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1 – 10 of over 88000Sara Dexter and Emily A. Barton
The authors tested the efficacy of a team-based instructional leadership intervention designed to increase middle school mathematics and science teachers' use of educational…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors tested the efficacy of a team-based instructional leadership intervention designed to increase middle school mathematics and science teachers' use of educational technologies for multiple representations of content to foster students' conceptual understandings. Each school's leadership team comprised an administrator, a technology instructional specialist role, and a mathematics and a science teacher leader.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors tested the intervention in a quasi-experimental design with five treatment and five matched comparison schools. Participants included 48 leadership team members and 100 grade 6–8 teachers and their students. The authors analyzed data using two-level, nested multiple regressions to determine the effect of treatment on leaders' practices; leaders' practices on teachers' learning and integration; and teachers' learning and integration on students' learning. Leaders and teachers completed monthly self-reports of practices; students completed pre- and post-tests of knowledge in science and math.
Findings
Significant treatment effects at the leader, teacher and student levels establish the efficacy of this team-based approach to school leadership of an educational technology integration innovation. Leaders at treatment schools participated in a significantly higher total frequency and a wider variety of leadership activities, with large effect sizes. Teachers participated in a significantly wider variety of learning modes focused on technology integration and integrated technology significantly more frequently, with a wider variety of technologies, all with moderate effect sizes. Students in treatment schools significantly outperformed students in comparison schools in terms of science achievement but not in mathematics.
Research limitations/implications
The overall sample size is small and the approach to participant recruitment did not allow for randomized assignment to the treatment condition. The authors tested the influence of treatment on leader practices, on teacher practices, and on student achievement. Future work is needed to identify the core components of treatment that influence practice and investigate the causal relationships between specific leaders' practices, teacher practices and student achievement.
Originality/value
This study establishes the efficacy of a replicable approach to developing team-based instructional leaders addressing educational technology. It contributes to the knowledge base about how district leaders and leadership educators might foster school leaders' instructional leadership, and more specifically technology leadership capacity.
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Anthony H. Normore and Gaetane Jean-Marie
This chapter focuses on how leaders of learning and learners of leading are developed and prepared to address and advance powerful and equitable student learning. Discussion…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on how leaders of learning and learners of leading are developed and prepared to address and advance powerful and equitable student learning. Discussion focuses on several areas identified in the literature as critical including: leading and learning in context (Knapp, Copland & Talbert, 2003); leaders’ response to changing expectations and learning agendas, and professional development of leaders of learning (Normore, 2004). Earlier research by Knapp, Copland, and Talbert (2003) and the socialization processes of leaders of learners (Browne-Ferrigno & Muth, 2004; Leithwood, Steinbach, & Begley, 1992; Normore, 2007, 2004) will serve as the foundation for several areas of action identified by these researchers including: establishing a focus on learning by persistently and publicly focusing leaders own attention and that of others on learning and teaching; professional and organizational socialization processes; what leading for learning looks like in practice (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, Orr, & Cohen, 2007); professional development including pre-service preparation, field-based learning, and personal and professional formation (Daresh, 1997; Gross, 2009; Normore, 2004); and creating coherence by connecting student, professional, and system learning with one another and with learning goals (Knapp et al., 2003).
International experience (IE) has been acknowledged to be the most useful method for developing global leaders. However, not everyone benefits equally from IE. During the last two…
Abstract
International experience (IE) has been acknowledged to be the most useful method for developing global leaders. However, not everyone benefits equally from IE. During the last two decades, our understanding of why this is the case and how global leaders learn from IE has rapidly increased. Several individual and organizational enablers facilitating global leader learning from IE have been identified in the literature, as have learning mechanisms that make such learning possible. However, the literature remains fragmented, and there is a great need to integrate the findings in the field. Therefore, the present paper systematically examines peer-reviewed studies on global leaders' learning from IE published between 1998 and 2019. The study contributes to the extant literature by identifying and integrating individual enablers, organizational enablers, and key learning mechanisms from global leaders' IE and by suggesting topics for future research.
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Allan Walker, Qian Haiyan and Chen Shuangye
The purpose of this paper is to explore what developing moral literacy for leaders in intercultural schools will mean.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore what developing moral literacy for leaders in intercultural schools will mean.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant literature on moral literacy, leadership, intercultural schools and social learning is brought together and integrated to develop an understanding of the intricacies of leading for moral literacy.
