The advent of charter schools has been one of the biggest reform initiatives in the history of schooling in the US: charters have significantly altered the landscape of many of our country’s largest public-school systems (Bracey, 2002; Hassel, 2009; Hill, 2006). Recent studies have examined a number of aspects of charter school leadership; however, there has been little research on charter school chief executive officers (CEO). The CEO is a relatively new role that oversees the entire charter school or network and is almost always independent of the principal. This mixed-methods study examined the organizational dynamics of Philadelphia Charter School CEOs by using a survey, personal interviews, and quantitative data analysis to obtain information regarding all CEOs of Philadelphia. Interviews were focused on the CEO job role and day-to-day duties, CEO successes and struggles, and what prior experiences prepared CEOs for this role. The quantitative findings show two correlations: suggesting that male CEOs and CEOs of stand-alone schools are in charge of schools with higher school performance. Five common themes emerged across CEOs during interviews: loneliness, overconfidence, under preparedness, non-traditional career path, and having a prior work experience in the field of education was crucial to success. Lastly, it was discovered that certifications and prior education experience were not commonplace for current CEOs, 19 of the 64 CEOs in this study did not have prior education experience. / Educational Leadership

To move the field closer to untangling the charter versus public school debate, this study compared leadership practices surrounding discipline and the frequency of student misconduct between public and charter schools that reside in urban neighborhoods and serve predominantly students of color. School leadership's approaches to discipline were investigated by comparing punitive authoritarian practices such as suspensions and transfers to therapeutic and educational strategies such as positive behavior management and teacher training. Student conduct was comprised of problematic peer-directed behaviors (e.g., bullying, sexual harassment, harassment of sexual orientation, and gang activity) and authority-directed misconduct (e.g., verbal abuse of teacher, acts of disrespect towards teacher, and classroom disorder). The sample used in this analysis was garnered from a larger nationally representative pool of public school principals (n = 610) from elementary, middle, high school, and combination schools across the United States who completed The School Survey of Crime and Safety (SSOCS) during the 2009-2010 academic school year. To uncover which leadership variables could account for significant differences in student conduct across school type (public or charter) several multivariate analyses were conducted using factorial analysis, MANCOVAs, and partial correlations. The results revealed that charter schools used more Educational Discipline while public schools used more Authoritarian Discipline and Therapeutic Discipline. In addition, public school principals reported a greater frequency of Peer-directed and Authority-directed student conduct compared to charter school principals. The relationships between certain discipline practices and student conduct types were found to be statistically significantly different between school type. Several points of policy are suggested for leadership and policy makers to consider with regard to urban school reform initiatives surrounding the establishment of a supportive school climate that positively affects student conduct. / Educational Psychology

The research on high-poverty, high-performing schools, suggests instructional leadership is an essential component for principals to be effective school leaders. Unfortunately, in spite of themes in the research, and shifts in principal preparation initiatives, practice suggests principals struggle to hold to instructional priorities. Given the significant costs of education reform this challenge to prioritize instructional leadership needs to be understood, particularly in the area of leading the improvement of high-poverty, lower performing schools. The gap between research and practice, and the causes for these differences in principal leadership, were the subject of this study. Qualitative methods were used to study eight instructionally-centered principals in their schools to identify "how" they navigate the competing demands to focus on instructional priorities. Common themes emerged from the interview, observation, and calendar study data providing strategies for how these principals navigate demands to remain focused on instruction. Findings affirmed the research from effective school reform and school leadership research. Themes also emerged for practices aligned with the research on organizational leadership; for example, principals delegated purposefully, served as relatable "lead learners," and used data to create a sense of urgency and leverage improvements to instruction. Principals were also found to be "kid-centered" in their decision making. Most interesting in the themes that emerged; however, was the unanimous belief that all students can learn. Principals demonstrated evidence of self-efficacy about their leadership, and perhaps more importantly, the belief that the "locus of causality" for learning lies within the school and teachers. This set of beliefs appeared to drive their planning towards creating a data-centered environment in their schools. Implications for further research and principal professional development are discussed. / Educational Leadership

