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.     

The teacher educator’s role in promoting institutional versus individual teacher well-being

This article addresses the teacher educator’s role in defining and facilitating teacher well-being. It does so by first exploring the literature on teacher well-being, resilience, resistance, morality and professional dispositions. It then examines the policies and rhetoric of two countries, the USA and England, as examples of a global tilt towards the excessive promotion of institutional well-being at the expense of individual teachers. It concludes with specific recommendations at the university programme and teacher educator levels for bringing individual and institutional well-being into better balance. These include: innovating sustained and reciprocal university–school partnerships; helping new teachers become ‘mindful’ rather than solely resistant; analysing cases of teaching to become more aware of macro vs. micro influences; and facilitating skills in taking oppositional stances, including within the teacher educator’s own classroom.     

Teachers’ learning in school-based development

Background and purpose: Many researchers agree that teachers’ learning processes are social and that teachers need to be brought together to learn from each other. Researchers have also stated that intellectual and pedagogical change requires professional development activities that take place over a period of time in school. The purpose of the study presented in the article was to develop knowledge about the teachers’ learning when taking part in a school-based development project. Main argument: The study shows that it takes some time before the teachers identify with the work in school-based development. Even though the national authorities decided what to focus on during the development work, the participating teachers felt that they had autonomy in the work. The study presented in the article shows that it is important for the teachers’ learning culture that they are listened to and taken into consideration and that the leaders have competence in leading school-based development to support the teachers’ learning. Sources of evidence and method: The article is based on a study connected with school-based development in three lower secondary schools. Qualitative interviews were used as the data-collection strategy to capture the teachers’ and school leaders’ experiences and reflections. Conclusion: The article presents new knowledge connected with teachers’ learning in school-based development. The study presented in the article shows that schools’ learning culture can make a difference for the teachers’ learning and their job satisfaction and wellbeing.     

The influence of teacher education on mentor teachers’ role perception in professional development schools

Apprenticeship and professional development schools (PDSs) are two models for teacher education. The mentors that are the focus for this research completed their initial teacher training through one of these models and now mentor in PDSs. The paper reports on how the way in which they were trained as student teachers influenced their role perceptions. The findings suggest that mentor teachers who were trained via the PDSs model have a broader conceptual understanding of their role perception.     

A teacher educator’s lessons learned from reflective practice

This article has two major goals. The first is to establish a distinction between the idea of critical reflection (as required today in many teacher education courses) and the concept of reflective practice (as set out by Schön in the context of active professional practice). The second is to present some of the important lessons a teacher educator has learned from reflective practice (not critical reflection) during 40 years of work with pre-service teachers.     

Reexamining technology’s role in learner-centered professional development

The American Psychological Association’s Learner-Centered Principles provide empirically-based approaches to improving teaching and learning. However, in order to facilitate learner-centered, technology-rich instruction to K-12 students, teachers must be afforded opportunities to develop key understandings and skills, rarely evident in most professional development programs. In this paper, we synthesize empirically-based studies and recommendations for teacher learning and propose a learner-centered professional development (LCPD) framework to guide both professional development and empirical work on teacher learning. We describe LCPD components, discuss ways that technology can support LCPD, and highlight implications for research and practice.     

The subject and the setting: re-imagining opportunities for primary teachers’ subject knowledge development on school-based teacher education courses

The landscape of teacher education is undergoing significant change in many countries and this is often associated with a move towards greater school involvement in the preparation of teachers. One aspect of teaching expertise that is particularly challenging for primary student-teachers is the development of subject knowledge across a wide range of subject areas. Subject knowledge for teaching is multi-faceted and is itself linked to broader questions about curriculum and the content that should be taught. It is timely, therefore, to consider how subject knowledge development might be reconceived in a school setting and how university and school staff might work in new ways with student-teachers to this end. Communities of practice theory is employed as a framework for analysing the learning environment and evaluating these future possibilities. It is argued that collaboration with peers, with their mentoring teachers and with a wider professional community is an under-exploited way of integrating facets of subject knowledge: giving this time and status through structured activities might be a particularly fruitful form of hybrid working in situ. The paper concludes by proposing four principles to underpin this sort of practice.     

The role of teacher behavior in adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation

Given the weak intrinsic reading motivation of many adolescents on the one hand and the importance of this type of motivation for reading competence on the other hand, the aim of the present study is to identify the related role of teacher behavior. To pursue this aim, a secondary analysis was carried out on PISA 2009 data. More particularly, data of a subsample of 4,269 Flemish 15-year olds were examined by means of multilevel modeling. In line with self-determination theory, the results provide evidence for the significance of perceived autonomy-supportive, structured, and involved teacher behavior. Teacher involvement was most strongly associated with adolescents’ intrinsic reading motivation. Further, students’ perception of teachers’ autonomy support was particularly related to girls’ intrinsic reading motivation.     

