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1 – 10 of over 2000Antonios Kafa and Petros Pashiardis
The purpose of this paper is to explore a broader understanding of the role of Cypriot school principals’ personal identities, through a values system perspective, when exercising…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a broader understanding of the role of Cypriot school principals’ personal identities, through a values system perspective, when exercising their leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
A multicase study methodology was followed with five school principals, representing five different leadership styles. In each case, an in-depth investigation of the school principal’s personal identity was undertaken. School principals’ personal values were explored during interviews, staff meetings and daily activities observations, as well as through the use of the think-aloud protocol method. This study utilized the Schwartz Theory of Basic Human Values, as well as the Pashiardis–Brauckmann Holistic Leadership Framework, as the guiding theoretical framework.
Findings
School principals’ personal identities in Cyprus seem to influence, to some extent, their daily leadership practice. However, particular factors associated with the context in which they live (social identity) and work (professional identity), seemed to be affecting the personal values embedded throughout their personal identities.
Research limitations/implications
Five school principals are not enough to make generalizations on the relationships between leadership styles and values. However, through this paper, the authors sought to provide examples on how school principals’ personal identities influence their leadership practice.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the important role and attention to school principals’ personal identities, beyond the core management and leadership courses. The findings also shed light on the importance of looking more closely at contextual elements “outside” and “inside” the school and to what extent these could influence school principals’ personal identities.
Originality/value
This paper offers insights into school principals’ personal identities, through a values system perspective, and how these personal identities influence their leadership practice.
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This paper aims to contribute to the literature and practice on beginning principal socialization by identifying the features of post‐industrial work that create a more complex…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the literature and practice on beginning principal socialization by identifying the features of post‐industrial work that create a more complex work environment for the practice and learning of the principalship in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on recent literature on the changing nature of work, the paper applies those features of complexity to components of beginning principal socialization.
Findings
The nature of work in post‐industrial society and the changes in education, including a knowledge society, technology, demographic changes, and public accountability increase the complexity for US school principals. These features provide an important conceptual and normative basis for understanding and changing the content, sources, methods, and outcomes of beginning principal socialization.
Originality/value
The paper contributes a set of conceptual and normative features that strengthens the understanding of how beginning principals learn the role.
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While school reform literature calls attention to incentives forteachers, little research or policy making has focused on schooladministrators′ incentives. Career incentives…
Abstract
While school reform literature calls attention to incentives for teachers, little research or policy making has focused on school administrators′ incentives. Career incentives perceived by a sample of elementary school principals and the influence of career background on those incentives are examined. It was found, using both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, that principals perceive their career as having economic, ancillary and task‐related rewards. However, principals varied in the kinds of incentives they preferred and the nature of their future goals. Principals who have moved among several school districts in their administrative careers are more likely to be satisfied and to emphasise incentives, such as contact with school constituencies, which come from staying in the principalship. In contrast, principals who have remained in the same district throughout their administrative careers are more likely to prefer those incentives which advancement to central office can offer.
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School leadership is found important for school development and student learning. Consequently, the interest in professional leadership education for principals has increased. In…
Abstract
School leadership is found important for school development and student learning. Consequently, the interest in professional leadership education for principals has increased. In Sweden, professional leadership education for novice principals was made mandatory in 2010. Moreover, enhanced focus on leadership for teaching and learning in terms of ‘pedagogical leadership’ is highly topical. This study aims to deepen our knowledge of novice principals’ experiences of pedagogical leadership practices and relate these to their paths toward principalship. The study follows a qualitative and situated design and adopts a practice-based approach. Observations were conducted in the educational and workplace practices of novice principals in Sweden and interviews were conducted with principals and teachers. Using a conceptual framework of Wenger (1998), the analyses show that principals experience challenges concerning pedagogical leadership if their competence and experience are not aligned with practice and context. This mismatch seems to impair their pedagogical leadership practice. In addition, a lack of leadership experience obstructs their learning in the professional leadership education for principals.
Often new principals approach their first appointments with a high expectation to make their mark by introducing changes that would lead to school improvement. However, these…
Abstract
Often new principals approach their first appointments with a high expectation to make their mark by introducing changes that would lead to school improvement. However, these expectations may be void of thoughts of how an inherited school culture may weigh on their emotions and upset their notions about principalship on a daily basis. Emerging from a multiple case study research design, in which a critical incident technique was the main source of data on new principals’ emotional experiences, the findings show that the new principals experienced predominantly negative emotions and wounding, often linked to pre-formed expectations of school members. Also, influenced by a need to protect their leadership authority, they selected which emotions to disclose versus which to suppress. These findings as drawn from a broader study conducted in Trinidad and Tobago imply a need for training and continuing professional development that would support aspirant and practising principals’ emotion regulation.
