Supporting leadership development in European Universities: a mixed methods study of digital education leadership literacies for higher education

This exploratory mixed methods case study research addressed the problem of how a framework of digital education leadership literacies can support European campus-based universities in implementing strategic and organizational change to improve the way technology is used for teaching and learning. The study applied qualitative and quantitative approaches through a Delphi study; a thematic analysis of (a) case study data collected from three campus-based universities (France, Belgium, United Kingdom), and (b) selected digital education leadership development programmes; statistical analysis of data collected via a survey with academics (n=102); and a final online focus group. The main findings of the study confirm Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) as a theoretically and empirically grounded novel concept and framework. The results highlight the need to focus more explicitly on cultural, pedagogical, ethical, relational, and environmental issues in digital education leadership development, and to take a whole-institution approach to developing leadership capacity for digital education.Esta investigación exploratoria plantea de qué forma un marco de alfabetización del liderazgo en educación digital puede ayudar a las universidades presenciales europeas a implementar cambios estratégicos y organizacionales para mejorar el uso de la tecnología para la educación superior. Para realizar la investigación se ha aplicado una metodología mixta a través de un estudio Delphi; un análisis temático de a) estudios de casos de tres universidades presenciales (de Francia, Bélgica y Reino Unido), y b) una selección de programas de desarrollo del liderazgo en educación digital; un análisis de los datos de una encuesta con académicos (n=102), y un grupo focal final en línea. Los principales hallazgos confirman el marco Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) como un concepto novedoso fundamentado teórica y empíricamente. Asimismo, destacan la necesidad de centrarse en cuestiones culturales, pedagógicas, éticas, relacionales y ambientales, y de adoptar un enfoque institucional sistémico para desarrollar la capacidad de liderazgo para la educación digital.Aquesta investigació exploratòria planteja de quina manera un marc d'alfabetització del lideratge en educació digital pot ajudar les universitats presencials europees a implementar canvis estratègics i organitzacionals per millorar l'ús de la tecnologia per a l'educació superior. Per fer la recerca s'ha aplicat una metodologia mixta mitjançant un estudi Delphi; una anàlisi temàtica de a) estudis de casos de tres universitats presencials (França, Bèlgica i el Regne Unit), i b) una selecció de programes de desenvolupament del lideratge en educació digital; una anàlisi de dades d'un qüestionari amb acadèmics (n=102), i un grup focal final en línia. Les principals troballes confirmen el marc Digital Education Leadership Literacies for Higher Education (DELLHE) com un concepte nou fonamentat teòricament i empíricament. Destaquen, també, la necessitat de centrar-se en qüestions culturals, pedagògiques, ètiques, relacionals i ambientals, i d'adoptar un enfocament institucional sistèmic per desenvolupar la capacitat de lideratge per a l'educació digital.E-learnin

Second Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Pedagogical Practices, Collaborations, and Relationships with Other Teachers through Professional Development

This paper reports on the relationship between language teacher practices and their collaborations with other teachers through professional development. The paper argues that there is a link between the disposition to use evidence-based practices in language teaching, and ongoing reinforcement of such practices through dialogic exchange in professional practice sessions. Furthermore, the paper understands the learning and development of such disposition as a career-long endeavour, first encountered in quality teacher education programs and then continued by committing to ongoing professional development. Survey data were collected from a group of language teachers from various second languages in primary and secondary schools in [state removed], Australia after they had participated in a workshop on language teaching methodology. The teachers reported extensive use of evidence-based language learning strategies in their classrooms. The paper argues that this disposition is grounded in the ongoing commitment of these teachers to stay in dialogic exchange with colleagues during professional development

Leaders and the importance of the manager-staff relationship

The purpose of this study is to identify the importance of the manager\u27s relationship with frontline staff. There continues to be a need for top leadership to understand clearly and value this relationship and provide managers with the support they need to deliver on their visions, missions, and corporate goals. The manager-staff relationship sets the tone for the frontline staff and creates an environment of trust. The communication the manager provides is pivotal to helping staffs understand the goals and vision top leadership established. In addition, the positive atmosphere created by this relationship helps to cement the staffs\u27 commitment to the organization and reduces the turnover rate because job satisfaction increases. The positive impact on the morale of staffs by the manager-staff relationship is well documented in the literature. In a high-performing organization, communication flows both vertically and laterally (Robbins & Judge, 2010). That is, leaders and managers pass communication downward to groups in lower levels and these groups provide feedback to higher-up staff

