Studies have shown that mentoring is a viable form of professional development.Faced with large numbers of retirements and a projected increase in student enrollment, the issues of recruitment, retention and revitalization of current faculty are at the core of this study. There is little empirical research on the phenomenon of structured or formal mentoring in higher education from the perspective of both the mentee and the mentor.The purpose of this study was to identify, describe, and analyze the perceived benefits that both senior or more experienced faculty mentors and junior or new-to-the institution faculty mentees at a large urban research university received from participating in a structured faculty mentoring program.A nonexperimental, descriptive study was designed to explore these issues. The method used to collect data was a survey questionnaire. Utilizing both descriptive and correlational statistics, the most notable findings revolved around the significance of sharing aspects of institutional culture by older, more experienced faculty members. Independent samples t-tests performed on ten subscales by participant type were significant at the p≤0.05 level. Specifically, mentors gave higher ratings for Scale 3, Institutional Culture and Scale 10, Value of One-to-one Activities. Mentees gave higher ratings for Scale 5, Psychosocial Compatibility elements.The findings also indicated that women gave higher value to the personal, psychosocial aspects of being involved in the structured mentoring program than men. Women gave higher ratings for Scale 5, Psychosocial Compatibility and Scale 8, Psychosocial Compatibility and Activity Elements.Correlations for faculty members years of experience at this institution as well astheir total years of being faculty members in higher education found faculty members at the current institution with greater years experience was positively correlated with Scale 3, Institutional Culture (r = .33). Total faculty years in higher education was also positively correlated with Scale 3, Institutional Culture (r = .40) and Scale 10, Value of One-to-one Activities (r = .27). The findings also suggest areas of emphasis administrators might use in designing and implementing faculty development activities that involve formal mentoring by more experienced faculty in order to obtain the greatest benefit for all participants.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Donna Augustine-Shaw / Jessica Holloway / School superintendents have traditionally been removed from the systemic process of learning in a school district and instead of been considered more indirect supporters of student achievement. Now, in the face of changing leadership standards, they are being required to provide leadership that more directly enhances student learning by way of teacher professional development. This case study takes a deeper look into the process of the superintendent’s role in district professional development. This will include a purposeful examination to clearly understand the superintendent’s role in designing, implementing, and monitoring professional development in the school district. The study includes (a) the meaning of professional development; (b) examination of school leadership theories and roles; and (c) analysis of how professional development impacts the classroom design of a district instructional framework for professional development.

Professional development in education is often a process focused on teachers' limitations. Teachers are rarely offered choices in professional development, nor are they asked to qualify the attributes of their professional development experiences they find most meaningful. This study situates the National Writing Project as a specific professional development program from which to consider teachers' beliefs and perceptions regarding their professional development experiences. The study begins with a broad view of professional development, then directs attention to the Writing Project as a professional development model. Ten teachers participated in individual and focus group interviews for the study. Interview data were collected and analyzed using a qualitative phenomenological approach to discern the features of the Writing Project that teachers value as a professional development experience. Results from this study include five essential elements of the Writing Project experience as reported by participants. Results show that the Writing Project builds teachers' instructional and pedagogical capacity, sponsors teachers' professional voice, breaks down isolationism, connects teachers to the writer within themselves, and attracts leaders while facilitating leadership in its members. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications researchers and educators may draw from the results.

