The aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse principals´ views of collaboration forms, staff development and leadership, as critical internal capacities for school improvement, in five more successful and four less successful Swedish secondary schools, and compare the qualitative similarities and/or differences in the principals´ views at the level of schools. A successful school is understood to be a school where pupils accomplish both the academic objectives and the social/civic objectives in the National Curriculum. The empirical materials used were collected through semi-structured interviews with the principals and deputy principals, and through general school observations in the nine schools. The perspective of principals´ views was used as the unit for analysis, in order to reflect the principals´ way of thinking about the internal capacities, as principals´ views were expected to be an important indication of how principals act and interact with teachers in their specific context. To create such a model for analysis meant creating views, generated from empirical text, that deepened the understanding of the meaning of collaboration forms, staff development, and leadership, as critical internal capacities for school improvement. These views were then interpreted with the help of two theoretical concepts; structure and culture. The creation of the model made it possible to analyse and describe the school observations and the principals´ views of the three critical internal capacities, in the same usage. The question of what is decided helped to describe and understand the structure in a school, which in educational sociology is understood as the division of labour. The question of how the decisions are realised helped to describe and understand the culture in a school, the distribution of work. By using the theoretical concepts of structure and culture it was possible to unfold the power relations and the modes of control in the schools, regarding the three internal capacities for school improvement. One part of the result was the constructed view types for collaboration forms, staff development and leadership. It was possible to construct three qualitatively different view types: A principal distributed and team-based/involving view type, a principal distributed and teacher-based/traditional view type, and a politically distributed and principal-based view type. The last view type only appears in relation to staff development. When connecting the principals´ views of the three internal capacities in the different schools to the different view types, the results show that the ´team-based` view type dominates in all of the more successful schools, as well as in one of the less successful schools. In two of the less successful schools the ´team-based´ view type has become a vision for the principals to strive for in relation to the experienced reality of the ´teacher-based´ view type. The remaining less successful school is dominated by the ´teacher-based´ view type. Principals´ views of external collaboration forms, the connections with the world outside the school-house, are interesting, as all schools no matter the level of success, are ´teacher-based´.

Thesis (M.S.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2004. / Includes appendixes. Includes bibliographical references (leaves : 53-55).

Current accountability mechanisms create organizational opportunities and challenges for special education. This study was designed to conceptually validate an accountability-driven model for school reform that is responsive to the unique organizational context of special education, assessment needs of students with disabilities, and technical assistance needs of personnel who serve them. The Delphi technological forecasting procedure (Weatherman [and] Swenson, 1974) was used to gather expert opinion and develop consensus among 105 university-based and field-based experts from various disability categories in special education relative to which components (i.e., program activities, inputs, constraints, and outcomes) should be given priority in accountability-driven school reforms. An integrated model of accountability-driven school reform for students with disabilities was derived from the expert panel's responses using Borich and Jemelka's (1982) program modeling and decomposition. In this model, the priorities for program activities are classified into: (a) professional development (b) curricular/instructional responses, and (c) improving support for special education. As for inputs for these program activities, the priorities include (a) personnel--primarily teachers, (b) students and their families, (c) materials/techniques--primarily research, and (d) supports. Constraints that may considerably impact the implementation of accountability-driven school reform can be classified into (a) internal constraints which include school context, teacher attributes, and student attributes; and (b) external constraints which include political and social constraints. Lastly, the main outcomes of accountability-driven school reform are (a) student-related, (b) teacher-related, or (c) school-related. Findings of the Delphi study support the need for highly-qualified teams of general education teachers and special educators serving students with disabilities, a re-definition and expansion of research-based practice for special education, the valuing of special education expertise in accountability-driven school reforms, an informed school leadership to support special education, and for further consensus building to operationally define NCLB mandates. Implications for the re-authorization of NCLB, comprehensive school reforms for all students, and educational leadership responsive to special education are also discussed. / text

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2008. / Explores the successes and obstacles encountered by educators in the implementation of integrated quality management system in cross-sectional schools in the Ellisras Circuit.

Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur personal i fritidshem uppfattar nuläge och utvecklingsbehov gällande rektors pedagogiska ledarskap samt rektors inverkan på de förutsättningar som finns för arbetet i fritidshemmen. I en enkätundersökning har fritidshemspersonal i en kommun i södra Sverige fått dela med sig av sina uppfattningar om rektors pedagogiska ledarskap. Allmänna råd för fritidshem (Skolverket, 2014) och Robinsons fem ledarskapsdimensioner (Robinson m.fl., 2008) utgör metodologiska utgångspunkter. Resultatet visar att fritidshemspersonalen uppfattar rektors inverkan på de rådande förutsättningarna för arbetet som goda. Pedagogerna instämmer i hög grad i att rektorn är förtrogen med fritidshemmens uppdrag, liksom att rektor har inblick i den dagliga verksamheten. Däremot är kompetensutveckling ett stort utvecklingsområde, liksom samarbete med andra skolformer och rektors dialog med personalen. Inom dessa områden är personal med pedagogisk högskoleutbildning mer kritisk. Personalen är minst nöjd med den Robinsondimension som berör pedagogers lärande och utveckling. Med utgångspunkt från resultatet kan ett lämpligt pedagogiskt ledarskap i fritidshemmen vara process- och kontextinriktat, och ha tydliga inslag av kommunikation. Rektor bör vara förtrogen med fritidshemmets uppdrag samt, för att stärka personalens och fritidshemmens status, vara en närvarande ledare som organiserar fortbildning och kollegialt lärande, gärna tillsammans med andra skolformer. / The purpose of this study is to provide knowledge on how recreation centre staff perceive the present situation and need for development regarding educational leadership and the principal’s impact on conditions. A questionnaire was given to all recreation centre staff (convenience sample) in a municipality in Sweden. Allmänna råd för fritidshem (approximate translation: General Advice for Recreation Centres) (Skolverket, 2014) and Robinson's five leadership dimensions (Robinson et al, 2008) served as the methodological starting points for this study. The results show that the staff perceives the principal’s impact on the current conditions as good. The staff largely agrees that the principal is familiar with assigned tasks, as well as having insight into daily operations. However, professional development is seen as in need of improvement, as well as cooperation with other forms of education and the principal’s dialogue with staff. In these areas staff that had completed higher education gave their principals lower scores than those that had not. Staff are least satisfied with the Robinson dimension, involving teachers' learning and development. Based on the result, an educational leadership in recreation centres would be oriented toward process and context, and have clear elements of communication. The principal needs to be present, familiar with the task, and would, in order to strengthen the status of staff and recreation centres, organize for educational training and peer learning, preferably together with staff from other forms of education.

Conceptualising teacher learning in terms of participation in a teacher learning community is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. This study explores the usefulness of applying a social practice theory of learning to a community of novice Economic and Management Sciences teacher learners involved in the Teaching Economics and Management Sciences (TEMS) teacher development project. It examines the influence of contextual constraints, teachers' biographies and professional career trajectories on teachers' ability to participate in a learning community. By drawing on Wenger's theory of learning in a community of practice and Wenger et al's stages of community development framework, it also illuminates and theorises the potential that a community of practice framework has for teacher development. Wenger's framework offered important insights that informed and shaped the development of the TEMS programme. It also provided a useful tool for analysing teacher learning as constituting four components, namely, meaning, practice, identity and community. The complex relationship that exists between these different components of learning is examined. The study offers a critique of the feasibility and appropriateness of using Wenger's framework for analysing a teacher learning community. Methodologically, the tenets of symbolic interactionist ethnography were employed in the collection of data for this study. An exposition of the complexity and challenge of adopting the dual role of researcher as observer and participant is presented. An analysis is also provided of the methodological challenge of gaining access and acceptance in a South African education research context. The study examines how the essential tension in teacher professional development, namely, that of curriculum development and deepening subject matter knowledge is managed in a teacher learning community of novice Economic and Management Sciences teachers. It reveals the potential that a learning community framework has for teacher learning through different levels of participation, and points to the importance of the input of an outside expert, particularly during the early stages of development of a community of teacher learners who lack subject content knowledge. It argues that teacher learning communities present a fruitful and viable alternative to the current 'deficit' models of teacher development that typify the present South African teacher development scenario, as teacher learning communities suggest a conceptual reorientation of the discourse on teacher development. / Theses (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

