Search results

This review provides a synthesis of the scholarship that has sought to expand understanding of educational marketing practice in schools. The following research questions guided this review: (1) what are the common themes and characteristics that emerge from research about marketing in schools? (2) What remains underdeveloped in the characterization of the school marketing and what are the topics for future research? Based on 25 studies identified as pertinent for the current review, the following topics are discussed: marketing perceptions, marketing planning, marketing strategies, and promotion. The chapter concludes by providing an analysis of the limitations of the current research and discussing future directions for research on school marketing.

The paper's purpose is to test: whether there are significant differences between England and Israel, in terms of perceptions of market orientation (MO) in higher education (HE); which MO dimensions (student, competition, intra‐functional) indicate more positive attitudes and whether the differences are significant; and the reliability of the instrument for using a larger sample of respondents internationally.

A comparative (online) survey of 68 academics in England and Israel was conducted during the academic year 2007. The MO questionnaire used comprises 32 factor items rated on a six‐point scale, categorised using three headings: market (student‐customer) orientation; competitor orientation; and inter‐functional coordination.

Overall, academics in both countries indicated that their HE institution is oriented towards meeting students' needs and desires, and cares for students' well‐being, teaching and learning. In addition, the respondents alluded to their contribution to internal marketing, i.e. to the promotion of their university through their own work tasks and performance.

The study was restricted to a comparison of only two universities, one in Israel and one in England, and the sample size is small.

The meeting of student needs, and a student centred approach can be an institutional mission, as well as a government driven initiative imposed on universities through the introduction of a market.

As MO frequently underpins the development and implementation of successful organisation‐environment relationships, the current paper is a first attempt to trace the contextual determinants of this orientation by comparing its frequencies and elements in two different HE systems.

There has been much interest in evidence‐informed decision making in education – identifying effective ways of increasing the use of research evidence to provide a basis for management decision making, in both the private and public sectors. However, in education, although there has been much speculation and discussion, there has been a paucity of recent empirical research evidence that provides insights into the characteristics, practice and mechanisms of successful research utilisation strategies. This study aimed to explore how research evidence was successfully disseminated and how the barriers to research use by head teachers (principals) were successfully addressed. The study was qualitative and exploratory in nature and aimed to identify examples of projects led by, and supported by, local education authorities (LEAs), that aimed to help education practitioners to access, engage with, and use the findings from published research and research carried out by themselves, and shared with others.

This paper presents and discusses the findings from an empirical study conducted in eight local authorities in England and Wales.

The research evidence suggests that to improve research use among managers in education, strategies should focus on facilitating communication networks, partnerships and links between researchers and practitioners, with the key long‐term objective of developing a culture that supports and values the contribution that research can make to management decision making in education.

Managers in local education authorities (LEAs) can help to build networks, develop partnerships between professionals locally, nationally and internationally, and also act as change agents in the dissemination and adoption of new ideas. However, the research focused on illustrative examples of research use – and further research is needed to evaluate the impact of using research for decision making in education.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a significant phase of educational marketization reform in several countries. Schools began to operate within a ‘market’, and ‘marketing’ became more important. Research showed that teachers and school leaders were largely hostile to this ‘alien’ area of schooling. School leadership in this environment became more complex and stressful. Literature began to identify leadership tensions, conflicts and dilemmas. This chapter ‘revisits’ some of the more significant research at the time and examines some of the dilemmas posed by the need to market the school. The dilemma framework offered by Wildy and Louden (2000) is used to explore three key areas: accountability, efficiency and autonomy. The chapter offers insights into how this topic can be revitalized and explored within the operation of ‘new’ leadership paradigms such as ‘distributed leadership’ and ‘destructive leadership’. The chapter concludes by discussing how the topic of dilemmas can be taken forward.

Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue among practitioners, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. Although it is receiving increased academic investigation, to date this has been limited. The particular characteristics of the sector present challenges for those seeking to build brands and it therefore seems timely and appropriate to investigate the common properties of those universities perceived as having successful brands; this paper aims to do that.

The study employs qualitative research techniques in an exploratory study, examining the institutions perceived to be “successful” in terms of brand management, and seeking to explore any commonalities of approach or circumstance.

The findings and conclusions identify issues surrounding university branding activity. It was found that even among those brands considered “successful”, challenges such as lack of internal brand engagement and limited international resonance may be apparent. Certain common positive success factors are also suggested, however.

Exploration of the literature does point to a gap that makes this work challenging – a seeming lack of knowledge underpinning the precise objectives of university branding programmes. In other words; it is hard to measure how successful university brands are when there is little empirical literature on the aims of branding in universities.

From an academic viewpoint gaps in current literature on branding in the education context are identified and the need for a model of brand management that addresses the particular qualities of higher education is reinforced.

When managers are faced with making a decision about what to do in a particular situation, do they base that decision on findings from research? This research paper seeks to report on qualitative and quantitative research which examined school principals' perceptions of barriers to the use of research.

To facilitate a comparison the qualitative and quantitative study was conducted simultaneously in two countries, i.e. England and Israel, using individual and group interviews, and the Barriers Scale survey instrument.

The results of tests indicated that factors associated with the research itself (e.g. relevance and access), were significant barriers to research use for principals from both countries (compared with factors associated with the setting, the presentation of research, and the individual).

The authors acknowledge some limitations with respect to equivalence across cultures, particularly functional and contextual (e.g. political) equivalence.

The paper concludes that multiple strategies would be required to address a number of issues related to the dissemination of research and ways of addressing the gap between the aims of researchers, and the needs and expectations of practitioners.

The topic is timely, and a comparative approach is particularly useful in any social area, especially in public school management.

This paper aims to investigate the personal values predominating in different academic areas to identify relations that may be of interest to university managers. Exploratory in nature, it seeks to understand how human values can be used to enhance the academic courses according to the profile of each group.

The sample consisted of 1,609 students attending a large Brazilian university, whose values are measured using the Rokeach values survey. The data are firstly submitted to exploratory factor analysis to identify a set of factors later used to construct perceptual maps. Finally, the careers are grouped and typified according to the predominant values in each one.

Results suggest that students of some careers are more prone to be classified through their values than others, but in general terms each professional group shows some particularity. Most careers can be typified by the values students consider more important for them or by the values they depreciate, or by both. In some cases the combination of high evaluation in some dimensions with poor evaluation in others offered greater insight.

The necessity to find a common structure of values applicable to a wide set of careers determined the exclusion of some values from the original scale that, while important for some professions, did not fit others. The lack of uniformity across careers determined the low variance explained by the common structure.

The paper offers interesting insights for university managers, especially those involved in the conception, positioning or repositioning of academic courses.