Findings
The foundation for developing moral literacy in intercultural schools requires leaders to become knowledgeable, cultivate moral virtues and develop moral imaginations as well as to possess moral reasoning skills. In intercultural settings these components focus on openly addressing, and indeed exposing, issues of class, culture and equity. The elements which form the basis for improved moral literacy are intimately connected with school life and community through learning. Leaders must simultaneously develop their own and their communities' moral literacy through promoting and structuring community‐wide learning through participatory moral dialogue. This may involve sharing purpose, asking hard questions and exposing and acknowledging identities.
Originality/value
This article attempts to apply moral literacy to leading in intercultural schools and suggests that learning holds the key to moral development.
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Kaye Twyford and Deidre Le Fevre
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the actions of leaders influence teachers’ perceptions of risk and sensemaking during professional learning (PL).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the actions of leaders influence teachers’ perceptions of risk and sensemaking during professional learning (PL).
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study primarily involving semi-structured interviews was utilized to collect teacher-perception data. In total, 21 teachers across three New Zealand schools were interviewed as they participated in the first year of a school-wide PL initiative. Data were analyzed using a risk perception lens focused on uncertainty.
Findings
Teachers’ perceptions of risk were influenced by leaders’ actions. Leaders built supportive relationships by knowing the teacher as a learner; showing empathy and respect; providing support; and engendering trust. Teachers reported that the quality of relationships combined with their own state of knowledge influenced their perceptions of risk and learning.
Practical implications
Leaders are reminded that learning is inherently uncertain and uncomfortable and that they have an important role to ensure an environment that is safe and supportive for teacher risk taking and change. A risk lens enables leaders and PL facilitators to consider their influence on teachers’ uncertainty and feelings of vulnerability and take action to reduce these where possible so that both teacher and student learning may be maximized.
Originality/value
This research advances the conceptualization of perceived risk in professional learning, emphasizing the importance of leadership in supporting teacher learning. It adds further detail to our understanding of trust, vulnerability, identity and risk in the development of professional capital and community and their connection to the professional and emotional lives of teachers.
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Kok-Yee Ng, Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang
Globalization requires business leaders who can manage effectively in multicultural environments. Although many organizations assume leaders will enhance their multicultural…
Abstract
Globalization requires business leaders who can manage effectively in multicultural environments. Although many organizations assume leaders will enhance their multicultural skills through international assignments, it is unclear how leaders translate these international experiences into knowledge and skills that enhance their effectiveness. Based on experiential learning theory (ELT), we propose that cultural intelligence (CQ) is an essential learning capability that leaders can use to translate their international experiences into effective experiential learning in culturally diverse contexts.
Leslie Ann Williams, Linda Atkinson, Sharon Dean, Tracy Watts McCarty, Emmett Mathews and Shelley Jaques-McMillin
To meet the needs of under-resourced, rural schools where teacher attrition is high, this case study examined how a school–university partnership strengthened teacher and leader…
Abstract
Purpose
To meet the needs of under-resourced, rural schools where teacher attrition is high, this case study examined how a school–university partnership strengthened teacher and leader abilities to support deeper learning for students.
Design/methodology/approach
This research focused on a 17-year collaborative partnership between one rural school district and a university research and outreach organization to develop deeper learning experiences for students through shared and supportive leadership and learning of teachers and leaders. The researchers utilized documents, field notes and interviews with administrators to validate the data.
Findings
The study’s findings suggest that participation in authentic, researched-based professional development through the partnership improved the skills of leaders and teachers to support deeper learning for students. This partnership heightened teacher and leader capacity to promote and support continued change and sustainability.
Originality/value
This case study explored how one university center collaboratively engaged with a district by sharing research and strategies to support the development of leaders and teachers to create deeper learning for students. Through these experiences, the district evolved its deeper learning system and improved its organizational effectiveness, leadership development and learning for all.
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Annick Janson and Robert J. McQueen
The paper seeks to capture leadership tacit knowledge mechanisms built throughout leaders' careers. Learning to be a leader involves developing the tacit knowledge to give…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to capture leadership tacit knowledge mechanisms built throughout leaders' careers. Learning to be a leader involves developing the tacit knowledge to give confidence in one's decisions. Most of the knowledge required cannot be acquired from explicit documents – rather, it is built through action, experience and reflection. This research focuses on leadership in the innovation context where learning potentially occurs through a variety of knowledge building processes.
Design/methodology/approach
Narratives from 31 leaders who have achieved success in innovation leadership were collected piloting a tacit knowledge articulation methodology. From the narratives, a model is proposed which is embedded in the leadership career pathways of these innovation leaders.
Findings
The findings suggest that leadership tacit knowledge mechanisms evolve with organisations' life cycle. A bi‐focal (developmental and “locus of knowledge“ factors) model was assembled to explain how successful leadership involves balancing “locus of learning” from internal and external sources and facilitating mind‐shifts (e.g. collaboration and communication paradigms underlying relationship and networking processes).
