A growing number of traditional school boards and city mayors are looking for the next generation of school superintendents to come prepared with a variety of professional backgrounds to provide instructional leadership for school districts. The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and describe the experiences, of five urban non-traditional superintendents. Associated research methods, namely interviews with study participants and the identification of major themes emerging from the data, were employed. Six emergent themes were revealed, including change agent, accountability, political connection/clout, school reform, student achievement and excellent leadership. Profiles of the participants were offered to provide a context for the results of this study. In relation to the major themes, these participants believed that their backgrounds in corporate worlds and other professions uniquely prepared them for the increased challenges of today’s school superintendency. They all indicated that they assumed the helms in their respective school systems for altruistic reasons. However, once on the job, the participants noted that they suffered personally and professionally. They found themselves victims of little respect from the community, media and from their own governing bodies. In terms of preparation for the job, the non-traditional superintendents practiced self-study through reading leadership and journal articles and by attending conferences. The participants also experienced different challenges in gaining certification for the superintendency due to disparate state regulations governing licensure. Several recommendations resulted from the findings of this study. Since academic performance is the primary indicator of success or failure in education today, future researchers in this area might consider a quantitative analysis of student achievement in districts led by non-traditional superintendents compared to academic performance in those systems led by their traditional counterparts. In addition, it is suggested that these participants’ views on superintendent preparation and certification and on governance issues may be considered by school districts, state and federal agencies and by universities as they develop future policy and programs. Other recommendations addressed the need to study female non-traditional superintendent governance and non-traditional leaders in smaller school districts as it relates to these issues.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the relationship among educational reform stress, working values, and organizational commitment perceived by primary school teachers. First, relevant literature on educational reform, job stress of teachers, working values, and organizational commitment is collected, investigated, and analyzed. Next, the framework of the research is devised, the questionnaire is edited and pre-tested, and the research instrument of this study¡X¡§Questionnaire of Education Reforms and the Work Attitude of Primary School Teachers¡¨¡Xis developed accordingly. Then, primary school teachers of Kaohsiung county are used as research population, from which 810 teachers in 67 schools are randomly sampled as research subjects. 761 copies of the 810 questionnaires issued are returned, among which 750 copies are valid. The returning ratio is 92%. After questionnaires are collected, statistics methods, such as descriptive analysis, t-test, one way MANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation, canonical correlation, and stepwise multiple regression, are used to analyze them. Finally, results of this study are discussed. Conclusions of this study are as follows: a) The greatest education reform pressure primary school teachers feel is ¡§workload¡¨, and the second greatest is ¡§curriculum reform¡¨. b) The highest value primary school teachers emphasize is ¡§organizational security¡¨, and the second greatest is ¡§interpersonal relationship¡¨. c) Primary school teachers are mostly content with organizational commitments which are ¡§a hard-working attitude¡¨, ¡§the inclination to keep the job¡¨ and ¡§organizational identity¡¨. d) Primary school teachers have different educational reform pressure, work values, and organizational commitment due to their different backgrounds. e) The less educational reform pressure primary school teachers feel the higher commitment they make. f) The higher work value primary school teachers emphasize the higher commitment they make. g) For most of primary school teachers, education reform pressure and organizational commitment are related in a negative way. h) For primary school teachers, work values and organizational commitment are related in a positive way. i) The relationship among education reform pressure, work values and organizational commitment of primary school teachers. j) Education reform pressure and work values can predict organizational commitment. And interpersonal relationship is a major predicator variable. According to the above conclusions, this study brings about the following results: A. For educational administrative organization: a) Education reform should include complete complementary packages, increase the number of teachers to reduce teacher's workload. b) Raise work values and strengthen teacher's organizational commitment. c) Accredit and support elementary teachers¡¦ highly positive hard-working attitude. B. For School Administrative: a) Encourage elementary teachers attending educational workshops, acquiring future knowledge, and adapting changes. b) Set reasonable work goals, improve the work environment and reduce teacher's work pressure. c) Strengthen teacher's ability to manage pressure and improve their mental and physical health. d) Build excellent interpersonal relationship and interactive patterns. e) Establish a rotation mechanism of teacher's holding concurrent administrative jobs and increase the opportunities of teachers' participation in the decision-making of school affairs. f) Guide and show concerns for young and inexperienced teachers in order to solidify their sense of cohesion. C. For teachers: a) Actively attend workshops and conferences to increase professional knowledge. b) Seize any opportunities to participate in administrative work. c) Expand social circles to improve interpersonal interactive relationship. D. Submit suggestions to object of study, research methods, research variables, and research instruments respectively, as some people of interest might pursue the topic of this study further.

