Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management / PHD (CS)

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Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om rektors styrning och ledning när hen organiserar samarbetet mellan fritidshemmet och grundskolan. Frågor som ställs fokuserar hur frirum nyttjas och hur korstryck hanteras.  Tidigare studier visar att rektors styrning och ledning, liksom undervisningens kvalitet, behöver utvecklas. Samarbete mellan fritidshemmets och grundskolans personal sker i låg grad och kopplingen mellan lärtillfällen är svag. Denna kvalitativa studie använde Frirumsteorin som teoretisk utgångspunkt och analysverktyg. Teorin utgår från konflikten mellan formella och informella styrnings- och ledningsmekanismer. Empiriskt material inhämtades via observationer och frågeformulär. Analysen gjordes utifrån kriterierna för kontinuumet uniprofessionell – multiprofessionell inom den professionella sfären samt kontinuumet differentierad – integrerad inom den byråkratiska/administrativa sfären. Resultatet visar att frirummet begränsades av yttre händelser och ett beroende av externt stöd. Ett ökat korstryck uppstod. Kulturen i skolornas ledningsgrupper beskrivs som integrerad och mestadels multiprofessionell. Avseende Coronapandemins påverkan syns inslag av uniprofessionalism. En slutsats är att en helhetssyn är mer framgångsrik för att rektorer ska lyckas organisera för samarbete och kompletterande undervisning. Vid förändringar, torde en integrerad skolkultur präglad av multiprofessionalism vara mest gynnsam. Studien uppmärksammar styrnings- och ledningsperspektivet; rektors roll för måluppfyllelsen i fritidshemmet, samt prövar en kartläggningsmetod med tillhörande begreppsapparat, vilka är teoretiskt och vetenskapligt förankrade i Frirumsteorin. / The purpose of this thesis is to add knowledge about the headteacher´s governance and management when organizing the collaboration between Leisure-time Centre and compulsory school. Questions asked focused on how Scope for Action and conflicting pressure is met by headteachers. Previous studies show that the headteacher's governance and management, as well as the quality of teaching, need improvement. Collaboration between staff in Leisure-time Centre and the school takes place to a low degree and the connection between learning opportunities is weak. This qualitative study used the Scope for Action Theory as a theoretical starting point and analysis tool. The theory is based on the conflict between formal and informal mechanisms of governance and management. Data was gathered from observations and questionnaires. Analysis was made on basis of the criteria for the continuum uniprofessional - multiprofessional within the Professional Sphere and the continuum differentiated - integrated within the Bureaucratic/administrative sphere. The result shows that Scope for Action was limited by external events and an increase of dependence on external support. Conflicting pressure increased. The culture in the management groups is described as integrated and mostly multiprofessional. Regarding the influence of the Corona pandemic, elements of uniprofessionalism are shown. One conclusion is that a holistic approach is more successful for headteachers to succeed in organizing for collaboration and complementary teaching. In the face of change, an integrated culture characterized by multi-professionalism is likely to be most favorable. The study draws attention to the governance and management perspective; the headteacher's role for attainment of goals in Leisure-time Center as well as testing a mapping method with a conceptual framework, which is theoretically and scientifically anchored in the Scope for Action Theory.

