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Get an inside look at the discourse interactions of third- and fourth-grade students as they consider various design proposals to solve an engineering problem and negotiate a group decision. The au...

Purpose: This study examines how district governance and different school contexts in Denver’s portfolio management model affect shared leadership for learning. We define this as shared influence on instructional leadership and school-wide decision making, which research suggests have strong ties to student achievement and teacher commitment. Method: We analyze interview data from 53 administrators, teacher leaders, and teachers in eight case study schools and teacher surveys in 48 schools. In both data sets, we purposively sampled based on variance in school performance ratings and by school type (e.g., traditional public, standalone charter, charter management organization [CMO], and innovation schools). Findings: We find that perceptions of shared instructional leadership were generally high across the school contexts, though CMO and innovation schools had the highest perceptions in both the survey and case study data. Schools varied substantially in shared decision making, but innovation schools had higher average scores than other school models. Centralized policies and supports, alongside organizational visions spanning networks of schools, helped explain the enactment of shared leadership for learning. For example, schools within Denver’s “innovation” network shared a common vision of teacher empowerment, while CMOs that had more prescribed policies and practices across their schools had lower reported levels of shared decision making. Implications for Research and Practice: Portfolio management models that prioritize school-based autonomy and choice between different kinds of schools are proliferating in urban areas. Our study helps explain why and how shared leadership for learning differs between school models and explores important implications for this variation.

Courses: Introduction to Communication Theory, Small Group Communication, Organizational Communication, or any class with a group-based component.Objectives: This activity aims to engage students m...

Purpose: This study is primarily interested in the operational evidence of distributed leadership using large-scale and multicountry data. Specifically, this study investigates (a) how three position-based human units—the principal, the management team, and teachers—could lead nine school leadership functions together and (b) how the country and school contextual factors are related to the leadership distribution mechanism, which examines the associations among variables across national boundaries including 32 countries. Research Design: This study conducted a secondary data analysis using the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey. The researcher first constructed the latent variables to quantify the extent to which the three groups led the nine leadership functions. Then a resampling approach with balanced repeated replication weights was used to disclose the extent to which each group led each of the 17 leadership tasks. Finally, a structural equation model helped reveal the existing associations among contextual factors and distributed leadership operation. Findings: First, distributed leadership was reported by principals to exist in 25 countries, and there were seven distributed leadership patterns discovered among 32 countries included in the sample, though two patterns were revealed to have little leadership distribution. Second, this study found that the principal, the management team, and teachers led varied leadership functions. Finally, both country and school contextual factors were associated with how leadership was distributed. Conclusions: This study, using large-scale and international data, has added new evidence with a particular interest in the effects of contextual influence on distributed leadership practices.

Teacher Leadership is an effective way to support positive school change (Lai and Cheung 2015; Mangin and Stoelinga in Effective teacher leadership, Teachers College Press, New York, pp 1–9, 2008). To accelerate success, professional development programs aimed at building teacher leadership have proliferated across the globe. And yet, teacher leaders attending such programs often report difficulty in transferring their new knowledge and skills to their schools in meaningful ways (Snoek and Volman in Teach Teach Educ 37:91–100, 2014). In this study, we propose these results may stem from a failure of such programs to support double loop learning. To test this idea, we apply Argyris and Schon’s (Theory in practice: increasing professional effectiveness, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1996) theory of action framework as a tool to examine teachers’ (n = 13) and administrators’ (n = 6) experiences with a teacher leadership development program and specifically whether there were gaps in their espoused theories and theories-in-use. We find double loop learning occurred regarding informal teacher leadership and the cultural norms of autonomy, egalitarianism, and seniority. However, such learning did not extend to principals’ orientation towards shared decision making and authority. While administrators (re)-created structures for teacher leaders to participate in such decision-making (e.g., instructional leadership teams) (i.e., single loop learning), they failed to shift power and authority regarding decision-making in these venues. As a result, teacher leaders’ efficacy was diminished as was the school’s ability to fully engage in change.

Communities of practice, based on the work of Etienne Wenger, is being adopted as a framework in higher education to facilitate and foster professional learning. This article describes the emergenc...

Student-staff pedagogical partnership is a rapidly expanding practice documented by a growing body of scholarship. That scholarship includes a wide range of empirical examples of what students and ...

The present study is a developmental review that aims to conceptualise, using empirical data, the mediating paths connecting effective school leadership (i.e. transformational leadership and distributed leadership) to teachers’ affective and normative organisational commitment. The review is based on empirical studies on teachers’ organisational commitment published in peer-review journals during two decades. Data analysis resulted in an integrative conceptual model where two central paths – socio-affective factors and teachers’ psychological capital – mediated the impact of effective school leadership on teachers’ organisational commitment. This synthesised model, with its higher-level generalisability, extends the scope of previous research and may stimulate interest in new empirical explorations in effective school leadership research.

