Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B. (2012), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 26 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2012.06026daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Educational Management, Volume 26, Issue 4

Welcome to the community of readers to IJEM and I thank you for taking time to make use of this journal now in its 26th year of publication. Given the number of papers that are received these days I cannot believe how far the journal has come. The early editions had a real difficulty in obtaining enough copy to proceed-and now there are more than enough papers for the seven issues a year. Inevitably as copy increased it is becoming more difficult to be published so authors are sometimes disappointed whereas a few years ago what was considered a good paper would have no trouble in being included.

In the current issue there are the usual six papers from various parts of the world-from Damascus University, Canterbury Christchurch (UK), Harokopio and Athens Universities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and Queensland University of Technology (with China Agricultural University and Edith Cowan University), and finally a paper from the Netherlands, involving Utrecht University, the Open University and the Centre for Expertise in Vocational Education and Training.

The rich geographical contrast is matched by six papers on varying topics. In the first, Rami Ayoubi of Damascus University writes with Massoud on the obstacles in developing international partnerships in four UK universities –“is it partners or partnerships?” they ask. The main aim of the study is to explore and model the major obstacles that UK universities encounter when developing international partnerships with overseas universities. The results indicate that the obstacles can be grouped into two main categories- the obstacles that are relevant to the process of partner selection and the obstacles that are relevant to the process of partner arrangements. The study ends up with a model of obstacles of international partnerships in universities.

Completely different is the study by Vicky Standing and colleagues, which is a specific one-child action research study, done in response to an increasingly high exclusion rate for boys in UK secondary schools. The study seeks to explore the value of restorative practice and justice for changing student behaviour. The findings demonstrated that restorative practices had little overall impact on improving the subject’s behaviour in school. He was able to have a mature discussion with an adult about the behaviour he was demonstrating. However, when put back into the classroom situation he was unable to make a conscious decision to alter his negative behaviour. The positive side is that his skills in “conferencing” to resolve conflict were developed by the author with the school staff, which resulted in an understanding of the school’s new charter.

The job satisfaction of Greek primary school Principals is the subject of the next paper by Anna Saiti and K. Fasssoulis which has now to be considered in the light of the recent austerity measures imposed on the country which no doubt will have an impact on the findings of the paper. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the factors involved in job satisfaction amongst 180 primary school heads in 13 prefectures. The results indicate that two factors-the rate of superior and school heads’ remuneration, and recognition of the principals’ efforts – which account for 33.27 per cent of the total sample seem to be particularly important for school heads’ job satisfaction.

The reading behaviours of students in a Malaysian higher education institution are the subject of the paper by Mohamed and colleagues. The study involved 187 female students from a female residential college within the Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia. The student evaluation of the use of reading stations was positive but they lamented the outdated books, which were also too academic and unrelated to their specific interests. Although the principle of reading stations was useful there were many areas of improvement needed in order for it to be of benefit to the campus community.

The concept of Confucius as a transformational leader in the area of English as a foreign language would have to be considered as an original theme! It is presented by Leilei Bi with John Ehrich and Lisa Ehrich. The paper discusses four key dimensions of transformational leadership theory-idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. The authors use these as a framework for exploring the values of and teaching approach used by Confucius. The key message of the paper is that educational leaders have much to learn from a Confucian leadership style that is fundamentally transformational in nature and encompasses moral/ethical, socially critical, and democratic dimensions. The paper in short presents a case study of an English as a second language (ESL) school and identifies several practical suggestions for ESL leaders to consider if they follow Confucius’ teachings.

Community development in the school workplace is the final presentation given by Patricia Brouwer with colleagues Brekelmann, Nieuwenhuis and Simons. Internationally secondary schools have been confronted with reforms pertaining to curriculum, new design for teachers’ professional development and their changing role. These reforms call for consultation and co-ordination between teachers. A variety of methods were used to assess the findings of the research, which concluded that community development of the seven teacher teams used was modest. However, in spite of limited support by school management teacher teams undertake a considerable amount and range of community building efforts. This suggests that more could be done by school management teams, in supporting staff in this area.

Brian Roberts