scholarly journals Collaborative school leadership in a global society: A critical perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 663-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A Woods ◽  
Amanda Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
International Teacher

In the context of evolving global challenges and opportunities, this article explores the kind of leadership that moves beyond the philosophy of dependence which pervades many of the everyday assumptions of educational leadership practice. The article argues for educational leadership that places relational freedom, self-determination, and critical reflexivity as the driving aim of distributed leadership by teachers, students and others in non-positional leadership roles. A project arising from the International Teacher Leadership initiative is examined in order to offer practical illustration.

Using Narrative Inquiry to Explore “Wicked Problems” in Educational Leadership in the Anthropocene

2019 ◽  
pp. 144-167
Author(s):  
Nandakumar Mayakestan ◽  
Gopinathan Sarvanathan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Viable Approach ◽  
Leadership Research

A highly contested issue in educational leadership research is the place of narrative inquiry to study school leadership practice. While the study of narratives has had long epistemological roots in the works of Dewey, Bruner, Clandinin, and Connelly, its potential for revealing the human condition and providing deeper insights into critical issues like power, inequity, social justice, and oppression is often underestimated. Moreover, the method has also drawn much debate for its limitations ranging from its highly reflexive nature to issues of validity and reliability of “storied” experiences. This chapter outlines some arguments for the use of narrative inquiry and suggests a nuanced and expanded understanding of the method as a viable approach to study “wicked” problems in the age of Anthropocene. The chapter also aims to inspire further discussions of how narrative inquiry could be further re-conceptualized to study educational leadership in the anthropogenic era.

School Leadership Preparation and Development in England

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. Woods ◽  
Joy Jarvis ◽  
Amanda Roberts ◽  
Suzanne Culshaw
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
School System ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Independent State ◽  
21St Century Leadership ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
State Schools

School leadership preparation and development in England has to be understood in the context of England’s radically changing school system. Local democratic accountability of schools has been reduced and a range of new actors have entered the state school system to sponsor and govern schools. Since 2010, the numbers of such “independent” state schools have increased rapidly. As the role of local authorities has diminished, the middle tier of governance has been transformed and continues to evolve, with new forms of grouping schools emerging, such as multi-academy trusts (MATs) and teaching school alliances (TSAs). This and the influential idea in England of the school system as a school-led, self-improving system have implications for leadership and its preparation and development. System leadership, by national leaders of education for example, is seen as an essential layer of support for and a catalyst to school improvement, in addition to leadership of and within schools. In the first decade of the 21st century, leadership preparation and development became more like a “nationalized” service, with the creation of the National College for School Leadership (later the National College for Teaching and Leadership). With the abolition of the National College in 2013, the direction of travel was towards more plural and diverse providers of school leadership and preparation—some would say a privatized model of provision—including MATs, TSAs, schools and other providers. There are both potential strengths and weaknesses in this model. More autonomy is promised for providers and participants in preparing for and developing leadership, which could foster creativity in modes of provision. There are also tensions. Policy aims that promote the quantitative measurement of education on the basis of instrumental and economistic goals sit uneasily with other policy aims that appear to value education as the nurturing of human development as a good in itself; yet different educational purposes have different implications for the practice of school leadership and hence its preparation and development. A further tension is that between a positive recognition in the leadership discourse of the distributed nature of leadership and a tendency to revert to a more familiar focus on positional leadership roles and traditional, hierarchical leadership. Other issues include the practical consequences of a system of plural and diverse providers. The system may increase opportunities for innovation and local responsiveness, but it is not clear how it will ensure sufficiently consistent high-quality leadership preparation and development across the system. There are questions to do with power and inequalities—for example, whether greater autonomy works well for some providers and participants in leadership preparation and development, whilst others are much more constrained and less able to find or create opportunities to develop their leadership practice. Space for critical and questioning research and professional enquiry, independent of the interests and priorities of providers and government, is essential. Such research and enquiry are needed to illuminate how leadership preparation and development practice actually evolves in this more plural system, and who shapes that practice in the differing local contexts across England.

Teaching Gil to Lead

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Davis ◽  
Ronald J. Leon
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
School Organization ◽  
Boundary Crossing ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Leadership Skill ◽  
Distributed Models ◽  
Work Tasks ◽  
Education Today

The complexities of public education today require new, distributed models of school leadership in which teachers play a central role. The most effective teachers assume leadership roles as instructors and professional colleagues. In this article, we propose a framework for developing teacher leadership that consists of four intersecting domains: instrumental, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational. These domains are mediated by the principal's beliefs, social context, organizational culture, work tasks, and district philosophy. In our framework, developing teacher leadership begins at the level of individual expertise and progresses outward across the layers of a school organization. Guided by the principal and the development of instructional expertise, a teacher's leadership skill emerges through increased exposures to boundary-crossing experiences within the school organization.

