Teachers’ perceptions of educational reform: the schools’ readiness, supporting mechanisms and contributions of the reform

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Orit Avidov-Ungar ◽  
Rinat Arviv-Elyashiv
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
School Level ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Attitudes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of teachers toward national reform in education according to the reform stage (Initiation, Implementation or Institutionalization) attained in their school. The study aim to examined: How do teachers perceive the current reform?; Is there a correlation between teachers' perceptions and reform stage?; To what extent are teachers' perceptions affected by school's mechanisms and school's readiness?Design/methodology/approachThe research methodology is quantitative. Teachers (N = 288) completed a written questionnaire. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate teachers' perceptions of the reform and its contributions to school effectiveness and to teachers' working conditions according to reform stage, while controlling for managerial position, teaching experience and school level. Multivariate modeling was used to examine the relationships between the variables.FindingsTeachers' overall attitudes toward the changes associated with the education reform lay between moderately negative and neutral. Reform was perceived to have made a greater contribution to school effectiveness than to teacher working conditions. School readiness for reform and the presence of school mechanisms supporting reform explained much (41%) of the variance in teachers' attitudes. Teachers holding leadership roles and those whose schools were in the Institutionalization stage exhibited more positive attitudes toward the reform and perceived it as having improved their working conditions to a greater extent than those without leadership roles or whose schools were in the Initiation or Implementation stages, respectively.Originality/valueTeachers' attitudes toward reform have not previously been examined in the context of reform stage.

Exploring the effects of authentic leadership on academic optimism and teacher engagement in Thailand

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhirapat Kulophas ◽  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Auyporn Ruengtrakul ◽  
Suwimon Wongwanich
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Authentic Leadership ◽  
Academic Optimism ◽  
School Level ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Content Type

Purpose In the context of Thailand’s progress towards education reform, scholars have identified a lack of effective school-level leadership as an impeding factor. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a theoretical model of authentic leadership effects on teacher academic optimism and work engagement. Authentic leadership was considered a suitable model of school leadership in light of Thailand’s explicit recognition of the importance of developing the moral capacity of students and emphasis on ethical leadership. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Survey data were obtained from 605 teachers in a nationally representative sample of 182 primary schools. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicated that the model of authentic leadership effects on teachers’ academic optimism and work engagement was validated. A moderate relationship was observed between authentic leadership and the dependent measures of teacher attitudes. Practical implications The study identified a potentially important lack of alignment between the espoused values and actions/decisions of school principals in Thailand. When combined with prior research conducted on leadership for educational reform in Thailand, our findings highlight the systemic nature of the problem faced in changing traditional patterns of behavior in Thai schools. More specifically, despite change in the nation’s educational goals, human resource management of the nation’s school leaders continues to produce administrators and managers rather than leaders, either instructional or moral. Originality/value The study extends prior studies of school leadership in the context of Thailand’s education reform that focused more specifically on principal instructional leadership in Thailand. In addition, this study of authentic school leadership is one of only a few conducted outside of Western societies.

Language teachers’ perceptions of practitioner research

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 897-914
Author(s):  
Sabine Imad Arayssi ◽  
Rima Bahous ◽  
Rula Diab ◽  
Mona Nabhani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Practitioner Research ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Theory To Practice ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine language teachers’ perceptions of practitioner research to establish an understanding whether research comprises a fundamental component in their career. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted with language teachers and coordinators from various schools in Lebanon. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 language teachers, followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with language coordinators, and in-depth interviews with language teachers who are practitioner researchers. Findings Results indicated that research is a minority activity for language teachers due to lack of time, overwhelming working conditions and lack of flexibility in the workplace. Research limitations/implications There was a lack of cooperation between teachers and coordinators. Originality/value This study provides teachers in Lebanon with the opportunity of transforming their voice through participating in and being agents of research rather than solely observing the process which attempts to bridge theory to practice.

An effective school autonomy model

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 718-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galatia Nicolaidou Solomou ◽  
Petros Pashiardis
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Educational System ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Autonomy ◽  
Effective School ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Related Stress