The role of education in development: an educationalist’s response to some recent work in development economics

This paper delves beneath the widespread belief that education (often repackaged as human capital) is important in development to consider the role that the discipline of education plays in shaping the wider discourses of development. In particular, it will explore recent texts by important figures in development economics (Collier, Easterly, Sachs and Stiglitz) to see what they say (and don’t say) about education’s role in development and to contrast this with educationalists’ accounts. This will lead on to a consideration of what the implications of such a reading are for the field of international and comparative education. The paper concludes that the relative marginalisation of educational accounts in mainstream development thinking is a major challenge to which international and comparative education needs to respond.     

Student teachers’ beliefs about the teacher’s role in inclusive education

The main aim of this research is to examine the basic features of student teachers’ professional beliefs about the teacher’s role in relation to teaching mainstream pupils and pupils with developmental disabilities. The starting assumption of this analysis is that teacher professional development is largely dependent upon teachers’ beliefs about various facets of their professional work. These concepts strongly influence the way that teachers teach and the way that they develop as teachers. The participants in the research are 314 student teachers at the Faculty of Teacher Education of the University of Zagreb who are being prepared to teach in lower grades of primary school. The beliefs were explored using a metaphor technique derived from cognitive theory of metaphor. The differences between beliefs about the perceived teacher role in general, and the perceived teacher role in the education of pupils with developmental disabilities were analysed. The results indicate that the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching mainstream pupils is of the teacher as a transmitter of knowledge, while the findings regarding the dominant belief about the teacher’s role in teaching pupils with developmental difficulties appeared to be self-cantered orientation. No differences were found between student teachers at different study levels. The findings are discussed in the light of the curriculum of initial teacher education.     

So you want to be a teacher educator? The job advertisement as a construction of teacher education in Canada

This article contributes a Canadian perspective to a growing body of international research investigating teacher education, specifically as a category of academic work exemplified in employment advertisements. By investigating how Canadian employment advertisements in teacher education are constructed as mediating artefacts in the relationship between potential candidates and their goal of gaining an academic position, we attempt to identify contradictions inherent to systems of human activity, and surface institutional priorities regarding faculty hiring policies and the staffing practices within Canadian teacher education programs. Our study surfaces both similarities and differences with concurrent WoTE (Work of Teacher Education) investigations in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand regarding the teacher education as a form of academic labour, echoing their characterisation of the increasingly “precarious space” occupied by teacher education in post-secondary institutions.     

A novice mathematics teacher educator–researcher’s evolution of tools designed for in-service mathematics teachers’ professional development

This study documented the process of evolution of the continuous design and revision of the tools of a novice mathematics teacher educator–researcher (MTE-R) as he planned and implemented design-based professional development workshops for in-service mathematics teachers in Taiwan. In order to effectively facilitate teachers designing and implementing their own conjecturing activities during the workshops, the MTE-R fostered their professional learning and growth through reflection upon students’ performance. From the perspective of activity theory, this study examined the evolution of the MTE-R’s mentoring activities and tools whose design gradually changed from being based on the literature content toward being learner-centered activities with teachers as learners. Such evolution not only enhanced teachers’ learning outcomes, but also facilitated the MTE-R’s own professional growth in different areas, including mathematics, mathematics learning, mathematics teaching, teacher education, and, in particular, the extrapolation of generic examples for understanding mathematical concepts.     

Contesting the 1944 McNair report: Lillian de Lissa’s working life as a teacher educator

This article explores teacher educator Lillian de Lissa’s working life in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1944 the McNair report criticised residential colleges and their female staff as isolated and intellectually impoverished. However, in Australia and then as the foundation Principal of Gipsy Hill Training College, de Lissa was not only committed to teaching and administration, but also to presenting and publishing her scholarly work nationally and internationally. Furthermore, she chaired the Nursery School Association for nine years, gave evidence at several government inquiries and lectured in the United States in 1943. This article focuses on the elements of de Lissa’s career that might be included in an academic curriculum vitae in order to challenge the McNair report and highlight her contributions to early childhood education and teacher education.     