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K.J.P. Truijen, P.J.C. Sleegers, M.R.M. Meelissen and A.F.M. Nieuwenhuis
At a time when secondary vocational education is implementing competence‐based education (CBE) on a large scale, to adapt to the needs of students and of the labour market in a…
Abstract
Purpose
At a time when secondary vocational education is implementing competence‐based education (CBE) on a large scale, to adapt to the needs of students and of the labour market in a modern society, many vocational schools have recognised that interdisciplinary teacher teams are an important condition for this implementation. In order to provide students with the right competences for the labour market, different subject teachers should work and learn together and, by doing so, should be able to develop changes and improvements to ensure the effective implementation of CBE. In spite of the appeal of forming teacher teams in vocational education, studies on this subject show that teams in educational settings are not easily implemented. This paper aims to address this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 28 managers from a Vocational Education and Training (VET) college in The Netherlands were interviewed in order to find factors that are related to effective team functioning. The authors choose to rely on a qualitative approach, because there has hardly been any empirical validation of factors that are related to effective team functioning in a vocational education context. In order to determine what factors influence team effectiveness, the results from the interviews have been related to what is known about team effectiveness from the literature.
Findings
By relating the results from the interviews to what is known about team effectiveness from the literature, a framework for future research on team effectiveness in schools is provided. In line with the organisational and psychological literature on team effectiveness, the managers distinguished several aspects in their definition of team effectiveness. Moreover, the findings of the study highlight the importance of the development of task interdependence, transformational leadership, and group efficacy for producing effective teams in education.
Originality/value
Although teams and team functioning have been the focus of researchers from different disciplines and have been studied from different perspectives, studies on the conditions that support or limit the successful implementation of teacher teams in vocational education are still scarce. The results of this study are expected to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism that underlies the ability of teacher teams in vocational education to function effectively.
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S.J. Maxcy, G.M. Crow, S. Roy and S. Cormier
Examines leadership and school restructuring. Drawing uponpostmodern/poststructural theory, argues that a new conception ofeducational leadership is required as reformers…
Abstract
Examines leadership and school restructuring. Drawing upon postmodern/poststructural theory, argues that a new conception of educational leadership is required as reformers contemplate educational reconfiguration. Argues that the metaphorical notion of leadership as design is appropriate and valuable as reformers seek to consider plans to restructure schools. Traces the likely practical bearings of leadership as design upon the roles, rules, relationships, and results attached to present‐day school restructuring efforts.
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Aaron J. Butler, Rodney S. Whiteman and Gary M. Crow
The purpose of this paper is to expand the current conversation on and research into the potential use of technology as a means of transforming mentoring processes and those…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to expand the current conversation on and research into the potential use of technology as a means of transforming mentoring processes and those engaged in them. The authors examine the manner in which technology is being integrated into mentoring endeavors and the advantages and disadvantages of this tool, arguing that the particular attributes of e-mentoring make it an ideal platform for enhancing mentoring processes and outcomes through the use of new mentoring perspectives. They describe a specific mentoring perspective that could be adopted as a means of critically examining some of the opportunities and challenges of using technology as a tool for transformational mentoring, with an emphasis on mentoring in educational environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper uses a constructionist perspective to mentoring as a lens to examine how technology influences the mentoring process and investigates the implications of transformational e-mentoring for educational professionals.
Findings
The paper contends that e-mentoring may extend mentoring's horizons to include increasingly broad and diverse constellations of mentors for protégés. With proper guidance, the relationships made possible through e-mentoring can fulfill many mentoring functions and transform both mentors and protégés as they learn from one other.
Research limitations/implications
Other than descriptions of mentoring programs that use technological tools, very little research on the outcomes of e-mentoring is available. The paper calls for a greater focus on the outcomes of e-mentoring in future research.
Practical implications
The paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of e-mentoring, presents recommendations for using new technologies to enhance mentoring programs in education and argues for the need to reconsider the purposes and structures of such programs.
Originality/value
The paper lays the groundwork for a better understanding of technology's role in mentoring in today's complex, rapidly changing knowledge society.
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