Developing Leaders for International Baccalaureate World Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Calnin ◽  
Mark Waterson ◽  
Sue Richards ◽  
Darlene Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
International Baccalaureate ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
School Network ◽  
Core Components ◽  
Leadership Research

A significant corpus of research now consistently confirms that school leadership is the second most important in-school variable to impact on student outcomes. Investing in leaders and aspiring leaders is therefore an imperative for schools and school systems. However, much of the educational leadership research emerges from national systems of education, with a largely Western set of norms and assumptions. To what extent, it can be asked, are the attributes and capabilities described in the literature applicable on a more universal or global scale? A paucity of research addresses this question and explores educational leadership in trans-national and multi-cultural settings. The International Baccalaureate (IB), with its 4500 schools in more than 135 countries, has responded to the challenge of developing leaders for its schools (known as IB World Schools). Regardless of the strength of research within particular national or cultural contexts, the IB’s complex and globally dispersed school network means that leaders cannot be expected to follow a single model or paradigm of leadership practice. The IB acknowledges that effective leadership takes into account the environment within which leaders work. At the heart of an IB school leader’s challenge is to develop strong capabilities in cultural and contextual awareness, as well as a deep understanding of the types of leadership practices that have the best chance of maximising student and organisational outcomes in different contexts. The IB has developed a distinctive leadership programme to support IB leaders and build their capabilities in these vital areas. This paper outlines the contexts, research and theorising that has led to the IB leadership professional development programme. It also presents the aims, guiding principles and key features, inclusive of the key capabilities and intelligences that are the core components of the learning and development experience. The question raised at the conclusion of this paper is: to what extent are these capabilities applicable for leaders not only in IB World Schools but in schools more widely?

Performing and challenging gendered walls in leadership spaces in single sex schools: Lessons from a male-led girls’ basic school in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322199869
Author(s):  
Raymond Chegedua Tangonyire
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Gender Inequity ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Leadership Competence ◽  
Girls School

Women and men are capable of effectively discharging school leadership roles. However, in Ghana, people are socialised to expect females to lead girls’ schools and vice versa. Appointing a female or male to lead a single sex school that is opposite to their gender elicits gender stereotyping, protests and exclusion. While researchers have explored these dynamics in co-educational basic schools, they have not extended them to single sex schools. This case study investigated how the leadership practice of a male-led girls’ school in the Central Region of Ghana has challenged gendered walls. The study engaged 23 multiple stakeholders and gathered data through semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Intra- and cross-case analyses of data revealed that loyalty to gender walls in single sex schools reflects the desire to respect and maintain the tradition of female headteachers in girls’ schools and male headteachers in boys’ schools. Overall, Ghana is still a traditional and patriarchal society that is characterised by gender inequity in leadership spaces. However, men and women who exhibit professional integrity and leadership competence could convert critics to supporters in a range of school settings. The Ghana Education Service should provide leadership preparation for practitioners to improve their leadership competence.

Post-conflict reconstruction: Negotiating school leadership practice for inclusive education of conflict-affected children in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 496-513
Author(s):  
Jenestar Wanjiru
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Teacher Participation ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
School Demographics ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
School Leadership Practices

Provision of education during/after violent conflicts remains a global dilemma with many conflict-affected children excluded from/within education. Likewise, school leadership is increasingly seen as a key element in developing inclusive schools across communities. This single intrinsic case study with aspects of ethnography was conducted in one post-conflict community school in Kenya, where 71% of the pupil population comprised conflict-affected children following the 2007–2008 post-election violence. The aim was to explore and understand how the headteacher and teachers perceived and developed teacher participation in school leadership practice, in order to respond to learning and development needs of conflict-affected children, and promote inclusive practices in post-conflict schooling. Thematic analysis of interviews, observations, and textual displays indicated that by diagnosing the state of local affairs, that is, violence-disrupted livelihoods, school demographics, and systemic demands, the headteacher encouraged active participation of teachers in school leadership practices. Although overall accountability remained locked in hierarchical structures, teacher leadership emerged in arrangements like “office-referenced” individual leadership and collaborating groups (e.g., task groups and “team leadership”). With school leadership practice often attributed to headteachers in Kenya, this study contributes to debates on the construction of teacher leadership and offers insights into the experiences of school leaders in combating exclusionary practices after societal violence.

