The Headteacher as Manager: A Personal View

This article contributes to the growing debate around how we understand and develop multi-agency leadership in children and young people's services. Bringing together a range of inter-disciplinary research, it presents a framework for multi-agency leadership development, which, it argues, is well theorised, multi-level and versed in key field skills that educational leaders need in complex environments. The framework comprises six elements: complexity and culture (underlying concepts); multi-professional groups and inter-organisational partnerships (operating levels); and organisational consultancy and professional supervision (field skills). These elements are discussed, the practical implications of incorporating them into professional development provision for educational leaders are examined and some provisional conclusions are reached.     

Five literatures of organisation: putting the context back into educational leadership

In this article we develop the arguments of Glatter on the importance of adopting a more ‘organisation-oriented’ approach to educational leadership development. Through a critical review of current publications and national courses in the field, we argue that educational leadership is still very skills focussed at the expense of more sophisticated understandings of organisational context. This skills focus, or ‘agency without structure’, as Glatter puts it, encourages a ‘can do’ culture of simplistic solution-seeking rather than appreciation of complexity and paradox in the leadership experience which can produce better judgements. To identify such ‘understandings’, we then examine five traditions of thinking about ‘organisation’ through their related literatures. The first four, thinking psychologically, thinking structurally, thinking culturally and thinking politically, build on organisational ‘frames’. The fifth literature explores how these frames are constantly and variously brought into play through ‘complex responsive processes’ of organising in our daily work lives. Implications of this more organisation-focussed approach for educational leadership development are discussed through examples from the authors’ own research and teaching.     

Job satisfaction among secondary school teachers: the role of gender and experience

This paper examines the importance of understanding different organisational and professional cultures for leaders in extended service settings. It begins with a critical review of key concepts and debates in the organisational culture literature and then shows how different professional groups (education, health and social services) have adopted aspects of this literature to reflect their respective professional concerns. We argue that such insights can help leaders in these settings understand and work with different professional groups more effectively. Key to this process is the ‘culture conversation’ where different professionals are encouraged to explore the taken for granted assumptions that drive their everyday practice.     

The Primary School

Research on the nature of and support for systemic sustainable innovation with ICT is converging with research on policy implementation and studies of school change and improvement to highlight the complex interplay of personal and contextual factors that enable and constrain innovation. In each of these fields, leadership has been found to play a crucial role in initiating and sustaining change and innovation. This leadership is not however the prerogative of any one individual but rather it is distributed over people at all levels of the system and across policies, practices and material resources. Leadership for innovation around and with ICT technologies is also distributed across time because of its substantial financial and knowledge implications. In this article, we illustrate the distributed nature of the leadership that supported teachers and schools to make use of teacher personal laptops accessed through the New Zealand government Laptops for Teachers scheme.     

The complex task of leading educational change in schools

The leadership of educational change in schools is a complex task, particularly at a time when schools are being granted greater autonomy but are also under greater scrutiny through the publication of high stakes test results. This paper examines the complexity of the task of changing a school culture and the challenges faced by leaders engaged in this task. It is informed by case studies of two principals involved in a project designed to bring long-term change. The study provides insight into the qualities which make change leaders effective, and the different ways that leaders manage the task. The paper concludes with implications for the management and sustainability of change in schools.     

Schools and Industry: Some Organizational Considerations (Part 1)

This article explores the concept of interculturalism and its complementary relationship with the Aboriginal Australian idea of ‘both ways’. The need for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff to learn to be intercultural teachers and leaders, as well as the needs of the system to work interculturally to achieve educational outcomes, is emphasised. This article suggests that in order for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educational leaders to work within an intercultural world, new leadership capabilities must be learned and acquired.     

It's a knuckleball: a critical case study of a collaborative between a university and the ‘real world’ of school leadership

This is a look at the political games within games that are enmeshed in a high-profile, heavily funded, politically charged collaborative focused on preparing new school leaders between a large prestigious university and a circle of school leaders and policymakers. This case specifically considers how power and money corrupt the original vision and mission of a collaborative, in terms of its consideration of school and its purpose in society.     

From Innovation to Change: Forging A Physics Education Reform Agenda for the 21st Century

Education reform cannot be limited to what goes on in the classroom. Innovation does not inevitably lead to change until and unless the innovators take back control over factors exogenous to the classroom, factors like pre-college selection, outside testing, accreditation requirements, and class size. If nothing else changes, even the most promising of the curricular, pedagogical, laboratory, and classroom innovations will fail, unless the input/output flow of students is changed as well.     