Purpose: The aim of this essay and its contribution to research is to identify the opportunities, pitfalls, and dilemmas that can arise when inclusive education is organized with regard to students with ASC. In order to create more understanding of the situation for students with ASC in schools, the study focus on school leadership. Sub-studies: The essay consists of two studies. In the first study (1) the aim was to identify, describe, and analyze different research approaches to inclusive education and social participation for students with ASC, by performing a systematic research review. In the second study (2) principals of Swedish schools were interviewed, data collection was divided into three sets of interviews based on and using two models as tools in the analysis process. The models are the Index of Inclusion (Ainscow &amp; Booth 2002) and three key concepts for inclusive school leadership (European Agency of Special Needs and Inclusive Education 2018; Óskarsdottir et al. 2020). Theory: A dialectical approach (Clark, Dyson &amp; Millward 1995; 1998) or the dilemma perspective (Nilholm 2003) have been used as a theoretical lens. This approach aims to provide a dynamic and abductive reasoning for the overall analysis in the essay, since inclusive education appears to create dilemmas when societal cultures and norms, bureaucracy, and structures meet. The analysis demonstrates that inclusive processes appear as dilemma-creating at different levels in the system and addresses democracy in terms of social justice. Method: Crystallization is a term that relates to the practice of using multiple data sources and results, research approaches and lenses (Ellingson 2008; Tracy 2010), which leads to a more complex understanding being opened up in the overall analysis. Knowledge contribution: Inclusion is mainly interpreted as the students’ experience of being socially accepted and having access to academic education and the curriculum. Principals’ feeling of loneliness in relation to their superiors—they need to fight for their students and their staff against decisionmakers higher up in the education system hierarchy. At the same time, it is noted that principals have agreat deal of freedom in their practice, but the issue of communication needs to be raised and support for principals is important. A discussion is needed about whose perspective is the prevailing one in decisionmaking processes in schools and in the school system. Limitations: The data collection of the second study (2) took place via virtual meetings due to the pandemic. Virtual meetings are limited by the lack of being able to observe the interviewee's body language and nonverbal communication, as well as a small sample of respondents. These limitations affect the essay in general and thus to some extent reduce the possibility of generalizing the results. Practical implications: This essay can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the inclusion concept in relation to students with ASC. It can potentially initiate forums for further discussions on the working conditions of principals in relation to their responsibilities and the expectations placed upon them. In addition, to conduct a continuous discussion about the importance of authenticity and accountability for all professionals in the school and its stakeholders. Development and improvement of structures that facilitate the inclusion of the student voice in decision-making processes are also seen as important. / <p>Incorrect ISBN in publication: 987-91-7877-319-0 (print), 987-91-7877-320-6 (pdf)  </p>

Recent demographic trends indicate that the number of young Latino Catholics in the United States is increasing. In response, educators and researchers have examined the Catholic school experience of Latino families as a means to provide meaningful support for this growing constituency amid broader enrollment declines and related challenges of fiscal viability. Within this context, this study examined the leadership practices of Catholic secondary school leaders in relation to the development of tuition assistance policies and community outreach efforts intended to serve Latino families. Utilizing a theoretical frame consisting of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL), this study employed an explanatory mixed-methods design. Quantitative data emerged from a cross-sectional survey, which was distributed to Catholic secondary school administrators within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Semi-structured interviews allowed for the collection of qualitative data, which constituted two case studies representing a spectrum of demographic characteristics within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The findings of this study indicate that Catholic school leaders view the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and Culturally Responsive School Leadership as influential to their roles as school leaders. However, the frequency with which Catholic school leaders employ culturally responsive leadership practices to address Latino families is varied and inconsistent. The research data also indicate a higher frequency of culturally responsive leadership practices among specific demographic subgroups including Latino leaders, leaders with an advanced Spanish-speaking proficiency, and those who work at schools in which a majority of the student body consists of Latino students.

