This research is a meta-analytic review of the effects of transformational school leadership (TSL)-- a systematic, comprehensive synthesis of the quantitative research on transformational school leadership. The review method used in this research is standard meta-analysis supplemented by narrative synthesis and vote-counting methods. The types of effect sizes involved in meta-analytical calculations are correlation coefficients rs. The evidence reviewed was provided exclusively by unpublished theses or dissertations that were completed between 1996 and 2008. This study identified 33 dimensions of transformational leadership as developed by various scholars and captured by a variety of leadership measures, which were synthesized into 11 core leadership dimensions. This study meta-analyzed the effects of transformational school leadership and its dimensions on a large range of school outcomes, including 17 school conditions (e.g., school culture, shared decision-making processes), 23 teacher-related outcomes (e.g., teacher satisfaction), and five types of student outcomes. Transformational school leadership was most influential on teachers’ emotions and inner states. TSL had large effects on teachers’ individual inner states and their practices while it had small effects on their group inner states. Leaders effectively influence teachers’ psychological inner states and practices mainly through modeling good practices themselves, providing support and intellectual stimulation to teachers individually and setting shared school goals. TSL was also very influential on school conditions. It had large effects on four key school conditions. This review detected significant, positive small direct effects of TSL on student achievements. The indirect effects of TSL on student learning vary when different school or teacher variables are controlled. This review identified seven important moderators and three mediators that significantly contributed to student learning along with TSL. Specific leadership practices that effectively influenced school and student outcomes were also examined and discussed. Regarding the moderating effects of contextual and methodological factors, school level and leadership measures were found to moderate leadership impacts significantly in some cases. The findings of this study provide guidance for school administrators and policy makers who want to improve school leadership as a means of improving school quality.

Historically, teachers’ unions have been some of the major organizational sites of social justice leadership in K-12 education (Kuehn, 2007; M. Murphy, 1990; Urban, 1982), but until the mid 1990s, the term “social justice unionism” (Peterson & Charney, 1999) had little currency in teacher union circles. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the concept of social justice unionism in context. In particular, I asked how teacher union activists contributed and responded to the institutionalization of social justice in their organization. I used a critical constructionist (Ball, 1987; Berger & Luckmann, 1966; D. E. Smith, 1987) perspective to analyze 25 career history (Goodson, 1994) interviews with teachers, staff and elected officials affiliated with the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation between 1967 and 2007, and found that successive generations of union-involved activists dedicated to labour solidarity, feminism, multiculturalism, anti-colonialism and anti-homophobia used networks of like-minded colleagues to counter bureaucratic norms within their organization, the education system and society. A qualitative depiction of these changes suggests that they were layered, multi-dimensional and uneven. They played out on a contested, uphill gradient shaped, but not determined, by four factors: the organizational prioritization of teacher welfare over social justice; historically persistent micro-political struggles between two federation caucuses; the centralizing tendencies of union leadership in response to the provincial government’s centralization of educational authority; and broader ruling relations in Canadian society. Still, despite this uphill gradient, all activist networks left a durable trace on federation history. The major significance of this finding for critical theorists and social justice activists is a modestly hopeful alternative to the traditional conceptions of change embedded in organizational theory: revolution, evolution or despair.

The purpose of this research was to learn about how coaching serves as a form of professional learning for newly-appointed vice-principals. This study is intended to add to our understanding of the ways in which coaching supports the professional learning of vice-principals in a context where their role is ill-defined and determined by their principal. A qualitative research approach was used which included personal interviews with fourteen first-time elementary vice-principals in five Ontario school districts. The study was based on the following research question: How does the coaching experience support the professional learning of first-time school administrators? The participants reported positive feelings about their coaching experiences. Specifically, they described that they appreciated the confidential and non-evaluative nature of the coaching relationship, that the focus was on their individual learning needs, and that the coaching provided opportunities to engage in reflective thinking. In terms of their learning, the participants reported that through coaching they built confidence, gained knowledge about both the managerial and leadership aspects of school leader roles, and that they learned about themselves and their own well-being in the process. Several challenges were reported. These included a desire for increased frequency of scheduled coaching sessions while maintaining a focus on learning during the sessions, and financial constraints for those who needed to be released from teaching responsibilities in order to participate in coaching. Based on their experiences, the participants described the vice-principal role as being determined by the principal, offering limited opportunity to exercise their own leadership, expecting them to follow decisions made by the principal, and serving to prepare them for the principalship. The thesis concludes that coaching for newly-appointed elementary vice-principals is a valuable experience because it serves as personalized professional learning that engages participants in reflective thought. The lack of clarity about the vice-principal role creates a situation where vice-principals understand their role principally through their experiences of it, not through research, policy, or training. As a result, each vice-principal has unique learning needs based on their experience of the role thus they benefit when their learning is personalized.