The Drama Teacher's Journey

Abstract

This article focuses on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and English as a Second Language (ESL) texts, that is texts produced in interactions between native and non‐native speakers of English. Such texts are hybrid in that they comprise a blending of ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard'1 English forms. In these times of globalised English and the increasing prevalence of non‐native speaker models of English, research is increasingly likely to encounter ESL texts. The issue for the critical analysis of such ‘new’ texts is that CDA generally utilises ‘standard’ linguistic models for its analytical apparatus. Fairclough (2003), arguably the most widely‐recognised proponent of CDA, bases his analytical framework on Standard English. The question is whether and if so how CDA can accommodate hybrid texts, specifically those with a blend of linguistically ‘standard’ and ‘non‐standard’ forms of English. In this discussion, I consider the application of Fairclough's model of CDA to the analysis of an interview with a Thai ESL student beginning postgraduate studies in Australia. I argue that the analysis is made more effective by drawing on principles from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, in particular communication strategies.     

美国菲尔丁研究生大学教育领导变革博士项目及其启示

菲尔丁研究生大学教育领导变革博士项目致力于培养教育领域的领导者、变革的代理人和终身学习者。项目明确具体的培养目标,以成人学习者为中心的理念,严格系统的评价标准,多元化的教职员工,教育技术的充分运用以及广泛严谨的课程设置和多样化的学习方式,对我国教育博士培养制度和模式的构建具有重要的启示意义。     

教育改革的逻辑:主体意图与行动路线

在基于平行时间的视角对中美俄三个大国教育改革的历史做了梳理之后,可以总结出"情境、主体、意图、行动、结果、评价和资源"是教育改革的基本要素,"价值与信念、治理与制度、资源与机会、教学与课程、评价与督导"是教育改革的基本观察点。随着主体层次变化,教育改革的复杂性也在相应变化。教育改革是改革惯习与场域文化的集体行动。一切教育改革都需从个体惯习找到突破口,并上升到场域文化的变化。在整个过程中,与意图相关的认知因素发挥着作用,同时,集体行动中因微观政治和社会互动的存在,教育改革也表现出复杂的动力学特征。要保证教育改革的效果,需要加强对教育改革的管理和评价。在行动科学的指导下改变学习观,创建学习型组织和学习型社会,是教育改革的行动逻辑。     

引导支持服务--浅论教学管理改革与素质教育的实施

实施素质教育是我国教育的战略决策。学校教学管理部门应重新审视自己的职能定位,开拓新的工作思路。其中,引导教师转换角色、更新观念;支持教学目标系统的创新改造;拓展教学管理工作的职能,尝试进行服务式管理等三个问题构成了教管部门新的改革课题。     

略论新课改背景下的学校道德领导

随着新的课程改革在我国的不断推进,人们愈加发现学校教育管理的理念与模式是影响新课改的关键要素。通过阐述学校道德领导的理论内涵,从不同的视角对传统的学校领导观与道德领导观进行比较分析,探讨新课程背景下道德领导的现实意义和将道德领导的理念应用于学校管理的具体路径,旨在对新的课程改革取得更好的成效有所裨益。     

School reform and the emotional demands of principals: Lorna's story

The issue of emotions in school leadership is one that has received increasing attention in recent years. In this paper we present a case study of the emotional demands upon one principal as she undertakes a programme of school reform. This case study works against the common discourse of ‘emotional maturity’ inherent in an individual that is prevalent in leadership standards and literatures and shows how this principal's emotional work is constructed within the political frameworks of schools. This principal was both normalised into traditional ways of being a school principal and also sought to resist such normalisations. This paper provides an important contribution to understanding the ways that women leaders are negotiating the emotional terrain of enacting change and reform in their schools.     

