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Indonesian public school principals' enactment of agency within the boundaries set by social systemsAsikin-Garmager, Asih 01 May 2017 (has links)
Background: Indonesian schools are in the midst of implementing a new reform initiative, the 2013 Curriculum, mandated by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. The new curriculum requires a drastic change in instructional practices from the traditionally teacher-centered to student-centered instruction. As school leaders, principals play an important role in the implementation and enactment of the 2013 Curriculum in schools. This research explores the leadership practices of Indonesian school principals in facilitating the implementation of new reform policies and initiatives.
Purpose: The study served two purposes. The first was to examine Indonesian public school principals’ enactment of agency within the boundaries set by the social systems around them as they implemented the 2013 Curriculum. The second purpose was to develop a framework that can be used as a lens to further study school leadership practices in the context of Indonesia. Two research questions guided this study: (1) What leadership practices are shaped by which social systems and values? and (2) How does principal agency manifest when implementing the 2013 Curriculum? Responses to the research questions were used to develop the framework.
Data Collection and Analysis: A case study for theory development approach to qualitative research was used. The study took place in the northern area of a small island located in east Indonesia. The primary source of data came from multiple interviews with three public elementary school principals whose schools served as pilot schools for the 2013 Curriculum. In addition to principal interviews, interview with teachers, documents, and observation field notes served as data sources. The data collected were analyzed and manually coded following the data analysis procedures of grounded theory. In the first coding cycle, I coded the data by assigning descriptive and InVivo codes summarizing topics. The second coding cycle involved assigning concepts and categories based on the open codes from the first cycle with a focus on the principals’ actions in facilitating the implementation process. In the third cycle, I compared the concepts and categories to respond to the research questions and examined the relationships between the concepts and categories to develop the framework from the ground up.
Findings: The data analyzed indicated there are three major systems shaped the principals’ leadership practices during the implementation of the 2013 Curriculum: the educational system, the local culture and community, and the school system. In addition to the three systems, the principals’ personal and professional values served to guide the way they led their schools in alignment with the goals of the 2013 Curriculum. The systems and values provided them with rules and resources on which the principals drew in deciding specific actions to perform in order to meet the written and unwritten expectations of their stakeholders. The principals’ enactment of agency was primarily in the form of complying with government orders and balancing expectations from multiple systems, which, then, led to the discovery of three leadership categories in the implementation process: (1) compliance, (2) negotiation, and (3) independence. Compliance refers to those practices the principals perform to satisfy government expectations. Negotiation refers to practices the principals perform in their efforts to juggle expectations and pressures coming from multiple systems. Independence refers to practices the principals perform as they respond to government policies and regulations, as well as community expectations, in a way that is aligned with their personal and professional values.
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Principal Experiences In A School ConsolidationEffiom, Claudius Bassey 24 June 2014 (has links)
Abstract
Educational leaders must operate in a complex political world that places a premium on skills and strategies involving consensus building, negotiations, and reciprocity. This dissertation is about the leadership struggles and tensions inherent in a school consolidation process. The principals highlighted in this study represent the leader of a metropolitan school which is closed and consolidated with another school in the same school district. The school district employs a defined and planned process to address many issues inherent in a school consolidation like guaranteed placement of displaced teachers in schools of their choice.
I examined the experiences of three principals during the course of the school consolidation to determine if there are any advantages in using a pre-planned consolidation to ensure the success of the consolidation process. My experiences as a principal involved in a school consolidation experience without a defined and pre-negotiated consolidation protocols was used to draw contrasts when interview data was analyzed from the three school principals. To guide my data collection and analysis I used a conceptual framework based on the work of Mead (1934), Husserl (1965), Blumer (1969), Stryker (2002) and Merleau-Ponty (2004), Interpretivism with a case study paradigm based on the work of Hancock and Algozzine (2006), Creswell (2003), Yin (2003) and Miles and Huberman (1994) to guide my study which was aimed at understanding the experiences of school principals during a school consolidation.
The initial findings of my study indicated that the experiences for most stakeholders impacted by a consolidation were consistent with those found in the literature concerning other consolidation experiences. There was some minimal reduction in the perceived levels of uncertainty and anxiety of staff members concerning their employment status. The principals had certain assignments related to the logistical planning and management of resource security and allocation removed from their agenda, but leadership experiences remained fraught with uncertainty and a sense of trial and error in navigating through the processes required for a successful consolidation experience.