Waves of education reform in Ontario since the 1960s have resulted in widespread changes to curriculum, governance, and policy directives. Despite these continual reforms the structures and the practices of special education have changed very little since the early twentieth century. This dissertation looks at special education policy historically (1965-1980) in Ontario and offers an explanation for this resistance to change. Policy archaeology is developed in this study to map policy texts backwards through time and to interpret the meaning of policy discourses in these texts. The discourses produced by various policy actors are interpreted within the historical context to illuminate the ideologically informed beliefs of society about children with disabilities and their education. The ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, and scientific rationalism continue to construct the identities of children with disabilities as deviant from “normal” children. These differences are scientifically measured and quantified by medical and psychological professionals. The hierarchical organization of schooling sorts students into homogeneous groups according to ability. The constructed identities and segregated placements marginalize children with disabilities from the opportunities available to children in the regular classroom. Ideologies are stable and enduring and contribute to the stability of beliefs about special education in spite of extensive and continuous reforms in other areas of education. This dissertation builds on the earlier theories of the policy web (Joshee & Johnson, 2005). The large policy web of special education is composed of individual webs of meaning that represent the condensation symbols of disability, education, professionalism, management, and equality in particular ways that support the marginalization of children with disabilities. These webs are internally cohesive and related to each other by shared discourses. These interconnections give the web an intricate, irregular design but also give the web strength. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital, the members of the Ontario Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, and its members as individuals, held high forms of capital that were used as power. This association shaped policy discourses in particular ways that influenced beliefs about learning disabilities, acquired resources for children with learning disabilities, and reproduced privilege for the association.

This dissertation reports on a study of educational administrators and the value conflicts experienced within their schools. The extensive review of literature on values in educational administration has determined very little consensus regarding the influence of values on the practice of educational administrators. A lack of common understanding about the definition of the term values exists along with variations and inconsistencies regarding the pervasiveness of values in educational administration. School leaders frequently encounter value conflicts and their resolution involves considerable degrees of decision making. Participants in this study include members of the cohort of the Ed.D. Program in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) as well as practising educational administrators with extensive experience in school leadership. As the researcher works within the Catholic school system, the majority of study participants are Catholic administrators who were accessible to the researcher for participation. A qualitative research methodology was employed and fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted which focused on the three main research questions. The following research questions were addressed in the study: 1. How do educational administrators see the role of values in their work? 2. What types of value conflicts do educational administrators experience? 3. How do educational administrators resolve conflicts that stem from values issues? The findings herein indicate that administrators view values as extremely important and relevant in their work. The influence of values on administrator behavior is evident in how leaders define the term value: as a code/set of rules and fundamental beliefs that guide daily interactions; and a basis for decision making. In terms of conflicts, administrators experience interpersonal conflicts frequently and attribute this type of conflict to differences in stakeholder values. Educational administrators resolve conflicts that stem from values issues by taking a moral stand which allows them to remain committed to their values. The results of this study acknowledge and contribute to the existing field of studies relating to values and value conflict resolution within educational administration while simultaneously suggesting further implications for future research. The adoption of a values-based leadership model and its associated values clarification process is recommended for school leaders as a framework to deal with the existing realities of their complex role. This model has tremendous potential to transform the existing face of educational administration provided it is seamlessly integrated within educational organizations and becomes the new standard of leadership practice.

This research is a meta-analytic review of the effects of transformational school leadership (TSL)-- a systematic, comprehensive synthesis of the quantitative research on transformational school leadership. The review method used in this research is standard meta-analysis supplemented by narrative synthesis and vote-counting methods. The types of effect sizes involved in meta-analytical calculations are correlation coefficients rs. The evidence reviewed was provided exclusively by unpublished theses or dissertations that were completed between 1996 and 2008. This study identified 33 dimensions of transformational leadership as developed by various scholars and captured by a variety of leadership measures, which were synthesized into 11 core leadership dimensions. This study meta-analyzed the effects of transformational school leadership and its dimensions on a large range of school outcomes, including 17 school conditions (e.g., school culture, shared decision-making processes), 23 teacher-related outcomes (e.g., teacher satisfaction), and five types of student outcomes. Transformational school leadership was most influential on teachers’ emotions and inner states. TSL had large effects on teachers’ individual inner states and their practices while it had small effects on their group inner states. Leaders effectively influence teachers’ psychological inner states and practices mainly through modeling good practices themselves, providing support and intellectual stimulation to teachers individually and setting shared school goals. TSL was also very influential on school conditions. It had large effects on four key school conditions. This review detected significant, positive small direct effects of TSL on student achievements. The indirect effects of TSL on student learning vary when different school or teacher variables are controlled. This review identified seven important moderators and three mediators that significantly contributed to student learning along with TSL. Specific leadership practices that effectively influenced school and student outcomes were also examined and discussed. Regarding the moderating effects of contextual and methodological factors, school level and leadership measures were found to moderate leadership impacts significantly in some cases. The findings of this study provide guidance for school administrators and policy makers who want to improve school leadership as a means of improving school quality.

