scholarly journals On not researching school leadership: the contribution of S. J. Ball

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen M. Gunter
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Educational Professionals ◽  
Starting Point

Stephen Ball's research continues to make a contribution to describing, understanding and explaining the political, social, economic and cultural context in which educational professionals locate their practices. Therefore, Ball engages with issues about school leadership, but he does not set out to present solutions for school leaders. Based on critical reading and interview data, I show how by not researching school leadership he makes a robust and relevant analysis of school leadership for the profession. He makes a contribution to understanding the realities of doing and thinking about leaders doing leadership and exercising leadership, where his starting point is to work with the profession as public intellectuals.

Coaching: an approach for leadership development in the Singapore education system

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Suan Loy Boon
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Education System ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
The Body ◽  
Beginning Principals ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis paper aims to explore coaching as an approach to developing school leaders in the Singapore education system. It takes a close look at the nature of coaching experiences of beginning principals and principal-trainers, as well as the related benefits and challenges.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative inquiry approach was adopted, and four beginning principals and three principal-trainers were interviewed. An emergent coding method was deployed in data analysis.FindingsBeginning principals described a positive, helpful and empowering coaching experience when coached by principal-trainers. The latter skillfully asked questions in a safe, non-threatening space for deeper self-reflection. In the process, beginning principals gained greater self-awareness and self-empowerment, and appreciated the shared context of school leadership. While coaching is a useful leadership development approach, inherent implementation challenges were identified.Research limitations/implicationsCoaching as a system-wide strategy to support school leaders in Singapore has only recently been implemented. Further research using a larger sample is recommended as coaching becomes more pervasive.Practical implicationsThe findings revealed a compelling case for a more pervasive adoption of coaching as an approach to support leadership development. Coaching facilitates effective school leadership, and there is scope for self-coaching, peer coaching and coach supervision of principals, middle leaders and classroom teachers.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the nature and positive impact of principalship coaching within a specific policy and cultural context of the Singapore education system. It adds to the body of literature on principal preparation, development and support.

2. Contexts

2015 ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
R. B. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Landed Gentry

The founding fathers were born into a remarkable variety of families, occupations, religious loyalties, and geographic settings: from landed gentry destined to join the ruling elite, to middling or common sorts who chose the law or medicine as a professional path to distinction, or immigrants from other parts of the British Empire. They lived within and were shaped by three interlocking contexts—the intellectual world of the transatlantic Enlightenment; the political context within which Americans sought to preserve and improve the best of the Anglo-American constitutional heritage; and the social, economic, and cultural context formed as a result of their living on the Atlantic world’s periphery.

scholarly journals Teaching thinking in South African schools: Selected school leaders’ perceptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Lena Green ◽  
Karen Collett
Keyword(s):  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Cognitive Education ◽  
Teaching Thinking

In this article we argue that school leaders should ensure that teachers experience a supportive professional learning community committed to collaborative, thoughtful inquiry and be enabled to create similar communities in their classrooms. This study followed on one published in 2017 that explored school leaders’ responses to an introduction to cognitive education. The same participants investigated cognitive education practices (ways of teaching thinking) in their schools, with an emphasis on the factors that facilitated or constrained implementation. Using a qualitative research approach an open ended research assignment in the form of a report was completed by 32 teachers in school leadership positions. The data was analysed using the guidelines of grounded theory to identify key themes. The findings suggest a possible starting point for leadership initiatives, although cognitive education practices in the participating schools were constrained by a number of structural, contextual and personal factors. Discussion highlights the importance of the development of professional learning communities that focus on cognitive education and identifies a possible leadership direction, namely, building on the progress already made in training teachers to apply Bloom’s taxonomy to assessment tasks. Although our data is from schools in one area of South Africa, our conclusions are likely to have implications for school leadership generally, with particular reference to the development of classroom and professional thinking and learning communities.

Framing school leadership preparation and development for Kenya: Context matters

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Mola Okoko
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Policies And Practices

This article uses interview data gathered from school leaders to recommend a framework for school leadership preparation and development (SLP&D) in Kenya. Data were gathered from head teachers and principals about the experiences that prepared them for leadership, the gaps in the existing SLP&D initiatives in Kenya, and how current initiatives could be improved. The findings revealed a lack of clarity with regard to SLP&D expectations among school leaders. However, the personal realities and needs of school leaders influenced decisions about when they took leadership positions, what they considered to be meaningful SLP&D, and the modes they preferred and engaged in. The need for a holistic approach to SLP&D was evident in the interconnectedness of: (a) their subjective realities, such as motivations and life commitments; (b) activities they engaged in for meaningful SLP&D, such as taking courses, gaining experience as they moved through the ranks, and mentorship; (c) what they considered to be the requisite competencies for school leadership; and (d) the systemic policies and practices they thought were essential, such as recruitment for SLP&D, standards, accreditation, funding, and partnerships. The article argues for a formalized SLP&D framework that embraces both the personal and contextual realities of the school leaders, the communities they serve, and the systems within which they work.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn Apropos of Russia’s Future: Specific Outlook Features Depending on Different Historical Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 327-334
Author(s):  
Inga V. Zheltikova ◽  
Elena I. Khokhlova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Future ◽  
Pessimistic Attitude ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Church