Historically, over the years, it seems that globally, societies have undergone severe changes, due to population movements, because of wars, internal conflicts and pandemics. History repeats itself today, as wars, civil violence, poverty and pandemics have not stopped, causing an influx of refugees and migrants in the western world (USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, etc.). Greece is one of these countries, which is an accessible place for refugees and migrants, due to its geophysical location. Therefore, up to this day, the coexistence of people with different races, cultures, religions and languages is a point of discussion for the host countries. As a standard value, social justice creates conditions of equality and acceptance of diversity, passing down from generation to generation through family and, later, school. Social justice in education is linked to the ability to perceive conditions that marginalize and exclude children of certain social groups from access to education and knowledge. At the same time, it is linked to the creation of an open democratic school, which promotes the values of equality, acceptance and love for those students, who belong to marginalized social groups, such as refugees and migrants. School leadership of social justice is the continuation of education of social justice, called upon to envision and create this open democratic school through transformational leadership practices. This research comes to add another stone to the previous relevant research, inspired by them, aiming at highlighting the implementation of school leadership of social justice in Greek multicultural primary schools in the light of the views of their principals. Through the development of the theoretical framework, this research paper, presenting historical backgrounds from the Middle Ages to the present day, thoroughly describes the multicultural social context in Greece and Europe, as well as social justice in the educational and school leadership process. Specifically, this research study attempts to discover the inclusive practices of school leadership of social justice, which are related to the co-education of refugee/migrant students in the Greek primary schools and to highlight problems that may, possibly, stop them. Action research has been chosen as an appropriate methodological tool, since its main goal is to explore and understand societies and educational systems, as well as to achieve their change to a better quality. The research process, which, in fact, took place in the year 2021, is characterized by a substantial social phenomenon, which stroke humanity, worldwide, at that time. The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant changes to the operation of schools, as education was carried out remotely, through special platforms, resulting in the closure of schools for long periods of time. For this reason, quantitative methods and practices have been used, such as the questionnaire, which is the most appropriate and reliable form of research tool, especially when research takes place in such difficult social conditions. The investigation focused on: a) the search for practices followed by school social justice leaders to include refugee/migrant students, b) the search for problems that may deter these practices, and c) the intercultural values that govern the school leader of social justice. The most important findings of the research can be summarized as follows: a) school leaders believe in the value of social justice and try to implement and promote it, creating an appropriate school environment, b) they believe in the co-education of refugee/migrant children with other students in the same classroom and not at separate times in the school timetable, c) they consider that coexistence with refugee/migrant students is beneficial for all children, d) they believe that the main problem that makes it difficult for them to include refugee/migrant students into the school environment is the different language and religion and e) even if they believe that inclusive practices should be applied for these students, Greek school leaders do not seem to organize and implement intercultural innovative educational programs and events at their schools. The originality and contribution of this research study to the science of school leadership of social justice is essential, as it has given its intercultural dimension in the light of the inclusion of refugee/migrant students. There are not many research studies that focus on the intercultural character of school leadership of social justice. Therefore, this research, in Greece, provides the opportunity to obtain important information for being used by the Greek and international Ministries of Education. The main proposal of this research concerns the design and imperative implementation of Intercultural Education Training Programs for school leaders, as, nowadays, worldwide, not only in Greece, school has a multicultural nature.

Educational administration is such a demanding field, so it is important to understand why an aspiring principal would self-select to commit to an optional yearlong, intensive professional development activity with very little compensation and no promotion. Motivation may prove to be a key component of the recruitment and sustainability of professional development activities. By discovering the factors affecting both personal and professional motivation of beginning administrators to participate in a professional development led by the collaboration among the Tennessee Department of Education, Vanderbilt University, and Governor Bill Haslam, the researcher hopes to gain an understanding that may apply to future professional development activities in educational leadership. This qualitative study was based on the phenomenological inquiry research design. The study was open to all recent members of the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership (GASL) program. Eleven of the members chose to participate in the study. Participants completed an online, open-ended questionnaire followed by an in-depth one-on-one interview using Google Hangouts. Participants were asked to share both personal and professional factors related to their motivation to participate in the GASL program. Through analysis of the data, the researcher identified five factors that influenced personal motivations. These included a desire for self-improvement, self-motivation, the novelty of the experience, competitive nature of the program, and the honor to be considered. The researcher identified three factors that influenced professional motivations including advancement of license, networking opportunities, and marketability. When comparing responses based on gender, females noted the novelty of the experience while males noted the exclusivity of the program as motivational factors. Females in this study tended to relate networking as personal connectedness while males related it to professional connectedness. The intensive year long program and affiliation with Vanderbilt University were also found to positively impact the motivation of individuals to participate in the program. Two main themes emerged from the study: relatedness and competence. Both of these related directly back and support findings of Deci and Ryan’s Self Determination Theory.

Syftet med den här magisteruppsatsen är att få en bild av hur skolledare och lärare ser på kommunikationsformen medarbetarsamtalet, kopplat till skolutveckling, i den svenska gymnasieskolan. Uppsatsen följer en fenomenologisk forskningsansats, i vilken en etnografisk modell med åtta kvalitativa intervjuer av tre skolledare och fem lärare på två gymnasieskolor setts som en fallstudie. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av en narrativ metod och kritisk diskursanalys (CDA) och resultatet visar att skolledare och lärare talar om skolutveckling på disparata sätt i medarbetarsamtalet men också att förberedelser och feedback på medarbetarsamtalet skiljer sig åt och upplevelsen av medarbetarsamtalet är därför att det inte påverkar skolutvecklingen på de två gymnasieskolorna. / The purpose of this essay is to get a picture of how school principals and teachers look upon the particular communication that is known as discussions about personal development and the connection with school development at upper secondary school in Sweden. The essay follows a phenomenological research concept, in which eight qualitative research interviews within an ethnographical model have been obtained with three school principals and five teachers, as a case study. The data has been analyzed by a narrative method and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and shows that school principals and teachers talk about school development in different ways in their discussions about personal development, but also that preparations and feedback on the discussions differ. Discussions about personal development therefore have no impact on school development, according to the participants in this study.

