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This research examines the extent to which the TTA, Ofsted and the academic literature agree on the criteria on what makes effective subject leaders in London secondary schools. The role of subject leaders is an evolving one where they have to deal with the process of change. Many subject leaders were not prepared for the devolution of management and leadership tasks they had to undertake, especially as a result of the ERA (1988). The three bodies, the TTA, Ofsted and the academic literature, all have an input in developing the role and focusing on what makes subject leaders effective. Despite having some, although limited, convergence on the effectiveness of subject leaders, they do emphasis different aspects of the role to the exclusion of others areas. The aspects they emphasise tend to relate to their individual functions and purposes. Lawton's five level model of curriculum control was the framework used for structuring the literature review. One of the central themes of the review is that subject leaders are expected to translate government policies to their departmental members to ensure effective teaching and learning takes place in their subject areas. Thus, this emphasises the important aspects of management and leadership that are central to the work of subject leaders. Particularly, this research highlights four key functions as the main responsibilities of subject leaders: management and leadership, quality of teaching, management of the learning experience and students' standard of achievement. These areas are common to the TTA, Ofsted and the academic literature. The Ofsted reports, on the other hand, confirm the continuing weaknesses in subject leaders' performance with respect to management and leadership functions. Subject leaders play an increasing role in school improvement at the departmental level. This study outlines the varying and demanding functions that subject leaders have to undertake without being given extra consideration for the work in the area of management and leadership duties they have to perform. These are mainly in the area of management and leadership. It concludes by suggesting that subject leaders need training for this demanding role therefore training providers need to collaborate on the content of such programmes.

Since the year 2000, all Hong Kong schools have implemented a school-based management policy. Such a policy is expected to provide teachers with opportunities to become involved in school decision making, which has been identified as one of the key characteristics of an effective school. This research is based on an empirical study of teachers from Hong Kong aided secondary schools. It investigates the status quo of their current involvement in school decision making and the factors affecting their participation. It explores the relationship between teachers' perceptions of school managerial practices, their perceptions of their participation in decision making, and their perceptions of their job satisfaction, commitment and workload. The research uses a survey method for data collection. The analysis is based on data from questionnaires, which were completed by 405 teachers from 22 aided secondary schools in June 2002. A correlational research design was used. The analysis was statistical, using both descriptive and inferential data analysis procedures. Three instruments based on Likert five-point scales were constructed to measure (1) the level of teacher participation in decision making within four decision domains: school level managerial, class level technical, school level technical and class level managerial decision domains (2) four variables of managerial practices: bureaucratic control, collaboration, professional autonomy and shared vision and (3) three variables in the affective domain: job satisfaction, job commitment and teachers' perceptions of their workload. Factor analysis and reliability analysis were used to confirm the construct validity and internal consistency of the instruments. The findings throw light on the relationship of teachers? perceptions of the management practices of their schools and their perceptions of their participation in decision making. Teachers? involvement in decision making was significantly related to their perceptions of bureaucratic control, collaboration, professional autonomy and shared vision. It was possible to predict participation in different decision domains from teachers? perceptions of different management practices. The research identifies the decision domains within which teachers were involved in decision making and finds that both overall and within each of these domains the status quo is one of decision deprivation in which teachers perceptions of their actual involvement in decision making is consistently and significantly lower than their desired participation. The findings also suggest that higher job satisfaction and higher teaching commitment are correlated with greater participation by teachers in decision making in all four decision domains. On the other hand, although higher workload was correlated with high participation in the instructional decision domain, workload bore little relationship to the other decision domains. This thesis is intended to make an original contribution to educational management. Its findings suggest practical steps that could be taken by school administrators to increase teachers? participation in decision making. The results confirm those of other studies that suggest that an increase in teachers? participation in school decision making will contribute to greater school effectiveness. The thesis also provides a theoretical model that can be used in other research.

This research investigated the perceptions of student-teachers and lecturers regarding Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for secondary teachers in Zimbabwe. The ways in which factors in and between the university and school settings for ITE shaped learning to teach were investigated. Student-teachers’ and lecturers’ perceptions of the development of ideas as student-teachers moved through the different stages of training were also investigated. The study employed a qualitative case study methodology and methods - interviews, biographical questionnaires and document analysis. Data analysis began by defining a priori themes and identifying parts of the interview transcripts that were relevant to these a priori themes. The initial coding was then refined by adding additional codes which emerged from the data to create a final coding template to interpret findings. Activity Theory was used to provide a conceptual map to help describe and analyse the findings. Student-teachers had varied backgrounds and motives for joining the teacher education programme. These were often at variance with the goals of ITE. They had pre-conceived ideas about teaching from their years of schooling, prior training and work experience. Student-teachers were learning to teach in the university setting and attempting to prove their competence in school settings. In both settings students, teachers and lecturers constituted the learning communities. Relationships and availability of tools often determined the kind of support student-teachers were receiving. The factors encountered within and between the two different activity systems shaped learning to teach in various ways. ‘Taken-for-granted’ practices were not questioned and this limited the ways in which ideas presented in the university were used in the school setting. The student-teachers’ professional development, evident both to the students themselves as well as their lecturers, demonstrated not only growth in their pedagogical maturity, but also some deeper insights and the beginnings of their teacher identity. Much literature argues that learning to become an effective practitioner necessitates the use of reflective practice as a tool to resolve contradictions and for processing and internalising the complexities of boundary crossing between settings. The ‘theory-practice’ gap can be viewed as a ‘transformation space’ where teacher identity is often developed. A model to explain learning to teach made up of five elements is proposed: preconceived ideas of teaching, new ideas, contradictions, socialisation and reflective practice. The findings suggest that the university where the study was carried out should harmonise espoused practice and actual practice so that activities are consistent with the notion of concurrent learning. Concerted efforts are also needed to develop collaborative school-university partnerships, which foster reflective practice as a tool to promote professional development. Staff development programmes are needed to develop appropriate working practices. Working conditions for teachers need to be revised by the Zimbabwe government, both to encourage teaching as a desirable profession and to keep pace with changes occurring in pedagogic practice. Further research is needed to investigate how students can successfully negotiate and learn from university-school boundary crossing issues, and what sort of boundary brokers and tools are needed. Contextual factors in Zimbabwe are such that little funding is available to develop ITE. The challenge is to find innovative ways of using scarce resources to produce high quality teachers.