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1 – 10 of over 1000Rima'a Da'as, Sherry Ganon-Shilon, Chen Schechter and Mowafaq Qadach
This conceptual paper explores a novel model explaining teachers' perceptions of their effective leader through the lens of implicit leadership theory (ILT), using the concepts of…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper explores a novel model explaining teachers' perceptions of their effective leader through the lens of implicit leadership theory (ILT), using the concepts of school principals' sense-making and cognitive complexity (CC).
Design/methodology/approach
The sense-making framework and CC theory were used to explain ILT, which focuses on individuals' perceptions of leaders' prototypical and anti-prototypical attributes.
Findings
The theoretical model suggests that school principals as sense-makers with high levels of CC will be perceived by teachers as effective in terms of leadership prototypes, whereas teachers' perceptions of principals with low levels of CC will be related to leadership anti-prototypes.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests a model for a multidimensional understanding of the relationship between principals' sense-making and CC and their influence on teachers' perceptions of an effective leader.
Originality/value
Opening avenues for future research into employee perceptions of different leadership characteristics, this model emphasizes the cognitive aspects of school principals within implicit leadership theories. This theoretical model should be further examined empirically, and other types of CC, such as social and behavioral aspects, or affective complexity and self-complexity, should be considered.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine principals’ sense-making of a school–university collaboration taking an institutional perspective on organizational change. The study’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine principals’ sense-making of a school–university collaboration taking an institutional perspective on organizational change. The study’s context involves three schools in a collaboration focusing on leadership and school improvement with one university.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on findings from a qualitative case study that examined principals’ sense-making of this type of school–university collaboration. Data were collected over three years and consisted of semistructured interviews, meeting notes, field observations, field notes and document analysis. A qualitative content analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti 6.2 software tool.
Findings
The findings showed that mattering sense-making for the principals in this collaboration is related to the cultivation of collective participation and responsibility, the development of trust and improvement culture among actors, and the sense of moving towards research-based and collaborative learning-oriented practices in their schools.
Research limitations/implications
This study encountered several limitations that need to be addressed and recognized. First, the small number of cases in this multiple case study, as well as the specific social context, limits the possibilities for the generalization of the findings. Second, the study was not independently selected and the findings and analyses were linked to national and local contexts, which can be seen as a limitation and a strength. Nevertheless, this study provides in-depth information about the principals’ experiences and constructions of meaning as they helped lead a school–university collaboration in their schools. Finally, although the sample was small and not representative, the findings provided useful insights into and examples of how principals understand and interpret a school–university partnership in their schools’ improvement processes.
Originality/value
The findings provide an elaborated illustration of how intentional efforts to collaborate and develop the schools in a school–university partnership may affect the regulative, normative and cultural–cognitive aspects in schools.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals’ sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals’ sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers’ practice, and the need to build their teachers’ trust, collegiality, and commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on a series of surveys and interviews with 12 first-year principals that took over some of the lowest-performing public schools in one large urban district.
Findings
Some principals begin their first year seeing their work to build accountability and commitment as complementary, while others see these two areas as in tension. Principals remain relatively consistent in these approaches over their first year on the job, although some principals change their views, generally coming to see these two areas as increasingly separate over time.
Research limitations/implications
Future work should examine principals’ work to balance the demands of accountability and commitment in a variety of organizational contexts.
Practical implications
Principal preparation may benefit from training principals on the particular challenges they may face as they work with teachers in low-performing schools. Accountability systems may also seek to alter the demands placed on novice principals.
Originality/value
Despite the centrality of principals to school improvement, the prevalence of high-stakes school accountability, and findings on the importance of commitment to school success, little empirical research has examined how principals make sense of the potentially conflicting demands of accountability and commitment in highly pressured circumstances.
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Chen Schechter and Haim Shaked
Turning an education reform program into school reality greatly depends on the principal. In certain cases, principals choose to implement reform instructions only partially. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Turning an education reform program into school reality greatly depends on the principal. In certain cases, principals choose to implement reform instructions only partially. The purpose of this paper is to explore school principals’ considerations leading to their decisions not to fulfill a national reform’s guidelines in a full and complete way.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study is based on interviews with 59 school principals. Generating themes was an inductive process, grounded in the various perspectives articulated by principals.
