

Leading with teachers’ emotional labour: relationships between leadership practices,emotional labour strategies and efficacy in China

Emotional labour has been demonstrated to play a critical role in teaching and leading in the past decade. This study explored the relationships between leadership practices, emotional labour and teacher self-efficacy, with a focus on the mediating role of emotional labour strategies. A sample of 1026 teachers from 3 provinces in China participated in a questionnaire survey. The results show that leadership practices had a negative effect on surface acting and positive effects on deep acting, expression of natural felt emotion and all three aspects of teacher efficacy. Mediation analysis indicates that surface acting and expression of natural felt emotion significantly mediate the effects of leadership practices on teaching efficacy. Implications for school leadership and teacher development are discussed.     

The effects of principals’ perceived instructional and distributed leadership practices on their perceptions of school climate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which leadership styles predict school climate, in order to identify whether a relationship exists between principals’ perceived practices of instructional and distributed leadership and their perceptions of school climate (mutual respect and school delinquency), controlling for a net of principal and school characteristics. This research was conducted on a principal data-set from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which was administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Several linear regression models with and without the country controlled dummy variables were conducted, respectively. Results indicated that principals’ perceived distributed and instructional leadership practices are significant predictors of staff mutual respect in the school. Nevertheless, such leadership styles did not appear as important factors for school delinquency and violence. School size and socio-economic status turned out to be the two most important factors predicting school safety. These results add nuance to the findings of previous studies that principals’ emphasis on instructional practice and sharing leadership can play a significant role in promoting the trust, collegiality and respect among staff. However, more than such leadership styles may be needed for creating a safe and orderly school environment.     

School principals’ leadership skills: measurement equivalence across cultures

Despite substantial interest and research in measuring leader’s skills, little is known about the measurement equivalence and mean differences in the scores measuring principals’ skills (cognitive, interpersonal, strategic) across cultures (collectivism versus individualism). The aim of the present study was to assess measurement equivalence – configural, metric and scalar – on leaders’ skills across Arab and Jewish teachers in the Israeli educational system. A total of 1388 teachers from 210 elementary schools responded to a skills questionnaire. Results indicated that the configural model is equivalent across samples. The test for metric equivalence, showed that the construct holds the same psychological meaning across the two samples, with the exception of two items. The intercept latent test means (i.e., scalar) showed unequal intercepts among the Arab and Jewish samples, in the strategic and cognitive skills scale. The results have implications for cross-ethnic research and, more broadly, for the assessment of principals’ skills.     

Primary school heads’ professional socialization and leadership development in Cyprus

This article explores Cypriot primary school heads’ professional socialization (PS), in terms of their preparation for headship. A study in three phases involving a survey and interviews indicates that, to ‘learn what it is to be a head’ prior to headship, Cypriot heads resort to personal initiatives for training and development in school management and leadership; deputy headship, along with practising leadership in small primary schools, also appears to contribute to PS. In light of these experiences, heads take up headship with some preconceptions about the headship role. Upon entry to headship, networking and collaboration, as well as the formal training scheme for newly appointed school heads are also considered as useful, but heads set directions in which this programme could further be enhanced. In view of these findings, leadership development could address the contribution of previous heads, counterparts, colleagues, mentors and trainers to Cypriot school heads’ PS in both preparation as well as induction programmes.     

Monitoring variability and change in children’s spelling strategies

This study examined the role of variability and change in children’s strategy performance within the context of spelling. The spelling ability of 34 eight‐ to nine‐year‐olds was examined using an experimental spelling task comprising 45 items, which varied with regard to rime unit frequency. The spelling task incorporated a series of consistent, unique, and exception word items. Children were tested on the same spelling task on three separate occasions over a period of three months. Performance was examined using immediately retrospective verbal self‐reports after the presentation of every word. The findings showed that children spelt words strategically and were adaptive in their strategy selection, showing a general change from using less efficient backup strategies to using more efficient direct retrieval methods over time. Finally, while those less skilled in spelling showed a greater reliance on less efficient backup strategies, the skilled spellers mainly retrieved the correct spellings from memory. However, accuracy only improved across time intervals for each skill group when spelling unique word items. Overall, the findings illustrate the benefits of using a detailed microgenetic approach to assess the progress children make in learning to spell.     

Leadership coaching: a multiple-case study of urban public charter school principals’ experiences

The purpose of our multi-case study was to understand the experiences of non-novice New York City and Washington, DC public charter school principals who had participated in leadership coaching as a component of their leadership development. Eight New York City and Washington DC public charter school principal cases were selected through purposeful sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documents, and artifacts, which were analyzed, coded and grouped into three broader themes: the coaching process, the impact of coaching, and principal leader identity construction. The findings supported the following conclusions: (a) Participants’ experiences of coaching were inconsistent with the coaching literature; (b) The impact of coaching was shaped by perceived competencies of the coach and the structure of the coaching session; and (c) Participants’ leader identity construction was supported through the process of coaching.     

Teaching children science through storytelling combined with hands-on activities – a successful instructional strategy?

Earlier studies have discussed the usefulness of storytelling and hands-on activities when teaching young children science. However, few studies have investigated the use of the two methods in combination. This study reports on five pre-school teachers’ experience of combining storytelling and hands-on activities in teaching science and their perceived effects of the combination. Interviews with the teachers and a supplementary observation served as the data material, which was transformed into narratives and member-checked by the participating teachers. Some found the combination of methods important while others argued that hands-on activities were effective without the use of stories. The teachers’ enjoyment in adopting the combinatory method and their appreciation of the stories also made a difference.