The impact of the teacher’s role and pupils’ ethnicity and prior knowledge on pupils’ performance and motivation to cooperate

How can the teacher bring about effective cooperative learning (CL) in multiethnic elementary classrooms? To answer this question we hypothesized that when the teacher stimulates pupils’ helping behaviour (experimental group), this increases pupils’ performance and CL motivation more than when the teacher lets pupils fend for themselves (control group). Subjects were 166 pupils from 10 schools. The results show that national pupils in the experimental group outperformed pupils in the control group and teams with low and medium prior knowledge performed better in the experimental group. Additionally, immigrant teams with high prior knowledge in the control group outperformed their low prior knowledge counterparts and had a higher CL motivation. Our results suggest that, next to the teacher’s role, attention has to be paid to both the pupil background characteristics ethnicity and prior knowledge and the teacher’s experience with CL.     

Teacher agency and school-based curriculum in China’s non-elite schools

Mainland China has been embarking on a nation-wide education reform as part of its modernisation project for the past few decades. A relatively under-researched topic is teacher agency in non-elite schools where educators critically shape their reactions to new situations brought about by the reform. Focussing on the introduction of school-based curriculum in China, this article discusses how some educators from non-elite schools respond strategically to new opportunities and resources by promoting indigenous knowledge via engaging teaching methods. The essay illustrates, through two examples, how non-elite schools seek to provide the best kind of education available to their students by integrating Confucian and ethnic cultures into the formal curriculum. China’s experience demonstrates the exercise of teacher agency that arises from the interplay of human efforts, available capital and contingent factors. It also highlights the potential of utilising indigenous sources and synthesising them with non-local sources as part of implementing education reform.     

A narrative analysis of a teacher educator’s professional learning journey

This article reports on a narrative analysis of one teacher educator’s learning journey in a two-year professional development project. Professional development is conceived of as the complex learning processes resulting from the meaningful interactions between the individual teacher educator and his/her working context. Our analysis indicates that the capacity to manage such interactions contributes strongly to teacher educators’ experience of vulnerability. We analytically describe three strategies (building positive self-esteem, sustaining moral commitment and purpose, and strategical compliance) to cope with this vulnerability and their impact on processes of professional development as well as the outcomes of it. Understanding the role of the working context – and vulnerability as a structural characteristic of that context – in professional development processes adds to existing knowledge of teacher educators’ professional lives and development.     

The role of ‘pracademics’ in education and development of adventure sport professionals

Understanding and exploiting the synergy between theory and practice lies at the heart of effective education for outdoor professionals. Accordingly, and in an attempt to stimulate debate, this paper conceptualizes the interaction between theory and practice in the context of the education of outdoor professionals. We identify issues specific to the often separated worlds of practice and academia. While acknowledging those distinct skills and competencies, however, we also explore a mid-role; that of the ‘pracademic’ or scientist–practitioner or practitioner scholar, considering behaviours that may encourage greater collaborative work to inform the process and implementation of the education of outdoor professionals.     

The relationship between teacher’s autonomy support and students’ autonomy and vitality

Abstract

Within education, some teachers’ interpretation of professionalism emphasizes conformity to the perceived norms of collective associations. Unprofessional behaviour, often equated with ‘unethical’ behaviour, is seen by many to be that which threatens solidarity and loyalty to colleagues. Informal norms typified by casual collegial relations as well as more formal attachments to organized unions or teachers’ federations exert a significant influence on individuals’ behaviour within the group. Professional ethics, in this sense, become concerned primarily with how one relates to colleagues rather than how one fulfils moral responsibilities to students. Qualitative findings from interviews with elementary and secondary school teachers suggest that, as a result of an ethic of collegial loyalty, some teachers experience personal moral and ethical dilemmas that they find difficult to resolve. Some respondents acknowledged that this can enable serious situations to be ignored or ‘covered up’. This paper examines some of the tensions and dilemmas experienced by teachers and raises questions about the ethical adequacy of defining professionalism in terms of inter‐colleague behaviour.     

An expert EFL reading teacher’s readers club: reader identity and teacher professional development

This study unveils a tertiary EFL reading teacher’s reader identity and its interconnectedness with her pedagogical decisions through narrative inquiry. Community of Practice was employed to elucidate the sources of this reading teacher’s reader identity and the interplay between that and her teaching practice. Findings from the categorical content analysis show that this reading teacher’s reader identity was projected through her strong passion towards reading. An interactive reading process that results in a better self-understanding is experienced through the reader’s reflection on her readings. She reified her reader identity in her teaching practice by forming a readers club. Reader (teacher)-text- reader (student) interaction is thus the most salient feature of this readers club and serves as a mediator that connects the members. Along with this feature, her competence of synchronicity with students was observed in this experienced reading teacher. Pedagogical implications concerning teacher education are discussed.