Faculty and Administrators Working Together in a Community College: A Retrospective Case Study

Community colleges are facing many large-scale problems, such as increased accountability, in a time of shrinking budgets and students who are often unprepared for college level work. The implications of these problems to institutions that are striving to maintain access to higher education for vulnerable populations are grave. These problems, and others, require creative solutions that involve numerous individuals and groups across the institution. The purpose of this retrospective case study was to learn how faculty and administrators experienced collaboration in the context of a community college. The study was carried out at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) in South Portland, Maine by studying a two-year long attempt at collaboration between faculty and administrators. Data were collected through a combination of interviews with six participants, followed by a focus group of five of these participants, document collection, and participant observation. Through an iterative process (Miles & Huberman, 1994), data were subjected to open coding and then focused coding with codes drawn from the literature using the program HyperResearch. Analysis was undertaken utilizing matrices and concept maps to uncover patterns and significant instances. Collaboration and its relationship to cooperation played an important role in the study. Clearly defining collaboration and cooperation lead to identification of two distinct groups within the participants. The implications for future practice in this study were found in three specific areas: (1) collaborative capacity in a community college setting; (2) topics appropriate for collaborative methods; and (3) viewing collaboration as a dance between collaborators and cooperators. To build collaborative capacity requires a foundation of trust that is, in part, built and maintained through successive collaborative endeavors. Every attempt at collaboration is an opportunity to build trust and create connections between groups and individuals that can be used to aid future collaborations. The topic of the attempted collaboration should be one that promotes interaction among participants -- preferably a topic with which many in the community are already concerned. Envisioning intra-organizational collaboration as a dance between collaborators and cooperators helps to make the needs of both groups explicit

Ethics-oriented Learning in Environmental Education Workplaces: An activity theory approach

In the context of increasing national and global environmental challenges and their implications for the working world, new ethics and practices are being introduced into workplaces that take better account of socio-ecological relations. Little is understood, however, about the nature of ethics-oriented workplace learning. Drawing on Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), which enables historically and contextually situated relational perspectives to emerge, this paper explores contradictions in the activity systems of two young environmental education learner-practitioners struggling to engage with the ethical dimensions of their professional work and the professional development course they are studying. The study focuses in particular on the environmental values and ethics component of their course – a year-long Learnership in Environmental Education, Training and Development Practices (EETDP). The paper reflects how tensions and contradictions within and between the interacting activity systems of the workplace, the course, and its regulating qualifications authority influence the teaching and learning of the environmental ethics component of the course. Ethics-oriented teaching and learning processes are found to be strongly influenced by the ‘rules’ and ‘mediating tools’ of these interacting systems, but these are often at odds with the ethical perspectives, socio-cultural context and skills of the ‘subject’ and ‘community’. These systemic contradictions can be more fully understood when their cultural and historical origins are made explicit. The analytical process has led to a more nuanced understanding of ethics-oriented teaching and learning in a workplace-based course, and has revealed several areas needing more careful research (particularly the area of environmental discourses) and the explicit and implicit language of ethics

Coalescence of Research: Urban Advantage as a Learning Organization Structured to Support a Culture of Inquiry

