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1 – 10 of over 3000Monica Lemos and Fernanda Liberali
The purpose of this paper is to explore a formative intervention project that was developed for the Municipal Secretariat of Education in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil for the broad…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a formative intervention project that was developed for the Municipal Secretariat of Education in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil for the broad development of all levels of educational management (teacher educators, coordinators, principals, teachers and students). Thus, the creative chain of activities is a key theoretical framework for promoting critical collaboration in order to cross the boundaries of educational management organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data from the Management in Creative Chains Project (Liberali, 2012), as a way to enable the wide development of all levels of educational management. Data comprise formative meetings in which different educational managers system take part in two settings, the regional board with 25 schools and one of the participating schools. The analysis is based on thematic content and argumentative organization, and on critical situations and the potentials they entailed.
Findings
The study guides to the conclusions of the process of creative chain as a possibility to expand management in the educational system and its community.
Research limitations/implications
Every time there is a change in the mayors, there are changes in the way of addressing school management in the city. However, after the project, considerations about the needs of the communities became part of the public policy regardless of who is in charge of the city and its educational system.
Practical implications
This study can be used for transformation in the management and teaching and learning activities and improvement of the school-community relation.
Social implications
Socially this study can lead to improvement in the quality of life in the community and at school.
Originality/value
Differently from a top down educational management, which enables a reproductive chain, educational management in a creative chain, considering the community needs, enables subjects to become interdependent to expand and transform the activities in the educational system and hence the communities’ reality.
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Although building professional capital improves student learning and the effectiveness of schools in educating students, it needs to be explored in the area of primary schools in…
Abstract
Purpose
Although building professional capital improves student learning and the effectiveness of schools in educating students, it needs to be explored in the area of primary schools in Ethiopia. Thus, this study was conducted to explore the practices of primary school principals to develop the professional capital of teachers and the associated challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was used to collect data from nine teachers and five principals of Ethiopian primary schools using a maximum variation sampling. Data obtained from interviews and two focus groups were subjected to thematic analysis.
Findings
Principals and teachers reported that to develop the human capital of teachers, principals provided teachers with opportunities to attend training, encouraged informal collaboration for professional improvement and encouraged the practice of continuous professional development programs. For the development of social capital among teachers, the principals also formed various social groups, encouraged frequent interactions between school stakeholders and created a caring school culture to strengthen the interactions between school stakeholders. For building the decision-making capital of teachers, principals promoted an environment in which teachers' professional judgment and wisdom are respected and so forth. The challenges to develop professional capital were related to teachers and principals, schools and education bureaus.
Originality/value
Building teachers' professional capital increases school effectiveness, although primary schools still need to investigate this further. Therefore, by improving knowledge and information on approaches to building professional capital in teachers, this study is important to administrators and other relevant school stakeholders. This also helps principals transform their leadership behavior to be more pedagogical in leading teaching and learning and enhance teachers' ability to build and exercise effective social and professional behaviors towards their students in their daily practices.
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Regina Lenart-Gansiniec, Wojciech Czakon and Massimiliano Matteo Pellegrini
This study aims to identify context-specific antecedents to schools’ absorptive capacity (AC) and to show how those can enact “a virtuous learning circle.”
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify context-specific antecedents to schools’ absorptive capacity (AC) and to show how those can enact “a virtuous learning circle.”
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a mixed method: an exploration based on semi-structured interviews with educational experts; the development of a measurement scale and a partial least squares structural equation modelling to test the impact of the antecedents.
Findings
The results yielded four empirically-grounded antecedents and their measurement scales, namely, prior knowledge, employees’ skills, educational projects and interactions with the environment (Studies one and two). All antecedents are significantly and positively related to AC processes (study three). Using the organizational learning theory perspective, the results have been interpreted as an AC “virtuous learning circle.”
Practical implications
With increasing pressures to adapt, a case of which was the COVID-19 pandemic, schools can greatly benefit from absorbing knowledge flows. This suggests the construction a favourable environment for AC. To this end, the individual (employees’ prior knowledge and skills), organizational (educational projects) and institutional level of managerial action (interactions with the environment) can be effective when create a recursive organizational learning circle. In addition, this study offers an expert-validated measurement scale for self-assessment of a school’s specific contingencies, and thus, for planning of punctual interventions to develop AC.
