THE IMPACT OF READING ON IMPROVING SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1269-1275
Author(s):  
Laila Laila ◽  
◽  
Abdulmuhsen Alqahtani ◽  
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
The Impact

A New Perspective for Understanding School Managers’ Roles: The Impact of Principals’ Boundary Activities on the Effectiveness of School Management Teams

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Pascale Benoliel ◽  
Anit Somech
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Management Teams ◽  
Role Performance ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Mean Differences ◽  
The Impact

Background/Context Increasingly, educational leadership research has stressed that leadership is not solely embedded in formal roles but often emerges from relationships between individuals. Senior management teams (SMTs) are an important expression of a formal management structure based on the principle of distributed leadership. Such structures may require a reconceptualization of school leadership and the role of the principal in such a way as to better meet new challenges and enable principals to manage SMTs more effectively. Accordingly, it is proposed that to improve effectiveness, principals engage in boundary activities, the principals’ internal activities directed toward the SMT aimed at dealing with internal team matters and the principals’ external activities directed toward external agents in the team's focal environment to acquire resources and protect the team. Purpose/Objective The present study attempts to advance a theoretical model of principals’ internal and external activities toward their SMTs. This study's purpose is twofold: First, the study tries to determine which of the internal and external activities principals engage in more frequently and less frequently and to what extent. Second, the study attempts to determine how these activities are related to the SMT effectiveness outcomes: in-role performance and innovation. Taking on a distributive perspective to school leadership, our goal is to extend our knowledge about the activities that might facilitate SMT effectiveness, by highlighting the principal boundary activities as fundamental. Research Design Quantitative study. Data Collection and Analysis Data were collected from two sources to minimize problems associated with same source bias: 92 SMTs and their principals from 92 public schools in Israel. Principals evaluated the SMTs’ effectiveness through validated surveys of team in-role performance and team innovation, and SMT members evaluated the internal and external activities of the principal. Findings/Results ANOVA analyses indicate significant mean differences between the principal's internal and external activities. Results from Structural Equation Model indicate that internal activities were related to SMT performance, whereas external activities were related to SMT innovation. Conclusions/Recommendations Principals who manage both the internal SMT dynamic by promoting SMT identity and building team trust, while also promoting a common mission, serve the role of coordinator between SMT members and constituencies external to the SMT, enhancing SMT effectiveness. It may be, then, that studying new models of school leadership and management, including the relationship of the principal and the SMT, may deepen our understanding of the increasingly complex role of principals today.

The Assistant Principalship: A Keystone or a Stepping Stone

2021 ◽  
pp. 002205742110323
Author(s):  
David M. Schmittou
Keyword(s):  
School Leadership ◽  
Assistant Principals ◽  
Job Rotation ◽  
Assistant Principalship ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Culture And Climate ◽  
Brick And Mortar Schools

Schools are dynamic environments surrounded by static brick and mortar. Schools are a complex entanglement of systems clinging to normalcy led and composed of individuals seeking growth and progress. There is constant turnover as students move through the systems, gaining mastery, seeking support, and receiving guidance. Employees similarly move often as they change roles and responsibilities, as cultures emerge and evolve, and as individuals retire, are hired, or move on to other positions, commonly referred to as “job rotation.” This constant change affects a school’s culture and climate as each is achieved through sustained efforts. When change is present within the school leadership, specifically those identified as assistant principals within their organizational hierarchy, the impact on school culture may be even more dramatic than the effects felt with the turnover of students and teachers.

School leadership preparation and development in Kenya

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gladys Asuga ◽  
Scott Eacott ◽  
Jill Scevak
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Leadership Preparation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Trends ◽  
School Leadership Development ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Current Provision

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the quality of the current provision for school leadership in Kenya, the extent to which they have an impact on student outcomes and the return on school leadership preparation and development investment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from educational leadership, management and administration courses delivered by universities and other institutions to aspiring and practising educational leaders in Kenya. It employs a method for evaluating return on leadership development investment first articulated by Eacott (2013). Findings – While there is growth in provision, consistent with international trends, this provision is more recognised for its standardisation than points of distinction; there is minimal attention to identified dimensions of leadership leading to higher student outcomes which raises questions regarding the universality of school leadership preparation and development curriculum; and the high course costs of current provision is an inhibiting factor in assessing the return on investment in school leadership preparation and development. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to publicly available documents from a limited sample of institutions. There is a need for more studies in the area. Practical implications – Institutions seeking to offer school leadership development have grounds on which to make decision about what programs their school leaders should undertake in terms of cost and quality. The study provides institution offering school leadership development courses evidence on which to base future policy direction. Social implications – The findings provide a case for investing in school leadership development given the impact courses may have on student outcomes. Originality/value – The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current provision on school leadership preparation and development in Kenya. It contributes to its understanding in Africa in terms of quality, performance impact and return on investment.

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.

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