Specialized Educational Leadership for Rural Students Living in Poverty

2020 ◽  
pp. 425-451
Author(s):  
Kimberly Kappler Hewitt ◽  
Mark A. Rumley
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Rural Poverty ◽  
Rural School ◽  
Rural Students ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Agents Of Change

To serve students living in rural poverty, school leaders must understand intimately the specific challenges that students face. Equally, leaders must embrace and leverage the funds of knowledge and assets that these students, their families, and their communities offer. While these challenges are complex, honoring and leveraging the strengths of rural communities in economic distress provide a pathway for leaders to transform schools into places where rurality is valued and students excel. The authors examine the context of rural students experiencing poverty, describe the characteristics of and challenges faced by rural school leaders, and identify responsive leadership practices. To conclude, the authors exhort policymakers, researchers, and state and district education leaders to cultivate rural school leaders as agents of change.

scholarly journals Developing Leadership Capacity in New Rural School District Leaders: The Kansas Educational Leadership Institute

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Augustine-Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School District ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Rural School ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
Professional Organization ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
School District Leaders ◽  
Leadership Institute

Understanding the context of rural school settings is critical to beginning school district leaders.  Rural communities present multifaceted challenges that leaders must embrace as diverse community expectations unfold.  The majority of Kansas school districts are in rural settings.  Mentoring and induction shapes the experiences encountered during the first year of practice.  The Kansas Educational Leadership Institute provides high quality mentoring and induction for new superintendents and principals in Kansas.  Mentoring and induction provided by veteran superintendents familiar with leadership complexities in rural communities is offered through on-site visits.  In addition, new superintendents participate in activities focused on building capacity through regional cohort networks, attendance at professional organization and state meetings, and in professional learning seminars.  The rural superintendent wears many hats in serving their local district. Professional learning opportunities that provide leaders with strategies to focus on achievement, plan for change, and build leadership capacity in rural environments are critical for success.

Understanding Relational and Responsible Leadership for School Leaders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Smit ◽  
Mapula Mabusela
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Relational Leadership ◽  
Responsible Leadership ◽  
Leadership Studies

Relational leadership and responsible leadership are important subjects in the literature, and more attention can be paid to these leadership practices in educational leadership. Most educational leadership studies focus on distributed, instructional, teacher, and transformational leadership using mostly quantitative research. The aim is to explore and describe relational and responsible leadership in the context of educational leadership. Qualitative research methodology such as narrative inquiry is not often used for inquiries into educational leadership studies. Moreover, the scholarship on narrative inquiry as a relational methodology for relational and responsible educational leadership is scant, and there is a need to broaden the discussion to include appropriate the concepts of relational leadership and responsible leadership for educational leadership in a context of relational narrative inquiry. Relational and responsible leadership theories can be appropriated through a relational research methodology using narrative inquiry. These scholarly lenses may add value to school leadership research and to school leaders who wish to transform and change leadership practices, specifically in diverse school communities with challenging and problematic educational landscapes.

An ineffective preparation? The scarce effect in primary school principals’ practices of school leadership preparation and training in seven countries in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Weinstein ◽  
Ariel Azar ◽  
Joseph Flessa
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Using Data ◽  
And Training

Latin American educational policy has relied on the assumption that better preparation can help school leaders improve their professional performance, thus improving quality of schools. Training programs for present or future school leaders have proliferated in the region, often publicly financed, but without enough evidence of their impact. Using data for seven Latin American countries from the Third Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (TERCE), we seek to determine the association between school leaders’ formal education and training received, with well recognized dimensions of school leadership practices reported by their teachers. We estimated linear regression models for each country in Latin America to determine the relationship between principals’ preparation with indicators of educational leadership practices. Our results show that in most observed indicators of leadership practices the effect of education or training is marginal. We provide possible explanations for this finding, emphasizing the weaknesses in principals’ initial selection processes and their deficiencies. We also consider schools’ precarious conditions to support principals in order to put the knowledge they learned in training activities into practice. We point out the need to continue conducting specific studies on the effects of training on educational leadership among school leaders in the region, overcoming TERCE information restrictions.

Closing the school attendance gap in rural communities in Nigeria: school leadership and multi-actor approach in community engagement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Innocent Uche Anazia
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Rural Schools ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Rural Students ◽  
School Dropouts ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
The Government ◽  
National Transformation

The purpose of this paper is to make a case for school leaders in rural schools in Nigeria to build effective engagements with their communities in improving school attendance rate.  The state of rural education in Nigeria has been a concern going by the fact that rural communities have the highest number of school dropouts and illiterate people. No country can make headway with a large army of illiterates and school dropouts because education is regarded as an instrument for national transformation. A good number of rural students do not show commitment towards attendance. While the government is often looked upon to address this issue, there seems to be limited focus on rural schools, especially the role of leadership, in addressing the challenge. Therefore, the paper proposes that rural school leaders should adopt a multi-actor approach in engaging their communities to mobilise both human and material resources in addressing poor student attendance and other school challenges associated with the problem. The paper also proposes an approach or a model of engagement.

scholarly journals Educational Leadership in a Fragile State: Comparative Insights from Haiti

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaetane Jean-Marie ◽  
Steve Sider
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Educational Change ◽  
International Research ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Fragile States ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Fragile State ◽  
Developed World

