Middle leadership roles in universities: Holy Grail or poisoned chalice

Middle leadership roles in higher education have been identified as important for institutional effectiveness yet fraught with tensions, and those in middle leadership roles often feel unprepared and unsupported. This study of the responsibilities, skills and competencies, and support required for heads of school in a New Zealand university, drew on a survey and interviews with heads and focus groups or interviews with a range of stakeholders. The research found that while heads found satisfaction in their role, they also faced challenges associated with people management, workload and impact on their research careers. There was widespread agreement among stakeholders about the capabilities needed for the role and an awareness of the barriers to effectiveness. Suggestions for making the role more appealing include reducing workload, providing learning and development programs, clarifying the balance of professional and personal competencies required, and encouraging the distribution of leadership.     

Burnout among university faculty: the central role of work–family conflict

This study examined both direct and indirect associations of faculty burnout with psychosocial work environments, using the job resources-demands framework. A sample of 2,229 faculty members (57.1% male) throughout public universities in the Czech Republic completed a questionnaire comprising measures of burnout and psychosocial work environment characteristics from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire II. We formulated a structural model that hypothesised a positive effect of job demands (quantitative demands, work-family conflict (WFC), job insecurity) and a negative effect of job resources (influence, social community, role clarity) on burnout. Results showed that the strongest predictor of burnout was WFC, which had a direct positive effect on burnout and mediated the positive effect of quantitative demands on burnout. Further, a small direct negative effect of age and an indirect positive effect of involvement in research grants and administrative paperwork on burnout were observed. The findings indicate that university management can most effectively address burnout in academic staff not only by implementing policies that reduce WFC, workload and administrative paperwork, but also by providing more job resources to younger faculty and faculty involved in grant-based projects.     

Reflections on infusing evidenced-based inclusion practices in early childhood community college programs through a collaborative professional development model

ABSTRACT

Inclusion means that students with disabilities have access to high-quality and effective instruction, as well as specialized services as needed, within least restrictive environments. We believe there are no limits on who can or should participate in and benefit from inclusion and we were interested in perceptions resulting from professional development designed to support including young children with disabilities in classrooms with their natural neighbors and peers. We present reflections from application of a community of practice model in which university-based faculty worked closely and collaboratively with community college instructors to infuse ideas, concepts, and content from the field of special education into associate degree early childhood education coursework.     

BEYOND BUILDING BETTER CHECKLISTS: STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN A SCHOOL EXPERIENCE PROGRAMME

The article reviews the aims of the School Experience of a new B.Ed, primary degree, based on Zeichner's notion of the ‘reflective teacher’. Having established the aims, the authors then examine the implications this has for finding forms of assessment which are commensurate with the process‐orientated, formative, self‐critical nature of the degree.

The issues raised, in this article, relate to the needs of tutors in developing new roles and relationships between tutor and student, tutor and class teacher, and tutor and tutor. The resulting staff development programme — designed to support the emerging ‘reflective tutor’ — is discussed.     

Systems View of School Climate: a Theoretical Framework for Research

School climate has been widely examined through both empirical and theoretical means. However, there is little conceptual consensus underlying the landscape of this literature, offering inconsistent guidance for research examining this important construct. In order to best assist the efforts of developing causal models that describe how school climate functions, we propose the Systems View of School Climate (SVSC). This theoretical framework was formed by deconstructing prior models and empirical research on school climate into themes and highlighting their implicit assumptions. Using the SVSC to synthesize this existing literature, school climate is defined as the affective and cognitive perceptions regarding social interactions, relationships, values, and beliefs held by students, teachers, administrators, and staff within a school. School climate is situated within Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner 1989) to guide future research in this domain and help specify levels of research or analysis, thereby providing utility as a theoretical framework for future causal models. The SVSC provides a roadmap for research by demarcating school climate from related constructs, suggesting related contextual and structural constructs, and delineating proximal and distal systems which may shape the nature of school climate.     

Learning from Coursework in English and Geography

As an element of high stakes assessment, coursework was originally intended to raise the validity of the assessment process and to enhance the learning of students. In recent years, this purpose has been distorted by the increasing requirements for educational institutions to demonstrate standards and to be accountable. This small, ESRC-funded study used in-depth qualitative approaches to explore the nature and processes of learning from coursework in national examinations undertaken by 16 year-old students. Among other things, it probed the extent to which qualities such as independent learning, critical thinking and creativity were developed through coursework. The research found that, while the practice underpinning coursework had the capacity to support deeper and more independent learning, the pressures of achieving good grades mediated against all pupils reaching the optimum level of higher order thinking.     

Exploring the ethical issues related to visual methodology when including young children’s voice in wider research samples

ABSTRACT

Understanding and working with ethical issues when including young children in educational research is critical to ensuring their involvement is meaningful. Increasingly, different methodological approaches have been used to address some of these issues, and the use of visual methods is showing particular potential for its age appropriateness. This paper will specifically focus on three examples of drawing based visual method used with samples of children across compulsory school age from the Learning to Learn in Schools project: Pupil View Templates (n?=?263, age range 4–12 years), cartoon storyboards (n?=?210, age range 4–16 years) and fortune lines (n?=?69, 4–14 years). The discussion of each method will be framed from a pragmatic perspective and will particularly focus on the ethics of process and output, how the method was used and the data that were analysed. Questions will be asked about the considerations that need to be made when including young children in data sets with other older school-aged children and dilemmas identified: the affordances and constraints of visual approaches for all participants, the role of the visual as mediator, the role and positioning of the adult support and the impact this has on the nature of the data elicited.     

The Effects of Oral Narrative Intervention on the Personal Narratives of Children with ASD and Severe Language Impairment: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine and refine an oral narrative intervention addressing personal narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and severe language impairment. A multiple baseline across participants design investigated the effect of the intervention on the macrostructure of personal narratives. Three five–six year olds participated in a 1:1 intervention that targeted the where, who with, what and feelings of personal narrative. Intervention included macrostructure icons, pictures, modelling and participants telling the entire narrative. Participants received training with two or three narratives each session. The intervention was effective for all three participants. Two participants showed evidence of maintenance and generalisation across settings. The results show that children with autism and severe language impairment may benefit from oral narrative intervention targeting the macrostructure of personal narrative. These results are consistent with previous findings. Areas for future research include investigation of generalisation across people.     

Eduscape: The effects of servicescapes and emotions in academic learning environments

Conceptual and empirical studies on the impact of physical environments in educational settings are lacking. In comparison, consumption environments research has a rich history. In this paper we bring together these two research streams to develop (Study 1) and test (Study 2) an ‘Eduscape’ model of the effects of emotions and servicescape factors in higher education settings. Study 1 (423 students) explores aspects of the physical environment. Building on Study 1, Study 2 uses structural equation modelling (209 students) to test the proposed conceptual model. The results highlight that comfort, temperature/humidity, functionality/design and acoustics/visual features are key in determining students’ pleasure within the environment. Although Study 1 highlights that cleanliness/upkeep is important to students, Study 2 does not find statistical support for this association. The proposed model also emphasizes the links between students’ pleasure derived from the environment and their satisfaction, engagement/involvement and approach behaviour.