Toward an understanding of how teachers change during school reform: Considerations for educational leadership and school improvement

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodore Stefan Kaniuka
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 731-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Şükrü Bellibaş ◽  
Sedat Gümüş

Purpose While the current knowledge in the field of educational leadership and management (EDLM) has been primarily based on research produced in English-speaking Western societies, there have been significant efforts by other societies to contribute to the knowledge production, especially during the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to identify the contribution of Turkey to the international EDLM literature by investigating the topical focus, conceptual frameworks and research designs of papers published by EDLM scholars from Turkey. Design/methodology/approach Descriptive content analysis method was employed to examine 315 empirical, review, conceptual and commentary papers published by Turkish scholars in core educational administration and Web of Science journals. The time period of the review left open-ended. However, in practical terms, it begins in the year 1994 when the first article from Turkey was published in any of the selected sources and ends at the end of 2018. Information relevant to the research was extracted from each article and was coded to facilitate quantitative analysis. Using Excel software, descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages were provided for each research question. Findings Results show that Turkish EDLM scholars mostly rely on survey based quantitative research approach, employing advanced statistical techniques in the analysis of the data. However, mixed method and qualitative studies are relatively less common. Organizational behavior, school leadership and emotions stand out as most frequently used topics, while Turkish scholars are not interested in analyzing the educational outcomes such as student achievement and school improvement. Consistent with the findings related to topical foci, a large number of those who were interested in correlational studies examined the relationship between leadership roles and organizational behaviors. Research limitations/implications The data set only included journal articles and excluded conference proceedings, books and theses/dissertations. Nevertheless, the authors believe this review adds significantly to previous reviews of local EDLM journals conducted by Turkish scholars. The authors concluded that the Turkish scholars should direct their future research to exploring and better understanding the practices of Turkish principals in schools by: diversifying their research topics; incorporating more qualitative and mixed-method designs; and taking into account specific features of the culture and educational system in Turkey. Practical implications Based on the current higher education context, reducing scholars’ teaching load, diversifying research funding opportunities, and modifying access to tenure tracks seem necessary interventions to support EDLM research with strong ties to practice and to the sociocultural context. In addition, policy changes aiming professionalization of administrative positions and establishing some forms of formal training for school principalship are needed. Such changes can help transfer the knowledge produced by the Turkish EDLM researchers to the practice and provide solutions to problems related to school administration. Originality/value This paper will add to recent effort to identify how a developing nation outside Western perspective approaches the field, and contributes to the global knowledge base.


Author(s):  
Janet Goodall

Parental engagement in children and young people’s learning has been shown to be an important lever for school improvement and young people’s outcomes. However, parents are rarely involved in school reform movements. These reform movements are generally centered on the school rather than on improvement of learning per se. Shifting the focus away from the school and to learning as an overarching aim requires the inclusion of and partnership with parents. This is a new way of understanding school reform but has the best chance of supporting all students, including those not best served by the schooling systems in the early 21st century. The reforms here are chiefly concerned with U.K. schooling systems, but could be more widely applicable, and call on a wide range of evidence, from the United Kingdom and beyond.


Author(s):  
David Richard Litz

Transformational leadership along with change theory have become increasingly popular concepts within the field of educational leadership and administration during the last 20 years. This chapter examines the growth and popularity of transformational leadership, its relationship to organizational change, and the practical and theoretical justifications for its use as a relevant form of teacher leadership from a global and cross-cultural perspective. Emphasis is placed on discussing transformational teacher leadership practices as core strategies for modern educators in the process of overseeing teaching and learning objectives, contributing to school improvement and students' educational attainment, and managing essential change processes within globalized educational environments.


2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhixin Su ◽  
Jeanne P. Adams ◽  
Elliot Mininberg

The importance of principals to school improvement has been widely recognized, but few studies have focused on principals’ own perceptions of school change and their special roles in reform. This article reports findings from a comparative survey study of American and Chinese school principals’ basic beliefs regarding education and schooling, their views on school reform and the role of the principal in reform, and their visions of ideal schools in the 21st century. Although similarities exist in their perceptions, there are striking contrasts between the American and Chinese views and visions, which point to quite different directions and paths of reform in the two nations. While Americans are busy constructing common standards, developing and using more standardized tests for all students, and moving toward standards-based school reform, the Chinese seem to desire just the opposite—deconstructing uniform standards, moving away from the pressures of national exams, and focusing more on the interests and potentials of each individual student, a goal that has been largely ignored in the past in the Chinese culture and schools.