The article considers the dependence of the images of future on the socio-cultural context of their formation. Comparison of the images of the future found in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s works of various years reveals his generally pessimistic attitude to the future in the situation of social stability and moderate optimism in times of society destabilization. At the same time, the author's images of the future both in the seventies and the nineties of the last century demonstrate the mismatch of social expectations and reality that was generally typical for the images of the future. According to the authors of the present article, Solzhenitsyn’s ideas that the revival of spirituality could serve as the basis for the development of economy, that the influence of the Church on the process of socio-economic development would grow, and that the political situation strongly depends on the personal qualities of the leader, are unjustified. Nevertheless, such ideas are still present in many images of the future of Russia, including contemporary ones.

Issue Dimensions and Cleavages: How the Russian Experience Helps Us to Look for Cross-Points

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-235
Author(s):  
Yury Korgunyuk
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Empirical Base ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Weak Points ◽  
Alternative Methodology ◽  
Election Results

Abstract The article analyzes the weak points of the Manifesto Project’s methodology, such as its emphasis on issue salience, instead of issue positions; bringing the content of manifestos under too broad categories formulated at the beginning of the project; not quite the appropriate technique of factor analysis etc. An alternative methodology is proposed that focuses on party positions on issues which generate the largest polarization in the political space. It also enriches the empirical base of the studies and adjusts the technique of factor analysis. In order to reveal political cleavages inside these dimensions, the so called electoral cleavages (factors of territorial differences in voting for various parties) are taken as a starting point: factor loadings of parties in the electoral and political spaces are compared through correlation and regression analyses. The proposed methodology is applied to an analysis of election results in Russia (2016) and Germany (2017).

Centering “Grace”: Challenging Anti-Blackness in Schooling Through Motherwork

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-157
Author(s):  
Terri N. Watson ◽  
Gwendolyn S. Baxley
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Black Children ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Black Girlhood ◽  
Patricia Hill Collins ◽  
Educational Advocacy

Anti-Blackness is global and present in every facet of society, including education. In this article, we examine the challenges Black girls encounter in schools throughout the United States. Guided by select research centered on Black women in their roles as mothers, activists and school leaders, we assert that sociologist Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of Motherwork should be an essential component in reframing the praxis of school leadership and in helping school leaders to rethink policies, practices, and ideologies that are anti-Black and antithetical to Blackness and Black girlhood. While most research aimed to improve the schooling experiences of Black children focuses on teacher and school leader (mis)perceptions and systemic racial biases, few studies build on the care and efficacy personified by Black women school leaders. We argue that the educational advocacy of Black women on behalf of Black children is vital to culturally responsive school leadership that combats anti-Blackness and honors Black girlhood. We conclude with implications for school leaders and those concerned with the educational experiences of Black children, namely Black girls.

The Instructional Goals of the School Leadership Program: Future School Leaders’ and Educational Leadership Professors’ Perspectives1

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Jianping Shen ◽  
Chia-Lin Hsieh
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Leadership Program ◽  
Instructional Goals ◽  
Future School

Through analyzing data from 147 professors of educational leadership and 457 future school leaders in a national sample, the study (a) inquired into the di mensionality of the instructional goals of the school leadership program and (b) com pared the importance of these instructional goals as perceived by the two groups. It was found that the respondents perceived there were multidimensions to the instruc tional goals of the school leadership program and that there was more similarity than difference between the two groups. Implications of the findings were discussed in terms of developing and improving the school leadership program.

Women’s leadership in education: A perspective from Chilean school leaders

2021 ◽  
pp. 089202062110194
Author(s):  
Dalku Arroyo ◽  
Tony Bush
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Facilitators And Barriers ◽  
Career Progress

This paper focuses on the experiences of six Chilean female headteachers. It addresses their career progress, and the facilitators and barriers, as well as the challenges they encountered in accessing and enacting school leadership. The six participants were drawn from all three of Chile’s school types – public, semi-private and private – in what is a differentiated system. The findings demonstrate both differences and similarities in participants’ experiences, across all three school sectors. A major difference relates to the additional barriers faced by public sector school leaders, compared with participants in the private and semi-private schools.

Work environment characteristics that satisfy principals in China, Germany and the USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 174549992110185
Author(s):  
Chuang Wang ◽  
Dawson R Hancock ◽  
Ulrich Müller
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Work Environments ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Effective School ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
Effective School Leadership ◽  
The World ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Survey Responses

Effective school leadership is crucial to a school’s success. Yet throughout the world, attracting and retaining qualified school leaders is often a formidable challenge. To discern ways in which we may recruit and retain competent school leaders, this study compares the extent to which principals in three industrialized countries, China, Germany and the USA, value the characteristics of their positions as principals. Survey responses of principals in these three countries reveal many factors that gratify and some factors that disappoint principals about their work environments. Comparing the similarities and differences of the principals’ responses in these countries provides insights into ways in which we may learn from each other about the factors that influence the recruitment and retention of qualified principals.

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