Challenges impacting student learning in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme

While the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years Programme (MYP) is growing in popularity in Australia and across the globe, few studies have examined the benefits and challenges of this IB programme for supporting student learning. Using a qualitative case study design of three Australian schools that formerly offered the MYP, we investigated teacher and school leader perceptions of the MYP for promoting student learning. Perceived benefits included high achievement and skill development through the MYP’s emphasis on inquiry-based learning and real-world relevance; criterion-referenced assessments; and a healthy balance between core and elective learning areas. Challenges for students stemmed primarily from operational difficulties and possible systems-level constraints impacting teachers, including integration of the Australian Curriculum with the MYP; ability to meet the MYP’s demands; confusion about MYP terminology and grading systems; and understanding interdisciplinary units. The findings suggest that MYP Coordinators and school leaders play a critical role in ensuring that schools realise the benefits of the MYP for student learning by providing systems-level support to optimise its benefits.

School Leader Perceptions: Coaching Tool and Process

This study extends previous work and builds upon the use of a prescribed coaching tool in an effort to build the capacity of school leaders in the role of instructional coaches. By using a reflective interview process and structured protocol, the authors present findings to suggest administrators need more intentional training to strengthen their role as instructional leaders. The results were organized under three themes: (a) instructional leadership growth, (b) teacher growth, and (c) professional conversations. Historically, minimal training that utilizes explicit tools and strategies to strengthen administrator’s roles as instructional leaders has been provided.

Comparative Context and Relevant Group Membership: Attitudes on Gender Inequality within the Context of Contrasting Leaders

In this paper, the interaction between relevant group membership (i.e. gender) and context on leader perceptions was analysed within the paradigm of social identity theory. It was hypothesised that sharing group membership with a leader would result in to more positive ratings of a leader, while context would change how leaders were viewed depending on how much they embodied group values in relation to other leaders. The issue of contention to be contrasted between leaders was gender inequality. This context effect pattern was predicted to be different for males than females; males were believed to rate a leader more positively when the leader expressed a contextually more dismissive view, while females were predicted to rate a leader better when the leader expressed a contextually more proactive view. The hypotheses about the main effects of gender and context were supported; however, the results for the interaction were mixed in support. Gender and context did significantly interact, but it was not always in the directions predicted. Further research into this interaction is needed.

Leader perceptions and motivation as outcomes of followership role orientation and behavior

Followership research posits that followers differ in the way they define and enact the followership role, which can have varying effects in relation to how leaders experience their own roles and responsibilities. Drawing from the role orientation literature and newly emerging research on followership, our study examines the indirect effects of followers’ co-production (co-producing leadership outcomes) and passive (deferring to leadership influence) role orientations on leader-rated outcomes of perceived follower support, leader motivation, and follower contribution to goal attainment via followers’ voice and upward delegation behaviors. Using data from 306 dyads in a Chinese organization, our results show that follower voice and upward delegation mediate the relationships linking followers’ co-production and passive role orientations with leader-rated outcomes. Our study provides evidence that followership role orientations and behaviors differentially influence leader perceptions regarding their followers’ support, contribution to goal attainment, and leader motivation. Implications are drawn for further research on followership and the importance of considering leader outcomes as critical variables in leadership and followership literatures.