Search results
1 – 10 of 147Mette Liljenberg, Helene Ärlestig and Daniel Nordholm
The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge on Swedish principals' professional development (PD) from the perspectives of superintendents. In particular, the article…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge on Swedish principals' professional development (PD) from the perspectives of superintendents. In particular, the article analyzes how superintendents understand and organize PD for principals.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data are derived from a strategic sample of ten (n = 10) superintendents. Transcribed interviews were analyzed in two steps. The first step was carried out inductively to identify prominent aspects of PD for principals. In the second step, the detected themes and categories were analyzed more deductively through the theoretical lens of learning in organizations.
Findings
The analysis revealed that the purpose of PD for principals and the principal leadership that must be nurtured from the perspective of superintendents spans a scale, from knowing what is already required to critically examining and exploring the unknown. In addition, the understanding of learning stretches from an individual enterprise to a collective activity. However, noteworthy differences between the superintendents were detected and organized into three ideal types.
Research limitations/implications
Despite a profound research design and a careful selection of superintendents, the sample sets some limits because of the plurality within the decentralized Swedish school system.
Practical implications
The results can support strategies from superintendents, principals and educational authorities to build infrastructures that foster PD at different levels of school systems.
Originality/value
This article offers a novel perspective by analyzing principals' PD from the perspectives of superintendents.
Details
Keywords
Olof Johansson and Helene Ärlestig
In the rational model of the democratic governing chain, intervening spaces at all levels are neglected in relation to the policy process. An intervening space is a group of…
Abstract
Purpose
In the rational model of the democratic governing chain, intervening spaces at all levels are neglected in relation to the policy process. An intervening space is a group of persons with the power and responsibility to interpret policy at their level in an organization. The research question is as follows: How are democratic policy ideas visible in the intervening spaces of a governing chain in public schools?
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on two municipalities representing the 25 most populated cities in Sweden. The data are based on interviews with 66 informants with leadership roles on the district level and two schools in each municipality.
Findings
Leadership is obviously more than making decisions. It is also about facilitating and creating trust, engagement, motivation and willingness to take responsibility. In this process, intervening spaces are central. They exist at all levels from the national ministry to the classroom. The empirical examples show the importance and challenges in how different leadership roles, relationships and interaction transform policy intentions to practice on the local level.
Originality/value
The authors contribute by highlighting the parallel interpretation processes that take place at various leadership levels locally. There are possibilities and challenges in aligning the intervening spaces into a rational governing chain. The findings indicate that intervening spaces and policy drift is vital to support, control and use professional competence in the process to transfer political ideas to classroom practice.
Details
Keywords
Nahed Abdelrahman, Beverly J. Irby, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Fuhui Tong and Hamada Elfarargy
The purpose of this study was to explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that led 28 teachers of emergent bilingual (EB) students to seek a master's in educational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that led 28 teachers of emergent bilingual (EB) students to seek a master's in educational administration with a focus on bilingual/English as a second language (ESL).
Design/methodology/approach
To address the study objectives, the authors used a qualitative phenomenological design. The authors conducted online interviews with 28 teachers of EBs. The authors used the self-determination theory as the theoretical framework.
Findings
Primarily, teachers of EBs were intrinsically motivated to seek the principalship. The authors identified additional motivators that were not found in the previous literature which heretofore was based on general education teachers' responses. Those motivators were, gain advice from mentors, promote cultural awareness, commit to a campus-wide impact, increase awareness of the importance of bilingual/ESL education programs, and foster a relationship with the school community.
Practical implications
Identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for teachers of EBs who desire to move into a principal position may aid faculty in university principal preparation programs and administrators in school districts to support and mentor these teachers to better serve as leaders in high need schools.
Originality/value
There is little known about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of teachers of EBs which influence their decisions to change their career paths to become principals.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a teacher leadership academy (TLA) organized through a school district/university partnership in a small, US Suburban…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a teacher leadership academy (TLA) organized through a school district/university partnership in a small, US Suburban School District in increasing teachers’ participation in leadership activities.
Design/methodology/approach
TLA participants (n=11) were surveyed using the Teacher Leadership Activities Scale, and their results were compared to a control group of teachers in the district who were not participating in the TLA (n=12). Interviews and open-ended response items provided qualitative data to examine how the TLA contributed to teachers’ growth as leaders.
Findings
Results indicated that teachers in the TLA did increase participation in teacher leadership activities. Qualitative data revealed themes of many espoused benefits from TLA participation, including increased interactions with administrators, improved understanding of the obstacles associated with implementing changes, and expanded leadership capacity.
Research limitations/implications
Conditions that both enhanced and detracted from teacher leaders’ growth were identified and outlined, including formal leaders’ participation in TLA activities, material support for projects, and a supportive atmosphere (enhancers) and administrative roadblocks and the inability to remediate capacity issues for teacher leaders (detractors).
Originality/value
The conditions outlined above will assist those interested in creating TLAs in doing so with purpose and increased chance for buy in and success.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details
Keywords
The aim of this paper is to identify the role of the principal in establishing a whole school approach for health and wellbeing. Two questions are asked: (1) What do successful…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to identify the role of the principal in establishing a whole school approach for health and wellbeing. Two questions are asked: (1) What do successful Swedish principals do when they take on a whole school approach? (2) How do these results relate to previous research on successful school leadership?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focuses on the complexity of organisational processes and considers the role of successful leadership in managing a whole school approach to health promotion. It presents findings from two different but interlinked projects, and draws on document studies and interviews with principals, student health team members and teachers in Sweden.
Findings
This paper argues that successful school leaders are crucial in establishing a whole school approach, because of the work they do to synchronise the health-promoting activities in schools. The study identifies four aspects of coordination that need to be enacted simultaneously when leading health-promoting processes. The fifth aspect identified is that a whole school approach is not limited to the school, but the whole local school context, i.e. a synchronisation between different system levels.
Originality/value
Although limited in scale, this paper reports key findings that could have practical implications for school leaders. The study suggests that successful school leadership research needs to use a health-promoting lens in order to make leadership practices health-promoting practices. It also proposes extended comparative research from different fields and contexts.
Details