scholarly journals Educational Leadership Training, the Construction of Learning Communities. A Systematic Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inmaculada García-Martínez ◽  
Miguel Díaz-Delgado ◽  
José Ubago-Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Training Model ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Head Teachers

Instructional leadership notions and practices allow educators to engage in relevant roles within schools. Instead of implementing these concepts in professional programs, Mexican and Spanish education systems still preserve a “technically oriented” training model that separates educational and professional aims. Diverse studies have identified the benefits of implementing instructional leadership orientations within “Educational cooperation”, “Cooperative education”, “Team teaching” and “Teacher leadership” at schools. This systematic review conducted using Web of Science—contributes by organizing the produced knowledge and identifies the main findings reported by the academic literature on this topic. It seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What are the contributions of this research to the education systems examined? (2) What kind of knowledge about educational leadership and professional learning communities can be inferred from them? Results from the majority of studies found that instructional leadership offers a useful tool to promote shared responsibility between teachers and head teachers and supports professional learning communities. A main conclusions of the present study is that it highlights the importance of bypassing existing bureaucratic practices within schools in order to replace the traditional “technical orientation” of training programs. Instructional leadership may facilitate some of the required transformations in the context of global educational reform.

scholarly journals Developments of Professional Learning Communities and Challenges for Principals in Chinese Urban Middle Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Rui Jin ◽  
Tao Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Middle Schools ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Urban Middle Schools ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Anglo American

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have seen a rapid spread all around the world over the past 30 years. Since then it has been proved that they can improve teaching quality and thereby the achievement of students, and so PLCs have attracted increasing attention especially from education systems. In China, PLCs have been developed vigorously within schools since the implementation of the ‘New Curriculum Reform’ in 2000. However, the west has paid scant attention to and were not familiar with them since most research in this field in China was published in Chinese.Furthermore, PLCs are influenced by contextual and cultural factors, and therefore PLCs in Chinese education systems are different from those in Anglo-American settings due to long-standing cultural differences, which require consideration. Therefore, this research will investigate the PLCs in China that may be of interest. Many recent studies have shown that, although PLCs have made significant progress in Chinese urban middle schools through the enthusiastic efforts of educators and scholars, there are still several barriers. The primary purpose of this research is to review the development of PLCs and additionally to analyse the challenges faced by the principals.

Toward a Model of Multi-Level Professional Learning Communities to Guide the Training and Practice of Literacy Coaches

2013 ◽  
pp. 361-402
Author(s):  
Michelle McAnuff-Gumbs ◽  
Katherine Verbeck
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Training Model ◽  
Literacy Coaches ◽  
Multi Level

Were coaches exposed to key PLC concepts? Were they engaged in crucial processes? Was a viable training model used? The study indirectly affirms the efficacy of innovations geared at training literacy professionals online.

Principal and teacher instructional leadership: a cultural shift

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam D. Ezzani
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Principal ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper (case study) is to capture a novel school culture that values instructional leadership (school leaders and teachers) and serves students in ways that create a culturally responsive and socially just schooling environment. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology was best suited for the collection and analysis of data with the hope that the study will assist practitioners in seeing the connective threads that bind school leaders, teachers, students and parents in an organizational cultural shift that is student focused. Interviews and observations of professional learning communities, meetings and classrooms were the types of data collected and analyzed. Findings The principal and assistant principal were professionally and ethically challenged with an all too familiar problem – 30 percent of their Latinx and economically disadvantaged students scored below proficient in reading comprehension. To address this opportunity gap, consideration was given to data-informed decision-making; professional learning communities; and distributed leadership for social justice. Findings suggested that problems of practice are solved when educators engage in a continuous culture of learning through authentic dialogue focused on student data with an eye on equity. Originality/value Although research demonstrates that school improvement works best when principals distribute leadership to teachers, principals tend to maintain the share of the responsibility. Examples of instructional leadership beyond the school principal are rare. This case study provides an example of how principals can build leadership capacity in teachers and develop them to be instructional leaders.

The influence of professional learning communities on informal teacher leadership in a Chinese hierarchical school context

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322098515
Author(s):  
Daphnee Hui Lin Lee ◽  
Noelle Kwok Kwan Ip
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Principal Instructional Leadership ◽  
Improving Student Learning

This paper examines the influence of professional learning communities (PLCs) on informal teacher leadership in Hong Kong schools to overcome issues reported in the literature on the challenges to teacher leadership posed by Chinese hierarchical school contexts. We test the relations among PLC, informal teacher leadership, teacher focus on improving student learning, principal instructional leadership, and middle leadership (e.g., subject heads) with structural equation modeling of survey responses from 638 teachers of primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results show an overall positive influence among all factors in the study. PLCs have the highest positive influence among the factors considered in this study. PLCs are highly influential in promoting informal teacher leadership, which in turn has a high positive linkage to teachers’ focus on improving student learning. In addition, principal instructional leadership has a high positive influence on PLCs, while middle leadership has a moderate positive influence on PLCs. To further enhance teacher leadership capabilities that promote teachers’ focus on improving student learning, we provide recommendations to boost PLC and middle leadership capacities in schools.

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