Not available / text

The purpose of this study was to conduct an investigation of the meanings novice high school assistant principals have constructed from their experiences to comply with Texas Administrative Code, Title 19 Part 7 Chapter 241.20, which requires an induction period for all new campus administrators. This study focused only on the mentoring aspect of the induction program. This study was not designed as an evaluation tool for the purpose of assessing any particular district’s mentoring plan for its new principals, nor was it designed to evaluate the state statute. This study was about how a state statute on mentoring has been experienced by novice high school assistant principals and the resulting apparent effects of different strategies on the personal growth and learning of the novice high school assistant principals. This is a qualitative study with a sample selection that was nonrandom, purposeful, and small. Grounded theory anchored the data analysis process as the researcher examined emergent themes. This careful inspection and analysis of the mentoring component of the induction year for novice high school assistant principals will pave the way for further studies in the new wave of mentoring. / text

Not available / text

This study considered the important role that principal leadership plays in the implementation of changes that are designed to close achievement gaps among student groups. A qualitative research approach and protocol was followed, and a multiple case study methodological approach was utilized. The data gathered consisted of interviews of three principals, three instructional coordinators, and three teacher leaders. A review of documents, artifacts, observations, field notes, and member check data were used to triangulate data. The data analysis applied the McRel Balanced Leadership conceptual framework and used three research questions to organize and guide the discussion and findings. These research questions are: (1) How did the principal implement research-based leadership responsibilities that led to the pursuit of high academic achievement for all students? (2) How did the principals implement a school-wide improvement framework that has resulted in sustained academic achievement growth for all students? (3) How did the principal implement the identified strategies that ensured high academic achievement among all student populations? Over the course of five months, data were gathered through individual interviews, observations, analysis of documents, and other artifacts. Several themes emerged as a result of data analysis. These included: (a) communicated ideals and beliefs, (b) challenged status quo, (c) culture of collaboration, (d) focus on learning, (e) data driven, (f) research based learning, (g) and curriculum alignment. The findings in the study suggest that the principals were instrumental in creating the conditions that helped the teachers build upon their collective capacity to support student success. / text

This qualitative study explored the perceptions and practices of elementary school administrators regarding parental involvement in three urban elementary schools. Particular attention was given to understanding the connection between the beliefs that school leaders shared about parental involvement and its role in school improvement (i.e., their espoused theories) and to how they supported parental involvement in their school community (i.e., their theories in use). Using Argyris and Schön’s (1978) theories of action framework, face-to face interview data and school and district documents were collected and analyzed to explore how well administrators’ practices relative to parental involvement (theory-in-use) aligned with their beliefs and perceptions (espoused theory). As such, data analysis focused on understanding both what administrators believe and what they do to use parental involvement to support school improvement efforts. / text

Not available / text

The purpose of this study was to ascertain how school board members and superintendents in Arizona view their own and each other's role and function in the organization and operation of school systems. A second objective was to determine whether the demographic factor of school district locale (urban or rural) contributes to school boards' and superintendents' perceptions. In Arizona, the rights, responsibilities and discretionary powers to act are all given to local school boards. There is no mention of local superintendents' powers or duties in the Arizona State Statutes. This failure to grant statutory power to the superintendents or to formulate district-level policies for the delineation of duties and responsibilities between the school board and the superintendent has frequently led to conflict in district operation. Sixty-five districts were chosen using stratified random sampling from among all the urban and rural districts in Arizona. The Administrative Role Perception Questionnaire was sent to one board member and to the superintendent in each of the 65 districts. The questionnaire contained 22 items representing seven Task Areas: Curriculum Development, Pupil Services, Teaching Materials, Personnel Administration, School Plant Management, Finance and Budget, and Public Relations. The data were analyzed using a series of t-tests. There was substantial disagreement between board members and superintendents on their role and function in the school system. Board members and superintendents differed significantly on Personnel Administration (p<.01), Curriculum Development (p<.03), Teaching Materials (p<.008), Finance and Budget (p<.05), and Public Relations (p<.002). The widest disagreement in perception of the role and function of school boards and superintendents was found between rural board members and rural superintendents. The widest agreement in perception was found between urban and rural board members and between urban and rural superintendents. This would indicate that board members from both urban and rural areas tend to agree more with each other than they do with superintendents. Superintendents from urban and rural areas also tend to agree more with each other than they do with board members. This study has shown that there is still substantial disagreement between boards of education and superintendents. The disagreement indicates an absence of district policies delineating the duties and responsibilities between boards of education and superintendents. Where such policies do exist, they are apparently widely disregarded. The result is the inability of board members and superintendents either to fully understand or to be allowed to discharge their respective roles and functions within the school system. This study recommends that boards of education and superintendents work to define their respective roles in written policy statements which are as broad as possible and cover every major aspect of school district governance and operation. Boards of education and superintendents should work to enact state laws which delineate the duties of the board of education and those of the superintendent. Boards of education should provide adequate funds annually for school board member and superintendent in-service training designed to facilitate understanding and agreement between board members and superintendents. It is also recommended that boards of education offer their superintendents contracts containing policy statements defining respective roles and allowing for redress if a violation occurs. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage school districts to formulate policies for the delineation of duties and responsibilities between the board of education and the superintendent.

