Engaged leaders develop schools as quality organisations

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 217-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Preparation ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Global Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leading Schools

Purpose – This paper explores the question, “what does it mean to be an engaged school leader in an educational context that promotes standards-based accountability as a model of quality development?” Specifically, what drives educational leaders? What do they do to lead schools as quality organisations? and How do they lead schools as quality organisations? Design/methodology/approach – An ethnographically grounded theory case study was conducted with 16 principles in Sweden, USA and Finland, who participated in a three-year project to lead schools as global learning centers. Findings – Findings showed that school leaders used a variety of leadership styles as they developed worked cultures grounded in a value system, to support student learning and development. Also, work cultures that engaged members of the school and community were critical for leading schools as learning organisations. Research limitations/implications – The small sample may not be generalizable to all educational systems. Practical implications – This study provides evidence about the complexities for school leadership today that are not currently addressed in most principal preparation programs. The findings can serve to help inform further development of principal preparation. Originality/value – The experiences shared in this study provide an alternative perspective about what it is that school leaders do and think about amidst a high-stakes testing context of school development. The grounded theory nature of this study, combined with an ethnographic approach, provides deep insights into the daily working life of engaged school leaders to learn first hand from their dialogue about what it takes to lead schools as quality organisations.

School leaders' adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Mark Tyson ◽  
Nicholas J. Sauers
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adoption And Implementation

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine school leaders' experiences with adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence systems in their schools. It examined the factors that led educational administrators to adopt one artificial intelligence program (ALEKS) and their perceptions around the implementation process.Design/methodology/approachThis was a qualitative case study that included structured interviews with seven individuals who have adopted artificial intelligence programs in their schools. Participants were identified through purposive and snowball sampling. Interview transcripts were analyzed and put through a two-step coding process involving in vivo coding as well as pattern coding.FindingsTwo major themes emerged from this study pertaining to the state of the diffusion of artificial intelligence through the adoption and implementation process. The findings indicated that school leaders were actively engaged in conversations related to AI adoption and implementation. They also created structures (organizational) to ensure the successful adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence.Originality/valueThis is an original study that examined the experiences of school leaders who have adopted and implemented artificial intelligence in their schools. The body of literature related to artificial intelligence and school leadership is extremely limited.

COVID-19 – school leadership in crisis?

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 321-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alma Harris
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Changing Role

PurposeThis article explores how school leaders are responding during COVID-19 and what forms of leadership practice are emerging.Design/methodology/approachThis article draws upon the contemporary leadership literature and scholarly work.FindingsThis article proposes that the current crisis has shifted school leadership dramatically towards distributed, collaborative and network practices.Originality/valueThis article offers a commentary about the changing role of school leaders and their changing leadership practice during this pandemic.

Principal professionalism in the time of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 367-374
Author(s):  
Corrie Stone-Johnson ◽  
Jennie Miles Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Collective Attention ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Support Students

PurposeIn this paper, we describe the impact of COVID-19 on principals and their work. Drawing on prior research undertaken prior to the onset of the pandemic, we describe how principals were already grappling with difficult tensions associated with their expertise, autonomy, normative orientation and rewards that may have real implications for their work moving forward and how, in the current context of uncertainty and change we believe the issue of principal professionalism requires our collective attention and action.Design/methodology/approachOver the last year, we undertook a multistate qualitative study of 17 school leaders to explore how principals working in traditional public schools conceptualize the principal profession and their role within it. Briefly, we found that the principalship is an “emergent profession” characterized by shared but individually determined knowledge and skills; a normative orientation of service; confused notions of external expectations and rewards and ongoing tensions among all of these elements.FindingsProfessionalism may be a surprising lever for improving the capacity of school leadership. Through our research, we identified that little is known about professionalism as it relates to the unique work of school leaders, but that understanding more about it could lead to greater knowledge of how to encourage and retain them. In the current context of uncertainty, chaos and change, the pressure on leaders to stay in the role and to succeed has never been greater. Thus, it is critical that principals have the capacity to exert professionalism over their work and to have greater say in elements of it, recognizing that some decisions must be made at district, state and federal levels.Originality/valueWhile many studies investigate how teachers of various backgrounds and in different contexts think about teaching as a profession (e.g. Anderson and Cohen, 2015; Stone-Johnson, 2014b; Torres and Weiner, 2018; Hall and McGinty, 2015), we had difficulty identifying studies focused on principals and using frameworks of professionalism to understand how these activities reflect larger shifts in the profession itself. This is despite the changing nature of principals' work, which, like the work of teachers, has been and continues to be largely influenced by the increasing role of neoliberal principles and policies in education. The public nature of the work of school leadership and the potential to support students, families and the communities in which they live brings in sharp focus the necessity of greater understanding of it during the COVID-19 crisis.