Nicaragua has undergone several major upheavals in the last three decades that have fundamentally shaped and reshaped society. The Sandinista government (1979-1990) ended with the election of Violeta Chamorro in 1990 that ushered in 16 years of neoliberal government. In 2006 former president and leader of the current Sandinista Party, Daniel Ortega, was reelected to the presidency. At every step, education has been an essential component of the struggle to shape the state according to certain ideological precepts. Each administration has produced its own educational reforms that are ostensibly in the name of improving quality, but more precisely about developing schools consistent with the philosophy of the ruling classes. In this study, I seek to examine the Nicaraguan educational system as a site of multiple global and local processes that interact to produce lived experiences for teachers and students in and out of the classroom. In examining the most recent iteration of educational reforms and their effects in the communities of San Marcos, Estelí and Bluefields, I ask the questions: What role or function does education play in society? How does it “work” to (in most cases) normalize certain values, ideas and beliefs? And what forms do resistance and acquiescence to these processes take in an educational system like that of Nicaragua that has numerous internal and external forces attempting to condition it in contrasting ways? Major themes that emerge from the research include the prominence of social, historical and geographical factors that people use to fashion their language and perceptions of the world and the dominant influence of local power relations in conditioning people’s behaviors and actions. Analysis of responses to the current educational reform efforts demonstrates that local social connections and networks are paramount to studies of ideology and hegemony. The overriding message from Nicaragua is that chronic underfunding and constant reform have weakened the ability of the educational system to disseminate ideas, beliefs and values, particularly when they run counter to those of other powerful institutions in society. / text

This thesis showed an analysis of what happened when global educational reforms were implemented in a local Moroccan culture context. Through analyzing and deconstructing discourses in policy documents, as well as qualitative interviews with teachers and pupils in municipal uppersecondary schools and comparing these to each other, a picture was given of what happened in the meeting between the new policies and the implementation of them locally; how they were implemented, resisted and negotiated by different parties concerned. The educational policy, advocating e.g. Education for All, and acquisition of foreign language skills, reproduced social hierarchies when implemented in the Moroccan context. Post-colonial languages, such as French, worked as a class cursor, creating a rift between the social classes and their access to higher education. Student-centered methods were resisted by the teachers, but negotiated by the pupils.

The effects of the public sector reform impacted on all aspects of public services including the performance of the economy. Central to this argument was the re-organization of the operations of the public service from the traditional administration system to the new public management (NPM). Education, a critical service in any economy was not spared. Literatures around the application of NPM (a derivative of market principles and practices) to education (which was value based) suggested that NPM was dangerous for education and could deplete the value system of education and replace that with a focus on accounting for money by individuals who were self-interested and who would seek to maximize their benefit with guile. Arguments against NPM suggested that the human factor was neglected and that education had led to chaos among professionals, stakeholders and students. However, those who argued for the introduction of NPM suggested that it had made the provision of education more efficient, effective and relevant to the needs to the clients. It held those working in the education sector accountable for the resources used and made the system more responsive to the needs of the clients of education. Education in the Cook Islands experienced many changes since western type education was introduced by the Missionaries in the late 1800s. Cook Islands people have always regarded education as a right and also believed their participation in education would improve their lives as well as positively contribute to economic growth. As the public sector reform was a global phenomenon, the currents of NPM also converged on the Cook Islands and affected the delivery of education. Those changes revolutionalized education in ways that was not commonplace in the Cook Islands. However, professionals and stakeholders within education made the most of the system and diverged some of the practices to suit the need, the environment and the culture of the Cook Islands people. Change also refocused education from teachers teaching to student learning reinforcing the dedication of many teachers and education administrators to ensure NPM served the best interest of their clients; the students, despite the workload placed on them. The challenge in this thesis was to understand how the NPM system affected education and how the Cook Islands education professionals worked within the system in their favour. The stories of teachers and Ministry of Education professionals demonstrated that there was no resistance to the application of NPM system in the Cook Islands. In fact, the system was embraced by the education sector suggesting it was a positive change from their previous system of traditional administration. Much of their system was inherited from New Zealand where the environment, layers of bureaucracy and economic status of the country was different. Instead, it appeared the Cook Islands took much of what others deemed as dangerous for education and turned it into a positive opportunity for the Cook Islands education. This thesis presents the story of the revolution in the Cook Island education system.