Originality/value
This study advances the existing body of knowledge management in the educational context by rigorously identifying and validating a scale for measuring the antecedents of AC and developing an interpretive approach to the AC “virtuous circle.”
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This qualitative study discusses the importance of effective leadership practices in connecting the macro-, meso-, and micro-contexts in which school leaders operate, considering…
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative study discusses the importance of effective leadership practices in connecting the macro-, meso-, and micro-contexts in which school leaders operate, considering the colonial and apartheid history of South Africa and the current era of neoliberal philosophies by exploring the degree to which school leaders in historically disadvantaged schools in Western Cape Province use an edupreneurial approach to steer their schools in new directions. The school leaders, especially in historically disadvantaged Colored schools, are expected to be more autonomous and accountable for making the school environment conducive to performance standards and improved learning results. The study uses an edupreneurial leadership approach as a theoretical lens to explore entrepreneurial agency, together with the educational leadership approach of school principals as a consequence of neoliberal policies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on secondary schools in historically Colored communities in Western Cape Province through semi-structured interviews with four purposively selected school principals and four teachers from four different schools in the Western Cape Province.
Findings
Education and training programs should focus on cultural values and practices to enhance the efficacy of these schools. Furthermore, an entrepreneurial mindset and spirit are aspects that can be encouraged in a culturally sensitive manner. The edupreneurial leadership approach in developing countries has a distinctive nature.
Originality/value
This study contributes to forging an understanding of how neoliberal trends influence school leadership practices in developing countries, especially the leadership work of school principals across public schools in the Western Cape Province in South Africa.
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Jeff Quin, Aaron Deris, Greg Bischoff and James T. Johnson
The purpose of this study was to determine the leadership practices needed to improve academic achievement and generate positive change in school organizations. The study was also…
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the leadership practices needed to improve academic achievement and generate positive change in school organizations. The study was also conducted to provide insight to principal preparation programs and school districts about effective transformational leadership practices. A quantitative research method was used to achieve the survey study. Ninety-two teachers completed the Leadership Practices Inventory developed by Kouzes and Posner. Data was analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and t- tests. The findings of the study indicate that (a) principals in high performing schools employ all leadership practices more frequently than principals in lower performing schools and (b) inspiring a shared vision and challenging the process are the two practices that have the biggest impact on student achievement. It is recommended that principal preparation programs incorporate Kouzes and Posner’s transformational leadership model into their curriculum in order to develop highly qualified school leaders.
The overall aim of this article is to discuss the conditions and character of collective protest in schools. When do pupils as a collective gain the ability to express critical…
Abstract
Purpose
The overall aim of this article is to discuss the conditions and character of collective protest in schools. When do pupils as a collective gain the ability to express critical views on the policies of schools, and what is that criticism about? Using Sweden as an example, I discuss this question by studying the collective organisation of pupils from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Design/methodology/approach
The article discusses and compares two phases of pupils' collective organisation in Sweden: one dominated by pupil councils, one by national organisations. The article discusses how pupil councils at individual schools arose in the wake of the 1928 grammar school charter, and illustrates its influence using a case study of a grammar school in Stockholm. Furthermore, the article investigates how national organisations, first formed in 1952, expressed their concerns about national school policies.
Findings
The first phase (ca. 1928–1951) was dominated by the idea of discipline, and the main task of pupil councils was to help teachers in maintaining discipline. The second phase (ca. 1952–1989) was instead characterised by a heightened focus on protests and democracy. From then on, the main idea was that pupil councils and national pupil organisations should change the school, making it more suited to the needs of the pupils.
Originality/value
There is much research on university students and student uprisings. However, much of the previous research on the student voice is related to the upheavals of the long 1968. By concentrating its efforts on a limited time period when protest was more obvious, previous research has arguably not been able to discuss transformations over time.
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Leadership educators teach Transformational Leadership Theory in their classrooms, but could transformational theory be used as a pedagogical model to deepen students’…
Abstract
Leadership educators teach Transformational Leadership Theory in their classrooms, but could transformational theory be used as a pedagogical model to deepen students’ understanding of leadership? This article presents Erin Gruwell, a first-year teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach and subject of the 2006 movie The Freedom Writers, as a case study where an educator practiced the components of transformational leadership in the classroom to transform students’ lives. Gruwell used idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration to transform a classroom of gang members into a community of scholars and authors. Following the case examples, leadership educators are provided examples of how to incorporate the four components of transformational leadership in their instructional methods. The purpose is to not only demonstrate the theory in action, but to deepen students’ learning of leadership theory.