The purpose of this mixed methods research was to investigate the transformational leadership role of principals in Ethiopian secondary schools. The research examined the existence of transformational school leadership behaviours, strategies that leaders were employing and the relationship between transformational leadership roles of the principal and student achievement (10th grade GESLCE). Mixed methods involving qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection were used in order to triangulate the data and increase the validity of empirical material. The student achievement was assessed on the basis of on the percentage of passes in standardized assessments for the school year (2012/2005-2015/2007). Secondary schools in South Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS) whose principals had been the incumbent for three or more years were selected purposively. A total of 80 surveys were distributed to school principals and 680 survey questionnaires to teachers in identified schools. Seventy-six school principals and 642 teachers returned the surveys representing 95% and 94.4 % return rate for principals and teachers, respectively. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with supervisors and teachers who worked with principals. Participants were informed of the objectives of the study and assured of the confidentiality of the research both in formal letters and in person. Factor analysis, means, standard deviations, Pearson and Spearman rho correlations, t-test and standard multiple regression were used to analyse quantitative data. In contrast, qualitative data were analyzed by grouping together common themes in each category and constructing a description of the participants’ views and perspectives. The findings revealed that transformational school leadership and its dimensions exist in secondary schools of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Among the six dimensions (namely; sharing school vision and building consensus, high performance expectation, individualized support, intellectual stimulation, modelling behaviour and building collaborative structure and strengthening school culture) three of them were ranked highly. These are, building collaborative structure, strengthening school culture and sharing school vision. On the other hand, building consensus and modelling behaviour had moderate score whereas, individualized support had relatively very low rank. Transformational leadership was accomplished through involving staff to be part of the mission, encouraging staff to come up with new initiatives, challenging the staff to meet beyond agreed standards, building trust, coach and support at individual level, sharing tasks as well as power, acting ethically and celebrating achievements to make their school effective. The relationship between transformational school leadership and student achievement showed that there is positive and moderate relationship, although it was statistically not significant. Socio-demographic data such as number of students in a school showed a negative correlation with student achievement. It is concluded that there was relationship between the principals’ transformational leadership role and student achievement in secondary school of SNNPRS of Ethiopia. Finally, the research calls for the principals to focus on more moral and material assistance to their staff’s professional growth, significant attention to the preparation and development of principals and adoption of transformational school leadership model in secondary school. The findings of the study add to limited but growing body of research on student achievement and the role of the transformational school leadership of the principal in school effectiveness. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Litt. et Phil. (Education Management)