Historically, teachers’ unions have been some of the major organizational sites of social justice leadership in K-12 education (Kuehn, 2007; M. Murphy, 1990; Urban, 1982), but until the mid 1990s, the term “social justice unionism” (Peterson & Charney, 1999) had little currency in teacher union circles. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the concept of social justice unionism in context. In particular, I asked how teacher union activists contributed and responded to the institutionalization of social justice in their organization. I used a critical constructionist (Ball, 1987; Berger & Luckmann, 1966; D. E. Smith, 1987) perspective to analyze 25 career history (Goodson, 1994) interviews with teachers, staff and elected officials affiliated with the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation between 1967 and 2007, and found that successive generations of union-involved activists dedicated to labour solidarity, feminism, multiculturalism, anti-colonialism and anti-homophobia used networks of like-minded colleagues to counter bureaucratic norms within their organization, the education system and society. A qualitative depiction of these changes suggests that they were layered, multi-dimensional and uneven. They played out on a contested, uphill gradient shaped, but not determined, by four factors: the organizational prioritization of teacher welfare over social justice; historically persistent micro-political struggles between two federation caucuses; the centralizing tendencies of union leadership in response to the provincial government’s centralization of educational authority; and broader ruling relations in Canadian society. Still, despite this uphill gradient, all activist networks left a durable trace on federation history. The major significance of this finding for critical theorists and social justice activists is a modestly hopeful alternative to the traditional conceptions of change embedded in organizational theory: revolution, evolution or despair.

The purpose of this research was to learn about how coaching serves as a form of professional learning for newly-appointed vice-principals. This study is intended to add to our understanding of the ways in which coaching supports the professional learning of vice-principals in a context where their role is ill-defined and determined by their principal. A qualitative research approach was used which included personal interviews with fourteen first-time elementary vice-principals in five Ontario school districts. The study was based on the following research question: How does the coaching experience support the professional learning of first-time school administrators? The participants reported positive feelings about their coaching experiences. Specifically, they described that they appreciated the confidential and non-evaluative nature of the coaching relationship, that the focus was on their individual learning needs, and that the coaching provided opportunities to engage in reflective thinking. In terms of their learning, the participants reported that through coaching they built confidence, gained knowledge about both the managerial and leadership aspects of school leader roles, and that they learned about themselves and their own well-being in the process. Several challenges were reported. These included a desire for increased frequency of scheduled coaching sessions while maintaining a focus on learning during the sessions, and financial constraints for those who needed to be released from teaching responsibilities in order to participate in coaching. Based on their experiences, the participants described the vice-principal role as being determined by the principal, offering limited opportunity to exercise their own leadership, expecting them to follow decisions made by the principal, and serving to prepare them for the principalship. The thesis concludes that coaching for newly-appointed elementary vice-principals is a valuable experience because it serves as personalized professional learning that engages participants in reflective thought. The lack of clarity about the vice-principal role creates a situation where vice-principals understand their role principally through their experiences of it, not through research, policy, or training. As a result, each vice-principal has unique learning needs based on their experience of the role thus they benefit when their learning is personalized.

This study examines the elements of collaborative research partnerships (CRPs) between university researchers and other organizations or individuals in the education sector whose mandate is to conduct and disseminate research for service delivery. Studying these partnerships for knowledge mobilization(KMb)includes understanding the roles partners take on; the tensions or facilitators they face when bringing research into practice; the structures to maintain the partnership; and the knowledge mobilization activities. Phase 1 takes an in-depth look at one partnership using key informant interviews and document analysis, while phase 2 utilizes a survey between four overarching university-community organization partnerships across Canada. Findings suggest that although difficult, when research producers and users work together, capacity is built at the organizational level to view research evidence as an important part of the organizational service delivery, with small impacts on individual knowledge development; that partnerships remain informal in their practice; that the mechanisms by which partners use to communicate within the partnership and the frequency of communication helps to build relationships between partners; and the ideal type of CRP, where they ought to always be an equal endeavour, is overstated in the literature. Not all useful partnerships are exact equal contributions from research producers and their user-based partners. Implications include that researchers gain access to practice expertise and insights into practice-based research rather than engaging in only theoretical research while community partners gain access to greater capacity for understanding and using research through exchanges with academics.

This study examines the elements of collaborative research partnerships (CRPs) between university researchers and other organizations or individuals in the education sector whose mandate is to conduct and disseminate research for service delivery. Studying these partnerships for knowledge mobilization(KMb)includes understanding the roles partners take on; the tensions or facilitators they face when bringing research into practice; the structures to maintain the partnership; and the knowledge mobilization activities. Phase 1 takes an in-depth look at one partnership using key informant interviews and document analysis, while phase 2 utilizes a survey between four overarching university-community organization partnerships across Canada. Findings suggest that although difficult, when research producers and users work together, capacity is built at the organizational level to view research evidence as an important part of the organizational service delivery, with small impacts on individual knowledge development; that partnerships remain informal in their practice; that the mechanisms by which partners use to communicate within the partnership and the frequency of communication helps to build relationships between partners; and the ideal type of CRP, where they ought to always be an equal endeavour, is overstated in the literature. Not all useful partnerships are exact equal contributions from research producers and their user-based partners. Implications include that researchers gain access to practice expertise and insights into practice-based research rather than engaging in only theoretical research while community partners gain access to greater capacity for understanding and using research through exchanges with academics.