<p dir="ltr">This qualitative narrative inquiry studied the career journeys of five Black school principals from Indiana with five or more years of experience in their role. The purpose of this study was to understand the following: (a) the experiences of each participant including who influenced them to pursue the principal role, (b) their successful endeavors as principals, (c) the obstacles they have faced along the path to the principalship, and (d) their beliefs as to why they have persisted in the role for at least five years.</p><p dir="ltr">The data were collected through two rounds of individual semi-structured interviews with the participants. Each round was at least three weeks apart. This protocol sparked rich discussion from which five themes emerged: (1) relationships vs. results, (2) scholarship, (3) perseverance, (4) ongoing issues, and (5) mentorship. Each of these themes was revisited with each participant in the second round of interviews.</p><p dir="ltr">The analysis of the data from this study led to three specific assertions that are discussed in the final chapter. Assertion #1: Effective professional mentorship has a positive impact on Black principals’ ability to persevere. Assertion #2: Black principal perseverance is fueled by reflection and intrinsic sources of inspiration. Assertion #3: A disposition toward life-long learning has a positive impact on a Black principals’ ability to persevere. These assertions and the corresponding implications were developed after a careful examination of the current literature on school leadership and the Black principal experience. This study can be utilized as a purposeful tool to recruit, develop, and retain Black educators generally and Black school leaders specifically.</p>

[pt] O estudo em tela integra o campo temático da gestão escolar tendo como foco de sua investigação a atuação da liderança escolar, representada na maioria das vezes, pelo(a) diretor(a), no contexto da pandemia do Covid-19. Buscou-se inicialmente identificar na literatura o conceito e as tipologias da liderança escolar e como estão associadas com a autonomia e com os resultados educacionais, tendo como referência principal os conceitos de Liderança instrucional e liderança distribuída (Leithwood e Sun, 2012; Spillane, 2005). Complementarmente foi feito um levantamento da produção nacional e internacional recente sobre a gestão escolar no contexto da pandemia. Por meio de um estudo de caso, de natureza qualitativa, foram investigadas as experiências da gestão de duas escolas públicas municipais de São José de Ribamar (MA) a fim de compreender como os gestores escolares mobilizaram diferentes recursos e desenvolveram ações para responder aos desafios gerados e intensificados pela pandemia no que diz respeito a garantia do direito à aprendizagem dos estudantes. Integra-se à pesquisa, a análise documental, entrevistas com supervisores da secretaria municipal de educação, diretoras e professoras, além de dados do Censo Escolar (2020) e dos questionários contextuais do professor e do diretor da Prova Brasil (2019). A análise foi construída a partir de três categorias: o contexto sociocultural, estrutura e organização de cada escola, percepções dos diretores e dos professores das escolas sobre o perfil e as ações desenvolvidas pela gestão escola e pela rede durante esse período. Os achados deste trabalho indicaram, inicialmente, uma considerável centralização das ações da secretaria com pouco espaço de orientação pedagógica para as escolas e diretores em contraste com a relevância do papel dos diretores para a reorganização da rotina escolar. Neste último aspecto, observou-se que o processo requereu a colaboração dos professores e apontou para uma liderança mais autônoma, distribuída e instrucional em um dos casos. No outro, indica uma escola dependente das orientações da secretaria e uma liderança focada nas questões mais administrativas. Pode-se perceber que, se de um lado os diretores desenvolvem diferentes ações e mobilizam recursos diversos conforme sua experiência, formação e conhecimento, de outro, a falta de formação e de apoio do órgão central se constitui em um dos maiores obstáculos para o desenvolvimento de sua autonomia e liderança. / [en] The study on screen integrates the thematic field of school management focusing its investigation on the performance of school leadership, represented in most cases by the principal, in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. Initially, we sought to identify in the literature the concept and typologies of school leadership and how they are associated with autonomy and educational outcomes, having as main reference the concepts of instructional leadership and distributed leadership (Leithwood e Sun, 2012; Spillane, 2005). In addition, a survey of recent national and international production on school management in the context of the pandemic was carried out. Through a case study of a qualitative nature, the experiences of managing two municipal public schools in São José de Ribamar (MA) were investigated to understand how school managers mobilized different resources and developed actions to respond to the challenges generated. and intensified by the pandemic regarding guaranteeing the right to learn for students. The