Parents appointing the principal: The experiences of four New Zealand primary school boards of trustees

Universally motivated by altruism and the desire to serve their children’s schools well, locally elected parent representatives of New Zealand boards of trustees (BOTs) are charged with the responsibility of appointing the principal. This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with the chairpersons of four primary schools in two cities – two in affluent high decile areas and two in relatively disadvantaged low decile ones – in order to examine the perspectives and understandings that informed the board recruitment and selection process. Findings suggest that the appointment of a principal with the capacity to exercise highly effective, contextually specific educational leadership is more likely to occur in higher decile schools and is most needed in lower decile ones. The paper concludes that targeted support and a review of governance arrangements will be necessary for inequity in principal appointment processes to be addressed

Passionate and proactive: the role of the secondary principal in leading curriculum change.

It is widely recognised that the leadership of school principals is a crucial factor in school-based curriculum change. With the recent introduction of a new national curriculum in New Zealand, schools will need to develop strategies to incorporate this new curriculum into their programmes. This paper outlines evidence from international literature about how the leadership of principals is linked to change. It also examines evidence from case studies of early adopter schools. A major finding is that there appear to be common factors at work across effective secondary school principals, in particular an enthusiasm for proactive leadership of changes in school culture involving fundamental shifts in thinking and behaviour

Confidence and competence? The capacity of New Zealand Boards of Trustees to appoint highly effective school principals

Academics and lay persons alike freely acknowledge that principals exert enormous influence over the creation, maintenance and enhancement of the learning environment in schools. They recognise that a turbulent educational world presents principals with multiple challenges in sustaining the conditions necessary for student achievement, and that some principals are more successful in this endeavour than others. This small-scale qualitative study uses a semi-structured interview process to gather data from five Chairpersons of Boards of Trustees who have appointed a principal within the preceding twelve months. The study discusses the professional capabilities that theoretical and empirical research suggests distinguish highly effective principals from capable performers. It adopts a bipartite approach to the literature, examining both academic understandings and the degree to which available official publications inform the thinking of Boards of Trustees prior to embarking on the principal appointment process. The study then explores the extent to which these understandings influence the decision-making of five Boards of Trustees in appointing a new principal. Research findings reveal a dichotomy between the theory underpinning concepts of highly effective principals and the practice of Boards of Trustees in appointing a principal. Largely unaware of the academic literature and inadequately informed by official publications, Boards of Trustees adopt a problematic generic recruitment and selection process. Uncritical acceptance of the professional knowledge and standing of external consultants and misplaced trust in the advice they proffer leads Boards to proceed on a questionable perceptual basis. Secure in the knowledge that they have obtained the educational expertise they freely acknowledge they lack, Boards are further exposed to prevailing market discourses and internal prejudices which undermine their ability to identify and appoint a principal who possesses the capabilities necessary to exercise highly effective, contextually specific leadership. This study suggests that the autonomy of Boards of Trustees in their role as employer be sustained but supported through the mandatory appointment of an appropriately qualified advisor and that the involvement of existing advisors be further scrutinized

Exploring leadership as a phenomenon in an educational leadership paper: An innovative pedagogical approach opens the unexpected

Neoliberal ideologies influence both the content and pedagogical approach of educational leadership programmes. This article proposes an alternate pedagogy, one which privileges the experiential nature of the leadership and challenges students to critique prevailing ideologies within education. The authors describe the reshaping of a compulsory, foundational academic paper within a Masters of educational leadership programme to focus on the phenomenon of leadership more explicitly. They illustrate the use of student stories and hermeneutic interpretation to deepen the appreciation of the contextual nature of educational leadership practice. The authors suggest that the influence of this pedagogical approach resides in the sincerity of the pedagogical comportment of the teaching faculty and the elusiveness of the taken-for-granted nature of leadership. They conclude that pedagogical processes that maintain a centrality of concern for the humanity of leadership experiences are a matter of urgency in our present educational context

