Developing leadership in higher education: perspectives from the USA,the UK and Australia

It is broadly acknowledged that leaders in the twenty-first century are required to navigate an increasingly complex landscape and that the types of challenges individuals and organisations face in the knowledge era require the capacity to adapt and respond to continual fluctuations and change. Outcomes from previous leadership research, combined with the perspectives of colleagues and observation over the past decade, prompted concern that leadership in higher education (HE) institutions was, in the main, not demonstrating the level of readiness or capability to effectively respond to the challenges embodied in the transition to the knowledge era. In seeking to establish how well founded this concern was, this study, supported by a Peter Karmel International Travel Grant, investigated leadership development thinking, programmes and practices within the HE sector in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and explored how this applies within the Australian context. A number of themes emerged that support the idea that the work of leadership will ideally be based on relationships rather than the ‘command and control’ models of the past and on distributed leadership processes and practices throughout the organisation.     

“There’s nothing I hate more than a racist:” (Re)centering whiteness in American Horror Story: Coven

This article examines race and racism in the popular cable horror-drama American Horror Story: Coven. Centered around a feud between a white witch coven and a black, voodoo group of witches, Coven overtly deals with the issue of racism, but presents racism as a phenomenon contained in the past; something that does not happen anymore. Using critical post-race theory and scholarship on colorblind racism, whiteness, as well as black feminist theory, I show that although the narrative of Coven explicitly decries racism, it simultaneously invests in colorblind racist narratives and dialogue. Whiteness is central in Coven, operating through discourse that ignores racial difference and contemporary forms of oppression and erasure. Coven uses graphic depictions of violence against black bodies, makes explicit connections between black sexuality and animals, and uses exotic and aggressive stereotypes of black women to tell its story. Thus, Coven’s narrative both condemns racism and relies on it. This article shows that the contemporaneous presentations of explicit anti-racist dialogue and racist imagery work to (re)place whiteness at the center of Coven, a TV show that purports to forward a message of equality and justice for those who are different.     

Instructional Tasks and the Development of Student Capacity to Think and Reason: An Analysis of the Relationship between Teaching and Learning in a Reform Mathematics Project

Abstract

In the present study the relationship between teaching and learning was examined using a conceptual framework that links dimensions of instructional tasks with gains in student learning outcomes. The greatest student gains on a performance assessment consisting of tasks that require high levels of mathematical thinking and reasoning were related to the use of instructional tasks that engaged students in the “doing of mathematics” or the use of procedures with connections to meaning. In addition, student performance gains were greater for those sites whose tasks were both set up and implemented to encourage the use of multiple solution strategies, multiple representations, and explanations. Whereas, student performance gains were relatively small for those sites whose tasks tended to be both set up and implemented in a procedural manner and that required a single solution strategy, single representations, and little or no mathematical communication.     

Effects of Academic Discipline and Teaching Goals in Predicting Grading Beliefs Among Undergraduate Teaching Faculty

Prior research reveals that differential grading patterns exist among the academic disciplines. One explanation may lie in discipline-related differences in teaching goals and beliefs about the meaning grades should convey. This study examined the effects of academic discipline and teaching goals on grading beliefs. A national sample (n = 442) of undergraduate teaching faculty provided responded to a survey measuring the importance of various teaching goals and orientations toward norm-referenced or criterion-referenced grading (Frame of Reference), and beliefs about using grades to sort and select students on the basis of achievement (Gatekeeping). Both teaching goals and academic discipline were significantly related to gatekeeping beliefs, but not to beliefs about frames of reference for grading. Higher gatekeeping scores were associated with faculty in the paradigmatic fields and those who emphasized analytic skills and time management. Lower gatekeeping scores were associated with the preparadigmatic disciplines and teaching goals of synthesis and integration and developing respect for others. Faculty who identified their primary teaching role as subject matter oriented were more gatekeeping than those who identified themselves primarily as being student/personal development oriented.     

The Importance of Making the Well-Being of Children in Poverty a Priority

Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world the side of America that is often ignored or forgotten—the side of America where people live in poverty and struggle to meet their most basic needs. This article focuses primarily on children in Mississippi and highlights the effect that poverty has on children’s well-being at an early age and future academic success. It also provides evidence for the importance of funding high-quality pre-k programs and parental training to ensure they begin the process of preparing their children for success, not only in Mississippi but in the other states that are leaving their children behind. Finally, with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind in 2007, recommendations are made for refocusing the premise of the law from accountability and high stakes testing to meeting the needs of all children so they can truly be successful in school.