Findings
Data analysis yielded three major considerations: adjusting to school reality; caring for teachers; and using discretion.
Research limitations/implications
Longitudinal studies in order to explore how principals’ considerations and mediation strategies evolve and unfold throughout the reform implementation would be useful. The authors suggest complementing principals’ verbally expressed perceptions with more objective measures such as direct observations (recorded on video and then reflected upon), to evaluate their considerations and mediating strategies.
Practical implications
Providing prospective and in-service principals with leadership education programs in order to develop an upgraded understanding of their role as mediating agents between the inner and outer spheres of school-life.
Originality/value
As principals serve as mid-level policymakers who leave their “fingerprints” on policies received from the authorities, exploring these considerations may contribute to both the scholarship and the practice of the leadership role in times of education reforms.
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The purpose of this paper is to apply grounded theory methodology to report on an empirical case which develops emergent theories on the human complexities of managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply grounded theory methodology to report on an empirical case which develops emergent theories on the human complexities of managerial decision‐making and the synonymous task of managing.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured research approach was applied in gathering and analysing data from all actors within a small private sector enterprise. The key objective was to discover what the owner‐manager and all employees perceived as important issues with regard to the managing of the business during a period of post‐takeover. In‐depth on‐site and off‐site interviews were carried out over an extended period.
Findings
Emergent theory exposes actors' disputed perceptions of how the business had been managed and ought to be managed, and, the judgments and decisions that had been made and consequently should be made. Revealed is a complex cognitive and behavioural web of human interactions and deep‐seated management‐employee discord that whilst threatening the actual survival of the business appears not to impede questionable practices, both by management and staff. Through the application of grounded theory methodology emergent constructs are discussed against existing knowledge that exposes new insights into management decision theory and the managing of an enterprise.
Research limitations/implications
The process of theory generation whilst grounded in a substantive inquiry has the capacity to generate further research and tentative explanations at higher levels of understanding. From the research reported, questions beyond the substantive case can develop a broader theoretical and practical agenda – for example, issues of other actors' involvement in management decision making and the intrinsic part psychological factors play in the structuring of decisions.
Practical implications
Based on the finding from an empirical study the paper reveals significant practical managerial issues in the day‐to‐day and strategic managing of an enterprise. From a researcher's perspective, the paper critically demonstrates the functionality of grounded theory in management inquiry.
Originality/value
This paper advances the theoretical and practical necessity for the enlargement of the stock of qualitatively bounded research that focuses on grounded theory applications, management practice and decision theory.
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This paper aims to make the case for continued opportunity for high levels of human well-being under descent conditions characterised by declining economic throughput and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to make the case for continued opportunity for high levels of human well-being under descent conditions characterised by declining economic throughput and socio-political complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
Relationships between assumptions about human well-being formed within a modern industrial context, the guiding narratives attending these, and the broader cultural influence of ideas from the evolutionary sciences are examined. Alternative ways of making sense of these relationships are explored. The experiences of societies guided by cultural narratives based on different premises to those most influential in industrial societies are reviewed for their implications for human well-being under descent conditions.
Findings
Human experiences of well-being are principally a function of the sources of meaning and associated narratives by which members of a culture make sense of their situation, as these determine the nature of the material and energetic conditions required to live well. Under descent conditions, the narrative of progress that has supported viable societies during the 300-year period of industrial expansion is unlikely to continue serving humanity well. Collective participation in the renewal of guiding cultural narratives is a primary target for efforts to provide continued opportunities for high quality of life to all members of humanity.
Practical implications
The findings point towards specific characteristics of cultural sense-making narratives that may support viable human societies under descent conditions.
Social implications
By moving beyond the default assumption that descent automatically implies decline in human well-being, a barrier may be lowered to more open and mature society-wide engagement in conversations about the present human predicament and effective ways of responding to it.
Originality/value
New connections are identified between perspectives based on biological evolutionary theory and the continued influence of the idea of progress in establishing default assumptions about prospects for human well-being under descent conditions. Experiences of non-industrial societies are taken as the basis for identifying opportunities for human well-being under far more modest material and energetic conditions than those available to the portion of humanity that presently enjoys benefits of industrial development that outweigh the attendant costs.
