Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B. (2010), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 24 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2010.06024daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Educational Management, Volume 24, Issue 4

Welcome to the fourth issue of 2010 where you will find a range of papers from Germany, UK, USA, China, Cyprus and Norway. The geographical range is also reflected in the subject matter of this issue. The first contribution is by Hanan M. Taleb of the University of Leicester School of Education. The paper investigates the relationship between gender and female leadership styles in a single sex academic institution in Saudi Arabia. The evidence submitted suggests that the interviewed female leaders of the college used, are inclined to adopt stereotypical attributes of feminine qualities of leadership. They also prefer a democratic, interpersonally oriented and transformational style rather than an autocratic, task-oriented or transactional style of leadership. Essentially their leadership styles seem to agree with the “mainstream” view on women’s ways of leading. The author acknowledges the limitations in the study.

The second paper is from a new author to IJEM, Olaf Winkel of the Berlin Public Administration School. His piece is on higher education reform in Germany, particularly how the Bologna process can be simultaneously supported and missed. The Bologna declaration was signed in 1999 and aimed to develop one European uniform higher education area. The restructuring of academic education in Germany in accordance with this by 2010 seems impossible. Although reforms underway cannot be undone what has been done can be analysed and the results considered for the future. The paper is an interesting construct of the author’s views on the ways in which Germany can move forward in higher education, specifically to move forward to one unified education area rather than nationally generated ideas.

Prof. Dr Miantao Sun of Shenyang Normal University next gives an interesting perspective on educational reforms in China post the Cultural Revolution. Prof. Sun describes the implications of both school changes and management reform. The paper is significant for it comes from the perspective of one who lived through it all.

The next paper is from Stefan Brauckmann and Prof. Petros Pashiardis of Germany who speak of the connection between school accountability and school improvement in Cyprus. The complexity of both decentralisation and centralisation concurrently set tensions. Cyprus is used as a transitional environment to move from an externally driven teacher inspection system to an internal/external method of both teacher and inspection to provide a formative and summative evaluation process. Teacher appraisal is an important part of this process.

The next paper is from C.J. Tarter of the University of Alabama and Wayne K. Hoy of Ohio State University, whose work is on swift and smart decision making. The article examines the research literature on decision making and identifies and develops a set of heuristics that work in matters of school decision making. A set of nine rules for swift and smart decision making is identified to facilitate and improve day to day school decisions.

In the final paper Nicoline Frølich and Bjørn Stensaker contribute a paper on student recruitment strategies in Higher education, specifically analysing how excellence and diversity are addressed within these strategies, and how they are developed within eight Norwegian higher education institutions. The study shows that student recruitment strategies are often grounded in inherent institutional identities, whilst responding to external ideas about excellence and diversity. Institutions show creativity in adapting top these trends yet not losing their own identities. Overall the study shows that Norwegian higher education institutions place little emphasis on student recruitment as a means of promoting excellence and diversity.

Brian Roberts