scholarly journals Values, Culture and Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Rose M. Ylimaki ◽  
Lynnette A. Brunderman
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Teams ◽  
Leadership Team ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
School Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
The Individual ◽  
School Principalship ◽  
Successful School ◽  
Defined Culture

AbstractThis chapter presents our conception of culture for school development, including broader cultural aims and humanistic values of education for an increasingly multicultural society reflected in the micro-organizational culture of schools and the sub-culture of the leadership team. Specifically, drawing on the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) research, related studies, and education theory, we defined culture as the values, beliefs and norms of behavior embedded within the individual, the leadership team, the organization, and the larger community. The balance of the chapter presents application of theory and practice in the Arizona project (AZiLDR) as well as lessons learned. The chapter illustrates the critical importance of culture to readiness for school development. Often, during the project, teams were at different stages of readiness, resulting in the need to spend time building and solidifying the culture. In schools with less readiness, we found the diffusion process to progress much more slowly. We saw these schools existing in the Zone of Uncertainty much longer. We describe our process to develop school culture through leadership teams, using the AZiLDR delivery system of institutes, regional meetings and on-site coaching. Example case studies and activities are provided.

scholarly journals A New Approach to School Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
Rose M. Ylimaki ◽  
Lynnette A. Brunderman
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
School Development ◽  
Leadership Studies ◽  
Development Models ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Culturally Diverse Populations ◽  
Diverse Schools ◽  
School Principalship ◽  
Successful School

AbstractIn this chapter, we further explore and contextualize school development amidst the tensions between contemporary policies and the educational needs of students. We conceptualize school development as a process that mediates among tensions that result in a Zone of Uncertainty. We then describe our application of school development in the Arizona Initiative for Leadership Development and Research (AZiLDR). Content was initially drawn from findings from the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) exploring leadership in high-needs, culturally diverse schools and related leadership studies. Our approach differs from other school development models in at least four ways. First, the approach is grounded in education theory as explicated by John Dewey and others. Closely related, our approach attempts to balance evidence-based values with humanistic values. Third, our approach is grounded in our empirical research and related studies of leadership in culturally diverse schools and communities. Fourth, our approach is process oriented and contextually sensitive for schools as they are situated in the larger community and serving culturally diverse populations. Finally, we develop leadership through a collaborative approach in that we work with school teams as a unit.

Democratization through education? Theory and practice of the Czech post-revolution education system and its reforms

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-281
Author(s):  
Jan Hornat
Keyword(s):  
Transformation Process ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Autonomous Schools ◽  
The Individual

The transformation process from an authoritarian/totalitarian system entails many institutional changes, however, the individual citizen is often being overlooked in this chaotic, fast-paced process and his or her “transformation” into a democrat is taken for granted. The changing socio-political system and its exigencies may lead to nostalgia and social frustrations, which in turn cause democratic backsliding. In order to cultivate a democratic society and avoid future backsliding, the post-communist states quickly set out to reform their educational systems, both in form and substance. By reviewing the reform process of the Czech educational system and discussing the prevailing legacies left by the communist regime, the article will show that through the “destruction” of the former system and its de-monopolization, decentralization and de-ideologization, the state deliberately lost significant means and power to transform Czechs from “homo sovieticus” to “homo democraticus” and is now left with a dependence on the highly autonomous schools and their propensity to foster democratic generations that will uphold the democratic state in the future. This paradox is reminiscent of the so-called Böockenföorde dilemma, claiming that the liberal democratic state “lives by prerequisites which it cannot guarantee itself”.

Successful leadership in a rural, high-poverty school: the case of County Line Middle School

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans W. Klar ◽  
Curtis A. Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Principalship ◽  
Successful School

Purpose – In this paper, the authors present a case study of successful school leadership at County Line Middle School. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices and beliefs were adapted to increase student achievement in this rural, high-poverty school in the southeastern USA. Design/methodology/approach – After purposefully selecting this school, the authors adapted interview protocols, questionnaires, and analysis frameworks from the International Successful School Principalship Project to develop a multi-perspective case study of principal leadership practices at the school. Findings – The findings illustrate the practices which led to students at this school, previously the lowest-performing in the district, achieving significantly higher on state standardized tests, getting along “like a family,” and regularly participating in service learning activities and charity events. A particularly interesting finding was how the principal confronted the school's negative self-image and adapted common leadership practices to implement a school-wide reform that suited its unique context. Research limitations/implications – While the findings of the study explicate the specific ways the principal adapted leadership strategies to enhance student learning, this study also highlights the need to understand how principals become familiar with their community's needs, cultures, norms, and values, and exercise leadership in accordance with them. Practical implications – The case offers an example of the need for context-responsive leadership in schools. In particular, it illustrates how this principal enacted leadership strategies that successfully negotiated what Woods (2006) referred to as the changing politics of the rural. To realize this success, the principal utilized his understanding of this low income, rural community to guide his leadership practices. Critically, part of this understanding included the ways the community was connected to and isolated from dominant sub-urban and urban societies, and how to build enthusiasm and capacity through appeals to local values. Originality/value – While it is widely acknowledged that school leaders need to consider their school and community contexts when making leadership decisions, less research has focussed on understanding how this can be achieved. This case provides rich examples of how this was accomplished in a rural, high-poverty middle school.

