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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the problems faced by unemployed and underemployed graduate students in a small European country. It focusses on the way young people adjust to unemployment and underemployment and on the specific strategies they use to enhance their employability. Various aspects of these strategies as they relate to student decision making and analysis are discussed. The role of new skills and competencies in managing graduate unemployment is examined.

Qualitative research was conducted with 15 graduate students of the Education Department of the University of Cyprus. In-depth interviews and focus-group interviews were used to collect data.

The results indicate that the main strategy used by respondents in order to enhance their prospects of employment is the acquisition of additional skills and competencies. A secondary strategy is the pursuit of employment opportunities abroad. Student decisions and perspectives appear to be optimistic, partially rational, placed within a short-term horizon and influenced by the belief in the investment value of education.

The findings are qualitative and cannot be considered to be representative of the population. However, they allow an in-depth analysis of the way a group of students experiences and manages unemployment and underemployment.

The way young people deal with unemployment and underemployment has not been investigated in many studies, especially in relation to the degree to which graduates formulate specific strategies in order to manage the transition from the university to the world of work. Students’ and graduates’ perceptions regarding the association between skills and employment can provide the basis for more informed planning and policy making in higher education.

Compares the views of pre‐service and in‐service elementary school teachers regarding the effectiveness of school leaders in Cyprus. Data were collected from 66 in‐service teachers, and 79 pre‐service teachers enrolled at the University of Cyprus. The findings indicate that in‐service teachers were significantly more positive than pre‐service teachers in their assessment of school principals. The former considered the weaknesses associated with principals to be mainly the result of the limitations of the educational system in Cyprus, whereas the latter expected their future superiors to be ineffective in their management of interpersonal relationships. The paper points to the need for better training and preparation of both school leaders and teachers before their appointments.

The purpose of this study is to examine the decision‐making process in the Greek education system, as an indicator of the design and implementation of educational policy.

The paper uses a case study approach to identify limitations in educational decision making in Greece. Specifically, it examines the case of the decision‐making process that led to the establishment of All‐Day primary schools in the country.

The decision to establish All‐Day schools was not based on collaboration among stakeholders. Due to the centralisation of the Greek educational system, important decisions are made at the level of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, it appears that the central educational administration did not follow a specific action programme for the establishment and operation of All‐Day schools.

The findings indicate that policy proposals for educational reform in Greece are controlled by a small group of bureaucrats. This results in a decision‐making process that fails to take into account the interests of different stakeholders and broader societal needs.

This paper attempts to explore the limitations of a centralised education system in relation to decision making and the formulation of educational policy. It takes a critical approach to present practices in an attempt to improve educational decision making in Greece.

This article investigates the effect of the completion of an undergraduate educational administration course on the expectations of pre‐service teachers regarding school organisation. Data were collected from 225 students enrolled in the primary education programme of the University of Cyprus. According to the findings, respondents who had completed the administration course had more modest, and probably more realistic, expectations with respect to some aspects of school organisation. The significant differences between course completers and non‐completers concerned the future role of the teacher in the school system and the role of his/her superiors. The following recommendations are offered: the inclusion of the educational administration module in the course requirements of the primary education programme; the improvement of the practicum currently offered by the education department; and the attendance to problems in school administration, especially in the area of teacher evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between transformational/transactional/passive-avoidant leadership behaviors, teachers’ perceptions of leader effectiveness and teachers’ job satisfaction. In this context, the paper also examines the conceptual model underlying the scales of the most widely used instrument in research on transformational leadership, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The theoretical framework for this investigation is that of the full range model of leadership.

An adapted version of the MLQ was administered to a sample of 438 secondary school teachers in the Republic of Cyprus. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used in the analysis of the data.

The results provide support for a three-factor structure model consisting of transformational, transactional and passive-avoidant forms of leadership, representing three distinct components of leadership behavior. Teachers’ perceptions of leader effectiveness and teachers’ overall job satisfaction were found to be significantly linked to the leadership behaviors included in the full range model of leadership.

The findings are cross-sectional and based on the subjective perceptions of teachers. The analysis of the data suggests that transformational leadership may not be a sufficient condition for (perceived) headteacher effectiveness.

The link between transformational leadership, perceived leader effectiveness and teachers’ overall job satisfaction has not been investigated in many studies. The present study attempts to address this gap.

Even though social media are nowadays used in the frame of public governance to ensure citizens’ major participation, enhance e-dialogue and e-democracy consequently, this utilization has not been expanded yet in the field of education, whose key role focuses on the cultivation of active citizenship, as it is promoted through participation. The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership’s views of Greek Secondary and Tertiary Education on the potential use of social media for participatory decision-making processes in order to identify if the e-participation model could be implemented in the Greek education field as in other public domains.

An exploratory research was elaborated, employing a survey design of quantitative method in order to explore Greek educational organizations leadership’s perspectives toward social media usage in participatory decision-making processes.

The research reveals Greek educational leadership’s positive view on the potential effects of social media usage in participatory decision-making processes and highlights anticipated benefits as well as problems to be faced, indicating the foundation for Greek leaders to implement social media in their leadership practices and exploit their affordances as in e-governance shifts.

Bringing the concept of e-participation and crowd sourcing model – key features in e-governance initiatives through social media usage – in education field, Greek educational leadership is informed to consider social media utilization more methodically in the context of participatory decision-making processes, updating simultaneously existing leadership practices.

Up till now, social media usage in participatory decision-making processes in educational settings has hardly received attention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine instructional leadership (IL) in outstanding secondary schools within a centralised (Greece) and a partially decentralised (England) education context.

Since the purpose of the study is exploratory, the researchers adopt a qualitative approach, employing a series of four qualitative case studies with the purpose of examining the impact of IL on student learning, teachers’ professional growth and school improvement, using the interpretivist paradigm. Semi-structured interviews with various data sets (stakeholders) within and outside the school, observation of leadership practices and meetings, and scrutiny of relevant macro and micro policy documents are employed to enhance methodological and respondent triangulation.

Recognising that IL is not confined to the principals’ leadership domain, a sense of shared and distributed leadership prevails in schools, while its implementation is inevitably linked to system constraints. The findings from the Greek schools link to the official expectations that principals operate as administrative rather than instructional leaders, while an unofficial instructional “teacher leadership” culture suggests potential for reconsidering leadership in Greek state schools. In contrast, the decentralisation of school activities creates the platform for the emergence of shared and distributed leadership within the English context, where school actors enact direct and indirect IL roles.

This cross-country comparative study demonstrates theoretical significance in its focus on the collaborative and reciprocal nature of IL, while its empirical contribution lies in generating new knowledge on how IL is contextually bounded.