This compilation thesis concerns how an educator task in Swedish police education context can be understood as individual and collective meaning making and professional development. The main actors in this thesis are police teachers, police supervisors and field training officers (FTOs), and they have a mutual task in educating new police officers and hence preparing for a complex occupation. However, due to varied educating preparations these three groups of police educators seem to perform their task with different prerequisites in a constantly revised and developed Swedish police education. During the last twenty years research and literature regarding occupational and professional education concern, among other issues, professional development and professionalization, frequently from a learner orientated and lifelong learning perspective. Hence, as ideas of transferring occupational knowledge from person to person increasingly appears to be regarded as obsolete, internship education through supervising pedagogies seems to have evolved during the last decades. The rarely investigated intra-professional educators (e.g., police officers educating new police officers) have an important role in this kind of learning process, especially due to socialisation phenomena frequently described in worldwide research regarding the police occupation. The conceptions of Swedish intra-professional police educators are investigated through an exploratory and qualitative design using mainly focus-group interviews and with a reflexive approach and hermeneutic analyse models. Viewed through a theoretical framework based on meaning making, reflexivity and thought styles/thought collectives, the findings disclose that the Swedish police educators clearly share similar views on pedagogies although they have disparate preparations before the task. Their conceptions reveal how the police educating task works as an incentive for increased insights in the police task, as well as in the educating task. These findings are also conceptualized as a collective process in interacting with police students and police probationers, with reflexivity as a main tool for meaning making, especially in the educating task. In conclusion this thesis argues how the conceptions of the Swedish police educators can vitalize the discussion about how police educators better can be prepared, especially through courses with reflexive pedagogies. The conclusion also emphasizes on how the positive, reflexive and creative intentions within the intra-professional police educators can be used as a role model and as an incentive in developing the Swedish police force, and that these ideas can be applied on other occupations and professions. / I en stor fyrkantig soffgrupp i ett fikarum på Polishögskolan i Solna runt år 2002, fördes stafettsamtal om problembaserad undervisning. Lärare, chefer och ibland städpersonal eller administrativ personal deltog genom att gå in och ut ur dessa samtal beroende på vilka andra sysslor som pockade på. I denna fyrkant skapades på något sätt både pedagogik och pedagoger, av både erfarna och oerfarna utbildare. Detta skedde främst genom utbyte av erfarenheter av lyckade och mindre lyckade undervisningsaktiviteter i syfte att skapa mening i ett för många av deltagarna okänt utbildningskoncept, ofta genom användandet av begreppet reflektion. Stafettsamtalen kan beskrivas som del av en process eller ett förlopp där något framåtskrider och utvecklas, i detta fall polisutbildarnas kunskapande och meningsskapande om polisutbildning. Den meningsskapande processen placerades inom ramen för den nya reviderade polisutbildningen, som satts i spel 1998. Polisutbildningen skulle nu bygga på en problembaserad pedagogik (Colliver, 2000; Hmelo-Silver, 2004) och initialt utföras av i huvudsak yrkespraktiker med begränsad pedagogisk erfarenhet eller utbildning, vilket genererade oväntade problem som krävde snabba lösningar. De första åren från 1998 innebar många problem med både frustrerade lärare och polisstudenter, vilket en utvärdering visade (Rikspolisstyrelsen, 2000). Denna situation skapade ändå en pragmatisk men reflekterande utbildningskultur där studenternas lärande till poliser till stor del var i fokus (Polishögskolan, 2014b). De lärare som hade polisiär bakgrund, i denna avhandling benämnda ”polislärare”, fick en framträdande roll för att fungera som en brygga mellan yrkeserfarenhet och teoretisk/praktisk kunskap, trots att få av de utbildande poliserna hade pedagogisk utbildning eller någon längre erfarenhet av att undervisa. Vissa polislärare visade också en brant utvecklingskurva gällande förmågan att undervisa, medan andra misslyckades helt och försvann lika snabbt som de kom. Denna beskrivning bygger på min egen upplevelse av händelseförloppet, för jag satt också där i fyrkanten, som nyanställd lärare i muntlig och skriftlig framställning, erfaren gällande undervisning men helt okunnig om polisverksamhet. Lärarna på Polishögskolans gemensamma uppdrag var att på bästa sätt förbereda polisstudenter för en introduktion in i en polisiär yrkesverksamhet och yrkeskultur (Crank, 2004; Lauritz, 2009). Ett polisyrke som många i samhället har en uppfattning om, och som visat sig vara ett i många avseenden komplext uppdrag. Manning (2010) har under årtionden