What we know about successful principals in Mexico

PurposeThe paper aims to present what is known from the school principals who participated in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) in Mexico. The paper reviews 14 publications (5 articles, 5 conference papers and 4 books) on successful school principals in Mexico that were published between 2009 and 2021 as part of the ISSPP. The papers were analysed using a conceptual framework consisting of perceived qualities of the principal, school organisation, suitability of teachers and principals, educational materials and methods and educational infrastructure.Design/methodology/approachA scoping study review methodology was used to explore publications and conference proceedings on ISSPP research on Mexican principals and schools in order to answer the question: What do we know about successful school principals in the Mexican context? Conference papers, journal articles, book chapters and books formed the knowledge base for the review.FindingsAs a result of the analysis across the five analysis categories it was found that the principals emphasised improving the educational quality of their schools and understood this as the basic criterion to judge their leadership success. Principals were central to school success and a nested model was produced to show how the successful school is built from the core of the principal, as a socio-emotional skills role model, to a culture of continuous improvement. The model included principal socio-emotional skills, school organisation, continuous improvement of teaching and principal practices and having appropriate educational materials, methods and infrastructure.Originality/valueThe ISSPP has produced a large amount of research. The paper is the first review of the substantial contribution from ISSPP research in Mexico. The model produced from the review adds to the several models produced in the ISSPP.

Actions and practice architectures for realising sustainable development by restructuring school organisations

Sustainability is increasingly being understood as vital for school improvement. The objective of this study is to expand our knowledge of practice architectures that enable and constrain the realisation of sustainable development by restructuring school organisations to facilitate professional learning. In this follow-up study, we return to one of the three municipalities that were involved in an earlier project from 2009 to 2011. The theory of practice architectures is used as an analytic tool to identify and analyse actions that have an impact on the municipality’s efforts to realise sustainable school improvement. The results reveal dissimilarities between the investigated municipality’s school organisation and the preschool organisation. In the case of the school organisation, the dominating practice architectures disrupt the realisation of sustainable development, while in the case of the preschool organisation they are continuous and foster the same. One disruptive practice architecture in the school organisation is the idea of the autonomous principal, which disturbs the progression of a distributed leadership. In the preschool organisation, the superintendents are crucial for facilitating participation in professional learning.

Whatever happened to educational management? The case for reinstatement

‘Leadership’ has now become one of the most over-used terms in school organisation, so much so that it is now difficult to find mentions of ‘management’ and ‘administration’ in school organisation literature. Papers published in Educational Management, Administration and Leadership and Management in Education over the last few years confirm this view. This article argues that although there is a significant overlap between them, leadership, management and administration are different from each other and this should be recognised when talking and writing about school organisation and development, with not all three being subsumed under the banner of ‘leadership’. In particular, the article argues for the re-establishment of management as a major element in the development and training of heads and prospective heads of schools and colleges.

Analysis of the Effect of School Organizational Culture and Professional Learning Communities on Teacher Efficacy

Introduction. The aim of the study is to find ways to expand teacher efficacy by examining how the teacher’s efficacy varies according to the school organisation culture and the level of the professional learning community. Materials and Methods. Survey methods were used to collect the data from 400 in-service teachers at elementary, middle, and high schools in South Korea, with five schools selected from each region, respectively. This study utilizes the data from 359 teachers. This study used a random sampling method, taking the location of the school into consideration. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the overall trends in school organisation culture. T-test was used to examine differences among research variables depending on the personal background of gender and teacher level, and the F-test and Scheffe tests were used for school level and teaching experience. Results. First, school’s organization culture is transforming and evolving into a more ideal and model culture. As schools increasingly transform into innovative schools, innovative cultures and group cultures gradually form. Second, a school is a type of organization system that elicits responses elicits a variety of responses from the teachers depending on their personal background and characteristics. Third, professional learning communities have a positive effect on teacher efficacy. Therefore, school organisation culture can be seen as a better predictor of teacher ef ficacy than a professional learning community. Discussion and Conclusion. The article is of interest to the managers of the school educat ion system.

Representações sociais de jovens sobre a sexualidade – um estudo com alunos de educação básica em Recife-PE

O objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar as representações sociais da sexualidade de alunos da educação básica e compreender como estas servem de referência para a produção de subjetividades. Para a apreensão das representações sociais, levantamos os discursos de alunos na faixa etária de 13 a 17 anos, de ambos os sexos, da escola pública estadual e da rede privada do Recife, acerca da sexualidade. Aplicamos a técnica de entrevista semi-estruturada e definimos a análise de conteúdo para tratar as informações e discursos produzidos pelos alunos. As representações sociais da sexualidade identificadas nos discursos dos adolescentes foram: o ficar; a virgindade; a gravidez na adolescência; e a homossexualidade. Palavras-chave: sexualidade, representação social, organização escolar. This paper intends to analyse social representations of sexuality, as a reference to the production of the self, among students of the Primary/Secondary School. In order to understand social representations, we collected discourses of students ranging from 13 to 17 years old, who were enrolled at public and private schools, located in Recife. Interviews were based on a semi-structured technique, out of a reviously conceived script and define the information collected among students. Social representations of exuality identified at the discourse of the adolescents were the following: brief encounters; virginity; pregnancy and homosexuality. Keywords: sexuality, social representation, self and school organisation.

Effects of school environments on student risk-behaviours: evidence from a longitudinal study of secondary schools in England

BackgroundThe theory of human functioning and school organisation proposes that schools with rigid ‘boundaries’ (weaker relationships), for example, between staff and students, or learning and broader development, engender weaker student school commitment and sense of belonging, particularly among disadvantaged students, leading to greater involvement in risk-behaviours. Existing studies provide some support but rely on a proxy exposure of ‘value-added education’ and have not explored effects by disadvantage.MethodsWe used longitudinal data from English secondary schools from the control arm of a trial, assessing school-level measures of rigid boundaries, and student commitment and belonging at age 11/12, and student risk-behaviours at age 14/15.ResultsOur direct measures were more strongly associated with risk-behaviours than was value-added education. School-level rigid boundaries were associated with increased alcohol use and bullying. Student belonging was more consistently associated with reduced risk-behaviours than was student commitment. Some school effects were greater for students from disadvantaged subgroups defined in terms of poverty, ethnicity and family structure.ConclusionOur results provide direct support for the theory of human functioning and school organisation and suggest a sense of belonging in school might be particularly protective factor among secondary school students. School effects on risk are generally stronger among disadvantaged students as theorised.Trial registration numberISRCTN10751359

HUBUNGAN BUDAYA ORGANISASI DAN MOTIVASI KERJA DENGAN KINERJA GURU SPK PAMULANG-TANGERANG SELATAN

The formation of intelligence capabilities in education world besides the family as important role, it is school organisation. The school is an alternative educational service institution that has a vision, mission, goals and functions. To carry out its mission, realise its vision, achieve its goals, and carry out its functions, schools need professionals and resources that support both financially and non-financially to achieve common goals. Therefore this study seeks to uncover the relationship between organizational culture and work motivation with teacher performance measured individually or collectively in a school. This study was conducted on 47 teachers of SPK Pamulang-Tangerang Selatan with random sampling techniques. From the results of the comparison, Ho's decision was rejected, they are the relationship between organisational culture and teacher performance, and the relationship between work motivation with teacher performance. This is evidenced from the significant level value of 0.001 <α (0.05) = 0.05. Based on the result, it can be concluded that the null hypothesis was rejected, because the results of the hypothesis testing indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between Organisational Culture, Work Motivation along with the Teacher’s Performance in SPK Pamulang-Tangerang Selatan.