The role of cognitive validity testing in the development of CALL, the comprehensive assessment of leadership for learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark H. Blitz ◽  
Jason Salisbury ◽  
Carolyn Kelley
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Department Chairs ◽  
Comprehensive Assessment ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Validity Testing ◽  
Leadership For Learning ◽  
Cognitive Validity ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Purpose – The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is an online task-based assessment of distributed instructional leadership. In developing CALL, researchers faced the challenge of structuring survey items that would measure leadership practice rather than individual traits. Critical in this work was developing items that accurately reflected current leadership practice. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to pilot the CALL instrument and conducted cognitive validity testing on the instrument. Design/methodology/approach – CALL researchers piloted the survey in six schools in Wisconsin in order to test and refine the survey instrument. Researchers conducted cognitive walk-through interviews with five participants from each school: principals, associate principals, teachers, department chairs, guidance counselors, and activities directors. The interviews focussed on specific items in order to observe the users’ thought processes and rationale in choosing a response for each item. The researchers focussed on relevancy, clarity, and accuracy of survey items in collecting and analyzing the resulting data. Findings – Three specific survey items were identified that exemplify these challenges and opportunities such as: accessible language, extended leadership, socially desirable responding, 360-degree perspectives, applying appropriate terminology, and identifying appropriate practices. These findings provided insight into survey development work and implications of distributed leadership. The authors discuss the challenges of creating a task-based leadership assessment. Originality/value – Developing a formative assessment of school leadership is valuable in supporting school leaders’ work. The process of utilizing a qualitative approach to develop a quantitative instrument has proven critical in measuring task-based distributed leadership.

Priming the Leadership Pipeline: School Performance and Climate Under an Urban School Leadership Residency Program

2020 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2091472
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Steele ◽  
Elizabeth D. Steiner ◽  
Laura S. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
School Climate ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Residency Program ◽  
School Level ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Suspension Rates ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Scale Scores

Purpose: This study examines school climate and student achievement trends under an ambitious school leadership residency program in an urban school district. The 2-year leadership residencies were intensive, combining at least 370 hours of professional development with on-the-job training, in which aspiring school principals held either assistant-level administrative or teacher leadership roles. Research Design: Using a difference-in-differences framework with school fixed effects, we estimate the relationship between schools’ cumulative exposure to program residents and measures of school climate and student performance. We measure school climate using school-by-semester teacher survey composites. Student performance is captured using school-by-year data on language arts and math scale scores, chronic absence rates, suspension rates, and graduation rates. Findings: In models that allow average time trends to vary between the state and the treatment city, an additional resident-by-year in an administrative role in high schools is linked to an additional 15% of a school-level standard deviation in math scale scores and an additional 3.6 percentage points in graduation rates, but also to an additional 10 percentage points in suspension rates. Results are sensitive to model specification, school level, and to residents’ placement in administrative or teacher leader roles. Implications: Due to the contracting nature of the district, only one of 30 entering residents became a school principal within 3 years of program inception. In some models, the estimates suggest potential for aspiring leaders to effect change from nonprincipal administrative roles. Potential for teacher leadership roles is less clear.

scholarly journals Confucian values and school leadership in Vietnam

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thang Dinh Truong ◽  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Kabini Sanga
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Leadership And Management ◽  
Global Consensus ◽  
Principal Decision Making

There is an emerging global consensus that the knowledge base in educational leadership and management must offer a deeper examination of leadership practice across a more diverse set of national contexts. Nonetheless, a recent review of the literature in this field concluded that this challenge has yet to be adequately addressed with respect to research in Asia. This study was an in-depth, qualitative examination of how the decision-making practices of Vietnamese school principals respond to their socio-cultural context. The study employed Hofstede’s ‘dimensions of national culture’ to aid in this analysis of Vietnamese school leadership. Qualitative data were used to construct case studies of principal decision-making in three Vietnamese schools. The findings highlight the strong influence of power distance and collectivism on the decision making of Vietnamese school principals. The results illuminate the value of adopting an ‘indigenous perspective’ on school leadership. Our description of how socio-cultural values shape the practice of school leadership in Vietnam offers a useful contrast with descriptions from mainstream research on educational leadership and management.

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.

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