Creative leadership: a new category or more of the same?

New categories of leadership are continually being invented. Because the ways we think are productive of the ways in which we act, it is important to hold these rhetorical innovations to account. This paper focuses on the latest of these categories – creative leadership. Mobilising a Foucauldian notion of ‘discourse’ I deconstruct the notion of creative leadership as it has recently been represented in five published texts. I suggest that the interpretation on offer has a determinist view of the future, ignores the history of debates about creativity, offers creativity as a generic skill and underestimates what it is that teachers and leaders might need to do in order to work creatively. I show that the notion of creative leadership on offer is strongly connected with that of creative learning, and put the ‘recipe’ offered by one set of texts into conversation with a body of empirical evidence about what is happening in schools that aim to promote creative learning. I argue that what is evident from the dialogue between the texts and the empirical studies is that it is pedagogical leadership that is absent but is actually most required, embedded in leadership/management principles and practices that promote social justice.     

Similarities and differences in collegiality/managerialism in Irish and Australian universities

In the collegial model the basis for appointment to senior management in the collegial model is nomination by a community of scholars, whereas it is by line management in the managerial one. This article focuses on the basis of appointments in universities and the gendering of such structures. Data are drawn from qualitative interviews with both men and women senior manager-academics at Dean level and above in Ireland and Australia (N = 44). In both countries the power of the President/Vice-Chancellor (VC) was very much as a Chief Executive Officer in the managerialist model, rather than the ‘primus inter pares’ of the collegial model. Moreover, Presidents/VCs controlled the appointments of Vice-Presidents/Deputy VCs and Deans and were seen as being able to affect the gender profile of senior management. However, in the Australian system (in contrast to the Irish one) there was no ambivalence about the VC actively rectifying gender inequalities in management. In a context where hybrid forms of management are emerging, this article questions the relevance of collegial/managerialist models in understanding the gendering of universities.     

Foundations of dynamic learning analytics: Using university student data to increase retention

With digitisation and the rise of e‐learning have come a range of computational tools and approaches that have allowed educators to better support the learners' experience in schools, colleges and universities. The move away from traditional paper‐based course materials, registration, admissions and support services to the mobile, always‐on and always accessible data has driven demand for information and generated new forms of data observable through consumption behaviours. These changes have led to a plethora of data sets that store learning content and track user behaviours. Most recently, new data analytics approaches are creating new ways of understanding trends and behaviours in students that can be used to improve learning design, strengthen student retention, provide early warning signals concerning individual students and help to personalise the learner's experience. This paper proposes a foundational learning analytics model (LAM) for higher education that focuses on the dynamic interaction of stakeholders with their data supported by visual analytics, such as self‐organising maps, to generate conversations, shared inquiry and solution‐seeking. The model can be applied for other educational institutions interested in using learning analytics processes to support personalised learning and support services. Further work is testing its efficacy in increasing student retention rates.     

Testing,Testing: Teacher assessment in England

In England there has been a marked increase in the assessment of teachers, culminating in the introduction of a performance management policy for schools that calibrates the occupation of teaching from the cradle to the grave. In this article, we raise a number of issues about the consequences of this policy for teachers and teaching in relation to the value system underpinning it, its likely impact on issues of equity and social justice, its implications for accountability and governance, and its potential for reshaping the culture of teaching in ways that will impact negatively on the nature of future community and social relations.     

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: CHEATING AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

Cheating in community colleges is not uncommon and is one of the most unfortunate problems faculty and administrators attempt to solve. As the focus of community colleges shifts from teaching to learning, it is important to study the more unpleasant issues facing the community college family. This article defines and identifies attitudes and situations that encourage academic dishonesty. It further discusses strategies for prevention of academic dishonesty, offers suggestions on how to discourage the practice, and advances recommendations for dealing with cheating. Also included is an inventory of sources about "paper mills," and a listing of cybercheating preventive and investigative software programs.