783 research outputs found
Follow The Leader: Some Thoughts on Leadership
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68818/2/10.1177_107179199500200115.pd
Inclusive School Community: Why is it so Complex?
This paper addresses the question: why is it so hard for school communities to respond to diversity in learners, staff and parents in inclusive ways? The authors draw on theory and recent professional experience in Queensland, Australia, to offer four guiding principles that address traditional assumptions about learning that result in inequality of opportunity and outcomes for students. The authors suggest these principles to support the development of a more inclusive school community: (1) develop a learning community incorporating a critical friend; (2) value and collaborate with parents and the broader community; (3) engage students as citizens in school review and developÂŹment; and (4) support teachersâ critical engagement with inclusive ideals and practices. The authors describe how the principles can work in concert in a school community
Academic success in schools in the Algarve: when leadership is part of the solution and not of the problem
This paper presents the results of a case study conducted among school principals in the southern region of Portugal, located in urban, suburban and rural settings. The five cases that comprise this study were subjected to a final rating of âVery Goodâ in the external evaluation process of schools, whose data were collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis (regulations and educational project, reports of the external evaluation of responsibility of Inspeção Geral de Educação e CiĂȘncia de Portugal). The data collected in this exploratory study were systematized and analyzed according to the following indicators: the studentsâ academic success, the teachersâ professional development, the organizational development and the identifying features of schools principals. Overall, we cannot affirm the existence of differences according to geographical area, although some particularities which proved to be interesting and indicative of good leadership practices could be highlighted.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Leadership in Improving Schools: A Qualitative Perspective
This article reports early case-study data gathered from 20 schools involved in the âImpact of School Leadership on Pupil Outcomesâ project. We present and discuss the perceptions of headteachers and other school leaders regarding leadership factors that directly and indirectly affect pupil outcomes in these improving schools. Included are issues relating to the pivotal role played by the headteacher in setting and communicating a strategic vision for the school; models of distributed leadership; and the building of leadership capacity so as to build a collective responsibility for the improvement of pupil outcomes
Revealing the community within: valuing the role of local community structures within evidence-based school intervention programmes
Schools and the families they serve are sometimes perceived as deficient and in need of fixing. One response has been the implementation of evidence-based family intervention programmes, which may be highly regulated and prescriptive as a condition of their (often philanthropic) funding. This article seeks to explore and bring to the foreground the often hidden role of the pre-existing, informal community networks with a view to more authentic evaluation of these externally imposed programmes. The article draws on a range of qualitative data reflecting the lived experiences of participantsâincluding parents and other community membersâin a family and parenting programme at an English primary school. The analysis uses the work of Tönnies as a theoretical lens. It suggests that while there are tensions caused by the rigid requirements of external programmes, these are overcome in many cases by the highly effective, but often unacknowledged, contributions of the informal aspects of community. It is argued that these operate within and complement the formal programme. Far from subverting the more overt procedures, they actually enable it to function successfully, leading to additional, unanticipated transformations among participants. The article concludes that these organic, often invisible connections need to be identified, documented and nurtured if their full potential is to be recognised and realised when evaluating similar interventions
Networking and the development of professionals: Beginning teachers building social capital
Beginning teachers need support when starting their teaching career. Networking can help teachers develop social capital which supports their development as professionals on their career journey. This paper presents case studies of three secondary school trainee teachers during an English year-long initial teacher education programme. The relationships supporting trainees were characterised differently: for practice development as opposed to enhancing a sense of belonging to the profession. Whether supportive relationships developed depended not only on the trainees but also on others. The paper encourages those involved in teacher education to promote social-capital building as supportive of the development of teachers as professionals
Leading Turkish schools: A study of the causes and consequences of organisational hypocrisy
Schools in Turkey are primarily influenced by the Ministry of National Education (Milli EÄitim BakanlıÄı) through laws and regulations. Compliance with regulations might be characterised as superficial in many respects and can lead to schools âdecouplingâ their espoused structures from the realities of practice. In other words, they might have policies to indicate compliance whilst at the same time practising in ways that are not coherent with these stated aims and âidealsâ. Consequently, there can be incongruence between the apparent conformity and the reality of daily activities referred to by Brunsson as âorganizational hypocrisyâ. There are serious dangers with not recognising issues around proclaimed values and accepted expectations which may have pathological consequences for organisations. This article draws on semi-structured interviews with 21 staff including principals, vice principals and teachers from nine schools in the EskiĆehir Provincial Directorate of National Education in Turkey to investigate the conditions under which hypocrisy is more likely to happen and what the consequences of it may be. We provide school staff with important insights on how to decrease hypocrisy in their schools and increase the authenticity of school approaches in a complex, educational environment
An ethic of connectedness: enacting moral school leadership through people and programs
As educators, we grapple with a myriad of dilemmas and often have difficulty resolving issues that relate to curriculum and instruction, funding, facilities and supervision, to name a few. Depending on the leader(s), a variety of ethics come in to play when making decisions. The ethic of connectedness refers to community building and welfare as central to moral thought and practice (Bradley, 2007). Responsibility to community building and welfare begins in the schools and must be an acculturated practice within the schools so future generations possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions that ensure a connectedness to their society (Marzano et al., 2005; Barth 2006; Collinson et al., 2006). This article will explore the importance of an ethic of connectedness to effective school leadership and the experience of a Pennsylvania school district in nurturing and building a connectedness within the school community.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
School organizational culture: The peak of research in the context of neoliberal policies
Inscrita numa matriz teĂłrica multirreferencial, a problemĂĄtica da cultura organizacional tem sido objecto de mĂșltiplos desenvolvimentos conceptuais e diversificadas apropriaçÔes polĂticas e ideolĂłgicas. No campo da educação e no contexto mais especĂfico das organizaçÔes escolares, as abordagens culturais e simbĂłlicas sofreram algumas inflexĂ”es teĂłricas apenas compreensĂveis quando contextualizadas no quadro mais global das polĂticas internacionais de cariz neoliberal e neoconservador. Neste trabalho, procura-se reflectir criticamente sobre a forma como a problemĂĄtica da cultura organizacional em contexto escolar passa a ser (re)perspectivada numa altura em que se expandem alguns objectivos e valores polĂticos associados Ă s ideologias da modernização e da racionalização. Num segundo momento, tomando como ponto de partida a anĂĄlise de um vasto nĂșmero de investigaçÔes integradas em quatro bases de dados electrĂłnicas de Ăąmbito internacional, debatemos as principais tendĂȘncias teĂłricas, conceptuais e metodolĂłgicas deste campo de estudo, fazendo sobressair o lugar e o estatuto da escola enquanto contexto privilegiado de investigação, designadamente nos domĂnios crĂtico-reflexivos.Within a multi-referential theoretical framework, the issue of organizational culture has been a subject for multiple conceptual developments and different ideological and political appropriations. In the field of education and in the specific context of school organizations, the cultural and symbolic approaches were subjected to some theoretical inflections. These can only be understood in the global framework of international policies of neoliberal and neoconservative nature. First, this paper critically discusses how the issue of organizational culture in school context was put in perspectives at a time when some political-ideological objectives and values were associated to modernization and rationalization ideologies. Based on the analysis of a great number of researches included in four electronic databases with an international scope, it then discusses the main theoretical, conceptual and methodological trends of this field of study, stressing the place and statute of school as a privileged research context, namely in the reflexive and critical domain.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
- âŠ