Levels of Success in Implementing Information Technologies

In this essay I argue that the key to implementing information technologies successfully in higher education rests on the convergence of three factors. First, an innovation must be properly framed in terms of stakeholders' expectations. Second, an environment favorable to innovation must be present. Finally, the pros of specific attributes of innovations must outweigh their cons. The seven other conditions, in which one or more of these factors are not positively weighted, result in differing degrees of success with different implications for leadership in educational institutions.     

Higher Education on the Eve of the Twenty‐First Century

The author proposes a unified curriculum of undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral studies intended to prepare young persons for responsible leadership in global society and to sensitize them to the limitations imposed by global sustainability. He foresees that students will work in teams and that higher education institutions will co‐operate in consortia, somewhat like the Associated Universities scheme of UNESCO. Universities must abandon their mostly outdated positivist and retrospective epistemology and move to holistic and transdisciplinary, normative, future‐oriented, and policy‐relevant epistemology.     

Responding to the technological imperative: the experience of an open and distance education institution

This paper examines the key impact that technology is having on shaping and, indeed, fusing the worlds of work both outside and inside tertiary institutions. The transformation of organisations by technology creates key challenges for tertiary institutions which are identified. One tertiary institution's attempts to engage with these challenges is illuminated through case study research. The institution in question, Deakin University, is a major open and distance education organisation in Australia. In grappling with the technological imperative, issues of leadership, management and organisational change come to the fore. Leadership in dynamically evolving organisations committed to the use of educational technologies in a range of diverse teaching‐learning contexts is an enormously complex and difficult task. The complexities, ambiguities and difficulties of leadership in such an environment are illuminated in this paper through the presentation of a set of eight interconnected issues which reveal some of the experiences of people within the University who are attempting to manage educational change and technological innovation.     

Changing and/or reinscribing gendered discourses of team leadership in education?

In this article, prevailing professional, business and managerial discourses of team leadership are ‘troubled’ by some feminist critiques and analyses of collectivity and gendered discursive relations of power. I draw on a study of primary school co‐principalships to describe and reflect on Karen’s (a pseudonym) accounts of her personal and shared leadership practices within a three teacher co‐principalship. The article indicates how feminist consciousness, politics and relationships can contribute to social, cultural and organizational change within ‘mainstream’ institutions. ¹ 1. I am grateful to the reviewers of this article, one of whom made this point. View all notes It also explores how pre‐constructed discourses about gender, class and leadership, can be unwittingly stitched back into an individual’s collaborative practices, limiting the potential for democratic change. My aim is to contribute to the kind of work called for by Davies when she argued that if we are alerted to the work being done by the various discourses we are invoking, then we can more effectively reflect on how limiting and disempowering discursive constructions can be challenged and changed.     

Building trust and shared knowledge in communities of e-learning practice: collaborative leadership in the JISC eLISA and CAMEL lifelong learning projects

Trust and collective learning are useful features that are enabled by effective collaborative leadership of e‐learning projects across higher and further education (HE/FE) institutions promoting lifelong learning. These features contribute effectively to the development of design for learning in communities of e‐learning practice. For this, reflexivity, good leadership and the capacity to engage in innovation is crucial to team performance. This paper outlines a serendipitously useful combination of innovative models of collaboration emerging from two 2005–06 UK e‐learning pilots: the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) e‐Learning Independent Study Award (eLISA) and JISC infoNet Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e‐Learning (CAMEL) projects. The JISC‐funded eLISA Distributed e‐Learning (DeL) project set up a collaborative partnership among teachers to try out LAMS and Moodle using study skills in e‐learning. Simultaneously, the JISC infoNet CAMEL project developed a model of collaborative approaches to e‐learning leadership and management across four UK HE/FE institutions. This paper proposes two new theoretical collaborative team leadership and operational models for e‐learning projects, including indices of trust, reflexivity and shared procedural knowledge, recommending that these models are further developed in future communities of e‐learning practice in institutions promoting lifelong learning.     

