Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B. (2006), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 20 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2006.06020faa.001

Editorial

Welcome to the 6th issue of 2006 which comes at an exciting time of planning for the APERA conference in Hong Kong in November under the chairmanship of Professor Yin Cheong Chen. In this issue there is the usual range of geographical spread befitting an international journal. There are papers from Israel, Turkey, UK, Malta, Australia, and Greece. In the first of these, Dr Korilaki, has produced a paper on “An enlightened use of educational monitoring for Greece”. In it he suggests that a superior educational monitoring system aiming to alleviate educational and social inequalities as well as discrepancies between schools or between classrooms would rely on both progress and attainment criteria as they operate differently and would allow the bringing in of different aspects of problems and educational inadequacies. The benefits and pitfalls associated with the employment of different criteria that can be employed in educational monitoring are discussed so that a new monitoring system can be suggested for the Greek setting of public primary and secondary schools.

In the next paper Dr Steve Bakalis and Dr Therese Joiner produce work on “The antecedents of organisational commitment: the case of Australian casual academics”, in which the authors argue that despite the increasing attention of organisational commitment in the management literature, most studies focus predominantly on full time workers in traditional settings. This paper examines the antecedents of organisational commitment among casual academics in the tertiary education sector in Australia. Australian tertiary institutions are prominent employers of casual workers, however very little is known about the work behaviour of this group of academics. The results of this study highlight important directions for implementing strategies to increase the organisational commitment of casual academics. This is seen as important because of its known association with other important variables such as turnover, absenteeism and work effort.

Dr Christopher Bezzina is well known to us for his pieces on the education system in Malta and on this occasion his paper is on “Inclusive learning communities: the real challenges facing reform in Malta”.He states that the school environment in the islands of Malta is experiencing important changes that need to be addressed if school improvement and more importantly, student learning is going to be enhanced. This paper aims to present the education authorities with an introductory review which aims to contextualise the potential networking of schools within the nurturing of inclusive learning communities. It is argued that unless the principles of hope, faith, commitment, individual and collective worth are nurtured, networks will not on their own work to bring about desired change.

Dr Felix Maringe is a lecturer at the university of Southampton and his work is presented on “University and course choice: implications for positioning, recruitment ad marketing”. The higher education environments in most countries have become competitive and institutions increasingly have to compete for students. A useful way to gain understanding of these recruitment markets is to have a clear grasp of the choice and decision making processes of intending applicants. There is however an insufficient research base upon which to build that understanding. This paper aims specifically at answering a simple question-what are the factors that influence sixth form pupils in England to choose a university and the courses they intend to study? The paper argues that knowing the reasons applicants choose universities and courses of study is central to developing institutional positioning in an increasingly competitive HE environment. In addition, recently announced student fees statements may result in a value for money situation as part of the decision-making process.

A joint paper by Dr Chen Schechter and Dr Tschannen-Moran of the Bar-Ilan University Israel and College of William and Mary USA, respectively, is now considered. The title is “Teachers’ sense of collective efficacy an international view” a topic which has emerged as a characteristic of schools as a significant factor in school productivity. More specifically the paper examines the construct validity and reliability of the Israeli collective teacher efficacy scale and explores the variables that may influence the teachers’ sense of efficacy. A comparison of the US version and the Hebrew version of the Collective Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale revealed marked similarities, supporting the construct and the validity of its subscales. In the Israeli sample, urban school teachers tended to have a higher sense of collective efficacy than suburban school teachers. A teacher’s sense of efficacy was unrelated to the demographic variables examined including the workload of teacher, the longevity of teachers in the particular setting, and the average number of years of teaching in a particular faculty. It is recognised that there are limitation in the study as a larger sample may have revealed different results as this was taken from elementary schools only.

In the final paper of this issue from Turkey is a joint paper by Asst Professor Toremen, with Ekinci and Karakus both PhD students. The title is “Influence of managers’ empathic skills on school success”. The study took place in a fictitious named city on teachers working at public and private primary schools in 2003-2004. According to the results of the central evaluation examination schools were divided up into three success groups with each group having seven schools. Ten teachers were selected randomly and then the twenty three item questionnaire was administered. The empathic skills of managers and school success were linked. There were meaningful differences between the first group and the other two groups. Successful schools’ managers clearly had better empathic skills than unsuccessful schools’ managers and this also applied between the second and third groups also. This may have limitations depending upon local circumstances but the authors feel that the results should be helpful in designing selection and training packages for school leaders.

Brian Roberts