This study provided several insights that may be useful to school principals in managing and seeking appropriate assistance from district level leadership to improve the probability that the level of success in a school consolidation may affect various stakeholder groups impacted by the experience. The findings discuss several implications regarding how school principals and school districts may consider the overall impact of a school consolidation on their students and their stance regarding equity and social justice for all the school's communities. Finally, this study provides several recommendations for policy and educational practice.
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Practitioners' Meanings of School Leadership: Case Studies of Jamaican High School PrincipalsNewman, Mairette T., n/a January 2004 (has links)
Guided by the symbolic interaction premise that meaning is found in the interaction of individuals with their world, this study set out to describe and analyse how selected high school principals in Jamaica understand and practise school leadership by exploring how they view their circumstances, and how their meanings of leadership are modified by the contexts of their work. To gain insight into how Jamaican principals conceptualise and experience leadership the study adopted a qualitative, collective case-study design. A purposeful sampling strategy was used to select four exemplary high school principals such that gender, school location and organization were varied. Data were sourced from semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation sessions and integrative diagrams as well as from school, principal and official Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture documents. Within-case and cross-case analyses were conducted using grounded theory modes of analysis, specifically the systematic processes referred to as open and axial coding. Findings from the within-case analysis are presented as four individual cases that communicate the salient features of each principal's leadership and context. In the first case entitled Mother of the Poor, the principal defines school leadership as the pursuit of excellence within a framework of valuing and caring for students. The principal at the centre of the second case, The Reculturing Principal, portrays leadership as transforming school culture so that it is receptive to change and committed to growth and improvement. The principal featured in the third case understands leadership as a response to students' social problems, diminished self-concept and dysfunctional community relationships - hence the title The Principal as Social Architect. The final case presents The Community Principal who conceptualizes leadership in terms of building caring, co-operative relationships among all involved in the schooling process with a view to developing community connectedness. Findings from the cross-case analysis are presented as two broad themes that characterize the principals' conceptualization and interpretation of school leadership. The first theme - 'Leadership as values-driven' - identified care and respect, social justice and excellence as the common values that defined the principals' leadership, permeating their interactions and informing their decisions. The second theme - 'Leadership as responding to and acting on context' - revealed that dynamics related to personal, school-community and policy contexts also entered into and interacted with their understandings of leadership. While all four principals in this study were guided and informed by common values, they applied them to their leadership in individual ways, modifying their approaches and emphases in response to a range of contextual elements that were both dynamic and unique. Generally, the principals conceptualized leadership as a moral undertaking, and values together with context emerged as powerful influences on how they defined, interpreted and enacted school leadership. Findings from this study contribute to local knowledge about principals and school leadership. Currently, perspectives on what constitutes school leadership depend on frameworks developed for other environments even though the extent to which these are applicable to a Caribbean context is unknown. Furthermore, in the context of recent shifts in policy, it is important to understand what and how principals think about leadership. In this respect, the findings may serve as a guide for future decisions about leadership training and professional development for principals and aspiring principals.
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Principals’ Understandings of Aspects of the Law Impacting on the Administration of Catholic Schools: some implications for leadershipMcCann, Paul, res.cand@acu.edu.au January 2006 (has links)
