School change and development: the influence of a reflective practitioner

The broad reality of change is impacting on every organisation including schools. More than often in a process of change there will be an input of an enormous amount of human energy and physical resources that results in change that in effect does not lead to improvement. Therefore, the question remains: How can we ensure that responses to change from managers and teachers within the organisation will lead to school improvement? The case study reported in this book substantiates the importance of the individual in a leadership role, acting and learning within a context, dealing with the reality of change that is part of the routine tasks of the organisation. This book argues that only attention to the individual will bring about long lasting change. People change themselves and people change organisations. The experience of the individual relayed in this book will resonate with leaders in organisations and provide insights into actions that bring about change in long standing, stable organisations

Building capacity: teachers thinking and working together to create new futures.

This paper is based on research illuminating organisation-wide processes used during a whole school revitalisation process, IDEAS (Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievement in Schools). It explores the organisation-wide processes that engage teachers in futuristic thinking and the creation of shared meaning. The paper explores how teachers engaging in processes of school revitalisation think and work together to add significant value to their successful practices. The school revitalisation process at the heart of this research centres on the work of teachers and recognises the fundamental importance of teacher leadership in successful school change. Creative organisation-wide processes link personal pedagogical work with the work of the broader professional community of the school. This linking of personal and school wide pedagogical aspirations and understandings provides a foundation for culture building and the creation of new futures. It enables the professional community to build the capacity of the school to add value to classroom and school wide practices - improving teaching and learning as a result

Parallel leadership: a clue to the contents of the 'black box' of school reform

The concept of parallel leadership that is introduced in this article derives from a five-year research project that was first reported in IJEM in 1997. Parallel leadership represents a relationship between teacher leaders and principals that is grounded in the values of mutual trust, shared directionality and allowance for individual expression. It appears to provide a leadership foundation upon which successful school reform can be built. Thus the lid of what Hallinger and Heck have called the 'black box' of school reform may have been prised open

3-dimensional pedagogy-the image of 21st century teacher professionalism

With the advent of post-industrialism the work of teachers will surely change dramatically. But how? In this final chapter of the year book, Dorothy Andrews and Frank Crowther draw on the outcomes of a successful school revitalisation project that has engaged teachers in serious ‘imagineering’ of their current work and their professional futures. On the basis of the outcomes of the project to date, Andrews and Crowther propose that teaching in the knowledge society will be a highly sophisticated, highly complex construct that can be viewed as three-dimensional. When the three-dimensions come together, the net effect is new knowledge that has the power to transform communities

Ordinary people in the act of doing extraordinary things: teacher as leaders in school revitalization

This paper reports on research carried out in Australian schools involved in a school improvement project called IDEAS. In particular, this research, completed by the Leadership Research Institute at the University of Southern Queensland focuses on the creative and inspirational work of teachers as they engage in a process of school revitalization. The work of teachers illuminated in this study explores an emerging image of the teaching profession that recognises the work of the organization-wide influence of some teachers who lead their professional community in professional learning, culture building and the development of school wide approaches to pedagog

The relation of certain pre-reading tests to reading achievement for non kindergarten children and kindergarten children.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

A survey of some community opinions in Lynnfield Center, Massachusetts, regarding the values and objectives of a high school biology course

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Three-dimensional pedagogy: a new professionalism in educational contexts

This article provides evidence of a new teacher professionalism whereby teachers, acting as collaborative individuals working together, are the key to effectively meeting the needs of diverse student cohorts. Drawing on data from Australian school contexts and the work of researchers from the Leadership Research International team, new professional images of teachers’ work have emerged as the result of a whole-school improvement process – the Innovative Designs for Enhancing Achievements in Schools (IDEAS) process. Such processes facilitate collective engagement enabling teachers to refine and share individual strengths, as well as build capacity in areas of challenge. This reimaging of teachers is related to the concept of three-dimensional pedagogy where teachers weave personal pedagogical beliefs and authoritative pedagogical frameworks with schoolwide pedagogical principles which are known as the school’s schoolwide pedagogy (SWP). A SWP, clearly aligned with the school’s vision for a preferred future, is derived by staff as a sign of their collective commitment to contextualized, high-yield teaching and learning practices. The focus is on meeting the needs of ‘our students’ in ‘our context’ while being sensitive to systemic direction. Teachers lead the process of developing SWP, working with it, refining it and embedding principles into shared pedagogical action. What emerges is the concept of micro-pedagogical deepening, a process of critiquing and defining contextualised practice. Such practices, led by the new teacher professional, are not only changing the professional image of teachers but also the look, feel and sound of educational workplaces

Developing our middle leaders to improve the quality of teaching, learning and classroom outcomes

The subject of this evaluation is the Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) Middle Leaders Program. The BCE program was supported by the Queensland Education Leadership Institute Ltd (QELi), targeted at nominated middle leaders in BCE. Its broad goal was to build and strengthen the capacity of participants to lead quality teaching and learning in classrooms (BCE QELi/Middle Leaders Program/Program Guide, 2012). Ten schools (see Appendix 1) participated in the program; participants included the ten Principals and Middle Level Leaders (MLL) – three from each school, except for one school which had only two participants. All MLL held a Position of Added Responsibility (PAR) position that focused on a Discipline, a Pastoral Role or other educational services