ägnat sig åt att belysa polisarbetets komplexitet och förändring. Han menar bland annat att polisarbetet kan ses utifrån ett dramaturgiskt perspektiv där poliser förväntas 2 fatta svåra beslut baserat på subjektiva omdömen i en offentlig miljö, och i hög grad beroende av samarbetet med kollegor och allmänheten: Policing is both an individual and collective performance, based on faceto-face interactions, public deference, and societal validation of the collective representation. The process of interaction is the product of policing, and the consequences of these interactions are the most consequential outcomes of policing. (2010, s. 183) Polisuppdraget har också förändrats under de senaste trettio åren, från reaktivt till proaktivt allteftersom samhället ökat kraven på polisen via problembaserat långsiktigt polisarbete (Fielding, 1988; Macvean & Cox, 2012; Paoline & Terrill, 2007). Uppdraget kan dessutom sägas vara motsägelsefullt, med å ena sidan den repressiva aspekten att upprätthålla lag och ordning och å andra sidan vara en service och trygghet för medborgarna (Petersson, 2015). Litteraturen beskriver också att många av de kunskaper som krävs för att lösa snabbt uppkomna situationer är svåra att utveckla på ett utbildningscampus utan kräver kontakt med yrkespraktiken (Chan et al., 2003). Ur detta perspektiv blir det därför synnerligen intressant hur sådan kunskap utvecklas och frodas i utrymmet mellan utbildning och yrkespraktik. Vidare, även om forskningen visar att det finns poliser som är olämpliga och har stora svårigheter att hålla sig professionella i detta uppdrag, finns det berättelser om poliser som klarar av att upprätthålla den professionella etiken i svåra situationer. Det finns alltså uppenbarligen poliser som kan vara empatiska, men ändå tydliga och handlingskraftiga, repressiva men ändå professionella, goda kollegor som ändå kan säga ifrån och anmäla om något fel begåtts. Litteratur om polisyrket berör även fenomen som sammanhållning, kamratskap, konformitet, kåranda, alienation, övervåld, rasism, stress, posttraumatisk stress, korruption och lämplighet (Crank, 2004; Lauritz & Karp, 2013; Van Maanen, 1975). Litteraturen ger också exempel på antiintellektualism inom polisen, där handlingskraft är normen och reflektionsförmåga ses som en svaghet (Crank, 2004; Granér, 2004, s. 214). Det finns också beskrivet hur konkret yrkeskunskap byggd på sunt förnuft (common sense knowledge) uppmuntras under polisutbildningen, vilket grundar sig i polisarbetets oförutsägbarhet och därmed riskfylldhet; man måste kunna lita på att kollegan finns där och agerar när fara uppstår. Där skildras också hur sunt-förnuft-kunskap konstitueras i rutinartat småprat mellan uppdragen i det dagliga polisarbetet, till exempel genom utbyte av dråpliga anekdoter från polisarbetet (”war stories”) (McNulty, 1994). Blivande poliser beskriver också sitt första möte med poliskollektivet som välkomnande och omslutande, speciellt avseende det vardagliga småpratet kollegor emellan (Ekman, 1999: Lauritz, 2009). Här har studier också visat på ett polisyrke med ökad etisk medvetenhet, där nya poliser faktiskt kan fungera 3 som förändringsagenter mot en positiv utveckling av poliskulturen utifrån dessa höjda samhälleliga krav (Chan et al., 2003; Granér, 2004; Reid, 2015). Efter att ha tagit del av ovanstående litteratur, väcktes mitt intresse för olika perspektiv på polisutbildarnas betydelse för hur lärandet till ett polisyrke går till, och vilken betydelse detta får för en förmodat lärande organisation (Andersson Arntén, 2014; Bergman & Jansson, 2010). Runt 2006 gjorde jag en första genomgång av forskning om polisutbildning. Då upptäcktes en lucka i forskning om yrkesutbildare som aktiva subjekt i sitt yrkeslärande (Se Webster-Wright, 2009), i synnerhet studier av poliser som är polisutbildare. Speciellt noterade jag en avsaknad av svensk forskning på hur polisutbildare hanterar frågorna ovan och hur de ser sig på sig själva som utbildare i detta sammanhang. Ett kunskapsintresse började på så sätt mejslas fram och blev inledningen till ett explorativt forskningsprojekt inom yrkesutbildningsfältet, ett projekt som skulle pågå i över tio år. Slutresultatet blev denna doktorsavhandling om polisers individuella och kollektiva upplevelser av uppdraget som polisutbildare och presenteras i form av sammanläggning av en redan publicerad licentiatuppsats om polislärare (delstudie ett) samt två artiklar rörande aspiranthandledare (delstudie två), och aspirantinstruktörer (delstudie tre). Jag menar att denna avhandling kan vara intressant även för andra yrkesutbildningar, både vad gäller frågor om grundutbildning såväl som vidareutbildning, men även rörande förändring, utveckling och lärande i en yrkespraktik. Kunskapsbidraget är främst empiriskt eftersom polisutbildare, internationellt och i Sverige, i begränsad omfattning har undersökts. Avhandlingen bidrar också i metodologiskt avseende då främst intervjuer i fokusgrupper använts, vilket är ovanligt i polisforskning. Dessutom tillämpas ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på idéer från bland annat John Dewey, Jennifer A. Moon och Ludwik Fleck, i en kombination som kan vara en inspiration för andra liknande studier med fokus på utvecklingsprocesser i yrkesutbildning och yrkesverksamhet.