This study explored the interface between the leadership of Catholic schools and the legal framework of the social/cultural context of Australian Society. Specifically, the study investigated the legal issues impacting on Catholic schools, principals’ understandings of these legal issues and the sources used in gaining these understandings. The congruency between these understandings and the current interpretations of areas of the law were also examined, along with the influence legal issues have on principals; in particular, their perceptions of how these legal issues relate to carrying out their leadership roles aligned with the characteristics and ethos of the Catholic school. In this overall context, the influence of a number of variables such as school complexity, location, and primary and secondary school environments was also examined. The study commenced with an examination of the development of Catholic schools within the Australian social/cultural context, an exploration of leadership as it relates to Catholic schools and a survey of the literature indicating the scope and nature of the legal matters impacting on schools within the Australian legal framework. To gather data relevant to the purposes of the study, a Survey Questionnaire was constructed and distributed to principals of all systemic Catholic schools administered by the Brisbane Catholic Education Centre. The quantitative and qualitative data provided via this instrument was supplemented and corroborated by information gathered through discussions, observations, and reference to documentation and records. The findings of the study confirmed that Catholic schools were involved with a wide range of legal issues, involvement being more pronounced in some areas than others, and like all legal issues within the Australian social/cultural context, those impacting on schools were subject to regular renewal and development. In relation to the latter, participants identified emerging areas of the law which were starting to have an impact on their schools. Principals’ overall understandings of current interpretations of legal issues were not of a high standard. However, some understandings, particularly relating to statue law were more accurate than understandings of common law issues. Principals used a wide range of sources to gain legal understandings, and interactions with fellow principals and personnel within the Brisbane Catholic Education System who supported and supervised principals, featured prominently. However, access for principals to designated legal practitioners for advice on legal matters was a need revealed. Involvement of principals in formal and less formal professional learning experiences relating to legal matters was limited, and participation did not have a significant influence on developing more accurate understandings of legal issues. Nevertheless, the need for continued personal and professional learning with regard to legal issues was highlighted by this study, especially considering the continued renewal and development of the law, and the stress created by the lack of legal understandings. The findings indicated legal matters were having a large impact on Catholic schools; 90% of participants experienced stress associated with legal matters, and 70% saw this as an increasing phenomena. While a number of variables inter-relate to form a cumulative effect contributing to stress, participants ranked the most prominent source of stress as lack of legal knowledge. The impact of legal matters was not confined to addressing legal matters per se, but a constant threat of legalism overshadowing principals in their leadership roles. Overall, there was a high compatibility between the ethos of the Catholic school and the resolutions reached, and the process used in coming to a resolution of legal matters. However, participants were more confident in their perceptions of a high compatibility with the resolutions reached than with the processes used.No one variable examined, had an overall significant influence on the understandings, involvement and impact of legal issues on the leadership of Catholic schools. However, a number of significant relationships were identified with particular aspects of the study. Surprisingly, the study did not reveal a significant relationship between the length of time spent as a principal in a Catholic school and the accuracy of understandings of legal issues impacting on schools. It was suggested that the development of principals’ understandings of legal issues could be closely related to the continued personal and professional learning and growth of leaders within Catholic schools, particularly within School Leadership Teams. Suggestions to support this growth and learning were offered as part of the overall development of leadership within Catholic schools.
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Hur kan det pedagogiska och det sociala klimatet förklara skolors förutsättningar för framtida effektivitetsutveckling? : En jämförande studie av två kommunala högstadieskolorOlsson, Pär January 2007 (has links)
<p>Pupil achievement and behaviour in schools was earlier seen as given by socioeconomic and biological factors. But since the late 1970s the school effectiveness research has come to give school factors a much greater role for pupils’ attainments. Research has shown that schools´ pedagogical and social climate, which is to be seen as a complex product of deeply felt values and norms held by school principals and teachers and developed through practical actions, can explain variations in effectiveness between schools. Effectiveness is here to be seen as a higher mean cognitive and non cognitive student outcome than is expected with regard to initial attainment or family background. In this context all schools can be effective.</p><p>The purpose of this dissertation is to study the pedagogical and the social climate in two secondary schools in order to answer the question of how the climate can describe their conditions for future evolvement in effectiveness. The method of data collection is qualitative enquiries and has been conducted through interviews with principals, teachers and pupils. Our two schools are based in the same council and have a similar intake of pupils. The results derived from the study show that one school has a better pedagogical and social climate than the other which at the same time gives it greater conditions for future effectiveness.</p>
