Distributed leadership in South Africa: yet another passing fad or a robust theoretical tool for investigating school leadership practice?

Distributed leadership, while an established concept in the international literature on education leadership, is slowly gaining prominence in post-apartheid South Africa. This is primarily due to its normative and representational appeal. However, of concern is that the concept has become a catch-all phrase to describe any form of devolved or shared leadership and is being espoused as ‘the answer’ to the country’s educational leadership woes. Drawing on a South African publications-based doctoral study of distributed teacher leadership (Grant 2010. “Distributed Teacher Leadership: Troubling the Terrain.” Unpublished PhD diss., University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg) for its evidence, this article argues for a theoretically robust form of distributed leadership conceptualised as socio-cultural practice and framed as a product of the joint interactions of school leaders, followers and aspects of their situation (Gronn 2000. “Distributed Properties: A New Architecture for Leadership.” Educational Management and Administration 28 (3): 317–338; Spillane, Halverson and Diamond 2004. “Towards a Theory of Leadership Practice: A Distributed Perspective.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 36 (1): 3–34; Spillane 2006. Distributed Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass). It endorses a sequential distributed leadership framing for the South African context and calls for further empirical studies which interrogate the complex practices of distributed school leadership. For without this theoretically robust work, the article argues, distributed leadership is likely to be relegated to the large pile of redundant leadership theories and become a passing fad.     

Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools: a global-local nexus?

The phenomenon of internationalisation of education in the twenty-first century has developed more rapidly and has been the subject of more research in higher education than in the schooling sector. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about ‘internationalisation in practice’ in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internationalisation. Theoretical lenses of both interpretivism and critical theory were used to guide the research at different stages. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Findings indicate that whilst globalisation is having a powerful impact on schools, local contextual factors such as school ethos, school resources, teacher values and parent demographics and expectations play a significant part in shaping how schools engage with internationalisation. Wider implications for equity, teacher education and further research and theory development are also discussed.     

Practising leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the field?

This paper explores the leadership practices of three principals following a period of intensive immigration in Ireland. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it conceptualises schools as structured social spaces and of their leadership work as a form of practising. This practising is an outcome of the intersection between deeply embedded subjectivities operating in diverse fields of action that shape, constrain and transform each principal’s practices. Presenting an analytical model that highlights the circular and capillary-like dimension to such practising, the paper explores how principals’ recognition of immigrant children (their recognitive practices) as well as investment in supporting their learning (distributive practices) are shaped by the logics of practice across different fields, as well as by their own evolving habitus and struggle to be authentic in a period of rapid social change. Practising effective leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools must be conceived as layered and multiple but must be underpinned by an ethic of justice, if the minoritised status of ‘ethnic’ others is to be challenged and overcome.     

Educational leadership and culture in China: Dichotomies between Chinese and Anglo-American leadership traditions?

This article explores the extent to which Chinese school leaders espouse dichotomous or integrated Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management preferences. Data are drawn from questionnaires completed by school leaders and from semi-structured interviews with individual school leaders from different parts of China. The exploratory study shows that Chinese school leaders perceive a coexistence of Chinese and Anglo-American leadership and management values, rather than the domination of one over the other. The findings suggest that it is important to understand the impact of national cultures on leadership and management. Differences between Chinese and Western culture and leadership and management are open to the challenge of stereotyping, and should not be over-stressed, as school leaders are working in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and are exposed to and socialized into cultures of a multileveled polity ranging from the school to the local, national, and even global levels.     

Distributed leadership in a Maltese college: the voices of those among whom leadership is ‘distributed’ and who concurrently narrate themselves as leadership ‘distributors’

In the unfolding Maltese education scenario of decentralization and school networking, I explore distributed leadership as it occurs at the college level through the leaders’ narrative and performance in an investigation of the power relations among the different-tiered leaders. This article uses data from the case study of a Maltese college consisting of four primary and three secondary schools. Using these data from an ongoing doctoral study, all subjected to narrative and discourse analysis, I adopt the stance of a ‘story teller’, as I craft a narrative from the data to represent a ‘play of voices’. Foucault’s theories of power, governmentality, discourse and subjectivation are used to explore the unfolding of power relations. Analysis reveals a dichotomy between the leaders’ narrative of distributed leadership and their performance of it. There is the presence of a raging battle among the discourses of collegiality and isolationism, through the discourse of distributed leadership, and within the discourse of educational leadership itself. Distributed leadership is a challenge to perform at the college level; with resistance being demonstrated in overt or more subtle ways along the different hierarchies, although power does circulate. This article contributes to educational leadership literature with regard to the power relations among top educational leaders in a networked school setting.     