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This study looked at the way poor-performing public secondary schools in Gauteng Province understand school accountability; their current internal accountability instruments; the way professional development is conducted; and their engagement with the Integrated Quality Management System, the external school accountability system. The intention of the study was to identify possible instruments to mobilise bureaucratic and professional accountability in poor-performing secondary schools. The study was a case study of three poor-performing secondary schools and relied on teachers and principals at these schools to learn their understanding and reactions to the notion of accountability. The study revealed that such schools use bureaucratic instruments (such as attendance registers) to realise accountability and to create structure and routine in their schools. However, where leadership is weak, even these bureaucratic tools such as attendance registers are ineffective. These schools do not take action against non-conformance by teachers and principals. In the schools investigated, accountability was seen as ‘doing your work as you were trained to do during your pre-service training and reporting on learner performance’. The study revealed that, to move towards greater professional accountability in the school sector, a long-term approach is needed that is underscored by ongoing professional development complemented with pressure or performance management. Equally important is the need to build collective power through improving knowledge and skills and motivation for improvement amongst both teachers and school managers.

This study investigates the role of leadership in teacher professional development in Lesotho high schools. The specific variables being investigated include teachers‟ perceptions of teacher professional development; their expectations as well as the principals‟ role in facilitating teacher professional development. Developments in leadership have led to changes in the ways teachers work. These have subsequently increased the need to review teacher professional development programmes as a means to enhance teachers‟ competences and to determine their appropriateness to their work Green (1999) in Blandford (2000) argues that professional development has now become a prerequisite to effective schools. In his view, effective schools don‟t just happen; they thrive because the people in them work hard to make them successful. Blandford (2000) emphasises this in stating that, “in order [for schools] to be effective, managers and teachers will need to engage in professional development.” One of the most influential links to accurate teacher professional development is the active involvement of principals in such initiatives. The objective of this research is to establish how the dual responsibility of the principal and the teachers manifests itself in professional development. So while, the principal is expected to take a lead role, both are expected to take an active part if professional development is to have any impact in their teaching and learning - the core business of schools. Even though, it is very important to know teachers‟ perceptions on the link between leadership and teacher professional development, this is one of the few researches carried out on how leadership contributes to teacher development, This research is iii therefore significant as it examines the voices of teachers on how leadership contributes to teacher professional development. In Lesotho, there is a problem of limited understanding of professional development by teachers and the schools in general. The research was conducted using qualitative methodology. It was based on a case study of two high schools in the Leribe district in Lesotho. Data was collected using questionnaires and follow up interviews which were administered to elicit responses from principals, deputy principals and teachers in both schools. The findings revealed a need for teachers in Lesotho to engage more in teacher professional development programmes so that they may have a better understanding of the concept. Their understanding at the time did not go beyond workshops or at the most induction programmes that are provided at the beginning of their careers. This study also demonstrated that teacher professional development should be core to the work of both the principals and teachers in order to create a learning environment in their schools where both can develop professionally. In addition to this, teachers should be encouraged to initiate some of the professional development activities that can only be accessed if they show willingness. This is consistent with Blandford (2000:4), who asserts that the effective management of professional development depends on individual enthusiasm, not compulsion, and on individuals prepared to take action in addressing their own professional needs. What also emerged as one of the key findings was that teachers felt that principals should take more responsibility in reinforcing the culture of professional development in schools. iv Based on the results obtained in this study, the results suggest that schools in Lesotho need more awareness in teacher professional development and how it is influenced by leadership. There is an overarching need for a properly functioning policy that would guide the implementation of teacher professional development activities both from outside and within the school.