School head teachers’ views of the drive towards educational innovation in Catalonia / La visión de los directores de escuela sobre el impulso de la innovación educativa en Cataluña

Abstract

Today, educational change and innovation are a clear priority in educational centres across the world. This article analyses the strengths and opportunities presented by the process of educational innovation taking place in Catalonia from the perspective of school head teachers, employing a quanti-qualitative methodology using 227 surveys and 29 semi-structured interviews. The results locate the innovation process in a phase characterized by efforts aimed at updating existing practice, resistance to change generated by the system itself, and a lack of systematic reflection on current practice. Two strengths of the process reported relate to its scale and transversality across the whole territory on the one hand, and the importance that collaboration between teachers and schools is having in order to facilitate innovation. Other aspects highlighted are: the need to invest more planning in innovation processes; the need for the Deparment of Education to reflect on its own role within the process; and, finally, the need to develop the role of technologies as facilitators of innovation and communication.     

The Purpose and Functions of Budgets – Some Theoretical Perspectives for Education Managers

While educational leadership and management has experienced impressive development over the last three decades the fact that a robust comparative branch of the field has failed to emerge is equally conspicuous. This article builds a case for comparative and international educational leadership and management, arguing that the development of conceptual frameworks and instrumentation are imperative if the field is to keep abreast of globalisation of policy and practice. Accordingly, a conceptual framework is described and justified based on a cultural and cross-cultural approach focusing on the school level as the baseline unit for analysis. Specifically, the proposed framework is architectured around the interrelationship between two levels of culture, societal and organisational, and four elements comprising schooling and school-based management, namely, organisational structures, leadership and management processes, curriculum, and teaching and learning. Finally, limitations and implications of the model are discussed, including the need for the framework to be operationalised by developing appropriate research instruments.     

Countering plutocracies: increasing autonomy and accountability through culturally relevant leadership

In urban school districts across the USA there are mandates to implement zero tolerance policies. As this occurs, there is an increasing number of students, specifically students of colour, who are being jettisoned out of the educative process. When school principals have little autonomy regarding how they handle disciplinary infractions within their schools, it becomes relatively easy for them to opt out of making tough decision. The authors assert that Culturally Relevant Leadership is a framework that, if applied correctly, can help school leaders reduce the multiple school suspensions and expulsions that are occurring among students of colour.     

Perceptions of educational leaders regarding contemporary reform initiatives in Egypt

ABSTRACT

Many educational reform initiatives worldwide do not result in deep and sustainable change. Limited studies have looked at reform initiatives in countries like Egypt. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to examine educational reform initiatives in Egypt throughout modern history using a transformative leadership lens, and to explore the perceptions of educational leaders regarding the more contemporary reform initiatives. The findings show that historically, large-scale reform initiatives in Egypt, which had transformative and sustainable results, were typically associated with a more comprehensive ideological inclination. More contemporary educational reform attempts were not transformative because these were perceived to be top-down reforms that were driven by foreign-aid agencies, and had no support from stakeholders.     

Characteristics of effective leadership networks: a replication and extension

Purpose: Replicating and extending earlier research, this mixed-methods study inquired about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual and collective leaders’ professional capacities.

Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by 283 school and district leaders to test a path model of effective network characteristics. Interview data were provided by 23 school leaders. Variables in the model included Network leadership, structure, health, connectivity, and outcomes.

Findings: Results confirmed that the model was a very good fit with the data and, as a whole, explained 51% of the variation in network outcomes. Network leadership had the largest total effect on network outcomes, followed closely by the effects of Network Health and Network Connectivity. Interview data confirmed the nature of variables measured by the survey and added additional features for future research. Most results replicated the previous study.

Research Limitation: The study was limited to leadership networks intentionally organised within districts, not networks organised by school leaders themselves or networks arising spontaneously by their members. Results cannot be generalised to other types of networks.

Practical implication: In addition to a focus on single unit leadership development in districts, systematic initiatives should be designed to help prepare network leaders to foster the forms of collaboration that are so central to professional capacity development.

Originality: Results of the study offer explicit guidance to network leaders about how to improve the contribution of network participation to their colleagues’ capacities; it is one of a very small number studies in educational contexts to provide such guidance.     

Leading educational improvement in Trinidad and Tobago

School leaders in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) now have the important responsibility of initiating and implementing school improvement. This raises the question of their leadership capacity and the competencies that are required for school leaders to fulfil this new role. This article focuses on school leadership in T&T. The study presented in this article utilised a qualitative interpretive research design employing a range of data collection methods, including questionnaires and interviews. The results of the study confirm a need for developing a new type of school leader who is: better trained, more research oriented, more of a risk taker and autonomous.