Christina Löfving, Anna-Lena Godhe and Johan Lundin
The paper aims to investigate and describe the complex and dynamic dilemmas teachers are facing connected to students' net-based out-of-school activities.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate and describe the complex and dynamic dilemmas teachers are facing connected to students' net-based out-of-school activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on the notion of dilemmatic spaces when thematically analyzing focus group interviews conducted with 41 teachers at three lower secondary schools in Sweden.
Findings
Two themes capture the teachers' dilemmas concerning their students´ net-based out-of-school activities: negotiations of content and negotiations of professional identity. When teachers take part in professional discussions where dilemmatic spaces are recognized, rather than focusing on either being for or against digitalization, they are enabled to express a multifaceted view of professional identity.
Research limitations/implications
This study is a starting point for further studies investigating how pedagogical and didactic decisions are made in a digital time.
Practical implications
The findings are expected to be helpful to policymakers in understanding teachers' work. Also, teachers can be empowered by taking the departure in the findings and discussing how to handle dilemmas fruitfully.
Originality/value
In a rapidly changing digital society, it is important to investigate what dilemmas teachers face in their work in order to learn from them. This study is a significant contribution.
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There is a need for research that examines how digital networks can support all learners in open access to people, resources and experiences that were previously inaccessible in…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a need for research that examines how digital networks can support all learners in open access to people, resources and experiences that were previously inaccessible in K-12 learning contexts. This study aims to examine the potential of open education theories and open practices in high school learning environments.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a design-based research approach, this study used the open learning design intervention framework to examine the experiences of a researcher, a teacher and Grade 10 students who expanded their learning from formal to informal learning environments by integrating open educational practices (OEP). The research occurred through three specific phases with iterative cycles that were responsive to research participants and data analysis at each phase.
Findings
The key findings suggest that open learning in high school is dependent upon opportunities for learners to co-design personally relevant learning pathways. The emerging design framework highlighted the need to emphasize the complexity of the students’ lived experiences in connection with the curriculum (formal learning environments) to promote a diversity of perspectives and shared connections (in informal learning environments). Second, learners need the opportunity to share their learning experiences collaboratively and individually by transparently demonstrating their learning processes in relevant ways and open practices provide the digital and community spaces to share knowledge. Finally, open learning occurs through stages and continuums and is a personal learning experience that transcends the boundaries of formal learning environments.
Originality/value
This study expands the current conceptual framework of open learning design by contributing a K-12 lens from which to consider the potential of OEP to promote personal learning pathways. Although the research considered a K-12 context, the OLDI Framework can be extended upon and used in any open learning design context including higher education.
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Tiina Tuominen, Bo Edvardsson and Javier Reynoso
This study aims to understand and explain how institutional change occurs at the level of value co-creation practices in service ecosystems. Despite the centrality of collective…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand and explain how institutional change occurs at the level of value co-creation practices in service ecosystems. Despite the centrality of collective practices to the service ecosystems perspective, theoretically grounded explanations of how practices change and become institutionalized remain underdeveloped. Applying the theory of routine dynamics, this paper addresses two questions as follows: what does the institutional change mean at the level of value co-creation practices and what processes underlie these changes?
Design/methodology/approach
The study develops a conceptual framework that characterizes value co-creation practices as routines involving three aspects, namely, ostensive, performative and artifactual. As a key element in institutional change, the interplay between these informs an account of institutional change processes in service ecosystems.
Findings
The proposed conceptual framework specifies the conditions for institutional change in terms of value co-creation routines. First, any such change is seen to be grounded in alignment between changing institutional rules and the ostensive, performative and artifactual aspects of routines. Second, this alignment is seen to emerge through a dialectics of planned and practice-based activities during institutional change. An empirical research agenda is proposed for the analysis of institutional change processes in different service ecosystems.
Originality/value
This conceptual framework extends existing accounts of how service ecosystems change through the contributions of multiple actors at the level of value co-creation practices.
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