News production theory and practice

Pragmatics ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Van Hout ◽  
Geert Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Process Analysis ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
News Production ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Business News ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Control

This paper considers notions of agency, interaction and power in business news journalism. In the first part, we present a bird’s eye view of news access theory as it is reflected in selected sociological and anthropological literature on the ethnography of news production. Next, we show how these theoretical notions can be applied to the study of press releases and particularly to the linguistic pragmatic analysis of the specific social and textual practices that surround their transformation into news reports. Drawing on selected fieldwork data collected at the business desk of a major Flemish quality newspaper, we present an innovative methodology combining newsroom ethnography and computer-assisted writing process analysis which documents how a reporter discovers a story, introduces it into the newsroom, writes and reflects on it. In doing so, we put the individual journalist’s writing practices center stage, zoom in on the specific ways in which he interacts with sources and conceptualize power in terms of his dependence on press releases. Following Beeman & Peterson (2001), we argue in favor of a view of journalism as ‘interpretive practice’ and of news production as a process of entextualization involving multiple actors who struggle over authority, ownership and control.

scholarly journals Composing music, developing dialogues: An enactive perspective on children's collaborative creativity

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-276
Author(s):  
Ana Luísa Veloso
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Music Composition ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Collaborative Creativity ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Teacher Researcher ◽  
New Ideas

This study aims to provide new insights on the nature of the embodied and collaborative processes related to the emergence of new musical ideas that occur when children are composing in groups.Data was obtained by participant observation of the teacher/researcher and by ten videotaped one-hour musical sessions dedicated to the development of a music composition by two groups of children, all of whom were eight years old.It was found that when composing in groups a) children use embodied processes to transform what they experience on diverse realms of their existence into musical ideas, and that b) while creating music, children engage in several improvisatory moments where new ideas emerge through the diverse ways they enact the surroundings where the activity is occurring. Findings suggest a conception of music composing as a multidimensional phenomenon that entails cognitive processes that are distributed across and beyond the physical body. Findings also suggest that composing music in collaboration with others nurtures a set of creative possibilities that would otherwise, not occur. Considerations for music education theory and practice are addressed in the last section of the article.

COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tacettin Açıkgöz ◽  
Mustafa Cem Babadoğan
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Traditional Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Formative Assessments ◽  
Competency Based Education ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Convergent Design ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

This study aimed to reach a pro on Competency-Based Education (CBE) through the opinions of Educational Sciences experts and to review the literature on CBE. In this study, convergent design, one of the mixed methods research, was used, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The sample was selected through convenience sampling and consisted of 28 participants. In the study, the documents related to National and International Qualifications Frameworks, history of CBE, its comparison with traditional education, its implementation, and the challenges of CBE practices are reviewed. The findings revealed that there is a conceptual consensus among the experts on the concepts of skill and learning outcome, but no agreement on the use of “competence,” “proficiency,” and “qualification.” The study showed that the experts adopt the most up-to-date definitions of CBE, but it is often confused with Proficiency-Based Education. The study revealed that CBE focuses on the demonstration of competence when considering students’ progress and measures it by formative assessments and that, in CBE, students’ learning gaps are eliminated by supporting them at each stage.

scholarly journals Building and Sustaining School Leadership Capacity

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Rose M. Ylimaki ◽  
Lynnette A. Brunderman
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Organizational Capacity ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
School Development ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Child Centered ◽  
Practice Approach

AbstractThis chapter presents our approach to building and sustaining leadership capacity with attention to three areas: (1) personal capacity and commitment to growth; (2) interactions and interpersonal capacity grounded in a culture of trust, collective responsibility and appreciation of diversity, and (3) organizational capacity in high functioning teams that take responsibility for a child-centered vision and help diffuse that vision throughout the school. Leadership in high capacity schools incorporates both formal and informal leadership capacities (Mitchell and Sackney, 2009). Team leadership is essential for building and sustaining leadership capacity in a shared direction for continous school development and diffusion of educational improvements throughout the school. As formal leaders leave to take on new positions in the district or elsewhere, the shared direction and culture of continous improvement helps to sustain progress. In this chapter, we discuss our experiences with building and sustaining leadership capacity in teams that work to develop and diffuse a shared direction for continuous school development. We begin with a discussion of the research-based content from ISSPP and other studies that informed our project. The balance of the chapter presents application in our research-practice approach in the Arizona project (AZILDR) as well as lessons learned with case examples.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document