Leading Ladies: Portraits of Principals: The Leadership Styles and Practices of Women Secondary School Principals Reflected within a Principal Professional Learning Community

<p>Recent New Zealand Ministry of Education documents highlight the challenge to provide professional learning opportunities for principals and the current initiative to support and strengthen school leadership through the Professional Leadership Strategy. There is a need for professional development strategies and opportunities that help principals more effectively understand their school contexts, responsibilities and their own competencies, leadership styles and practice. To transfer and be sustainable, effective leadership practice requires the building of principal leadership learning communities within individual New Zealand school contexts. This thesis builds on previous studies of New Zealand women principals' experiences of leadership, contributing to a greater insight into the identities, role and practice of women principals while modelling a framework for reflective practice as a tool for professional and educational leadership development. As an iconographic study of three New Zealand women secondary school principals this thesis exhibits the life stories and experiences which have impacted upon their personal theories about leadership styles and practice. Composed through a métissage (merging) of image and dialogue to create portraits of the principal's leadership identities it is set in situ within a principal professional learning community. A qualitative, multiple-case studies methodology was employed. The design was informed by a reflective practitioner approach and action learning orientation underpinned by arts-based inquiry, a methodological and theoretical genre that proposes a reinterpretation of the methods and ethics of human social research. The findings indicate that the personal development, self-awareness and growth of a leader are a catalyst to stimulate collective development and accomplishment.</p>

Leading Ladies: Portraits of Principals: The Leadership Styles and Practices of Women Secondary School Principals Reflected within a Principal Professional Learning Community

<p>Recent New Zealand Ministry of Education documents highlight the challenge to provide professional learning opportunities for principals and the current initiative to support and strengthen school leadership through the Professional Leadership Strategy. There is a need for professional development strategies and opportunities that help principals more effectively understand their school contexts, responsibilities and their own competencies, leadership styles and practice. To transfer and be sustainable, effective leadership practice requires the building of principal leadership learning communities within individual New Zealand school contexts. This thesis builds on previous studies of New Zealand women principals' experiences of leadership, contributing to a greater insight into the identities, role and practice of women principals while modelling a framework for reflective practice as a tool for professional and educational leadership development. As an iconographic study of three New Zealand women secondary school principals this thesis exhibits the life stories and experiences which have impacted upon their personal theories about leadership styles and practice. Composed through a métissage (merging) of image and dialogue to create portraits of the principal's leadership identities it is set in situ within a principal professional learning community. A qualitative, multiple-case studies methodology was employed. The design was informed by a reflective practitioner approach and action learning orientation underpinned by arts-based inquiry, a methodological and theoretical genre that proposes a reinterpretation of the methods and ethics of human social research. The findings indicate that the personal development, self-awareness and growth of a leader are a catalyst to stimulate collective development and accomplishment.</p>

Sorotan Literatur Bersistematik Terhadap Komuniti Pembelajaran Profesional dalam kalangan Guru Matematik Sekolah

Komuniti Pembelajaran Profesional (Professional Learning Community, PLC) disenaraikan sebagai salah satu aktiviti Pembangunan Profesionalisme Berterusan (PBB) oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM). Agenda KPM ini adalah agar guru secara berterusan melengkapkan dan dilengkapi dengan ciri-ciri pendidik professional abad ke-21. Amalan PLC dalam kalangan guru matematik di Malaysia amat memerlukan anjakan agresif. Oleh itu artikel ini menjalankan kajian sorotan literatur bersistematik terhadap amalan PLC dalam kalangan guru matematik diperingkat global. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk meninjau amalan PLC di seluruh dunia dan strategi atau elemen yang digunakan. Strategi atau elemen yang merujuk kepada aktiviti PLC yang dilaksanakan dikategorikan kepada Bengkel dan Kursus, Perkongsian dan Perbincangan Dalam Komuniti, Kumpulan Lesson Study dan Kumpulan Penyelidikan. Melalui empat fasa pemilihan berpandukan Penyata PRISMA, 143 artikel berjaya dipilih pada fasa pertama. Carian artikel menggunakan kata kunci “Professional Learning Community” dan “Mathematics Teacher” dilakukan melalui pengkalan data utama Scopus dan Eric. Enam kriteria pemilihan berserta pengecualian telah memilih 30 artikel untuk disintesis pada fasa kelayakan. Dapatan analisis ini mengenalpasti 15 negara yang terlibat dan Amerika Syarikat telah mendahului dalam kajian PLC melibatkan guru matematik. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa amalan PLC pesat dijalankan dengan pelbagai strategi yang boleh dijadikan rujukan komuniti guru di Malaysia khususnya. Mendepani sistem pendidikan semasa pandemik Covid-19, perlaksanaan PLC berstruktur dan berterusan perlu difikirkan. Platform Google Classroom disarankan sebagai titik permulaan dalam usaha mengekalkan kualiti guru yang kekal releven dan efektif dalam ekosistem pendidikan dinamik, mencabar dan sentiasa menuntut keberhasilan murid yang holistik serta menepati kualiti global.

SCHOOL LEARNING ACTION CELL AS A REMEDY TO OUT-OF-FIELD TEACHING: A CASE IN ONE RURAL SCHOOL IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES

Out-of-field teaching continues to be a persisting problem in the Philippine educational system – similarly evident in the rural school where this study was conducted. As an intervention, the researchers organized a professional learning community in the form of a school learning action cell (SLAC) to provide assistance to the teachers. They were then interviewed to determine the perceived effects of the intervention. Results of the study revealed that SLAC sessions contribute to the general well-being of the teachers in their view of the profession as it ‘reduced their tasks’ and ‘promoted workplace collaboration.’ On the other hand, it also impacted their pedagogy, which was found to have contributed to their ‘instructional mastery’ and ‘teacher efficacy.’ The researchers, however, caution that, though the intervention was found to be successful, it should be taken in its suggestive nature when out-of-field teaching is unavoidable. When feasible, the idyllic educational landscape should assign teachers according to their respective specialized fields.