The impact of teacher entrepreneurial behaviour: a timely investigation of an emerging phenomenon

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 697-712
Author(s):  
Chun Sing Maxwell Ho ◽  
Jiafang Lu ◽  
Darren A. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Context ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Professional Capital ◽  
Supplementary School ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
Instructional Roles ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study aims to understand of the role that teacher entrepreneurial behavior plays in developing teacher professional capital. The extant concepts around school leadership mostly encompass the transformative and instructional roles of school leaders in managing, mobilizing and supporting teachers for student achievement. However, school leadership has not focused strongly on promoting innovation and risk-taking for schools in a knowledge economy. As a timely promising response to the increasingly demanding and competitive school context, teacher entrepreneurial behaviour (TEB), which emphasizes teachers' willingness to take risks and be daring, has started to gain recognition in the school leadership literature, yet a nuanced understanding of TEB's potential impacts on schools is lacking.Design/methodology/approachBased on a combined consideration of institutionalized recognition and expert judgement, this study identified three innovative entrepreneurial teachers/teacher groups that had won the most competitive teaching award in Hong Kong. Employing a multiple-site case study design, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 informants and collected supplementary school documents and records.FindingsThis study found that TEB enables the implementation of innovation and promotes cross-subject alignment. It cultivates trusting and coherent relationships among teachers. Teachers with TEB scaled up innovation among other teachers. Furthermore, entrepreneurial teachers enhance school attractiveness by creating competitive advantages.Originality/valueThis analysis showed that TEB enables formal and informal school leaders to bring forth critical school outcomes. This study elaborates how TEB enhances teachers' professional capital through building trusting and coherent relationships. It also adds to the research on school innovation by demonstrating that TEB fosters teachers' capacity for bottom-up innovation in the community.

Creating successful and unique schools: leadership, context and systems thinking perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gurr ◽  
Fiona Longmuir ◽  
Christopher Reed
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
System Thinking ◽  
Leadership Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
Successful School

PurposeThrough discussion of research about the leadership of two schools, this paper explores the complexity of school leadership and how various contextual elements interact with the work of principals in schools that are attempting to create inclusive, rich, worthwhile and unique schools. A systems thinking leadership and context model is developed to frame the exploration of the two cases, which, in turn, helps inform the veracity and development of the model.Design/methodology/approachThe research reported is broadly based on multiple-perspective case studies that have included individual and/or group interviews with school leaders, teachers, students, parents and/or school council members, observation and document analysis. The focus for this paper is on evidence from the cases that elucidate the model.FindingsA leadership and context view of schools helps to understand how school leaders work with, within and influence various contextual factors to develop schools that are both successful and unique. The cases demonstrated how individual leadership factors including career histories, personalities and values coalesced with school and broader community factors in reciprocal ways that resulted in school-specific improvements.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited by the nature of bounded, small number, qualitative case research. Nevertheless, the authors suggest that the school leadership and context systems model the authors presented captures much of the complexity of the successful leadership of these schools. The authors further suggest that this model provides a conceptual contribution to the study of successful school leadership that moves beyond more linear leadership views. Implications of this research and the conceptual contributions that the authors advance are that leadership and context should be considered in reciprocal and nuanced ways across a complex variety of contextual levels.Practical implicationsThese cases explore the growth and development of new school communities and capture the dynamic interactions between leadership and context within the complex arrangements of policy, system, history and community. The cases demonstrated how individual leadership factors, including career histories, personalities and values, coalesced with school and broader community factors in reciprocal ways that resulted in school-specific improvements. These findings and the system thinking leadership model help school leaders to consider their own work in developing successful and unique schools.Social implicationsSchool leadership is important for school success, and schools that meet student and community needs are important for society. The authors’ system thinking leadership model helps school leaders improve their practice in creating more interesting and successful schools that meet student and community needs.Originality/valueAt a time when international sharing of information and international testing of schools is pushing towards a uniformity of thinking about what good schools should be, the reality of leading schools is far different. This paper contributes to the knowledge about how school leaders navigate contextual complexities to create successful and unique schools that meet local needs.

School leadership during a pandemic: navigating tensions

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 391-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Netolicky
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual

PurposeThis paper explores, from the perspective of an Australian pracademic, how school leaders are leading during the global COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis essay explores the tensions navigated by school leaders leading during this time of global crisis, by looking to research as well as the author's lived experience.FindingsThe author finds that school leaders are navigating the following: accountability and autonomy; equity and excellence; the individual and the collective and well-being and workload.Originality/valueThis paper offers insights into school leadership, at all times but especially during times of crisis and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Educational restoration: a foundational model inspired by ecological restoration