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This case study examined the creation of a collaborative learning environment focused on the development of teacher attitudes, perceptions, and practices that are culturally responsive. Sixth and eighth grade teachers collaborated in small groups over the course of a school-year, focusing on dialogue, activities, and readings related to race and culture. The ways in which teachers involved in the study developed thinking in regards to their cultural awareness, sense of efficacy, and instructional practices played central roles in this study. This qualitative case study was conducted by the school principal, who was a participant-observer. Data collection instruments included pre-program interviews, mid-program reflective journals, post-program interviews, and researcher field notes. Prior to the start of the program, teachers expressed that they rarely spoke with students and peers about issues related to race and culture, provided minimal accommodations for students of color within the classroom setting, exhibited mixed beliefs in terms of their abilities as teachers to meet the learning needs of students of color, and had a limited understanding of their own racial identities. As a result of their participation in the Culturally Responsive Teaching Program, most teachers experienced growth in terms of their perceptions of the their own racial identity development, efficacy, and increased their sense of comfort and desire to speak with students and peers about issues related to race and culture. Implications for practice include the need for; courageous leadership, persistence, promotion of the development of racial identity, understanding of racial identity development, promotion of collaboration, advancement of transformational learning, and the development of multi-dimensional learning experiences. Limitations of this study include the researcher's role as school principal and participant-observer, small sample size, and relatively short study duration. Recommendations for future research include increasing the sample size and program duration, investigation of changes in student experiences as a result of teacher participation in a similar program, and investigating the effect of a similar program when focused upon particular racial and cultural groups, as opposed to the broad approach utilized within the Culturally Responsive Teaching Program. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

This thesis provides a trajectory policy analysis of post-1994 appraisal systems in South Africa by capturing the dynamics of these policies between different levels as well as the reasons these policies have changed and evolved in the way they did over the past 10 years. Its aim is to understand why and how various post-1994 South African teacher appraisals were negotiated, formulated and re-negotiated with their different impact on schools, taking into account the various tensions and contestations within appraisal and between stakeholders. The study attempts to make the following claims around issues of appraisal, policy analysis, multi-method research. First, because appraisal policies are socially constructed and politically contested, they are fraught with inevitable socio-educational tensions around the balance between teacher development and accountability, coming from the negotiations between the main stakeholders at various stages of the policy process. Second, because current policy analysis approaches have failed to address the increasingly complex domain and gap of policy-practice in an era dominated by the interplay of conflicting agendas and interests of various policy communities, an eclectic approach to policy analysis is used and recommended. This approach relies mainly on a political analysis, which conceives of policies as both constraining and empowering structures and texts which create space and opportunities for policy agency and leadership. Such political approach has to conceive of three different policy powers to reveal the various tensions and contestations around policies and the conditions of possibilities as well as to unravel how stakeholders interpret and mediate policy processes which are often fragile settlements constantly re-negotiated. This study focuses on the notion of enabling policy leadership and its mediation strategies to reveal how different agencies position themselves and strategize around policy tensions in the hope of strengthening their agendas. This policy leadership is also iv critical in ensuring a sufficiently strong policy settlement between education departments, schools, teacher unions and professional bodies over how to develop teachers and make them accountable for their performance Third, it argues that, despite post-1994 South Africa embarking on an era of stakeholder democracy, various stakeholders were gradually pushed to the margin of education policymaking, leaving teacher unions (because of their privileged position in relation to the ruling party) as the main party with which the department of education consulted and bargained. This exclusion of other stakeholders involved in quality education meant that professional associations were absent even though their input was desperately needed to negotiate how appraisal could feed into the enhancement of teacher professionalism and identities in the post-1994 school system. Finally, this study uses a multi-method research approach, involving formal research instruments as well as various data collection mechanisms involving different forums with stakeholders, such as oral hearings, review teams, seminars, conferences and written evidence over a period of two years to provide a richer form of triangulated data with rather interesting results. This data was analyzed and interpreted to identify patterns of policy contestations, negotiation and mediation strategies which assisted in theorizing further the policymaking processes and politics around appraisal as well as the role and limitations of policy leadership. This multi-layered empirical research work is essential if the complex and fluid positions and strategies adopted in various policy processes over time are to be unraveled.