Sendo um assunto recente à história do país, e que durante vinte um anos fora tolhido a análise dos estudiosos, devido à censura e a repressão do governo ditatorial, o período anterior ao dia 01 de abril de 1964 vem despertando nos meios acadêmicos a necessidade de novas discussões que sejam capazes de trazer respostas à sociedade a respeito daqueles anos, e que possam gerar perspectivas quanto aos problemas estruturais que ainda hoje não foram solucionados. Por isso, este trabalho visa analisar a trajetória política e pedagógica do professor Paulo Freire, entre os anos de 1959 e 1964, tendo como foco a sua atuação na construção de um novo projeto de alfabetização de jovens e adultos no Brasil, em especial, na cidade de Angicos/RN e reconstruir as reflexões do mesmo acerca da democracia brasileira, da educação, da cultura e da política no citado período. / Being subject to a recent history of the country, and who for twenty one years off hampered the analysis of scholars, because of censorship and repression of the dictatorship, the day prior to April 1, 1964 period has aroused in academia the need for new discussions that are able to provide answers to society about those years, and they can generate prospects as the structural problems that still have not been solved. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the political and pedagogical trajectory of Professor Paulo Freire, between the years 1959 and 1964, focusing on its role in the construction of a new literacy project for young people and adults in Brazil, especially in city Angicos / RN and rebuild the same reflections about Brazilian democracy, education, culture and politics in that period.

Sendo um assunto recente à história do país, e que durante vinte um anos fora tolhido a análise dos estudiosos, devido à censura e a repressão do governo ditatorial, o período anterior ao dia 01 de abril de 1964 vem despertando nos meios acadêmicos a necessidade de novas discussões que sejam capazes de trazer respostas à sociedade a respeito daqueles anos, e que possam gerar perspectivas quanto aos problemas estruturais que ainda hoje não foram solucionados. Por isso, este trabalho visa analisar a trajetória política e pedagógica do professor Paulo Freire, entre os anos de 1959 e 1964, tendo como foco a sua atuação na construção de um novo projeto de alfabetização de jovens e adultos no Brasil, em especial, na cidade de Angicos/RN e reconstruir as reflexões do mesmo acerca da democracia brasileira, da educação, da cultura e da política no citado período. / Being subject to a recent history of the country, and who for twenty one years off hampered the analysis of scholars, because of censorship and repression of the dictatorship, the day prior to April 1, 1964 period has aroused in academia the need for new discussions that are able to provide answers to society about those years, and they can generate prospects as the structural problems that still have not been solved. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the political and pedagogical trajectory of Professor Paulo Freire, between the years 1959 and 1964, focusing on its role in the construction of a new literacy project for young people and adults in Brazil, especially in city Angicos / RN and rebuild the same reflections about Brazilian democracy, education, culture and politics in that period.

Around water coolers, faculty rooms, and classroom corners, art teachers discuss their concerns about maintaining a balance between making, teaching, and studying art. Research indicates there are advantages and disadvantages to commingling these activities, and about how these activities inform each other. The purpose of this study is to not only research what has been written, but also discover through interviews, using a narrative inquiry/case study approach, what living, breathing artist teachers are doing to that allows them to take advantage of the symbiotic nature of making, teaching, and studying art.

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