Research limitations/implications
The study sample size was relatively small – further replications with a larger number of subjects and in different contexts are planned or under way.
Practical implications
This research has implications relevant to both leaders interested in bringing their organizations to their next developmental level and to practitioners because leverage points are identified at which interventions designed to share the lessons learned from successful leaders will be most effective.
Originality/value
Tacit leadership knowledge is not easily transferred into explicit “how‐to” instructions for consumption by a prospective innovation leader, yet it is a major source of competitive advantage. It is more appropriate to view innovation leadership development as a tacit knowledge building process in individuals and groups, rather than a knowledge transfer from knowledgeable leaders to wannabe leaders. A developmental model is proposed that integrates the changes occurring in learning patterns while firms expand their loci of knowledge.
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Michele Rigolizzo, Zhu Zhu and Jean-François Harvey
This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between the leader characteristic of humility and the informal learning of team members. It also evaluates the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between the leader characteristic of humility and the informal learning of team members. It also evaluates the role of leader authenticity in mediating that relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected on 518 salespeople reporting to 66 managers in a time-lagged study of a financial services firm. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test a multi-hierarchical mediation model.
Findings
Leader humility has a significant positive direct and indirect effect on individual informal learning in team contexts, and leader authenticity partially mediates this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
This study advances research on how leaders can help transform learning from a risky endeavor to a daily practice. It shows the impact of the leadership characteristic of humility and explains how humble behaviors provide a model for individual learning in team contexts. It also reveals that leader authenticity is a key mechanism through which leader humility comes to influence employees’ informal learning within work teams.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical support for the importance of leader humility in engendering the trust required for employees to engage in everyday workplace learning. It integrates social information processing theory with social learning theory to show that humble leaders provide critical information about the value, cost and methods of individual informal learning in team contexts. Leader humility increases employees’ beliefs that they can and do learn from working in teams because employees perceive the humble leader’s behaviors as representing the leader’s true intentions.
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Taeyeon Kim, Minseok Yang and Yujin Oh
This study aims to explore how educational leaders in South Korea adopted equity mindsets and how they organized changes to support students' deeper learning during COVID-19.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how educational leaders in South Korea adopted equity mindsets and how they organized changes to support students' deeper learning during COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a comprehensive framework of Equity Leadership for Deeper Learning, by revising the existing model of Darling-Hammond and Darling-Hammond (2022) and synthesizing equity leadership literature. Drawing upon this framework, this study analyzed data collected from individual interviews and a focus group with school and district administrators in the K-12 Korean education system.
Findings
The participants prioritized an equity stance of their leadership by critically understanding socio-political conditions, challenging unjust policies, and envisioning the big picture of equity-centered education. This led them to operationalize equity leadership in practice and create a more inclusive and supportive environment for student-centered deeper learning. District leaders established well-resourced systems by creating/developing instructional resources and making policies more useful. School leaders promoted quality teaching by strengthening access, developing student-centered curricula, and establishing individualized programs for more equitable deeper learning.
Research limitations/implications
This study builds on scholarship of deeper learning and equity leadership by adding evidence from Korean educational leaders during COVID-19. First, the findings highlight the significance of leaders' equity mindsets in creating a safe and inclusive environment for deeper learning. This study further suggests that sharing an equity stance as a collective norm at the system level, spanning across districts and schools is important, which is instrumental to scale up innovation and reform initiatives. Second, this research also extends comparative, culturally informed perspectives to understand educational leadership. Most contemporary leadership theories originated from and are informed by Western and English-speaking contexts despite being widely applied to other contexts across the culture. This study's analysis underscores the importance of contextualizing leadership practices within the socio-historical contexts that influence how education systems are established and operate.
Practical implications
Leaders' adopting equity mindsets, utilizing bureaucratic resources in creative ways and implementing a school-wide quality curriculum are crucial to supporting students' deeper learning. District leaders can leverage existing vertical and horizontal networks to effectively communicate with teachers and local communities to establish well-recourced systems. As deeper learning is timeless and requires high levels of student engagement, school leaders' efforts to establish school-wide curricula is critical to facilitate deeper learning for students.
Originality/value
The study provides a nuanced understanding of how equity focused leaders responded to difficulties caused by the pandemic and strategized to support students' deeper learning. Existing studies tend to prioritize teacher effects on student learning, positing leadership effects as secondary or indirect. Alternatively, the authors argue that, without leadership supporting an inclusive environment, resourceful systems and student-centered school culture, deeper learning cannot be fully achieved in equitable ways.
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