research includes documentary analysis, interviews with supervisors of the municipal education department, principals, and teachers, as well as data from the School Census (2020) and the contextual questionnaires of the teacher and the director of Prova Brasil (2019). The analysis was built from three categories: the sociocultural context, structure and organization of each school, perceptions of school directors and teachers about the profile and actions developed by the school management and the network during this period. The findings of this work initially indicated a considerable centralization of actions in the secretariat with little space for pedagogical guidance for schools and principals, in contrast to the relevance of the role of principals for the reorganization of the school routine. In this last aspect, it was observed that the process required the collaboration of teachers and pointed to a more autonomous, distributed, and instructional leadership in one of the cases. In the other, it indicates a school dependent on the guidelines of the secretariat and a leadership focused on more administrative issues. If, on the one hand, directors develop different actions and mobilize different resources according to their experience, training, and knowledge, on the other hand, the lack of training and support from the central body constitutes one of the biggest obstacles to development of their autonomy and leadership.

Minoritized students in public schools in Texas and across the nation continue to underachieve academically compared to their white peers. Despite similar academic achievement and socioeconomic backgrounds, minoritized students are often perceived more negatively by a predominantly white teacher workforce. The idea of cultural dissonance or mismatch between teachers and their students has led to the development of pedagogical frameworks such as culturally responsive teaching (CRT) that seek to bridge this cultural gap. This embedded multiple case study examined the perceptions, lived experiences, and level of preparedness of four school principals and one assistant superintendent in a white-majority school district with rapidly changing demographics. My findings support previous studies that show the limited resources and continued failure of universities and school systems in building educator capacity in culturally responsive school leadership CRSL. Furthermore, culturally responsive and visionary leaders may be more critical than previously thought due to school systems imbued with the dominant white culture and its deeply ingrained stereotypical views towards minoritized individuals. Despite these findings, my study also provides compelling evidence that meaningful relationships and diverse experiences alone can play an important role in fomenting and enhancing individuals' cultural proficiency, regardless of their racial/ethnic background. Finally, the implications of these findings are discussed in detail, followed by recommendations.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Paul Burden / Teachers’ ability to engage students is in influenced by teachers’ collective efficacy beliefs. Yet, empirical evidence on the relationship between the social persuasion variables of schools and teacher collective efficacy in student engagement is limited. This study was designed to answer the following research question: “To what extent do teachers’ perceptions of professional development opportunities (PPDO), school leadership (PSL), and school use of performance feedback (PPF) relate to teachers’ collective efficacy in student engagement (CESE)?” To explore the relationship between teacher collective efficacy in student engagement and the social persuasion variables of schools, extant data from 262 teachers in a large urban school district in the United States was supplied through the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project. Scaled scores of independent and dependent variables were used to examine the relationship between the independent variables (perception of professional development opportunities, school leadership, and the use of performance feedback), and the dependent variable (collective efficacy in student engagement). A multiple regression of social persuasion variables was conducted to examine the relationship between the variables and to determine which variable, if any, has the most influence on the dependent variable. The multiple regression analysis showed that a combination of the independent variables of PPDO and PSL could explain 37% of the variance in CESE. Analyses also showed that PPDO had the strongest relationship with CESE. The results reinforce information from the literature review regarding the research questions and hypotheses. The social persuasion variables of schools are correlated with collective efficacy in student engagement. Perceptions of the use performance feedback, professional development opportunities, and school leadership are all significantly correlated with collective efficacy in student engagement. Out of the three social persuasion variables analyzed, only perception of professional development opportunities and school leadership explain a significant amount of the variance in collective efficacy in student engagement.