Education and psychological distress in adolescence and mid-life: Do private schools make a difference?

This article extends the evidence base on childhood circumstances, education and psychological distress. We examine the link between childhood advantage and disadvantage, the type of school attended during adolescence and psychological distress at ages 16 and 42. The analysis uses a large, population-based birth cohort study, the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) (n = 17,198) using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. More advantaged young people were more likely to attend private schools, but we find no evidence for an effect of private schooling on psychological distress for men, and for women there was an association between private schooling and raised psychological distress at age 16. Having a university degree was associated with a modest reduction in psychological distress in mid-life. We establish that maternal psychological distress at age 10 was a risk factor for the offspring’s psychological distress both in adolescence and in mid-life, and adolescent psychological distress predicts psychological distress in mid-life. We conclude that schools which are academically successful do not necessarily provide wider benefits in terms of mental health.     

Wellbeing in schools: Examining the policy–practice nexus

National concern regarding the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people is now strongly reflected in a wide range of Australian policy initiatives. A considerable number of these target schools and point firmly to the role education is perceived to play in promoting student wellbeing. Given that wellbeing can be difficult to define and complex to measure, closer attention needs to be paid to whether and how the current wellbeing policy environment provides conceptual clarity and intelligible implementation pathways. This article explores some of the current policy ambiguity by drawing on findings from a large-scale, mixed methods study exploring student wellbeing at school. These findings emerged from an extensive analysis of wellbeing-related policy, together with policy-related data from in-depth interviews with teachers and principals. They suggest that approaches to supporting student wellbeing are constrained by an ad hoc policy environment characterised by competing discourses and a consequential lack of clarity regarding how wellbeing is understood and best facilitated within the context of schools. The implications of these findings are discussed with particular attention to the interface between policy and practice with regard to student wellbeing in schools in Australia.     

Gypsy,Roma and Traveller pupils in schools in the UK: inclusion and ‘good practice’

This paper examines inclusionary processes and examples of ‘good practice’ in primary and secondary schools for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils in one inner London Borough in the UK. It will explore the role of the Traveller Education Service (TES) and argue that the support provided by the TES to schools is essential for the development of ‘good practice’, but at the same time it stresses that the TES is not a substitute for the school’s educational and welfare responsibilities. The paper will also argue that the commitment of the head teacher and senior management team to the inclusive ethos of the school is crucial in setting the tone of the school towards positive treatment of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils. Where an inclusive ethos works successfully it is often the result of a wider social engagement between the school and community. The paper will draw on qualitative interview data with parents, head teachers, deputies, heads of year, teachers, and classroom assistants at the schools.     

Rhetoric and reality: are integrated schools in Northern Ireland really making a difference?

This article explores perspectives on the current contribution of integrated schools to society in Northern Ireland and asks whether there is a mismatch between what some expect from the schools and what they may be able to provide. It suggests that integrated education may for some be a magic panacea, whilst those leading the sector see the benefits of integrated education as emerging over a much longer and more realistic timeframe. Based on a series of interviews with principals and with other leaders, this article explores how integrated schools balance the practice and evaluation of integration with other conflicting priorities. It questions the extent to which the schools show variation and argues that greater coherence within the integrated sector might be helpful in the current climate.     

Distributed leadership with the aim of ‘reculturing’: a departmental case study

This article considers a secondary science department that has, since 2000, developed distributed leadership as a form of human capacity building. Using a longitudinal ethnographic case study allowed us to consider how distributed leadership can be nurtured and developed in a department. Our analysis centres on two key issues: the nature and pattern of distributed leadership practices and the continuity that provides coherence to those practices. From our analysis, there appear to be two major conclusions. The first of these is the need for administrators to be purposeful in the appointments that they make to formal leadership positions. To enact distributed leadership practices requires leaders who can exercise both formal power and influence. The second conclusion relates to the time required for continuity of leadership practices to give rise to changes that lead to teachers managing the teaching and learning programme.     

The performative shift: middle leadership ‘in the line of fire’

ABSTRACT

State school inspection in Norway is currently changing with targeted schools becoming subject to more complex methods of inquiry. Not only school principals but middle leaders are exposed to this shifting system, for the latter are in the frontline of their schools’ everyday practices. The article examines how state school inspection is used as means of controlling legal compliance, as well as evaluating the formative assessment routines and practices of schools, middle leaders, and individual teachers. Drawing on the concepts of accountability and performativity, field observations of inspectors interrogating department heads in primary education are analysed. The empirical study demonstrates how use of standardised rubrics steer the inspection process in schools, aiming more towards completing on task, rather than supporting middle leaders in their struggle to comply with legal standards. During such interrogation, the department heads comply with the system, and are at the same time open towards the inspectors’ questioning concerning the school’s lack of fully implemented routines.     