Purpose – Although school autonomy has been a matter of great interest during the last decades and several relevant measures have been implemented toward this end, the relation between school autonomy and school effectiveness has not been examined thoroughly. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relation and to propose an effective school autonomy model for Cyprus, a small European country with a highly centralized educational system. The suggested model indicates which decisions (related to various administrative, financial, academic, pedagogical and human resources matters) must be made at school level, which decisions can be made partly from the school with a higher level of control from the ministry and which decisions have to be made exclusively by a central authority, in order to enhance school effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – An unusual methodological design is followed, using scenarios to examine hypothetical situations. Cypriot headteachers’ job satisfaction and work-related stress is examined in the case of full autonomy and in the opposite scenario of very limited autonomy. The results from this phase of the study lead to the design of the suggested school autonomy model, which is then tested in terms of effectiveness through a third scenario. The scenarios are given in questionnaires and the sample includes 300 out of a population of 350 primary school headteachers of Cyprus. Findings – The findings of the study suggest that headteachers’ job satisfaction and work-related stress is affected by the level of school autonomy that characterizes an educational system. The most effective scenario for the case of Cyprus does not refer to the existing situation of very limited autonomy, neither to the opposite scenario of full autonomy. The most effective scenario refers to the suggested model of school autonomy where all decisions related to various academic, managerial, financial and human resource matters are taken at school level, except for the decisions related to teaching materials and textbooks, teacher placements, promotions, payroll and dismissals. For these decisions the guidance, support and/or control from the educational authorities have to be enhanced. Research limitations/implications – In this study school effectiveness is examined through the headteachers’ job satisfaction and stress as the dependent variable, and not through the conventional student achievement variable. A part of the existing literature suggests that these variables affect school effectiveness in an indirect way. Taking into consideration student achievement was not possible for the case of Cyprus, since the only scenario currently existing refers to very limited or no school autonomy. Therefore, it is not possible to compare the academic results of students coming from schools with different levels of autonomy. Practical implications – The methodological approach of the study can be followed in other contexts as well, in order to design an effective school autonomy model for a different educational system, district or school. Scenarios can also be used to test and make corrections for a suggested educational reform, before this is implemented, in order to avoid waste of time and/or financial resources. Originality/value – The value of this study first lies in its attempt to design a school autonomy model, based on all the educational decisions and matters that can be affected from a school autonomy reform; this became possible through an extensive literature review. Second the study, does not only support some suggestions based on the results, but also tests the effectiveness of the suggestions before these are implemented, following the unusual methodological approach of scenarios. Moreover, the relation between school autonomy and school effectiveness has not been examined thoroughly in the existing literature and some conflicting opinions exist. The findings of the study can help us gain a better understanding of the above relation.

Distributed leadership and school effectiveness in Egypt and Oman: an exploratory study

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 801-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha Salim Ali Al-Harthi ◽  
Yasser F. Hendawy Al-Mahdy
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
School Principal ◽  
Average Score ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ perceptions of the levels of distributed leadership (DL) practices and the indicators of school effectiveness (SE) in Egypt and Oman. It also investigated the role of accreditation on these perceptions. Design/methodology/approach The study sampled 635 teachers in Egypt and Oman using the SE index (Hoy, 2009) and the DL scale (Özer and Beycioğlu, 2013). Findings The average score of the perceived level of DL practices of school principal and SE indicators showed was below the agreeableness level. DL was shown to be a positive and significant predictor of SE. The Omani teachers had a significantly higher perception of the availability of DL in their schools and of their schools’ effectiveness than the Egyptian teachers. The results also gave support to the belief that the school accreditation process is a way to increase DL in schools and also to increase the indicators of SE. Practical implications One implication of the findings is the need for training school principals on DL practices that can potentially enhance SE. Another implication is a wider adoption of accreditation practices. Originality/value This study provides empirical evidence about teachers’ perceptions of the availability of SE and DL in schools in two Middle Eastern countries, Egypt and Oman. It also adds support to the belief in the importance of the role of accreditation in increasing SE and DL practices.

Administrative context and novice teacher-mentor interactions

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Pogodzinski
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Induction ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Novice Teacher ◽  
New Teacher ◽  
School Level ◽  
Teacher Mentoring ◽  
New Teacher Induction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teacher Mentor

Purpose – Mentoring can improve novice teacher effectiveness and reduce teacher attrition, yet the depth and breadth of mentoring can vary greatly within and between schools. The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent to which a school’s administrative context is associated with the focus and frequency of novice teacher-mentor interactions. Design/methodology/approach – By estimating logistic regression models, the author identified the association between novices’ perceptions of their working conditions and the content and frequency of interactions with their formally assigned mentors. Findings – When novice teachers perceived positive administrator-teacher relations in their schools and reported that administrative duties did not interfere with their core work as teachers, they were more likely to frequently interact with their mentors around issues of curriculum. Research limitations/implications – Studies of new teacher induction need to more fully account for elements of school-level organizational context which influence novice teacher-mentor interactions, specifically related to administrative decision making and climate. Future research should seek to identify the extent to which formal policy related to new teacher induction is supported by broader elements of the organizational context. Practical implications – In addition to implementing sound formal policies related to teacher mentoring, school administrators should seek to foster a school climate that promotes administrator-teacher and teacher-teacher collaboration to promote improved teacher mentoring. Originality/value – This study builds upon previous research by drawing attention to the association between broad measures of school-level administrative context related to the quality of working conditions and teacher mentoring.

