Preparing Principals in Educational Leadership Programs

This chapter explores educational leadership graduate programs and the complex process of preparing the next generation of principals and building administrators. The authors emphasize the role of self-directed learning in educational leadership graduate programs, as pre-service principals will ultimately encounter problems of practice in school settings that challenge them to seek, analyze, and utilize information effectively and the skills necessary for making informed decisions and applying theory to practice. This chapter explores the ways in which some educational leadership graduate programs shaped their programs as settings that foster scholar-practitioners through the integration of new standards and frameworks that encourage the development of practice-related research skills. Also, the authors examine problems of practice and the ways educational leadership programs prepare pre-service principals to grapple with these complex issues. Lastly, a problem of practice project is outlined for use in the classroom.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Online Learning for Preservice Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The transition to emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up important problems of practice in online education to discussion. Since the start of this global health crisis, several studies have documented online education experiences. The aims of the current study were to examine the online learning experiences of preservice teachers from Turkey and the US. Survey items were designed to collect the perceptions and experiences of online learning from preservice teachers enrolled in teacher preparation programs during the 2020-2021 academic year. Statistical data analysis provided insight into participants' views and attitudes toward online learning. Additionally, three open-ended questions were analyzed qualitatively. These provided insight into participants' experiences, the challenges they faced, and the advantages of online learning. Findings suggest that preservice teachers prefer face-to-face teaching even though they recognize and appreciate the value of online learning. Findings also have important implications for future research.

Professional learning in clinical supervision: highlighting knowledge work

Purpose Clinical supervision is a crucial workplace practice for professional learning and development. Research is needed to investigate in detail what happens in supervision to understand how this practice contributes to learning. This paper aims to examine how professionals work with knowledge and navigate epistemic challenges in working with problems of practice. Design/methodology/approach Three pairs of psychologists audio-recorded five consecutive supervision sessions and were interviewed twice during that time. Analysis considered supervision as a site of emergent learning, focusing on what was discussed and how problems were worked on, whether as epistemic objects (open-ended, aimed at generating new insights) or by using an approach to knowledge objects that focused more directly on what to do next. Findings One pair consistently adopted an epistemic object approach, while another was consistently more action-oriented, focused on knowledge objects. The third pair used both approaches, sometimes expanding the object with a view to gaining insight and understanding, while at other times focusing on next steps and future action. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to study clinical supervision in terms of how knowledge work is done. Foregrounding the epistemic dimensions of supervision, it reveals previously unexplored but consequential differences in how knowledge is worked with and produced as supervisory pairs discuss complex issues of practice.

PRINCIPLES OF APPROACH TO DETERMINATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL ELEMENT BASE FOR AUTOMATION OF MACHINING PRODUCTION PREPARATION THROUGHOUT CYCLE

The use in the practice of design works of technological preparation of production (CCI) of parameters of design quality of the main elements of integration of the design (checkpoint) element base prevents transition of CCI to information technology of automation of a certain level of solution of problems of practice throughout its cycle. This is manifested, in particular, in the fact that during the change of technological operations of transformation along their route, as well as between the stages of CCI and checkpoint, information and logical links of knowledge are objectively interrupted. When determining a continuous, flexible algorithm in the technology of automation of solving problems of CCI practice, significant difficulties arise. Concepts of existing knowledge were often not up-to-date, which hampered automation – a fast communication system was needed. The primary basis of automation is the formalization of knowledge. Insufficient formalization of knowledge (the content is descriptive) leads to the use of inefficient dialogue technologies, the work of which is organized with reference information in the electronic form of its display. To overcome these difficulties, the structure of the CCI knowledge base in its hierarchy is proposed for seven levels of basic objects of various types, it is based on formalized approaches. Knowledge objects are focused on the consistent and continuous solution of CCI practice throughout its cycle. The structure of all knowledge objects is based on its own technological element base, which is organic for CCI. Only on such an elementary basis can the main target functions of CCI be realistically achieved in solving the problems of its practice on their possible set.

