The Need for Principal Renewal: The Promise of Sustaining Principals through Principal-to-Principal Reflective Practice

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Eleanor Drago-Severson
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Practice ◽  
21St Century ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Catholic School ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Self Renewal ◽  
Field Notes

Background/Context Given the challenging complexity of the modern principalship— including high-stakes testing, standards-based reform, increased accountability, and severe budget cuts—practitioners and scholars emphasize the urgency of supporting principals’ stress-relief and renewal. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This nationwide study offers insights into how a group of principals renew themselves and prevent burnout, crucial for 21st-century school leaders. This article focuses on how 25 principals supported their own renewal and their yearning to engage in reflective practice with colleagues as a support to their own revitalization, growth, and learning. Research Design Eighty-nine hours of qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of 25 public and private (independent) and Catholic school principals who served in schools with varying levels of financial resources (i.e., high, medium, and low) were conducted, in addition to analyzing field notes and approximately 60 documents. Interviews for the encompassing research study—an investigation of developmentally based principal leadership practices employed to support adult learning—concerned a variety of topics, including principals’ practices for supporting teacher learning and how principals themselves supported their own renewal. Data Collection and Analysis All interviews were transcribed verbatim. Two researchers coded interviews, documents, and field notes for central concepts (theoretical and emic codes were employed). Thematic matrices were developed, and narrative summaries were created. A grounded theory approach was employed, and important literatures informed analysis. Matrices displayed confirming and disconfirming instances of themes, and two researchers conferred on alternative interpretations. Findings Findings reveal that these principals (1) employed a variety of strategies for self-renewal given the complex challenges of their leadership work in the 21st century and (2) expressed a desire for engaging in ongoing reflective practice with colleagues as a to support their own development, sustainability, and renewal. All also expressed that although they were fulfilled by their jobs, the scope seemed vast and overwhelming. Whether they served in high, low, or medium financial resource schools and whether they served in public, independent, or Catholic schools, they emphasized that they needed to develop more effective and frequent strategies for self-renewal. Conclusions/Recommendations These school leaders explained that they yearn for regular, ongoing opportunities to reflect with colleagues and fellow principals on the challenges of leadership, emphasizing that this type of ongoing collegial reflection would help them to more effectively exercise leadership, avoid burnout, and renew themselves. Although all these principals spontaneously voiced the desire to engage in collegial reflection, only 3 were doing so on a regular basis. This research suggests the importance of supporting and retaining principals by using reflection and collegial support for renewal, with serious implications for education policy and school district practices.

Aspiring School Leaders Addressing Social Justice through Art Making

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Boske
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Professional Literature ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Field Notes

There is little in the professional literature about how school leaders or other professionals committed to promoting social justice deal with and manage their emotional responses to the challenges that await them in educational arenas. Even less has been written about how art making can be utilized as a means of developing new understandings and responses toward issues facing underserved populations. This study seeks to examine how 24 graduate students in the state of Texas understand the role of art making—specifically, the making of digital shorts using MovieMaker—to address issues of social justice and equity facing U.S. public schools. This study employs a grounded theory approach. Data consist of reflective interview responses, written narratives, and field notes. Participants identify art making as a valuable tool to deepening understanding and responses toward social justice and equity-oriented work in schools.

Poverty Delivered

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Jeff Cates
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Financial Data ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Field Notes

Through stories, interviews, pictures, and financial records, the author narrates the inner workings of a rent-to-own company where he worked. Spending over two years on the job, he developed extensive field notes, performed qualitative interviews with management, analyzed a year’s worth of financial data, shedding new details on the intimate process of “rent-to-own,” which make the poor poorer.

scholarly journals El Nacimiento del Pueblo Mestizo: Critical Discourse on Historical Trauma, Community Resilience and Healing

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-275
Author(s):  
Lisa Cacari Stone ◽  
Magdalena Avila ◽  
Bonnie Duran
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Field Notes