Postmodern patriotism: teachers’ perceptions of loyalty to Singapore

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuyi Chua ◽  
Jasmine B.-Y. Sim
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Good Citizenship ◽  
Positive Feelings ◽  
Teachers Attitudes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore humanities teachers’ perceptions of patriotism in Singapore by addressing two questions. First, what are teachers’ understandings of patriotism? Second, what are teachers’ attitudes toward patriotism as a quality of good citizenship? Design/methodology/approach The qualitative case study approach was used, with semi-structured interviews and classroom observations as data sources. The participants were four teachers from diverse backgrounds with distinct perceptions of patriotism. Data analysis methods included writing teacher profiles and thematic coding. Findings Teachers were generally positive toward patriotism and understood it in four ways: cosmopolitan, nationalistic, social-movement and person oriented. These themes were not mutually exclusive but distributed across the participants in varying extents. These findings show that patriotism is susceptible to individual meaning-making, and there are different scales and expressions of patriotism. Research limitations/implications The results from this small case study cannot be generalized. However, owing to globalization, it is likely that alternative ways of understanding patriotism might become more widespread and salient in citizenship education. Hence, the authors recommend that more studies be conducted on larger samples and using other methods. Originality/value This study goes in-depth into a case where teachers had positive feelings toward patriotism, and it draws on the context of Singapore to understand how and why this is so. It also revealed conceptions of patriotism that differ from the more common constructs in the educational literature, suggesting that people from post-colonial countries with different histories, might conceive of patriotism differently from others.

scholarly journals Pandemic and teacher retention: empirical evidence from expat teachers in Southeast Asia during COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1141-1166
Author(s):  
Anh-Duc Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Intention To Leave ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Policy Responses

PurposeThis research aims to explore the influence of expat teachers' attitude about local policies, and their subjective norms of social engagement during COVID-19 over their intention to leave the current country, due to COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses analysis of variance (ANOVA) and structural equation model (SEM) to examine the perception of crisis and the intention to leave among 307 expat teachers in Southeast Asia during COVID-19 and highlights the importance of policy responses and social engagement toward the minimum teacher turnover rate.FindingsThe study reveals that, the higher perceived policy responses and community engagement the teachers acknowledge, the lower chance they will move to another country. Also, this paper presents the differences in expat teachers' perceptions and intentions among demographic factors such as teaching qualification, their current country of teaching, experience at the current country, income before, during and expected income after COVID-19.Originality/valueThe paper justifies a conceptual framework which provides a hypothetical explanation about the influence of perceived policy responses and community engagement over expat teachers' intention to leave.

Teacher corps stability: articulating the social capital enabled when teachers stay

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-252
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Ford ◽  
Patrick B. Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Value Added ◽  
School Level ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThe evidence is strong that the instability of teacher rosters in urban school settings has negative consequences for student learning, but our concern is with the opposite phenomenon: What is the value added to the organization when a school's teaching roster is stable over time? Our theory of teacher corps stability hinges on the claim that the stability of a teacher corps over time is a sine qua non that, under certain conditions, permits formation of the social capital needed to catalyze school effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachWe test this claim using longitudinal data from 72 schools in a large, urban southwestern US school district. We first identified a subset of 47 schools with either chronic teacher turnover (high, stable turnover) or a stable teacher roster (low, stable turnover) via school-level HLM growth modeling techniques. These classifications were then used as a covariate in a series of HLM growth models investigating its relationship to growth in structural, relational and cognitive social capital over time.FindingsOur findings sustain a claim of the importance of teacher corps stability. In our sample of urban schools, we found robust increases in the relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital over time in those schools with stable rosters. Furthermore, schools with chronic turnover were declining significantly in relational social capital, but no appreciable growth in structural social capital was found in either stable roster or chronic teacher turnover schools.Practical implicationsGiven the nature of teacher corps stability and its relationship to key organizational outcomes, school leaders play a central role in realizing teacher corps stability within their school. A certain amount of this effort must necessarily be focused on retaining a stable corps of quality, happy, committed teachers. However, building social capital concerns the active engagement of all actors; thus, school leaders need to think beyond retention to how the teachers that remain can play larger leadership roles in this process.Originality/valueFew studies have examined the positive benefits that can emerge in schools where the majority of teachers remain year after year. Collectively, the study findings suggest that teacher corps stability can provide fertile conditions for the development of social capital that has the potential to enhance school effectiveness and that its staff can leverage for school improvement.

“The day after”

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smadar Gilad-Hai ◽  
Anit Somech
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Functioning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Conflict

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of implementing innovation in experimental schools (focussing on R & D) for school effectiveness post-intervention (five years). Based on theoretical models of social exchange and “conservation of resources” (Hobfoll, 1989), the authors focussed on assessing the effects of implementing innovation on individual outcomes (strain) and school level outcomes (social cohesion, emotional conflict, organizational innovation). The authors compared three types of schools: schools that have completed the implementation process (after), schools still in the implementation process (during) and schools not participating in the implementation process (control group). Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 75 schools (23 non-experimental, 25 during the experiment, 27 post-experiment) was used. Data were collected from teachers and principals to avoid a single source bias. Findings – MANOVA analyses suggest that the process of implementation of innovation contributes to organizational effectiveness: differences were found between the control group and the two groups of experimental schools. The two groups of experimental schools showed higher levels of organizational innovation and social cohesion and lower levels of emotional conflict and strain as compared to the control group. Research limitations/implications – This study concentrated on the question of the direct links between the study variables – the effects of the implementation of innovation on school functioning. It would be interesting to examine the limit conditions (encourage – discourage factors) for these relations. Practical implications – Findings suggest that a structured process of implementing innovation contributes not only to the outcome of innovation in school, but also enhances overall school functioning. Originality/value – Permits the authors to deepen the knowledge of the potential of organizational processes of innovation in schools over time (pre-during-post process).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document