The study searches for staff development programs associated with good academic performance in the Lesotho Primary School Leaving Examination. The study was conducted mainly to: • examine the type of programs available in schools to support staff development. The research was conducted by means of questionnaires (Appendix 2) handed out to principals and teachers in four primary schools in the Mafeteng district in Lesotho. The results of the study indicate that there were inadequate staff development programs in schools and that the programs were not well administered. The main recommendations of the study were: • Considering the nature and scope of this study there is need to broaden the scope of further research to include not only few schools in Mafeteng district but also all schools in Lesotho. • Research should not be conducted in primary schools only; but in post primary schools as well where staff development programs may just be as important as they are in the primary schools. More research needs to be carried out in order to investigate the quality of the programs that presently exist in schools, because according to the study it seems the very few that exist do not have much impact on the academic performance in the schools studied. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, 2002.

Middlewood, D. et al. (1998) state that "Development cannot be forced because it is the teacher who develops (active) and not the teacher who is developed (passive)". Active teacher participation in professional development programmes will result in greater school improvement and teacher empowerment. The study is based on the parameter that if the teachers have no real input in the planning stage of the development programmes, such development programmes are likely to be ineffective. This study seeks to investigate whether these school-based professional development activities help teachers to teach effectively or make the school efficient. The study aims to investigate the perceptions of teachers and the role of the school managers regarding the value and usefulness of school-based teacher professional development programmes in school X. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with members of the school management and questionnaires with educators. The investigation was limited to the data obtained from all the questionnaires and interviews that were responded to by the entire academic staff of school X. The findings are based on data collected only from the interviews and questionnaires. The findings of the study showed diverse views towards the current form of school-based professional development programmes. There were however all encompassing parameters that can be summed up basically as follows: Both educators and school management regard school-based professional development as important aspects of teaching to improve educator performance. Development programmes should become an integral part of schooling and an official policy should be established in this regard. Development programmes have to be a continuous process and should be related to the subject taught be relevant and practical. Subject knowledge and teaching methods should be improved for effective teaching and learning to take place. Professional development programmes should be evaluated to determine whether meaningful outcomes have been achieved or not, and continuous feedback should be given to educators. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Background: IT development has in recent decades been fast progressing. In Sweden many schools have begun to invest in IT and new technologies. What happens at the schools that are investing in IT equipment and modern technology? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to elucidate the conditions for and the success factors and barriers that principals and teachers will experience in IT. Principals' experiences are complemented and mirrored against the teachers. The following issues are in focus: 1. What basic conditions are necessary for IT equipment and modern technology to be used in education? 2. What are the success factors and how do the principals create these? 3. What are the difficulties / obstacles and how do the principals overcome these difficulties? Result: Based on the study, one can see that certain conditions are required in order for IT ventures to succeed. The most important requirement is supporting principals. Conditions such as finance, technology and effective IT support also seem to be important. Another conclusion is that is not only the principals´ responsibility to create all conditions that are needed; municipalities need to centrally decide how to organize their schools, what they want with IT and then sets the stage for it to work. Key words: IT ventures, school improvement, principals, teachers, conditions, barriers and success factors.

The main purpose of this study was to determine whether a Physical Science intervention programme that has been running for three years at St John’s College for selected Grade 10-12 students from under-resourced schools in inner city Johannesburg, has had any impact on the final academic results of these selected students in the National Senior Certificate examination. There is little international or local research that deals with third world academic extension and enrichment programmes, particularly with respect to South Africa. A mixed methods case study on the programme was carried out. Numerical data was collected over a period of three years to be used to determine the effectiveness of the programme. Interviews with the participants and teachers on the programme were conducted and surveys were carried out with participants on the programme as well as students who were not on the programme from the three partner schools. The three instruments used in the research provided different forms of data which produced findings that were combined to look for common trends and understandings. The data collected from the surveys, interviews and term scores were coded, captured organised, analysed and interpreted. Among the more significant findings were: (a) Not all of the participants on the programme showed academic improvement; (b) The overall academic improvement of the two groups researched was marginally better than their peers who were not part of the programme; (c) In the view of the participants, the intervention had a greater influence on their academic achievements than the actual findings from analysis of the numerical data indicated; (d) There are a number of factors that determine the success of the programme; (e) The self-motivation is an important determinant for success of individuals on the programme. These findings could assist current programme organisers and institutions that seek to introduce similar types of intervention programmes in the future. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.