The research interest is in the area of leadership and gender, with specific reference to promotion prospects of female educators in predominantly black schools. I seek to establish internal and external factors that contribute to women educators being marginalised. The investigation is carried out in the uMgungundlovu region of the KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Education. This region covers the rural areas of Vulindlela and the urban and peri-urban circuits of Pietermaritzburg. I made use of qualitative methodology to obtain data from a random sample of twenty one out of twenty five deputy principals from the two circuits. This was followed by a detailed interview of seven of the twenty one who formed the purposive sample The central thesis of this study is that constitutional laws which outlaw unfair discrimination and academic qualifications play a subsidiary role in the upward mobility of women. The study will seek to confirm or refute this claim. A major finding in this study indicates that hindrances to promotion among married women include family responsibilities of being mother and wife; disruption of career advancement as a result of husband relocating. Low self-esteem among some women also acts as a hindrance to promotion. However, the more intractable hindrances turned out to be external. Cultural conditioning and tradition both combine to relegate women to domestic responsibilities. There is the issue of unequal power relations between men and women in the work place and, in some instances, the failure to apply anti-discriminatory legislation during interview processes. It therefore made little or difference whether the research was carried out in an urban area like Pietermaritzburg or a rural environment like Vulindlela. Hindrances to female promotion were very similar. This study concludes by suggesting that women should form lobby groups to challenge unfair labour practices. They should also increase their visibility by placing their curriculum vitae in the hands of people of influence. A further suggestion is that they take an active part in professional bodies and publish academic articles. At the school level, they should resist all attempts at being treated in a condescending manner. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

In South Africa, one site where women in management are most underrepresented is educational management Equal opportunity for women as a political objective is entrenched in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. A gendered shift in educational management is an emerging phenomenon in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. This study explored the experiences of eight women holding education management positions in one region in the province of KwaZulu-Natal through a qualitative case study approach. The research method was the semi-structured interview. The aim was to examine the reasons they entered management, the routes that led them to acquiring the positions, the management strategies they employed, their experiences in a male dominated environment, and their views on the issue of gender equity in educational management. The findings revealed that most of the women had a motivation and drive to progress through the ranks in the profession and enter management positions. This drive appears to be linked to early socialisation of the women and the development of an autonomous, self-controlling identity. In their perceptions of their experiences as managers, findings suggest a high degree effectiveness amongst the women managers evident in the value they place on management strategies such as effective listening and communication, building trust, people centred approaches, team building, and networking. However, participants in the study all alluded to the fact that they still had to deal with the gendered dynamics of organisational life. Men's dominance in educational management and the numerical marginalisation of women remains a hurdle. No matter how career oriented and motivated women may be, they still have to engage with the constant immersion in a masculinist work culture. The findings suggest that the women have to constantly prove their worth, deal with gender stereotyping, and negotiate their private and public roles. All the women in the study suggested the need for women to build networks of support, and for creating more inclusive organisational cultures that reflect a commitment to gender equity. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 2003.

The purpose of this enquiry is to explore how leadership and decision-making was practiced across various school structures. The research focuses on the practice of decision making as an element of distributed leadership, its degree of distribution, as well as its development and enhancement. In focusing on decision-making, the challenges experienced by both the school management as well level one educators in the advancement of distributed decision making is documented. The study was conducted within a qualitative interpretive paradigm and took the form of a case study of the enactment of decision making in a suburban primary school in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Data collection techniques employed included openended questionnaires, observations, semi -structured individual interviews and a focus group interview. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis. Significant themes that emerged from the data were the availability of structures and its enhancing or inhibiting properties for shared decision, the principal as an enabler or disabler of distributed leadership, the SMT’s support for shared decision making, further strategies to enhance shared decision making and the challenges to decision making. Gunter’s (2005) characterisation of distributed leadership served as analytical tools in this study. My findings revealed that there were a number of decision making structures within the school and the school milieu encouraged the enactment of shared decision making. The transformational leadership approach of the SMT and more especially the principal acted as a catalyst for shared decision making. Despite ample evidence that decision making was shared, the situation sometimes resulted in the authoritarian approach being the default position. Further to this, the data sets indicated that decision making and leadership was widely dispersed; however, the emergent characteristic of dispersed leadership, while present, was not optimally operational. The involvement of the majority of teachers in shared decision making was in the form of authorised distributed leadership. The SMT transformational agenda of inclusion of all educators and the deliberate orchestration of opportunities to empower educators encapsulated the democratic distributed leadership characteristic. Teachers’ expansive or restricted level of participation in decision making was situational. This outcome was used to conceptualise a framework for the level of participation in decision making. Despite, an enabling environment, there were some challenges to shared decision making. These challenges, in the main, were a lack of peer support, self-imposed barriers such as lack of confidence, a lack of support structures from the DoE and time constraints. Finally the study presented propositions for the further enhancement and strengthening of the decision making process in the case school as well as recommendations for further research. No doubt, the case school has embraced the tenets of our democracy and has made substantial inroads into creating a shared vision, through shared participation. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.