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21 – 30 of 667Larry Sackney and Keith Walker
This paper sets out to posit that the new economy places a new set of demands on schools and those who lead. Mindfulness, intentional engagement of people and adaptive confidence…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper sets out to posit that the new economy places a new set of demands on schools and those who lead. Mindfulness, intentional engagement of people and adaptive confidence are needed developmental features of beginning principal success. The paper examines how beginning principals in Canada respond to the capacity‐building work of leading learning communities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines data from a number of Canadian studies of beginning principalship and makes sense of these data using learning community and leadership literature.
Findings
Beginning principals must create a learning community culture that sustains and develops trust, collaboration, risk taking, reflection, shared leadership, and data‐based decision making. Mindfulness, engaging people in capacity building and the development of adaptive confidence are key features of new principal maturation.
Originality/value
Beginning principals need to first develop personal, then collective efficacy, as well as mindfulness of their own learning and the learning culture. Further, beginning principals must intentionally engage people in acts of capacity building, together with conveying adaptive confidence in order to effectively foster professional learning communities.
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Robin Man‐biu Cheung and Allan Walker
Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to one's understanding of how beginning principals in Hong Kong exercise leadership by exploring the concurrent influence of their inner…
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to one's understanding of how beginning principals in Hong Kong exercise leadership by exploring the concurrent influence of their inner worlds and the external contexts on their leadership within a reforming environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a study of the work lives of beginning principals in Hong Kong, this paper discusses a number of findings which attest to the complexity of the role of principals in a reforming environment and how this is influenced by an amalgam of personal and other contextual factors.
Findings
These include a set of categories and sub‐categories which help to frame an understanding of the work lives of beginning principals, and a rough typology of beginning principals.
Originality/value
The paper contains original data about secondary school beginning principals in Hong Kong, illustrating how their personal characteristics interact with other contextual features to shape their leadership.
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Moosung Lee, Allan Walker and Yuk Ling Chui
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning in Hong Kong secondary schools, whose broader…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning in Hong Kong secondary schools, whose broader institutional contexts are critically characterized by high accountability policy environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes standardized test scores collected from (n=2,037) students in 42 secondary schools and data collected from key staff's perceptions of leadership practices, to investigate two dimensions of instructional leadership, which are conceptually interdependent but distinctive – i.e. instructional management and direct supervision of instruction. A cross‐level interaction analysis of hierarchical linear modeling was employed to investigate the effects of the two dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning.
Findings
Leadership practices focused on instructional management were found to enhance student learning by boosting the positive effect of students’ attachment to their school on academic achievement. In contrast, leadership practices related to direct supervision of instruction were found to undermine student learning by weakening the positive effect of student perceptions of school attachment on academic performance when other school‐ and student‐level characteristics are held constant.
Originality/value
The paper reveals the contrasting effects of instructional leadership as a multi‐dimensional construct which is central in the current education reform agenda, rooted in accountability‐oriented policy of Hong Kong. It draws a number of implications for principal instructional leadership in Hong Kong Schools as they deal with demands for external accountability.
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Lisa Maltman and Laura Hamilton
Positive professional attitudes towards personality‐disordered clients have been linked with extensive clinical and strategic benefits. The largest influences upon such attitudes…
Abstract
Purpose
Positive professional attitudes towards personality‐disordered clients have been linked with extensive clinical and strategic benefits. The largest influences upon such attitudes are associated with staff training, supervision and support. This preliminary evaluation seeks to consider the effect of an introductory personality disorder awareness workshop upon trainees' attitudes towards personality disordered prisoners.
Design/methodology/approach
The attitude towards personality disorder questionnaire (APDQ) was administered to prison staff (predominantly prison officers) immediately before the workshop and then re‐tested, on average, two months later.
Findings
The study sample (n=26) showed significant improvements on the “security versus vulnerability” APDQ sub‐scale. The remaining four sub‐scales and overall APDQ scores showed no significant change.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that personality disorder awareness training should initially engage with trainees' perceptions of their personal security and vulnerability when working with this client group, rather than aiming to increase liking, enjoyment and acceptance of such offenders.
Originality/value
This study marks a preliminary analysis of a new personality disorder awareness training programme.
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