An assessment of peer review evaluation of academic programmes in Mexico

Abstract

This paper considers some of the new realities that are likely to affect higher education, particularly those arising from developments in communication and information technologies. Four scenarios are presented as illustrations of how higher education might change; some of the elements that make up these scenarios are already emerging. The paper then explores the role that leadership and governance play in helping institutions to address the new realities, particularly as change impacts on institutional culture and functioning.     

BEYOND ORION: A EUROPEAN DISTANCE MASTER'S DEGREE IN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

Because of the crisis in the western European welfare state, government by itself can no longer provide the full range of social services that populations have come to take for granted. The shortfall must be complemented by an increasing variety of voluntary organizations. In order to be effective, however, such organizations as well as the more traditional service‐providing government organizations must have good leadership. As good leaders are as much trained to be good leaders as born, an efficient means must be developed for training leaders. Given the rapidity of social change, training must be provided on a permanent basis. The authors therefore propose the setting up of a European Master's Degree programme in leadership training. It would be modelled upon a distance Master's Degree programme in Educational Administration (Northern Interior Master's Programme ‐NIMB) that the University of Victoria in Canada offered in a large area of northwest Canada. Much of the course work for such a programme would be provided by distance means using new communication technologies. Universities in seven countries: England, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Finland, that formed a consortium, would administer and offer this programme in which employed administrators could enroll.     

An Instrumental Case Study Analysis of Anticipatory Leadership Practices in Community Colleges

This qualitative instrumental case study explored the experiences and perceptions of seven community college leaders of their use of anticipatory leadership. Two research questions guided this study: (a) How do community colleges use anticipatory leadership to respond to internal and external changes? (b) How do community college leaders use anticipatory leadership principles for problem solving? The themes that emerged to address question one were engagement with others is required to respond to change effectively, data analysis and currency of knowledge are required to identify gaps and to respond to them, leaders must be willing to take calculated risks, and leaders must communicate effectively in order for change to occur. The themes that emerged to address question two were analysis of data is instrumental to identifying and closing the gaps in institutions, leading to better informed decisions; and anticipatory leadership reduces the need to use reactionary leadership practices. The findings of the study are that the participants identified and supported that anticipatory leadership practices are effective for responding to change. The anticipatory leadership practices highlighted as needed by the participants included the need for leaders who are engaged, have the skills and ability to utilize data to make decisions, are current in their higher education knowledge, take calculated risks when needed, and can communicate effectively. These skills are needed for community college leaders to be able to be proactive versus reactionary in their decision-making, as well as effective with their gap analysis identification, trend predictions, decision-making, and problem solving.     

Breaking Fresh Ground: Regional Co‐operation in Higher Education

One of the most recent European developments in the internationalization of higher education is the stimulation of regional co‐operation among institutions. In the so‐called border countries policy, Flanders, The Netherlands, and the German Länder of North‐Rhine Westphalia, Bremen, and Lower Saxony are collaborating in different ways to establish an “open higher education space”. Within the framework of this border countries policy, various initiatives have been taken in order to support co‐operation among higher education institutions from the countries involved. Amongst other things, research was undertaken in order to gain insight into the differences and similarities of the programmes offered in the five countries. In addition, the Ministries of Education of the participating countries have begun to allocate funds to institutions that have taken co‐operation initiatives that coincide with the policies of the countries concerned. These two aspects of the border countries policy will be discussed in this article.     

Preparing administrators for the twenty-first century

Our modern society is characterized by continuous change which is radically altering occupational structures, social behaviour, government priorities and individual lifestyles. Senior administrators in all types of educational institutions must be able to cope with the high levels of uncertainty and continuous adversity which this phenomenon generates. This article emphasizes the need for a new style of administrative behaviour in the education sector. During earlier eras, a reactive, conservative, leadership style was successful but in our contemporary society this is often inappropriate. Educational administrators in the future will have to be proactive, anticipatory, and flexible if they are to provide the institutions they serve with effective leadership. International intervisitation schemes are perceived as possessing potential for offering administrators new professional development experiences which will give them an opportunity to examine important managerial and administrative issues from a different perspective.     