The researcher became interested in the topic regarding job satisfaction amongst male teachers when he attended his university reunion, more than 40% of the male teachers who graduated with a degree in education left the education system within 5 years. After making contact with some of the graduates, the researcher found that all of them left the education system because they were not satisfied within their work environment; hence, the researcher became interested in the topic. The most rewarding aspect of being a teacher is the joy of being in the classroom with learners and seeing them progress. However, what if there is no progression, but only statistics indicating failure to educate learners, an education system in crisis and educators without proper qualifications? A shortage of teachers, increasing learner enrolment and work overload are enough to create a highly stressful profession. The learning environment of a school depends on teachers, because they are in the frontline and directly involved with the transfer of knowledge. Teachers have a direct impact on a school’s success. Therefore, it is important that principals identify ways to support their staff in order to promote job satisfaction and motivation. The aim of this study is to investigate, from an educational management perspective, the factors that influence job satisfaction amongst male teachers in schools in the Ehlanzeni school district, Mpumalanga. The sequential explanatory mixed-method approach is used during this study; the quantitative phase investigated factors affecting job satisfaction amongst male teachers by means of distributing 200 Likert-scale questionnaires amongst male teachers in the Ehlanzeni school district. Structured interviews is being scheduled with twelve school principals (three rural primary school principals, three former Model-C primary school principals, three rural secondary school principals and three former Model-c secondary school principals) in the Ehlanzeni school district in order to determine the cause and effect of factors affecting the job satisfaction amongst male teachers. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Denna avhandling handlar om ledarskapet i skolan. Skolan är en sammansatt verksamhet och i ledarskapet handlar det om att hantera många olika uppgifter på olika nivåer. Samtidigt som skolledare och lärare skall leva upp till samhälleliga förväntningar på skolverksamheten skall de också hantera kulturella villkor inom skolan. I avhandlingen studeras hur ledarskapet formas i och av samspelet mellan skolledare och lärare i vardagsarbetet. En fråga fokuserar på hur skolledare och lärare ser på varandra och hur de influerar och förstår varandra i vardagsarbetet. En annan fråga uppmärksammar vilken betydelse skolsammanhanget har för samspelet. För att belysa samspelet används fallstudier som forskningsstrategi. I studien ingår tre F-6-skolor med förskole-, fritidshems- och grundskoleverksamhet. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer och observationer. Teoretiskt har studien en socialkonstruktionistisk utgångspunkt i betydelsen av att skolledarskap ses som ett socialt fenomen. Intresset riktas mot att belysa skolledares och lärares utsagor om hur de förstår varandra och varandras ord och handlingar i det vardagliga arbetet. Resultatet ger anledning att fråga vem som egentligen leder vem. Avhandlingen visar tydligt att ledarskap är något som skolledarna och lärarna oundvikligen formar tillsammans – därav titeln Samproducerat ledarskap. Studien visar hur sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner i samspelet influerar skolledarnas och lärarnas agerande och ledarskapet. Konsekvensen blir ett ifrågasättande av den allt populärare bilden av ledaren som med stark hand förväntas styra sin organisation. En förståelse för att skolledarskapet är samproducerat, och att sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner har avgörande betydelser för hur det utövas medför en mer realistisk syn på skolledarskapets förutsättningar. / This thesis is concerned with aspects of school leadership. School work is characterised by its complexity, and school leadership requires the ability to deal with many different tasks at different organisational levels. At the same time as school heads and teachers are expected to respond to social expectations, they must also be able to deal with and respond to existing cultural considerations and prerequisites. The present study focuses on the formation of leadership during and as a result of the interplay between school heads and teachers in everyday educational practice. One research question concerns how this is formulated in heads’ and teachers’ statements, and how they perceive, influence and understand each other in their daily work together. Another research question highlights the importance of school contexts in the interplay between school heads and teachers. The underlying research strategy applied in order to illustrate the interplay between school heads and teachers is based on three case studies of so-called ‘F–6 schools’, i.e. three comprehensive schools including years 1–6, as well as pre-school classes, and leisure-time activities. The empirical research material consists of interviews and observations. This study takes a social constructionist point of departure, in the sense that school leadership is regarded as a social phenomenon, and focuses on creating a further understanding of this based on statements by school heads and teachers on how they understand each other and each others’ verbal communications and actions. The results give reason to the question of who is in fact leading who. The thesis clearly shows that leadership is produced and formed by school heads and teachers together – hence the title Co-Produced Leadership. The study shows how social, cultural and political dimensions in the interplay between school heads and teachers influence their actions and the formation of school leadership. This leads to a questioning of the increasingly popular image of the independent leader who is expected to govern her/his organisation with a firm hand. An understanding that school leadership is a product of intimate collaboration, and that social, cultural and political dimensions are vital in the formation of leadership, leads to a more realistic view concerning the possibilities and prerequisites of school leadership.

The researcher became interested in the topic regarding job satisfaction amongst male teachers when he attended his university reunion, more than 40% of the male teachers who graduated with a degree in education left the education system within 5 years. After making contact with some of the graduates, the researcher found that all of them left the education system because they were not satisfied within their work environment; hence, the researcher became interested in the topic. The most rewarding aspect of being a teacher is the joy of being in the classroom with learners and seeing them progress. However, what if there is no progression, but only statistics indicating failure to educate learners, an education system in crisis and educators without proper qualifications? A shortage of teachers, increasing learner enrolment and work overload are enough to create a highly stressful profession. The learning environment of a school depends on teachers, because they are in the frontline and directly involved with the transfer of knowledge. Teachers have a direct impact on a school’s success. Therefore, it is important that principals identify ways to support their staff in order to promote job satisfaction and motivation. The aim of this study is to investigate, from an educational management perspective, the factors that influence job satisfaction amongst male teachers in schools in the Ehlanzeni school district, Mpumalanga. The sequential explanatory mixed-method approach is used during this study; the quantitative phase investigated factors affecting job satisfaction amongst male teachers by means of distributing 200 Likert-scale questionnaires amongst male teachers in the Ehlanzeni school district. Structured interviews is being scheduled with twelve school principals (three rural primary school principals, three former Model-C primary school principals, three rural secondary school principals and three former Model-c secondary school principals) in the Ehlanzeni school district in order to determine the cause and effect of factors affecting the job satisfaction amongst male teachers. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)