Purpose. Historical trauma has been widely applied to American Indian/Alaska Native and other Indigenous populations and includes dimensions of language, sociocultural, and land losses and associated physical and mental disorders, as well as economic hardships. Insufficient evidence remains on the experiences of historical trauma due to waves of colonization for mixed-race Mexican people with indigenous ancestry (el pueblo mestizo). Research Question. Drawing from our critical lenses and epistemic advantages as indigenous feminist scholars, we ask, “How can historical trauma be understood through present-day discourse of two mestizo communities? What are public health practice and policy implications for healing historical trauma among mestizo populations?” Methodology and Approach. We analyzed the discourse from two community projects: focus groups and ethnographic field notes from a study in the U.S.–Mexico border region (2012–2014) and field notes and digital stories from a service-learning course in northern New Mexico (2016–2018). Findings. Our analysis describes the social and historical experiences of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Chicanas/os, and Nuevo Mexicano peoples in the southwestern border region of the United States. We found four salient themes as manifestations of “soul-wound”: (1) violence/fear, (2) discrimination/shame, (3) loss, and (4) deep sorrow. Themes mitigating the trauma were community resiliency rooted in “querencia” (deep connection to land/home/people) and “conscientizacion” (critical consciousness). Conclusion. Historical trauma experienced by mestizo Latinx communities is rooted in local cultural and intergenerational narratives that link traumatic events in the historic past to contemporary local experiences. Future public health interventions should draw on culturally centered strength-based resilience approaches for healing trauma and advancing health equity.

The Persistence of Presentism

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (11) ◽  
pp. 2505-2534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Hargreaves ◽  
Dennis Shirley
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Performance Data ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Capacity Enhancement ◽  
Quantitative Performance ◽  
Strategies For Change

Background/Context This study draws on the voluminous research on teachers’ workplace orientations and especially on Dan Lortie's documentation of conservatism, individualism, and presentism among teachers. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study investigated a school reform network of over 300 secondary schools entitled Raising Achievement Transforming Learning (RATL) to explore the role of the network's interventions in increasing or diminishing presentism. Setting England. Population/Participants/Subjects Quantitative performance data were analyzed for all 300 schools. Site visits were made to 10 RATL schools in which educational administrators and teachers were interviewed individually and in focus groups. Additional phone interviews were conducted with administrators in 14 RATL schools. Intervention/Program/Practice RATL provided a combination of interventions and supports for schools in the network, including data analysis and capacity enhancement; partnering mentor schools with low-performing schools; regional conferences; a Web portal for schools in the project; and a menu of short-, medium-, and long-term strategies for change. Research Design Qualitative interviews and focus groups of educators in RATL schools, along with secondary analysis of pupil performance data. Conclusions/Recommendations In Dan Lortie's seminal research on teachers’ workplace orientations, he identified “presentism,” or short-term thinking, with conservatism and individualism. This research indicates that in the RATL project, individualism among teachers diminished, but this did not diminish either conservatism or presentism. The research identifies three kinds of presentism—endemic, adaptive, and addictive—that have amplified educational conservatism while altering its nature to fit the current culture and political economy of fast capitalism.

“Weg Da—Wir Wollen Lernen!” Education Reform in Hamburg, Germany in Neoliberal Times

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Jeff Bale
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
News Media ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Reform Measure ◽  
Interpretive Communities ◽  
Critical Policy

Background/Context This paper is in dialogue with critical policy scholarship that has developed a certain consensus about what neoliberalism is and what its impact has been on recent education policy. A substantial part of the paper comprises a synthesis of recent German scholarship on neoliberal education policies in that country. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on critical analysis of neoliberal education policy, this paper examines a recent education reform measure in Hamburg, Germany. A key component of the intended reform measure was defeated by a ballot initiative spearheaded by a coalition of Hamburg residents widely understood to represent the city's wealthy elite. Making sense of the controversy over this reform measure is the central goal of this paper. To do so, I identify five features of neoliberal education policy in Germany and use them as a framework within which to read the specific reform measure in Hamburg and the resistance to it. Research Design This paper reports an interpretive policy analysis and draws on document sources from four interpretive communities: (a) Hamburg's education ministry; (b) two pro-reform coalitions; (c) one anti-reform coalition; and (c) news media sources. A total of 389 documents were collected for this study, to which I applied a grounded theory approach for data analysis. Conclusions/Recommendations By reading this controversy against previous scholarship on neoliberal education policy, I argue that this specific case of education reform in Hamburg does not follow the pattern such analysis would predict. By stressing this divergence, I neither intend to challenge the consensus on neoliberalism within critical policy scholarship, nor to position this reform policy as a panacea to neoliberal ills. Rather, I argue that the anomalous nature of this specific reform effort in Hamburg provides two unique analytical opportunities: (a) to understand more deeply the constraints imposed by neoliberalism on schooling, especially in a context of policy making that bucks the neoliberal trend; and (b) to identify more clearly what educational policy strategies are required to move beyond neoliberal imperatives for schooling and society.