Context counts : leading educational reform in New Zealand secondary schools

Educational leadership and organisational literature is replete with syntheses of effective leader behaviours, change sequences and reform models, yet few studies explore the nuanced manner in which individual leaders make sense of and respond to the dynamic influences shaping their thinking and practice over time. In posing the question, how do principals experience leadership during periods of intentional educational change, this study gains insight into the lived experience of five New Zealand secondary school principals as they lead school wide implementation of Phase 5 Te Kotahitanga, a reform initiative designed to reduce disparities in the educational achievement of indigenous Māori students through the introduction of a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. The case narratives arising from a three year dialogue with participants examine the genesis of each principal’s commitment to equity in educational access, opportunity and outcome; their evolving thinking and practice; and the manner in which people and structures within each school field enable and constrain their leadership endeavours. Findings demonstrate that leading counter-hegemonic change is a situated, complex and demanding undertaking, the intensity of which eludes much of the leadership and change literature. Hermeneutic reading of these rich qualitative accounts of lived experience suggests that, far from being detached observers, leaders both embody and are embedded in context. This exposes the shortcomings of literature that dichotomises the two and makes Bourdieu’s lens on practice as a temporal, embodied, discursive and social activity an important heuristic through which to view the holism of change leadership. The implications arising from this study are fourfold: leadership narratives open windows to natural and vicarious meaning making, personal biography is of central rather than peripheral importance, emotional and micropolitical literacy crucial, and professional mentoring a potentially powerful catalyst in building practice wisdom

Rooftop PV and the renewable energy transition : a review of driving forces and analytical frameworks

Rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) are accelerating the transition towards low carbon electricity systems in many countries, particularly in Australia. This review paper provides an overview of the (1) technical, (2) economic, (3) socio-political, and (4) regulatory and institutional aspects that should be considered concurrently when navigating the transition towards a rooftop PV-dominated electricity system. We consider the suitability of two prominent long-range transitions theories for understanding the importance and interaction of elements within these four aspects during the transition. The multi-level perspective (MLP) of transitions theory is considered best suited for this task as it addresses fundamental shifts in the socio-technical systems, rather than being weighted towards technological and/or economic solutions. We find that relatively little research has been undertaken where the renewable energy transition is being driven by the uptake of rooftop PV within the distribution network of established islanded electricity systems. These islanded electricity systems will be the first to experience system impacts from high levels of rooftop PV. This review provides further analysis of important gaps in understanding the rooftop-PV-led energy transition and the implications for policy makers in maintaining stable electricity supplies during the transition

6D SCFTs and phases of 5D theories

Starting from 6D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) realized via F-theory, we show how reduction on a circle leads to a uniform perspective on the phase structure of the resulting 5D theories, and their possible conformal fixed points. Using the correspon-dence between F-theory reduced on a circle and M-theory on the corresponding elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold, we show that each 6D SCFT with minimal supersymmetry directly reduces to a collection of between one and four 5D SCFTs. Additionally, we find that in most cases, reduction of the tensor branch of a 6D SCFT yields a 5D generalization of a quiver gauge theory. These two reductions of the theory often correspond to different phases in the 5D theory which are in general connected by a sequence of flop transitions in the extended Kähler cone of the Calabi-Yau threefold. We also elaborate on the structure of the resulting conformal fixed points, and emergent flavor symmetries, as realized by M-theory on a canonical singularity

In the mi[d]st of policy enactment: Leading innovative learning environments (ILEs) in New Zealand schools [Editorial]

Fundamental innovation in education systems is problematic, disruptive and challenging. It requires those who are steeped in existing systems and ways of being to rethink and reimagine their professional understanding and practice. The intended outcome of a changed system is presumably more effective learning opportunities and better outcomes for students. However, the very nature of systemic change creates uncertainty in that there is not yet evidence that the ‘new system’ will necessarily be ‘better’ than the original. These and other challenges are reflected in a number of the articles in this special issue. To paraphrase the sentiments in some of the articles, the current model of schooling is no longer fit for purpose. It is predicated on neoliberal thinking, accepts the utility of a transmission model, and is arguably aimed at preparing young individuals for the marketplace. Despite the rapid changes occurring in this post-school marketplace, many western education systems are not keeping pace with, or necessarily acknowledging, the nature of these changes

Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration

Policy actors address complex environmental problems by engaging in multiple and often interdependent policy issues. Policy issue interdependencies imply that efforts by actors to address separate policy issues can either reinforce (‘win–win’) or counteract (‘trade-off’) each other. Thus, if interdependent issues are managed in isolation instead of being coordinated, the most effective and well-balanced solution to the underlying problem might never be realised. This study asks if reinforcing and counteracting interdependencies have different impacts on perception and collaboration. Our empirical study of collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, shows that policy actors often avoid collaborating when the policy issues exhibit reinforcing interdependencies. Our evidence indicates a perceived infeasibility of acting on reinforcing interdependencies. We also find that actors do not consider counteracting interdependencies (‘trade-offs’) at all when they engage in collaboration. Further, even though actors were aware of counteracting and reinforcing interdependencies, our analyses suggest they might be less aware of the former. These findings illustrate that actors either avoid each other due to policy issue interdependencies or, at best, ignore existing interdependencies when engaging in collaboration. Our study highlights the importance of problem perception in accomplishing integrated solutions to complex environmental problems, and of how understandings of different types of interdependencies shape collaboration in environmental governance