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”Is i magen och ett varmt hjärta” : Konstruktionen av skolledarskap i ett könsperspektivFranzén, Karin January 2006 (has links)
<p>The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discursive construction of school leadership in a gender perspective and the meanings attached to school leadership. Theoretically, I draw on discourse analysis, and feminist poststructuralist theories have been my source of inspiration. Discourse, subjectivity, subject positions and power are key concepts applied to the analysis of the data. Four male and four female school leaders representing eight primary and secondary schools were interviewed. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with two teachers at each of these schools: in total nine female and seven male teachers were interviewed.</p><p>The leaders and teachers talk about leadership in relation to four different arenas, which I have labelled the teachers’, the children’s, the parents’ and the societal arena respectively. Three main positions have been identified for the school leaders: (1) the supporter, (2) the manager and (3) the pedagogical leader. Most of the statements deal with the relation to the teachers, whereas the parents’ arena is not much talked about.</p><p>As for gender, both male and female school leaders construct themselves as leaders in rather similar ways. Both men and women activate the three positions in similar ways. Women do not repeat the supporter position more often than men, and men do not position themselves as managers more frequently than women. This indicates that traditional gender discourses do not govern the school leaders’ talk about school leadership. For the position of pedagogical leader, some gender differences have been distinguished. The men position themselves as pedagogical leaders, whose mission it is to take the lead in pedagogical issues, whilst the women talk about the importance of evaluating and reflecting on their pedagogical leadership. Gender discourses seem to affect the way teachers construct school leadership, as male leaders who act as supporters are sometimes positioned as deviant. Instead, especially female teachers expect their male leader to act as a manager. Furthermore, the female teachers construct female school leaders as supporters to a higher extent than the male teachers.</p>
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Schulleitung im Mittelpunkt schulischer Gesundheit : eine Studie zu der Gesundheit schulischer Führungskräfte und ihrer Rolle für die Lehrergesundheit / School leadership in the centre of health at school : a study of the health of school principals and their role concerning the health of teachersLaux, Anna January 2011 (has links)
Die neuen Anforderungen an Schulleitungen im Zuge gesellschaftlicher, schulpolitischer und schulinterner Entwicklungen sind erheblich (Huber, 2008). Diese in der Literatur breit geteilte Einschätzung schlägt sich bislang nicht ausreichend in Forschungsaktivitäten zur Gesundheit schulischer Führungskräfte nieder – im Unterschied zu der ausgiebigen Forschung zur Lehrergesundheit, die für die Lehrer durchgängig eine kritische Gesundheitslage feststellt. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit erzielte dabei die Potsdamer Lehrerstudie (Schaarschmidt, 2004). Sie belegte unter anderem auch die Einflussmöglichkeiten der Schulleitung auf die Lehrergesundheit.
Die vorliegende Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele: Erstens wird die aktuelle Schulleitungsforschung um empirische Daten zur gesundheitlichen Situation von n = 484 Schulleitungen aus Brandenburg und Baden-Württemberg ergänzt. Zweitens wird die Bedeutung der Schulleitung für die Lehrergesundheit näher untersucht, indem empirische Daten aus Führungsfeedbackverfahren mit n = 12 Schulleitungen und n = 332 Lehrern in Baden-Württemberg und Hessen herangezogen werden. Das diagnostische Verfahren AVEM (“Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster“, Schaarschmidt & Fischer, 1996/2003) dient als methodische Grundlage. Es erhebt Selbsteinschätzungen zum arbeitsbezogenen Verhalten und Erleben und weist auf mögliche Risiken im Sinne psychischer oder psychosomatischer Gefährdung hin. Das Instrument erfasst mit 66 Items 11 Dimensionen (z.B. Distanzierungsfähigkeit). Auf diese Weise ist es möglich, die befragte Person einem von vier arbeitsbezogenen Verhaltens- und Erlebensmustern zuzuordnen: Muster G (Gesundheitsideal), Muster S (Schonungstendenz gegenüber beruflichen Anforderungen), Risikomuster A (überhöhtes Engagement), Risikomuster B (Resignation). Zudem werden Fragen zu schulischer Führung eingesetzt, die sich aus vorhandenen Fragebögen speisen. Mit Hilfe einer exploratorischen Faktorenanalyse können sechs Faktoren identifiziert werden: Persönliche emotionale Wertschätzung und Fürsorge, optimistische Zukunftsorientierung, konstruktives Management des Schulbetriebs, Förderung von Weiterbildung und pädagogischem Diskurs, Präsenz/Ansprechbarkeit und Partizipationsorientierung.