Concluding Comments and Looking Ahead

This chapter provides concluding reflections and implications for future work in school development amidst global trends toward evidence-based practice, tensions between centralization of curriculum and evaluation policy and the needs of particular, and increasingly diverse communities, schools, and students. We see the globalization of evidence-based school development policies and university-community partnerships, the use of generalizable models developed from experimental design, and increasingly diverse demographics in schools. Thus, we have argued that context matters; evidence does not necessarily mean that a model developed from an experimental design is appropriate for a problem of practice in particular school settings. At the same time, school and district leaders benefit from dialogue within levels and beyond as they work toward improvement in order to navigate the Zone of Uncertainty in their particular school and community context and in relation to particular problems of practice affecting schools in other communities, other states, or even other nation states.

Participation in WorldSkills Russia championships is an indicator of training specialists

The issues of the participation of students of professional educational organizations in the WorldSkills Russia championships are considered through the prism of quality indicators for training specialists.A systematic analysis of theoretical sources of information devoted to the integration of the movement "Young Professionals" (WorldSkills Russia) into the vocational education system, the problems of forming competencies among students in the process of introducing WorldSkills Russia standards has been carried out.The method of direct observation is used, with the help of which empirical material was collected about the experience of participation of the Volgograd Technical School of Railway Transport — branch of the Rostov State Transport University, in the development of new competencies in WorldSkills Russia; polls of teachers; comparison; generalization.The key problems of practice-oriented activities of students are identified, the experience of the participation of students and teachers of the branch in the WorldSkills Russia championship movement is summarized.The effectiveness of the participation of students in the WorldSkills Russia championships for the period 2017-2021 has been analyzed.The positive effects of involvement in the championship movement have been determined: improving the qualifications of teachers, strengthening the material base of the educational organization in accordance with the requirements of the infrastructure competency sheets. It is shown that the involvement of students in the WorldSkills Russia championship movement provides an opportunity to popularize and increase the prestige of the profession, motivate them to professional education and improve their qualifications.

Dwelling in liminal spaces: twin moments of the same reality

PurposeThis paper is a thinking piece that examines, from the viewpoint of a Canadian pracademic, working through two definitions of pracademic, a collaborative relationship between academics and practitioners and a person engaged as a practitioner and researcher. Two aspects of a pracademics scholarship is discussed, wide awakeness and praxis. The purpose of the paper is to make the case that it is pracademics who are well suited and attuned to questioning, challenging, and disrupting the ordinariness of the everyday, to envision new possibilities, and who take responsibility for mobilizing the educational community to undertake meaningful social change within an education system. A case is provided to illustrate wide-awakeness and praxis in practice. A case is provide to illustrate how wide-awakeness and praxis present themselves in practice.Design/methodology/approachThis paper considers the work of pracademics from Galileo Educational Network, located within a research-intensive university, who research and lead design-based professional learning. Drawing upon a design-based approach to guide design-based professional learning and design-based research, I highlight the ways in which wide-awakeness and praxis work themselves out in practice.FindingsDrawing upon the two aspects of wide-awakeness and praxis, creates a liminal space for pracademics to engage with practitioners to undertake stubborn and persistent problems of practice to create important educational improvements. A key to engaging in transformational change through collaborative professionalism is to engage in sustained design-based professional learning led by pracademics.Originality/valueThis thinking piece offers the perspective of one Canadian pracademic who shows how pracademics are uniquely positioned to take on the work of transformation, agency, and social change.

Finding the heart of a Research-Practice Partnership: Politicized trust, mutualism, and use of research

The assumption that research is out-of-reach, irrelevant, or unusable for practitioners has been a theme echoed throughout academia. Research alliances such as Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) attempt to alleviate this problem by having researchers, practitioners, and/or community-based organizations form a collaborative partnership that uses research to solve tangible problems of practice. Previous works have highlighted the complexities inherent with forming and maintaining these long-term partnerships including politics, trust building, time, and available resources. In this paper, we engage in reflective analysis of our own RPP around three key elements we believe are at the heart of RPPs: politicized trust, mutualism, and use of research. This paper illustrates successes and points of failure in each of these areas, which have been previously unconnected in RPP literature. We conclude with recommendations for school and university partners and future research on RPPs.