A Subjectivist Model of School Leadership for International Schools: Greenfield Revisited

Greenfield’s subjectivist approach to the construction and interpretation of social reality is examined and applied to school organizations in an attempt to demonstrate that such organizations may be advantageously viewed as entities constructed and sustained by ideas in people’s minds. The path to understanding schools and their administration lies with the interpretation and analysis of the experience of people in these institutions rather than in the use of overarching theories of educational management. International schools have always provided education for the ever-increasing flux of people across frontiers, either temporarily because of job postings (globally mobile families) or more permanently because of migration. The high degree of cultural diversity in these schools augments the complexity of leadership because staff, students, and parents bring their own cultural heritage, experience, and expectations to bear, together, in a single school setting. This also increasingly applies in government schools in many countries because of migration. Ethnic cultural repertoires play a major role in the creation, deciphering, and juxtaposition of individual social realities and have an important bearing on organization culture. The article concludes with the importance of communicative and cultural competencies as the main tools for effective school leadership in international schools.     

Estrategias de evaluacion formativa: concepciones psicopedagógicas y modalidades de aplicación

RESUMEN

El término “evaluación formativa” se refiere al tipo de evaluación empleada por el maestro con el fin de adaptar su acción pedagógica a los procesos y los problemas de aprendizaje observados en los alumnos. En este sentido tiene una función de regulación de los medios de formación del sistema educativo. Se proponen tres etapas de la evaluación formativa: recogida de informaciones relativas a los progresos y dificultades de aprendizaje del alumno; interpretación de estos datos y diagnóstico de los factores que causan las dificultades; y adaptación de las actividades educativas. Se describe la orientación de estas tres etapas desde una perspectiva neo-behaviorista primero, y después desde una perspectiva cognitivista. Asimismo hay distintas modalidades de aplicación de esta evaluación formativa que se describen en detalle: evaluación puntual, regulación retroactiva, evaluación continua, regulación interactiva y modalidades mixtas.     

Neighborhoods Matter: The Role of Universities in the School Reform Neighborhood Development Movement

Where you find distressed neighborhoods, you will also find poorly performing public schools. Yet many contemporary school reform efforts ignore neighborhood-level factors that undeniably impact school performance. The purpose of this study is to use a case study approach with social institutional and urban school reform regime frameworks to demonstrate why school reform and the re-creation and redevelopment of distressed neighborhoods should occur simultaneously. At the same time, researchers will examine the role of higher education in catalyzing partnerships with so-called anchor institutions for the explicit purposes of simultaneously improving neighborhoods and reforming schools. By focusing on a federal Choice neighborhood initiative, the study will not only make the case for connecting school reform and neighborhood development but also present a model that demonstrates how this can happen. The study will also make a strong case for the university's unique role in fostering neo-collaborative structures fit to take on wicked problems of neighborhood distress and urban decline.     

Development of a Classroom Environment Scale in Hong Kong

Free-meal entitlement (FME) is being used as a measure of the socio-economic characteristics of Scottish schools for the purposes of target-setting. This article examines the association between FME and the socio-economic circumstances of schools using a national survey of school-leavers. It also evaluates the extent to which FME provides a surrogate for socio-economic status in predicting attainment. It finds that FME is an inconsistent measure of poverty, and is only a partial proxy for socio-economic circumstances. It concludes that school comparisons using FME may give a spurious impression of validity.     

Recent developments in HIV/AIDS prevention for Russian adolescents

This article reports on the educator qualities that are valued by Australian teachers involved in sexuality education in high schools. Focus groups were conducted with school sexuality education teachers in 19 high schools in five Australian states. Data indicated that teachers valued being trustworthy, being open and honest, being willing to listen, having a sense of humour, and being able to relate to the students, especially being able to relate in a trustworthy and confidential way. Also valued were being comfortable with one's own sexuality, being approachable and being flexible. These qualities are similar to those recommended in the literature in the 1970s and 1980s and correspond closely to the qualities sought by today's high school students. Australian schoolteachers currently enjoy a positive climate for teaching sexuality education, as do many European schoolteachers. This contrasts with the climate for many American teachers where Abstinence Until Marriage programme requirements place many restrictions on what can be taught and may compromise the expression of teacher qualities such as being non-judgemental, flexible, open and honest. The findings have implications for teacher professional development, pre-service teacher education training, and the selection of teachers to teach sexuality education.     

Sexual behaviour profiles of HIV-positive youth in the Netherlands

Young people living with HIV are challenged when it comes to exploring their sexuality. Their sex education is hampered by the fact that their preferences and attitudes towards sexual behaviour are little known about. In this study from the Netherlands, Q-methodology was used to identify sizeable and meaningful sub-groups sharing common attitudes and viewpoints. Thirty of 48 eligible HIV-positive young people aged 12–21 years treated in one of the four Dutch HIV centres rank-ordered 45 statements on the topic. Thereafter, they explained their ranking. By-person factor analysis identified five distinct sexual behaviour profiles (SBPs): (a) safer sex & disclosure to steady partner; (b) motivated by faith and culture; (c) disclosure to good friends, values peer support; (d) conscientious, worries about disclosure and future; (e) self-confident, faith and family are important. Profiles differ in terms of the roles of culture and religion, the influence of family and friends, personal views about disclosure of HIV status, knowing the transmission mode, and viral load. Study results indicate that different approaches to sexual health education are required based on these different orientations. Q-sorts and SBPs may be helpful in discussing sexual behaviour with HIV-positive young people and in developing tailored strategies to meet their interests and needs.     

Information Technology and Armenian Schooling: a possibility for change

ABSTRACT

Following a major earthquake in Leninakan, Armenia, in 1988 the British government built a school for 400 pupils aged between 6 and 16 years. We report on some of the pedagogical, staff development, and management issues arising from the introduction and use of information technology facilities within that school. In particular, we argue for moving away from the more technical focus for information technology that prevails in the curriculum inherited from the former Soviet system. Strategies for further developments are then considered.     

TEACHING ‘OUT-OF-FIELD’ AS A BOUNDARY-CROSSING EVENT: FACTORS SHAPING TEACHER IDENTITY

Teaching ‘out-of-field’ occurs when teachers teach a subject for which they are not qualified. The issues around this increasingly common practice are not widely researched and are under-theorised. A qualitative pilot study using teacher interviews in 3 rural schools examined meanings, support mechanisms and teacher identities associated with out-of-field teaching. A thematic analysis isolated factors influencing whether teachers self-assessed their practice and identities as out-of-field. The ‘boundary between fields’ model was developed to emphasise support mechanisms, contextual factors and personal resources that influenced the nature of teachers’ negotiation of subject boundaries and its impact on professional identity. These findings provide insight for policy makers, school leaders and teacher educators into the conditions required for such teaching to be considered learning opportunities.     

Communication as Changing the Negotiation Game

This article explores the implications of my research on bargaining and conflict management for formal and informal negotiations. In particular, I focus on ways to differentiate conflict issues, prevent premature closure, engage in conflict framing and reframing, and join together through collective sense making. I urge negotiators to change the name of the game through reaching new understandings and exploring alternative spaces of actions that transform conflicts rather than settle for easy compromises.