Author(s):  
Amanda Nuttall ◽  
Edward Podesta

School reform in England, under the guise of school improvement and school effectiveness, is not new. Existing policy directions and trajectories for school reform in England seemingly continue to follow industrial drivers of the 19th century, promoting a highly regulated and regimented schooling system. This direction is underpinned by neoliberal forces which emphasize the relationship between education, business, and economy. Critiques of this model of school reform point to key issues around lack of response to key societal challenges and a reductionist approach to increasingly complex needs of diverse societies and cultures. Such reductionist school reform policies, in combination with stringent accountability measures, generate and consolidate differences between schools which are particularly detrimental for schools that serve students and families in poverty. In England, “success” in schools and educational outcomes is drawn from narrowly defined measures of quality with a privileging of quantitative data and testing outcomes above all other indicators. Within these measures, schools in poor, disadvantaged communities are more likely to be labeled “failing” and subjected to further intrusive monitoring, inspection, and sets of performance training in mandated methods of teaching. In these externally driven and policy-focused school reform strategies, teachers become victims of change with their voices censored and their students viewed as deficient in some way. In contrast, more meaningful school reform may be effected by recognizing that schools have the capacity to improve themselves. This improvement should be driven by those closest to the school: teachers, students, and their families. Above all, authentic school reform programs should be context specific, inquiry driven, and rooted in research and theory. Teachers should not be expected to reinforce a single hegemonic version of the “successful” school, notably in England, but should be able to engage in genuine school reform which is emancipatory and empowering.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Jasna Kovačević

This review employed science mapping methods to analyze the evolution of the knowledge base in educational leadership and management from 1960 to 2018. Descriptive trend analysis, citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and visualization of similarities were used to document growth and change in the ‘intellectual structure’ of the educational leadership and management knowledge base as it evolved through the decades. The review analyzed a database comprised of 22,492 articles published in 21 Scopus-indexed journals over six decades. The authors found that contributions to the knowledge base have evolved from primarily Anglo-American male scholars up until 2000 to increasing gender and geographic diversity in the past 20 years. The review identified several ‘schools of thought’ that emerged across four generations of EDLM scholarship. These include: Leadership for Learning, Leading Change, Leading Teachers, and School Effectiveness and School Improvement. The review also documented a broader evolution in the field’s intellectual structure from a focus on ‘administration’ during the 1960s and 1970s to the embrace of ‘leadership for learning’ as the dominant theme during recent generations. This paradigm shift has not only reshaped the focus of research but also the identity of educational leadership and management as a field of study.


1999 ◽  
Vol 83 (610) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Ann Simpson Applewhite

While staff development is an integral ingredient for encouraging school reform, there may be little funding in district budgets for professional development. Without specific goals and a guiding vision, teachers are often left alone to find classes they need for professional growth or recertification, which may not match the focus established in their school.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Eric Tubbs ◽  
H. E. Holliday

The findings of this study identified practicum areas that meet the educational demands of candidates while highlighting practicum areas that need improvement. The study contributes to the knowledge base of the field by drawing upon feedback from university supervisors, school mentors and program candidates to evaluate and improve the practicum experience in the educational leadership program. Program candidates are in the best position to discuss their recent experiences of exposure to the real world. Supervisors and mentors can witness from their first hand experience how effective practicum activities work. Responses from supervisors, mentors and candidates regarding leadership practicum experiences are valuable to program developers in their future program redesign effort. Practicum experiences expose candidates to real-world school leadership experiences. Unfortunately, because of all kinds of conditional limitations, such practicum experiences can only be offered in conjunction with candidates' regular work in school. However, leadership practicum experiences can be well planned with a high collaboration of supervisors, mentors and candidates who have an invested interest in school improvement. In this study, what we learn from the differences of perceptions among supervisors, mentors and candidates is a caution to all stakeholders that we need to do a better job to prepare the next generation of school leaders. Supervisors, mentors and candidates need to form a coalition to explore other options, especially out-of-the-box strategies, to deliver a highly effective practicum program for potential educational leaders. 


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