Educational leadership: Producing docile bodies? A Foucauldian perspective on Higher Education

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a long‐standing critical tradition in the educational leadership literature through an analytical examination of the idiosyncrasies of leadership in Higher Education institutions (based on the UK example). It applies a postmodern way of thinking to the educational leadership phenomenon to problematise and challenge the traditional views on the trajectories of power in Higher Education institutions, utilising Foucault’s key theoretical units of discipline, governmentality and biopolitics as a toolbox for dissecting the implications of neoliberal ideology on the leadership praxes. Significantly, the paper demonstrates how the engagement with Foucault’s three modes of objectification—dividing practices, scientific classification and self‐subjection—can expose the ways, in which the roles of educational leaders become re‐configured into economic‐rational individuals or subjects, who are compliant with the imposed requisites of the government’s neoliberal agendas. The paper concludes that Foucault’s theoretical perspectives could be used as a methodological template for a deeper critical analysis of leadership practices, equipping academics with additional tools for critiquing the existing boundaries of neoliberalism and intervening in the transformation of the social order by undertaking an investigation into the practices of governmentality, as suggested by Foucault.     

CHANGING POLICIES AND DILEMMAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCE: THE HUNGARIAN SITUATION AS COMPARED TO THAT OF OTHER EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Political change and declining economies have forced the higher education systems of the countries of east and central Europe to undergo restructuring, in particular to develop new financing mechanisms and to permit the emergence of private higher education. The Hungarian experience is described with reference to the situations in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Reference is made to the “base and addition” model of higher education finance as it evolved in eastern Europe beginning in the 1950's. This model went into crisis in the 1980's because it failed to encourage institutions to search for sources of funding other than government grants. In the post‐Communist situation, new types of funding mechanisms are being explored in the three countries. Czechoslovakia has so far made the fewest fundamental changes because of the relative strength of its economy. Poland has adopted a policy of professional co‐ordination for academic survival. Hungary is experimenting with professional and market co‐ordination.     

论高校学习型党组织建设的理论与实践

高校是科技兴国、人才强国的主力军,紧紧抓住高校党的建设这根主线,立足于创新发展的实际,才能实现人才培养、科学研究、社会服务三大目标。高校要充分发挥党委政治核心作用和基层党支部战斗堡垒作用,在学习型政党建设目标统领下,实现社会主义高校跨越式发展,为民族振兴、国家富强作出新的更大贡献。     

Recent racial incidents in higher education: A preliminary perspective

The goal of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on the recent resurgence of racially motivated harassment and violence directed against minority students at predominantly white institutions of higher education. In achieving this goal, first an overview of minority student experiences on white campuses is given. Second, their experiences are linked to general perceptions of racism in contemporary society. Third, a delineation of the scope of racial-ethnic incidents on campuses of predominantly white institutions is made through a content analysis of a national and selected local and black-oriented newspapers. Finally, an assessment is made of the prospects for change. We argue that the recent upsurge in racism against minority students on white college and university campuses was implicitly encouraged by the previous national administration and by majority individuals in leadership roles. Finally, we argue that to combat these problems, university officials must begin to indicate in a direct way that racist actions will not be tolerated and that infractions will be dealt with severely.     

Promoting Inclusive (and Dialogic) Leadership in Higher Education Institutions

Higher education institutions are facing major challenges requiring traditional leadership and administrative policies and practices to be rethought and renewed. These challenges concern the whole academic community but mostly the institutions’ administrative leaders. This article suggests how applying the democratic principles of “inclusion”, which stresses critical dialogue and social justice, can reach beyond the traditional managerial and administrative policies when meeting the new requirements; and be a catalyst for change in leadership practices.     

Promoting Internet-Based Teaching and Learning Worldwide

The author, who has spent many years transforming the University of Aalborg, Denmark, into a modern Net-based university, reflects on how the information and communications technologies (ICTs) should be introduced into traditional universities so that the resulting transformations will be irreversible and successful in the broadest possible sense. The introduction of the ICTs and the resulting institutional transformation, she argues, must involve all institutional constituencies. The leadership in each case must be aware of the successes and failures of other institutions in regard to ICT adoption through the information resources of such international organizations as the International Association of University Presidents, the International Association of Universities, UNESCO, etc. Consultants representing such organizations must make an effort to understand the cultural and economic frameworks of the institutions that they advise and assist. The successful adoption of the ICTs in a higher education institution is a complex process.     