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Principals’ leadership has become a subversive activity that is carried out strategically to challenge and disrupt the status quo and resist policies and practices that are…
Abstract
Purpose
Principals’ leadership has become a subversive activity that is carried out strategically to challenge and disrupt the status quo and resist policies and practices that are counterproductive to their work. The purpose of this paper is to reveal subversive tactics principals use in pursuit of justice and equity in schools and identify challenges and risks associated with their subversive leadership practices. Power tactics were used as a conceptual framework to guide the analysis of subversive activities by school principals.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study focuses on 18 elementary and secondary school principals from six district school boards in the Metro Vancouver area who participated in the semi-structured interviews on their practices that epitomize different tactics in response to increasing demand and accountability.
Findings
The power tactics identified in this study illuminate many of the dilemmas principals face in their work and demonstrate the various ways principals exercise their political acumen to “act strategically to determine which tactics to use, when, and with whom.” In exercising ethics of subversion and critique, participants are more likely to use soft, rational, and bi/multilateral rather than hard, non-rational, and unilateral power tactics. Such tendency reveals their concern about causing relational harm and shows their strategic avoidance of direct confrontation.
Research limitations/implications
Considering the limitations on the sample size and the research context, more research is needed to examine to what extent subversive practices are exercised and how they play out in different contexts.
Originality/value
The study shows that leadership involves upholding morals and values, even if this means having to use subversive practices to ensure inclusive, equitable, and just outcomes.
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Amanda B. Werts, Curtis A. Brewer and Sarah A. Mathews
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the many dimensions of the principal's positionality by using a unique research approach to link the experiences of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the many dimensions of the principal's positionality by using a unique research approach to link the experiences of the policy implementing principal to embodiment.
Design/methodology/approach
The researchers employed a form of critical policy analysis that utilized photovoice to examine the experience of two principals in South Carolina, USA.
Findings
The findings suggest that these two principals do feel, beyond a cognitive emotional level, the experiences of being the policy implementing principal, where the multiple physically imprinted identities typified one principal's experiences and the highly entropic world of her high school causes another principal to physically and metaphorically integrate situations into her physiology.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors are able to expand discussions of the principals’ engagement with policy by using a unique theoretical and methodological approach.
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Mowafaq Qadach, Chen Schechter and Rima'a Da'as
This study explores a conceptual framework that addresses a school principal's self-regulated learning (SPSRL) as well as possible avenues for future conceptualization of, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores a conceptual framework that addresses a school principal's self-regulated learning (SPSRL) as well as possible avenues for future conceptualization of, and research into this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual framework of SPSRL is based on an extensive literature review of the research on student’s and teacher’s self-regulated learning models.
Findings
A novel conceptual and practical SPSRL framework for planning, performing, monitoring and self-reflection is elaborated.
Research limitations/implications
This novel SPSRL conceptual framework provides school principals with a means to shape and develop processes, strategies and structures to monitor and evaluate their learning, enabling them to react effectively in uncertain and dynamic environments. This framework may open the way to future research into possible contributions of the SPSRL construct with other variables related to principal effectiveness. The suggested framework should be examined empirically in various sociocultural contexts, possibly substantiating its conceptual validity.
Originality/value
The SPSRL conceptual framework can improve school learning, which might connect the individual (the school principal) and organizational (teachers) learning levels.
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Teerawat Luanrit, Eisuke Saito and Vorachet Saejea
In every decade, there tends to be a major economic crisis affecting the entire world. Recent decades have seen the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s and the global financial…
Abstract
In every decade, there tends to be a major economic crisis affecting the entire world. Recent decades have seen the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s and the global financial crisis in the 2000s. Also, natural disasters and pandemics frequently impact the socioeconomic conditions of the people. The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is one such crisis. In such situations, the socially disadvantaged are usually the worst hit, marginalizing the disadvantaged even further. Zygmunt Bauman describes this as “collateral damage.” In schooling, as well, such collateral damage is observed across countries. The aim of this chapter is to investigate responses by one secondary school leader in Bangkok, Thailand, to COVID-19 in order to minimize the collateral damage to the students. For this aim, self-study was employed as a research method. In the midst of great confusion, a caring mind and heart for students in difficulty was at the heart of strategies that encouraged them to remain constant with respect to the world of learning.
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