Changing perceptions is one thing…: barriers to transforming leadership and learning in Ghanaian basic schools

School leadership, head teacher professional development and school management practices in sub-Saharan Africa have varied little from the model of schooling established during colonial rule. Leadership for Learning (LfL) is a programme of school leadership developed at the University of Cambridge over a period of 10 years in conjunction with an international group of researchers and practitioners. This paper reports the results from questionnaire data gathered from a cohort of 125 head teachers who participated in the LfL programme in Ghana between 2009 and 2011, and speculates on the successes and barriers to leadership and learning. Implications arising from the scaling up of the LfL programme to include all Ghanaian schools are discussed.     

Educational practice in India and its foundations in Indian heritage: a synthesis of the East and West?

The paper examines education practice in India in terms of the division between indigenous cultures on the one hand, and the formal culture of learning and knowledge systems inherited from colonial times on the other. These ‘two Indias’ are still reflected in the modern educational system in India, seen in the vast differences between the formal school system, whose benefits reach only a minority of the population, and the millions of crafts-persons working in India's informal sector, many without education or training. The paper looks at reasons for these divisions within the culture and history of India's formal, non-formal and informal systems of education and training. The paper also throws light on the aspirations to unite these divided cultures of learning by looking at some of the writings of J.P. Naik, the famous educationist and secretary of the first Report of the Education Commission (1964–66) after India's independence. The analysis needs to be seen against the background of international educational thought which is improving the value, relevance and quality of non-formal and informal learning, as key pillars for building lifelong learning systems.     

Teachers in international schools: a global educational ‘precariat’?

An over-looked global educational development has been the exponential growth of ‘international schools’. The field in 2014 involved almost 350,000 educators in over 7000 English-medium schools in non-English-speaking countries. This is expected to rise to half a million educators, mainly American and British, in 10,000 schools by 2022. The field has never constituted a ‘system’, and it remains largely uninspected, unmonitored and unregulated. There was substantial evidence from both social media comment and real-life reports in the popular press during 2013 and 2014 that the field is becoming an increasingly precarious one for teachers.     

Critical perspectives in educational leadership: a new ‘theory turn’?

In this article, I argue that we are witnessing a new phase or ‘theory turn’ in the field of educational leadership. These more critical perspectives in the field of educational leadership have typically been marginalised by the larger body of orthodox approaches due to a perceived lack of focus on best practice and ‘what works’ discourses, and especially in recent years with the rise of the school effectiveness and improvement movement. However, critical perspectives in educational leadership constitute an essential and vibrant part of educational leadership scholarship and discourse. Drawing on Michel Foucault's notion of discourse, through this article, I examine how critical perspectives have been constituted historically, with some of the main themes of research. This foregrounding also highlights a number of limitations with more orthodox and hegemonic leadership discourses. I identify a number of key writers in the field and situate them in the current theory turn, that is, an emphasis of theoretically informed research that have been prolific over the last 5–10 years.     

Reflections on policy and practice of inclusive education in pre‐primary schools in Cyprus

In July 1999 the House of Parliament in Cyprus passed the Education Act for Children with Special Needs, according to which all children have the right to be educated in their neighbouring regular school together with their age‐mates. An important component of this law is that it introduces, for the first time, inclusive education into pre‐primary education. A child can be considered as having special needs only when he/she has attained the age of 3 years or older. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the policy of inclusive education is implemented in pre‐primary schools in ­Cyprus, to investigate whether some children are still marginalized (after the implementation of the new law) and, if they are, to identify factors influencing marginalization or acting as a barrier to inclusion. We also briefly present the results from a study we conducted that supports the discussion of the issues raised in this paper.     

Evaluating the quality of learning environments and teaching Äpractice in special schools

This article reports on findings of a study which objective is the development of an instrument for systematic evaluation and improvement of the quality of teaching in special schools. The article describes the research process which led to the construction of the instrument as well as the way teachers can use the instrument to improve the quality of their teaching. The article advocates a practice perspective to professional development in special schools, as special schools in Denmark are under pressure by three international educational agendas: the agenda of accountability, the agenda of standards and the agenda of inclusion. The instrument suggests that professional development is teacher driven and not driven by the accountability agenda. The research approach was collaborative as 35 teachers and principals from 16 special schools participated in the research process. Their perceptions of quality in the practice of teaching in special schools and research literature on the quality of teaching in both mainstream schools and special schools have shaped the development of the instrument. Thus, the instrument is based on the finding, that teaching methods in general and special education are not as different as assumed. This finding is reflected in the instrument.