Zu der ersten Fragestellung zeigt sich für die befragten Schulleitungen im Mittel ein gesundheitlich recht positives Bild – gerade im Kontrast zu den befragten Lehrern. Für die befragten Schulleitungen wird eine signifikant günstigere AVEM-Musterkonstellation festgestellt: Der Anteil des Musters G ist bei den Schulleitungen deutlich höher, der Anteil des Musters B deutlich niedriger und der Anteil des Musters A in etwa gleich groß. Die AVEM-Ergebnisse schlagen sich bei den befragten Schulleitungen in unmittelbaren Gesundheitsindikatoren nieder. Für bestimmte Untergruppen herrscht allerdings ein gesundheitlich vergleichsweise kritisches Bild vor, nämlich tendenziell für Schulleitungen in Brandenburg, für weibliche Schulleitungen und Schulleitungen an Grund- und Förderschulen. Eine hohe Unterrichtsverpflichtung ist mit einem größeren Anteil an Risikomustern verbunden. Ein hohes Maß an erlebter Autonomie – insbesondere im sozial-interaktiven Bereich mit den Lehrern (d.h. bei Auswahl, Einstellung und Beurteilung von Lehrern sowie bei der innerschulischen Arbeitsorganisation und kollegialen Zusammenarbeit) – geht dagegen mit jeweils günstigeren AVEM-Musterkonstellationen einher. Zur Beantwortung der zweiten Fragestellung wird eine methodisch anspruchsvolle Mehrebenenanalyse durchgeführt, die die hierarchische Anordnung der Daten angemessen behandelt. Für die wahrgenommene soziale Unterstützung durch die Schulleitung wird dabei eine negative Beziehung zur subjektiven Bedeutsamkeit der Arbeit und der Verausgabungsbereitschaft der befragten Lehrer gefunden. Hingegen ergibt sich ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen der erlebten Förderung von Weiterbildung und pädagogischem Diskurs und dem Erfolgserleben der befragten Lehrer. Ebenso hängt die wahrgenommene Führung durch die Schulleitung in ihrer Gesamtheit in positiver Weise mit der Lebenszufriedenheit der befragten Lehrer zusammen. Es sei betont, dass ausschließlich Effekte nachgewiesen werden, die auf die individuelle Ebene der Lehrer zurückgehen, d.h. es scheint – was den Zusammenhang zwischen erlebter Führung und Lehrergesundheit angeht – auf die subjektive Wahrnehmung des Führungsverhaltens der Schulleitung durch den/die jeweilige(n) Lehrer/in anzukommen.
Eine erste theoretische Skizze zu wesentlichen Determinanten von Schulleitungsgesundheit wird vorgeschlagen. Empfehlungen für die Schulleitungspraxis umfassen die Reduzierung der Unterrichtsverpflichtung, die Erweiterung von Autonomie im sozial-interaktiven Bereich mit den Lehrern und die systematische Etablierung von Mitarbeitergesprächen zur Ausgestaltung individueller Führungsbeziehungen zwischen Schulleitungen und Lehrern. / The new requirements for school principals in the course of social, school-political and school-internal developments are considerable (Huber, 2008). However, this appraisal broadly shared in the literature is not sufficiently reflected in current research activities concerning the health of school principals – in contrast to the extensive research concerning the health of teachers which generally ascertains a critical health situation for the teaching staff. Special attention was achieved by the Potsdam teacher study (Schaarschmidt, 2004). Among other results it also showed the influence of the school principals on the health of the teachers.
The present work pursues two objectives: Firstly, it adds empirical data from surveying n = 484 school principals primarily from the German federal states Brandenburg and Baden-Wurttemberg to the current school leadership research. Secondly, the particular importance of the school principals for the health of teachers is examined in more detail. Empirical data from leadership feedback procedures with n = 12 school principals and n = 332 teachers in Baden-Wurttemberg and Hesse are used. The diagnostic instrument AVEM (“Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster“ [Occupational Stress and Coping Inventory], Schaarschmidt & Fischer, 1996/2003) serves as the methodical basis. It registers self-assessments regarding work-related behavior and experience and allows to identify mental or psychosomatic risk patterns. The instrument AVEM consists of 66 items loading on 11 dimensions (e.g. ability to distance oneself from work issues). Thus, it is possible to assign the surveyed person to one of four patterns of coping with professional demands: Type-G (Health supportive behavior type), Type-S (Sparing, self-protective behavior type), Type-A (Self-overtaxing, exhaustion-prone type), Type-B (Exhaustion, burn-out, resignation-prone type). In addition, questions to assess school leadership are used which are based on previous questionnaires. By running an exploratory factor analysis six factors are identified: Individual emotional esteem and care, optimistic orientation towards future, constructive management of the school processes, support of training and discussions on education, presence and participation orientation.