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1198-1218
Author(s):  
Lisa A.W. Kensler ◽  
Cynthia L. Uline
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Whole School ◽  
Systems Model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to articulate, and advocate for, a deep shift in how the authors conceptualize and enact school leadership and reform. The authors challenge fundamental conceptions regarding educational systems and call for a dramatic shift from the factory model to a living systems model of schooling. The authors call is not a metaphorical call. The authors propose embracing assumptions grounded in the basic human nature as living systems. Green school leaders, practicing whole school sustainability, provide emerging examples of educational restoration. Design/methodology/approach School reform models have implicitly and even explicitly embraced industrialized assumptions about students and learning. Shifting from the factory model of education to a living systems model of whole school sustainability requires transformational strategies more associated with nature and life than machines. Ecological restoration provides the basis for the model of educational restoration. Findings Educational restoration, as proposed here, makes nature a central player in the conversations about ecologies of learning, both to improve the quality of learning for students and to better align educational practice with social, economic and environmental needs of the time. Educational leaders at all levels of the educational system have critical roles to play in deconstructing factory model schooling and reform. The proposed framework for educational restoration raises new questions and makes these opportunities visible. Discussion of this framework begins with ecological circumstances and then addresses, values, commitment and judgments. Practical implications Educational restoration will affect every aspect of teaching, learning and leading. It will demand new approaches to leadership preparation. This new landscape of educational practice is wide open for innovative approaches to research, preparation and practice across the field of educational leadership. Originality/value The model of educational restoration provides a conceptual foundation for future research and leadership practice.

The roles of school leaders in developing future-ready learners: the case of Singapore

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Choun Pei Wong ◽  
David Ng
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Traditional Teaching ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Society

PurposeAn education system can only be successful if it can develop future-ready learners who can continue to learn after graduation, take on their future lifework and thrive in the future society and environment. This article examines the economic, social and environmental trajectories of Singapore and proposes that it is important for future-ready learners to develop habits of practices that will support the skills, knowledge and values that are pertinent to these trajectories.Design/methodology/approachSchool leaders are responsible for creating environments and implementing practices that are conducive for fostering habits of practices that are crucial for future-ready outcomes. The authors discuss the inadequacies of traditional teaching and learning practices in supporting these habits and elucidate how newer paradigms such as constructivism, connectivism, coagency and communities of practice might be more useful in achieving this. The authors also present a case study of a school leadership preparation programme that aims to develop future-ready learners.FindingsThis paper provides insights into how newer paradigms of teaching and learning can be supportive for developing desirable habits of practices for future readiness.Originality/valueThis discussion piece introduces a fresh concept – habits of practices – that is relevant in preparing future-ready learners in Singapore.

Autonomous leadership and a centralised school system

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 823-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Brauckmann ◽  
Alexandra Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Educational Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Leading Schools ◽  
Support Programmes

Purpose – Although policy makers strengthen the necessity of “deregulation”, discussions about deregulation vs regulation in Europe still seem to be characterized by a lack of sophistication and require a more differentiated picture of specific forms of deregulation. As a consequence, the analysis of new educational governance approaches should consider the local actor's interpretation of new roles and new responsibilities. Relating actions and reactions of school leaders to their formal environment should lead to more contextual patterns of responsiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors investigate, based on a survey among Cypriot school leaders, whether school autonomy needs deregulation, or regulation towards autonomy, respectively. At the time of research the school system of Cyprus could be characterized as a “centralized” system and hence represented a suitable field of study. Using a factor model followed by a cluster analysis the paper explores the school leaders’ profiles of operative and perceived autonomy in different fields of governance issues and identify different types of leadership. Findings – The authors find that the autonomy school leaders experience is not necessarily related to a “defined” degree of autonomy which is prescribed by educational law and driven by concepts of new public management. Their “perceived” autonomy is also due to factors which can be located at a rather individual level. Originality/value – The findings provide insight into principals’ motives to adopt certain styles of leading schools, quite independently from new measures of educational governance. The authors conclude that greater emphasis on systematic support programmes may prepare school principals for gains of autonomy as well as for potential sources of conflict.

scholarly journals Fundamental elements of university-industry interaction from a grounded theory approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaela Bürger ◽  
Gabriela Gonçalves Silveira Fiates
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Innovation Ecosystem ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The University ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
University Industry

PurposeThis work aims to analyze the university–industry interaction in innovation ecosystems. The problem under study addresses how agents can operate in university–industry interactions to enhance the connections, specifically in the aspect of operational mechanisms of an innovation ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative, applied through grounded theory approach, cross-sectional and multiple sources of evidence – semi-structured interviews were conducted. An explanatory conceptual model was subsequently compared with the literature and validated with specialists.FindingsThe results showed that the university–industry interaction is influenced by several factors, such as networking, legal support, facilitating agents, management practices. Despite this, some other factors were identified for the improvement of U–I relationships, such as: strengthening of triple helix, greater legal certainty and encouragement of open innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe small sample size and the heterogeneity among the universities interviewed did not allow full saturation to occur. In spite of that, a significant level of saturation with respect to the challenges and barriers was observed.Practical implicationsThis work has a direct dialogue with researchers, managers and actors involved in university–industry interaction with regard to increasing the capacity for creation and dissemination of knowledge among organizations, educational institutions, government and companies.Originality/valueBy adopting a grounded theory approach, a detailed research agenda addresses research needs in two main areas: activities that precede the interaction between universities and companies, and the organization and management of the consequences of collaborative relationships.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document