The ‘punk rock principal’: a metaphor for rethinking educational leadership

ABSTRACT

This paper advances an alternative leadership metaphor of ‘punk rock leadership’. I work through the usefulness of a metaphor of punk rock leadership as a way of exploring one principal's vision of leadership and his efforts to work outside of system expectations in his quest to achieve the school's goals. In doing so, I contribute to our wider understanding of the methodological process, affordances, and challenges of using metaphors to theorise empirical data. Empirically, this paper contributes to critical research into principals’ practices in times of change, and to notions of power and leadership discourses in schools.     

Opening or closing doors for students? Equity and data use in schools

Ensuring equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students is a top priority of many educators and policymakers across the globe. Data use can be an important lever for achieving equity, but how this can occur is not well understood. In this article, we draw upon knowledge gained in a decade of in-depth qualitative research to examine the ways in which data use helps to open or close doors for students. We discuss data use practices that influence equity goals: (1) accountability-driven data use and data use for continuous improvement; (2) using data to confirm assumptions and using data to challenge beliefs, and (3) tracking and flexible grouping to promote student growth. Along each of these dimensions, there are active decision makers, complex processes of data use at play, and a great deal of variation both within and across contexts. Ultimately, educators and policymakers are faced with critical choices regarding data use that can profoundly affect students’ daily educational experiences and trajectories.     

Informal mentoring for aspiring school leaders: a phenomenological study

ABSTRACT

Informal mentoring had been previously identified as a vital component to leadership development and succession planning. Through a phenomenological approach, we sought to capture the lived experiences of aspiring school leaders pertaining to informal mentoring. Using open-ended questions and reflective activities, eight aspiring school leaders provided information about their experiences and characteristics of informal mentoring. Through a human science research perspective, four themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) defining informal mentoring, (b) characteristics of effective informal mentors, (c) constructive relationship, and (d) mentoring recommendations. Participants found their experiences with informal mentoring beneficial. There was a reported high level of trust between mentor and protégé and the process was flexible. Because the aspiring leaders sought to become school leaders in the near future, most were cognizant of the fact they needed to have quality mentors, but also be a mentor to new educators.     

A Quasi-Experiment Examining Expressive and Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge of Preschool Head Start Children Using Mobile Media Apps

This study examined the efficacy of using different types of mobile media apps to increase the receptive and expressive vocabulary development of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old preschool children living in economically disadvantaged communities. Children and teachers in four Head Start classrooms participated in the quasi-experimental study, which included an 8-week intervention in which the children interacted with one of two types of apps: one classroom used four scaffolding-like vocabulary apps for an average of 1.8 h per day (n?=?16) and one classroom used four open-ended vocabulary apps for an average of 1.3 h per day (n?=?15). Two classrooms served as comparison groups (n?=?18; n?=?14) which used apps that were chosen by the Head Start program with no specific instructional method for approximately 1 h per day. Children’s vocabulary was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the PPVT-4, the EVT-2, and iPad Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Assessments. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance with split plot analysis, children who used scaffolding-like vocabulary apps performed statistically significantly higher on the PPVT-4 than children who used open-ended vocabulary apps. There were no significant differences between groups on the EVT-2. The study contributed to the literature on teacher instruction of utilizing scaffolding-like apps to increase preschool vocabulary knowledge.     

Why study? How reasons for learning influence strategy selection

Learners' use of strategies cannot be understood without understanding the nature of their motivation for learning. Using an intentional framework which emphasizes learners' purposes, research in the last 10 years has found that different goals, or different definitions of success and failure, have distinct implications for strategy selection and use. In this review, I describe what we have learned to date about these relationships and suggest how approaches to research on goals and strategies might be broadened.     

Does the Empirical Literature Inform Prevention of Dropout among Students with Emotional Disturbance? A Systematic Review and Call to Action

For the past 30 years, the dropout rate for students with emotional disturbance has hovered around 50%, a rate substantially higher than the dropout rate for students with other disabilities and the general population. This systematic review evaluated the literature published between 1990 and 2013 on the effectiveness of dropout prevention and intervention for students with emotional disturbance. Only one experimental or quasi-experimental study tested a dropout prevention program with students with emotional disturbance meeting the methodological criteria for this review. The results reveal a dearth of research-based strategies or programs to support high school completion among students with emotional disturbance, underscoring the need for rigorous intervention research to improve outcomes for these students. We discuss implications for research and practice in light of this research gap.     

Oral English language proficiency and reading mastery: The role of home language and school supports

The analysis of 21,409 participants of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort focused on home and school factors sought to understand the level of reading mastery that children experienced throughout elementary school and Grade 8 by relating home language use, timing of oral English language proficiency, and the provision of school-based English language learner services to reading mastery. Results confirm that non-English language use at home is associated with a decreased reading mastery at higher levels of proficiency in Grades 1 and 3, and is reduced to nonsignificance in Grades 5 and 8 with the inclusion of teacher and school factors. Also, the negative association between timing of oral English language proficiency and reading mastery is partially explained by teacher and school factors, particularly children's receipt of English language learner services. The findings provide support for policies that provide language services for language minority children and families during the transition to school and through the elementary school years.     

Boundary Crossing and the Professional Learning of Teacher Educators in New International Contexts

In this collaborative self-study, two teacher educators examine their experiences of working in new international contexts and the impact of those experiences on their professional learning and identities. Mandi moved from a major research university in one country to another, while Judy co-led a group of pre-service teachers on an international practicum for three weeks each year for three years. Using the concept of boundary crossing as a theoretical and analytical framework, each teacher educator identified a boundary-related critical incident or experience that occurred during her work in new international contexts. Through individual and collaborative analysis of their critical incidents, they found that working as a teacher educator in new international contexts involves the crossing and re-crossing of multiple personal, professional, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Working in these boundary spaces involved learning how to negotiate new kinds of relationships with colleagues and students, manage changed roles and responsibilities and, ultimately, a search for a renewed sense of self, as each sought to understand herself differently within a new professional context.