Secondary SENCo leadership: a universal or specialist role?

In this qualitative study, James Oldham, assistant head of the Inclusion Advisory Service, Cambridge Education, and Julie Radford, senior lecturer in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, investigate the tension in the role of mainstream secondary school SENCos. A review of legislation and literature concerning SENCo leadership has suggested that divergent forces are acting on the role, and in‐depth interviews with SENCos in two local authorities were undertaken to gather data on this. It was found that SENCos consider leadership to be highly relevant to their role for reasons dominated by the team that they lead and the influence of more senior staff. Combined with little influence at a whole‐school, universal level, it is suggested that this finding is evidence of divergent forces in operation. The distribution of leadership in schools and pressures regarding the achievement of pupils with special educational needs are proposed as causes and this is presented in a model. Potential problems emanating from this tension are explored and solutions are proposed for future consideration in theory and policy.     

Infusing educational technologies in the heart of the university—A systematic literature review from an organisational perspective

Educational technologies have experienced unprecedented prominence on university agendas with many institutions motivated to keep the lessons learned from the COVID-19 sparked transition with regard to online teaching. In response to this renewed interest in ensuring the longevity of educational technologies in higher education, this systematic review analysed the various organisational factors—for example, leadership, infrastructure, strategy—considered essential in the literature for the successful implementation of educational technologies. Specifically, we reviewed 1614 papers published in five prominent educational technology journals in the last decade. From this sample, we identified 47 papers that discussed organisational factors. Drawing on these studies, we constructed an organisational framework, which outlines the different organisational factors, actors and processes involved in implementing educational technologies. The identified organisational factors are structured into three main categories: (1) Leadership and Strategy, (2) Infrastructure and Resources and (3) Recognition and Motivation. Our aim was to further the scholarly understanding of the organisational layer involved in digital change as well as provide concrete recommendations for practitioners.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Previous research has stressed the importance of taking organisational factors such as infrastructure, leadership, strategy and staff commitment into account when implementing educational technologies.
• However, review papers have failed to systematically organise these studies to create a comprehensive understanding of the organisational factors involved in implementing educational technologies and ensuring their longevity at an institution.
• There is currently a high level of interest in how educational technologies can be implemented in the higher education landscape, as many institutions are facing the question of what lessons they can learn from the crisis and how they can continue on their path of digitalisation.

What this paper adds

• This review paper addresses a gap in our scholarly understanding of the organisational layers involved in the implementation of educational technologies in higher education institutions (HEIs).
• This paper provides a framework on organisational factors, which influence the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• This review paper demonstrates that bottom-up and opinion leadership, support structures tailored to the need and time of faculty as well as recognition and incentives have the largest impact on a sustainable implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Universities should create structures that enable innovation and creativity by promoting bottom-up and opinion leadership as well as shared decision-making processes as they are important for the successful implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• Besides providing a reliable and suitable infrastructure, institutional support and resources in terms of technical advice and training tailored to specific needs, should be in place when planning the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• The additional workload instructors face when implementing digital teaching should be recognised and incentivised as it strengthens instructor engagement which is crucial for the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.

     

Leadership: its genealogy,configuration and trajectory

This article provides a longitudinal analysis of leadership. In the first section of the article, the evidence reviewed indicates how, historically, leadership has been significant in various societal arrangements in the co‐ordination of actions for collective purposes. Such co‐ordination may also be facilitated through self‐organisation, except that this mechanism struggles in the face of genetic human pre‐dispositions to dominate, and the group‐level threshold effects of small numbers. The second section discusses the leadership field’s longstanding fixation with heroes. It shows how, in the face of the compelling evidence in the previous section of small group reverse dominance hierarchy and dyarchy, for example, the evidential basis for such heroic individualism is questionable. This second section also discusses distributed leadership. It argues for its abandonment and replacement as an analytical unit of analysis by the idea of leadership configurations comprising combinations of role sets. These claims are illustrated with historical and contemporary examples. The final section of the article argues for evidence‐based capabilities as an antidote to heroic leadership. Here, a range of problems and possibilities associated with identifying capabilities for leading learning are discussed along with some implications for future research and theory in the field.