This dissertation is a mixed methods study of the Urban Advantage Program- a Middle School Science Initiative formed by the New York City Department of Education and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in collaboration with New York City’s science culturally rich institutions – the Bronx Zoo, the Staten Island Zoo, the Hall of Science, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Queens Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, and the New York Aquarium. Unprecedented in size and scope, UA brings together the largest school system in the largest city in the United States in a partnership with eight large independent science cultural institutions toward supporting teachers and students in implementation of science inquiry. The purpose of this study is to elucidate how the program is structured to support all stakeholders involved. The main argument is that UA is a learning organization when viewed through the lens of Senge’s Learning Organization Theory. Senge argues that all learning organizations incorporate and enact five disciplines, also known as component technologies: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning (Senge, 1990). The findings of this study map UA practices and structure directly onto each of the five disciplines. Systems thinking is evidenced in the program design, policy and direction and involves two change leaders at the helm. Using one partner institution as a unit of analysis personal mastery is evidenced via interviews and observations of a partner and lead teacher. Mental models of UA teachers and lead teachers are surfaced through a survey and interviews. Building shared vision is evidenced in a two day retreat of UA in 2011 as well as a Middle School Leadership Institute held at AMNH in the spring of 2009. Arguably, team learning is present throughout all of UA activities, however is markedly evident in the evolution of a UA designed tool, the Rubric for Long-Term Science Investigations. UA changed the rubric incorporating the changes in the national standards including National Science Education Standards, Common Core Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards. Analysis of the rubric changes involved rubrics from a ten year period. A reflective rubric designed for use by UA teachers to evaluate student long-term investigations brought to an annual Science Expo held at AMNH in 2011, was a tool used to analyze 112 student work projects as well as teacher understanding of the component parts of an inquiry investigation. The analysis was submitted to UA shortly after it was completed and was used to inform professional development and instructional practices. While a UA National initiative, using the UA model is already underway for Middle School Science in several cities, recommendations for further research include examining the UA model for use in NYC for high school students and for other disciplines including ELA, Social Studies and Art

Exploring the Importance of Play, Motivation, Identity, and Dialect in Arabic Language Learning and Teaching

This portfolio is a compilation of work that the author wrote during her studies in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. During her time in the program, the author also served as an instructor of Arabic at the university and at a local grade school, as well as serving as a teaching assistant. This work is informed by the author’s personal reflections on these experiences in conjunction with her studies. The portfolio consists of three sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives revolve around the author’s beliefs of surrounding the art of teaching a second language. The research perspectives’ section contains two papers written during her coursework in the MSLT program, while the annotated bibliography reviews literature regarding identity in second language acquisition (SLA)

Navigating the waters of uncertainty...learning for sustainability and the small organisation.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa experience one of the highest failure rates in the world with 75% to 80% of SMEs failing in their first ten years. This data suggests that few small organisations in South Africa are sustainable entities and this in turn impacts on employment and the GDP of South Africa. In order to be sustainable, organisations should be learning ones (Garvin, 1993; Marquardt in Hattingh & Smit, 2004, p2). Senge’s (1990) ground-breaking model of a learning organisation identifies the disciplines companies should practice in order to contribute to their sustainability. This model, previously researched in large global companies, is used as the basis of researching a small company in a local, South African context. This study explores whether by being a learning organisation, a small company is able to sustain itself. Senge’s concept of a learning organisation includes five disciplines. These disciplines have adult and workplace learning theories embedded in them. The study attempted to identify whether the small company drew on these learning theories in day-to-day operations and practise, and if this contributed to its development as a learning organisation. In addition to learning theories, literature reviewed included factors that impact on small business sustainability in the South African context. The study reveals an interesting blend of a business management concept (“the learning organisation”) with adult education principles that give insight into developing a small company as a learning organisation. A qualitative, ethnographic case study approach was used for this study, using an interactive model to accommodate the dynamic nature of the workplace with its variety of events and activities. Data collection took place during two intensive research periods in 2008 and 2012, in a single Johannesburg-based company. A multi-method approach was used and included observations, document analysis, questionnaires, transect walks, auto-photography, focus groups and interviews. The study revealed that a small company can ensure its sustainability by being a learning organisation, even though the company did not hold the same understanding of a learning organisation that Senge (1990) did. By practising various adult and workplace learning theories, especially the theory of communities of practice, a small company can develop the disciplines of a learning organisation. Furthermore, organisations may practise the disciplines of a learning organisation organically, without specific intent, and this may assist in their sustainability

The content and implementation of shared professional knowledge in early childhood education

Drawing on the sociocultural view, shared knowledge is regarded as a basis for interdependent working and multi-professional learning in early childhood education. Shared professional knowledge can be seen as a central element in successful collaboration facilitating individual and collaborative professional learning. This study aims to investigate the content and implementation of shared professional knowledge in an early childhood context. Video-taped data were collected using a stimulated recall method from the two participating teachers. The results show that the content of shared professional knowledge was related to two areas in the teachers’ professional knowledge: professional self and professional tasks. In addition, theshared professional knowledge varied according to the teachers’ work contexts. This study offers new knowledge on early childhood education practices and teacher education, considering multiprofessional collaboration, and shared learning.</p