Although there has been extensive examination of educational leadership in the developed world (e.g. Fullan, 2001; Leithwood & Sun, 2012), there has been much less research on school leadership in fragile states such as Haiti. This paper responds to Dimmock and Walker’s (2000) call for greater attention to comparative and international research on educational leadership specifically by examining school leadership in the Haitian context. The study on which this paper is based examines the experiences of eight school leaders in Haiti in response to the question: What types of leadership practices do school leaders in Haiti exhibit? Three themes are presented: responsiveness to localized needs, a commitment to educational change and improvement, and innovation in responding to challenging contexts. We discuss how these themes may be illuminating of school leadership in fragile states by considering communal and community-based leadership, resilience, and the momentum for change in consideration of Moorosi and Bush’s (2011) work on localized networks for change.

scholarly journals Personal Leadership Resources as Mediator of Context and Leadership Practice: A Review and Conceptual Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-34
Author(s):  
T.J. Hoogsteen
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Leadership Practice ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Personal Leadership ◽  
The Impact

Hallinger (2018) contends that context has been treated as a ‘given’ in reviews of research and remains in the shadows of leadership.  At the same time, Lee and Hallinger (2012) have described an emerging area of study focusing on the impact of organizational contexts.  Several scholars in the field of educational leadership have gone as far as to say that context is causal.  However, a recent review of empirical research by Leithwood, Harris, and Hopkins (2019) claimed that the ways in which leaders apply basic leadership practices demonstrate a responsiveness to, rather than dictation by, context.  Furthermore, they note that a well-defined set of ‘personal leadership resources’ show promise of explaining a high proportion of variation of school leaders’ practice.  These two claims, while not diminishing the significance of context, demonstrate the importance of a leader’s characteristics and leadership practice to leaders that are successful.  To consider this latter point further, a review of literature is conducted to synthesize three areas in the field of educational leadership which, at least implicitly, are considered competing; context, leadership practice, and personal leadership resources.  The review results in an adaptation of previous models from Bossert et al. (1982) and Hallinger (2018) that illustrates the convergence of the three leadership variables.

School Leaders’ Practice of the Ethics of Educational Leadership to Make Decisions

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-34
Author(s):  
Mohammed Assiri
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
School Year ◽  
Ethical Decisions

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions. A mixed-methods research design was used in this study. The quantitative data of this study were obtained from the participation of 260 teachers, and the qualitative data of this study were collected from nine school leaders. The questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used to collect the data. The study was conducted during the school year of 2017-2018. The study found that the overall extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions was classified as “always occurs". The findings showed that there were statistically significant differences between participants with different gender and school levels on the overall and all dimensions of the extent to which school leaders practice the ethics of educational leadership to make decisions, while there were not statistically significant differences between the groups of the participants with different teaching experience. The qualitative findings provided some common factors that influence school leaders’ practice to making ethical decisions. These factors were explained based on two concepts including management knowledge and leadership skills as well as the context of school's culture.

scholarly journals The Fiscal Effects of Tax Increment Financing on Rural School Districts: The Case of Iowa

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842199114
Author(s):  
Phuong Nguyen-Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Property Tax ◽  
Rural School ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Rural School Districts ◽  
Tax Increment Financing ◽  
Tax Base ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Development Tool

Tax increment financing (TIF)—an economic (re)development tool originally designed for urban cities—has been available to rural communities for decades. This is the first study to focus solely on TIF in rural school districts, to examine TIF effects on school districts’ property tax base and rates, and to conduct event-study estimations of TIF effects. The study finds that TIF has mostly positive effects on rural school districts’ property tax base and mixed effects on property tax rates, and that TIF-induced increases in tax base come primarily from residential property and slightly from commercial property. The study’s findings assert the importance of returned excess increment if rural school districts in Iowa and many other states are to benefit from TIF.

Leading the flock: Examining the characteristics of multicultural school leaders in their quest for equitable schooling

2021 ◽  
pp. 136548022199913
Author(s):  
Brian Vassallo
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Culturally Responsive Leadership ◽  
Routine Tasks ◽  
Core Characteristics

The quest for educational leaders to enact social and equitable schooling requires ongoing critical transformations that cannot be alienated from contemporary educational discourses and practices. Enacting social justice and equitable schooling poses an unparalleled challenge on the shoulders of risk-taking visionaries, who meticulously attempt to transmit their believes and values into the daily routine tasks at school, rather than plotting futuristic management scenarios. The study seeks to explore the multifaceted role of primary school leaders in the daily struggle to diffuse the principles of Multicultural Education for more just and equitable schooling. For this purpose, qualitative data measures were employed to determine the extent of which participants in the study mirrored the review of literature and research questions. The Critical Incident Technique was particularly useful as it allowed the collection for a large number of incidents occurring over a number of years, from a small number of people in a relatively short time. Analyses proceeded by identifying culturally responsive leadership practices and the application of critical race theory. Results identified seven core characteristics, present in school leaders who professed strong adherence to the principles of Multicultural Education. This suggests the need for emerging models of educational leadership to effectively respond to the increased diversity in our schools and to further establish the connections between multicultural educational leadership and equity schooling.

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