I denna masteruppsats studeras ett antal rektorers uppleveda effekter av utbildningen vid Rektorsprogrammet efter år1. Fokus ligger på hur det pedagogiska ledarskapet påverkas när rektor går utbildningen. Med rektor avses i denna uppsats den person på skolan/förskolan som är chef för lärarna/förskolelärarna och övrig personal, och som har uppdraget att leda verksamheten så att lärarna kan genomföra sitt uppdrag, d.v.s. att utifrån skolans mål säkerställa att eleverna når målen. Detta kan alltså även vara en biträdande rektor, en förskolechef eller en biträdande förskolechef. Med upplevda effekter avses den upplevelse av förändring vad gäller erfarenheter, kunskaper och lärdomar som rektorerna tar med sig från utbildningen. Studien undersöker inte de faktiska effekter som rektors utbildning leder till ute på skolorna eller om den leder till förbättrade resultat. Denna uppsats baseras på textanalys av reflekterande brev som skrivits av deltagare som påbörjade Rektorsprogrammet vid två lärosäten våren 2014. Detta görs genom ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt med en narrativ ansats. Den narrativa ansatsen innebär att, genom rektorernas brev, försöka fånga den betydelse rektorerna tillskriver sina erfarenheter från utbildningen. Dessa brev är förankrade i rektorernas kontext som skapats genom deras interaktion med sin omgivning i vardagen. Den narrativa ansatsen ökar förståelsen för rektorernas subjektiva upplevelse av utbildningen. Med hjälp av två perspektiv: pedagogiskt ledarskap och vuxnas lärande har empirin sedan analyserats med hjälp av ett raster i form av en ledarskapsmodell som bygger på en teoretisk modell där ledarskap förstås som något som tar gestalt relationellt i skärningspunkten där Ledare, Följare och Situation möts. Denna analys av breven visar att det första året av rektorsutbildningen primärt ger rektorerna allmänt ökad kunskap som de tillämpar i sina skolor och använder/sprider i verksamheten och att detta gör att rektorerna känner sig säkrare i rollen som ledare. Under det första året på Rektorsprogrammet handlar detta primärt om juridiska aspekter av ledarskapet. Det är tydligt att rektorerna upplever att de har stärkts i rollen som pedagogiska ledare under år 1 vid Rektorsprogrammet. Resultatet av denna studie visar att det inte primärt handlar om att via utbildningen ge rektorerna ökade ämneskunskaper utan snarare om att utveckla det pedagogiska ledarskapet och därmed skapa säkrare och bättre rektorer. / This thesis investigates what effects a number of Swedish school principals experience during the first year of the National School Leadarship Training Programme, focusing on how the educational leadership is affected by the education. The term principal refers to the person at a school/pre-school designated to lead the organization and enabling the teachers/pre-school teachers and staff to do their work, i.e. to make the students reach the educational goals. The term experienced effects refers to the sense of change in experiences and knowledge that the principals gain from the education. The thesis does not take into account the actual effects of the education at the principal’s organizations or if it leads to improved school results. This thesis is based on the analysis of reflective letters written by participants who started the programme at two different universities during the spring of 2014. This is done by applying a hermeneutic and narrative approach. The narrative approach means that, by analyzing the principals’ letters, try to capture the meaning that they attribute to their experiences from the education. These letters are based in the context of each principal which has been created through their interaction with the surrounding environment in the daily work. The narrative approach increases the understanding for the principals’ subjective experience of the education. By using two different perspectives: educational leadership and adult education, the material has been analyzed by using a raster in the shape of a leadership model based on the assumption that leadership can be understood as something that is taking relational form at the point of intersection between Leader, Follower and Situation. This analysis shows that the first year of the education primarily provides the principals with increased general knowledge which they apply in practice in their respective organizations and that this increased knowledge makes the principals feel stronger in their role as leaders. During the first year of the programme this general knowledge primarily relates to legal aspects of leadership. It is evident that the principals experience that they have developed as educational leaders during the first year of the National School Leadership Training Programme. This thesis indicates that the main effect of the program is not to increase the principals’ knowledge in specific areas, but to develop the educational leadership and thus create more confident and better principals.