Strategic Communication in the C-Suite

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Argenti
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Elevated Level ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Corporate Communications ◽  
Leadership Communication ◽  
The Past ◽  
Communication In Organizations

This article explores the ways in which C-suite executives are using corporate communications to execute strategy. Over the past two decades, we have seen a profound shift in how leaders view communications within organizations. This shift has moved from a tactical and superficial focus (speech writing, media placements) to a more strategic and elevated level (developing and implementing strategy through communication, sophisticated measurement using big data to understand constituencies and influence reputation). Thus, the central research question in this article is focused on the following theme: “How do leaders use communications to execute strategy in the 21st century?” Through a review of current literature on the topic and synthesis of both published and newly conducted interviews, the article provides a snapshot of leadership communication in organizations today as it relates to the execution of strategy.

scholarly journals English for Specific Purposes: A Study Investigating the Mismatch between the “Cutting Edge” Course Book and the Needs of Prince Sultan Air Base Students

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Abdulrahman M. Alshabeb ◽  
Fhaid H. Alsubaie ◽  
Abdulaziz Z. Albasheer
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Language Needs ◽  
Practical Performance ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Collection Methods

Needs analysis is generally believed to be important in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) context because it enables practitioners and material writers to find out about their learners’ needs. Thus, the main research question focuses on the perceived English language needs of the learners at Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), and the study involves an investigation into the mismatch between the Cutting Edge course book and the needs of PSAB students. A total of 70 students from different technical sections at Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), Saudi Arabia participated in the study. Two types of data collection methods were used in this study: quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interviews). The results obtained reveal that the current course book being used at PSAB does not meet their needs because the activities provided are not relevant to the specific context of their field, which is mainly military and aviation. Finding and adapting a textbook that is clearly linked to these students’ needs and to the course objectives is suggested as one possible solution. In the context of PSAB, data from the interviews and surveys shows the need to assess the content of the course book in relation to the needs of the learners. It also indicates the strong demand of the students for supplementary materials that provide linguistic input to match their needs. Finally, offering supplementary materials and content-based instructions for those students would help to bridge the gap between language training and practical performance needs in real situations.

Ministry Amidst the Refugee Crisis in Europe: Understanding Missionary-Refugee Relationships

2021 ◽  
pp. 026537882110483
Author(s):  
Jamie N. Sanchez ◽  
Leanne M. Dzubinski ◽  
Jacqueline Parke
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Main Research ◽  
International Consultation ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an investigation into missionary-refugee relationships in Europe. The main research question guiding this study was: How do missionaries understand and describe their relationship with the refugees they serve? The data for this study were collected at an international consultation on ministry with refugees held in the fall of 2017 from 21 missionaries using semi-structured interview protocols. Findings demonstrate that missionaries shared a liminal identity with the refugees in their ministry, viewed hospitality as a Christian lifestyle, perceived Christianity to be an inclusive faith, and discussed the challenges and opportunities in their ministry with refugees. Based on the findings we offer implications for mission theorizing and practice in the 21st century church.

Qualitative Research

2013 ◽  
pp. 352-364
Author(s):  
M. Gordon Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
Personal Construct ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Personal Construct Theory ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
Construct Theory ◽  
Grounded Theory Approach ◽  
Management Issues

This chapter presents a conceptual discussion about investigating management issues relating to global business operations. Current global business operations provide an opportunity to conduct Ex Cultura research. This term represents the situation where researchers conduct investigations beyond their own culture. A Grounded Theory approach within a qualitative perspective is proposed so that newly emerging themes may be identified. These themes may not be known before hand because of the Ex Cultura environment. Two methods are suggested; the first method, Personal Construct Theory and the RepGrid technique, documents what the research participant thinks about a particular research question. The other method, Narrative Inquiry and the Long Interview technique, documents what a research participant has done relative to a research question. Both methods document the research participant’s interpretation of their personal experiences. Further, the methods support Ex Cultura research into management issues involved in global business operations.

Teaching Multiple Literacies through Collaboration

2013 ◽  
pp. 40-43
Author(s):  
Judith C. Stanton
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
21St Century ◽  
21St Century Skills ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Social Constructivist ◽  
Multiple Literacies ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Teacher Librarians

Through collaboration, teacher librarians aid teachers in embedding multiple literacies skills across the curriculum. As school leaders and technological resources, teacher librarians have the necessary skills to teach digital, information, and media literacy to students. Collaboration enhances student achievement. Through a social constructivist platform, teachers and teacher librarians can teach the 21st century skills needed to prepare students for future employment.

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