Regarding the first question, on average a rather positive picture appears for the surveyed school principals – in contrast to the surveyed teachers. Thus, a significantly more favorable constellation of the AVEM patterns is registered for the surveyed school principals: The proportion of Type-G is substantially higher, the proportion of Type-B clearly lower and the proportion of Type-A is about the same size. The AVEM-results are directly reflected in health indicators of the surveyed school principals. For certain sub-groups, however, there are relatively critical results with regard to health, namely by tendency for surveyed school principals in Brandenburg, for female school principals and school principals of elementary schools and special-needs schools. A high amount of teaching requirements is related to a bigger proportion of Type-A and Type-B. A high degree of experienced autonomy – in particular in social interaction with the teachers (i.e. recruiting and assessment of teachers, internal organization of work and cooperation) – however, relates to more favorable constellations of the AVEM patterns. To answer the second question of this work regarding the role of the school principals for the health of teachers, a methodically sophisticated multi level analysis is carried out which deals appropriately with the hierarchical order of the data. A negative relationship between the perceived social support by the school principals and the subjective importance of work as well as the willingness to excessive effort of the surveyed teachers is found. However, a positive relationship arises between the perceived support of training and discussions on education and the experienced professional success of the surveyed teachers. Also, the perceived leadership behavior as a whole relates positively to the life satisfaction of the surveyed teachers. It must be emphasized that only those effects can be demonstrated which refer to the individual level of the teachers, i.e. it seems – regarding the relationship between perceived leadership and the health of the teachers – that only the subjective and quite personal perception by the teacher concerning the leadership behavior of the school principal matters.
A first theoretical draft of essential determinants of the health of school principals is suggested. Recommendations for the school leadership practice include the reduction of the amount of teaching requirements, the enlargement of autonomy in social interaction with the teachers and the systematic establishment of employee’s dialogues which allow the development of individual leadership relations between school principals and teachers.
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”Is i magen och ett varmt hjärta” : Konstruktionen av skolledarskap i ett könsperspektivFranzén, Karin January 2006 (has links)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the discursive construction of school leadership in a gender perspective and the meanings attached to school leadership. Theoretically, I draw on discourse analysis, and feminist poststructuralist theories have been my source of inspiration. Discourse, subjectivity, subject positions and power are key concepts applied to the analysis of the data. Four male and four female school leaders representing eight primary and secondary schools were interviewed. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with two teachers at each of these schools: in total nine female and seven male teachers were interviewed. The leaders and teachers talk about leadership in relation to four different arenas, which I have labelled the teachers’, the children’s, the parents’ and the societal arena respectively. Three main positions have been identified for the school leaders: (1) the supporter, (2) the manager and (3) the pedagogical leader. Most of the statements deal with the relation to the teachers, whereas the parents’ arena is not much talked about. As for gender, both male and female school leaders construct themselves as leaders in rather similar ways. Both men and women activate the three positions in similar ways. Women do not repeat the supporter position more often than men, and men do not position themselves as managers more frequently than women. This indicates that traditional gender discourses do not govern the school leaders’ talk about school leadership. For the position of pedagogical leader, some gender differences have been distinguished. The men position themselves as pedagogical leaders, whose mission it is to take the lead in pedagogical issues, whilst the women talk about the importance of evaluating and reflecting on their pedagogical leadership. Gender discourses seem to affect the way teachers construct school leadership, as male leaders who act as supporters are sometimes positioned as deviant. Instead, especially female teachers expect their male leader to act as a manager. Furthermore, the female teachers construct female school leaders as supporters to a higher extent than the male teachers.
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Hur kan det pedagogiska och det sociala klimatet förklara skolors förutsättningar för framtida effektivitetsutveckling? : En jämförande studie av två kommunala högstadieskolorOlsson, Pär January 2007 (has links)
Pupil achievement and behaviour in schools was earlier seen as given by socioeconomic and biological factors. But since the late 1970s the school effectiveness research has come to give school factors a much greater role for pupils’ attainments. Research has shown that schools´ pedagogical and social climate, which is to be seen as a complex product of deeply felt values and norms held by school principals and teachers and developed through practical actions, can explain variations in effectiveness between schools. Effectiveness is here to be seen as a higher mean cognitive and non cognitive student outcome than is expected with regard to initial attainment or family background. In this context all schools can be effective. The purpose of this dissertation is to study the pedagogical and the social climate in two secondary schools in order to answer the question of how the climate can describe their conditions for future evolvement in effectiveness. The method of data collection is qualitative enquiries and has been conducted through interviews with principals, teachers and pupils. Our two schools are based in the same council and have a similar intake of pupils. The results derived from the study show that one school has a better pedagogical and social climate than the other which at the same time gives it greater conditions for future effectiveness.
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Examining the influence of principal leadership in urban, high-performing, high-poverty elementary schoolsMiranda, Angie 08 June 2011 (has links)
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
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