Teachers and students are the main stakeholders of educational policies in the states; hence, the higher order policies, rules, and regulations must be in alignment with their rights, values, ideologies, needs, competencies, and peculiarities of each region and district. In such a case, the classroom practice will be improved and more promising outputs will be obtained. Iranian previous language programs failed to enhance students’ communicative competence and linguistic needs to survive at the international level; hence, an educational reform occurred to change the language curricula and English textbooks. A total of 86 Iranian English language teaching (ELT) teachers were selected through snowball sampling to find their role in the recent REFORM in Iranian ELT curricula and policies. Analysis of oral interviews and online focus groups data was conducted through Strauss and Corbin’s constant comparative method and illuminated the status quo of reform and policies, the marginalization of teachers as the sole implementers in language classrooms, and suggestions for teachers’ involvement in educational policies. These findings stress that a change within higher education policy makers’ attitude toward engagement of teachers within educational policy and decision-makings improves the classroom outputs.

In this article we discuss a collaborative research project meant to ground community members’ voices in curriculum design. We argue that performing collaborative research with students and parents...

This article addresses the ways young children in culturally and linguistically diverse settings were involved in the meaningful development of identity texts in the form of personalized books. In the study, Canadian and Tanzanian children aged 4 to 6 shared their favorite learning experiences and spaces at school through their use of multiple modes. A multimodal approach to data sharing was then implemented through the co-creation of three dual-language books in English and Kiswahili. The books featured the research participants’ images, drawings, paintings, and photographs, and included verbal descriptions of their multimodal texts in their distinct geographical and cultural contexts. The children in both settings were involved in the book-making process by sharing their views on what images and descriptions they wanted to include in the identity texts that were then shared with both groups of children, their teachers, and their families. This approach to research and data dissemination with children draws on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which views children as strong, capable, and knowledgeable. This perspective also recognizes the rights of children to participate in decision-making processes in research in which they are involved, and to be empowered to communicate their own views.

Calls for educators to promote student voice and agency in classrooms often overlook the importance of the policy milieu in which teaching and learning is performed. In this article we interrogate ...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the perceptions of pre-school educators for the application of total quality philosophy in kindergartens in the prefecture of Corinthia, Greece. Dimensions, such as the adoption of quality philosophy in the pre-school unit by the superiors, the active participation of teachers in decision-making and human resource management parameters, are examined. Design/methodology/approach The methodological approach of qualitative research was selected for the collection, processing and analysis of data based on the methodological tools of the interview with a semi-structured questionnaire and deliberate random sampling of kindergarten teachers serving in public units where they have teaching and/or administrative tasks. Findings The analysis of the data shows that there is no particular familiarity with the basic parameters of total quality philosophy in pre-school education and is related to empirical planning and lack of long-term vision. However, participatory decision-making and emotional intelligence are found as essential elements for ensuring an efficient and open-ended school culture. Originality/value The study is the first of its kind in Greece and abroad and its findings can be used to enrich the thematic scope of application of total quality management dimensions to pre-school education and in particular, those dimensions related to the leadership profile of teachers exercising responsibility tasks.

Teaching and learning chemistry or science, in general, could be described as building upon learners' existing conceptions. In order to support individual conceptual development, teachers should create opportunities for students to become aware of their thoughts. As this is very demanding in chemistry classroom practice with twenty-five or more individuals, pedagogical approaches and instructional support are needed. We argue for a collaborative learning practice that focuses on sharing and discussing individual conceptions on a chemistry-based phenomenon to build up a joint conceptual understanding. We state seven essential features for integrating this collaborative pedagogy successfully in classroom practice: (1) Becoming aware of one's own conceptions; (2) externalizing individual ideas; (3) initiating comparable situation models; (4) ensuring active involvement of all; (5) offering each learner opportunities to reflect on each other's conceptual understanding; (6) integrating decision-making processes; (7) offering the teacher measures to monitor the learning process. This paper is structured in three parts. Part I gives theoretical evidence to these essential features. Part II introduces the peer-interaction-method (PIM) as one of the possible collaborative learning approaches. The PIM is a pre-structured two-step collaborative learning method with instructional measures to meet the seven features. Part III reports a study with 136 students (grade 8 and 9), learning with the PIM in the context of combustion. The results give evidence to the features as being promising to foster individuals’ conceptual development in science learning. The paper concludes with a discussion, limitations and an outlook for further studies and pedagogies in the context of developing conceptual understanding in collaborative settings.

In this paper, two researchers reflect on the institutional space for participatory governance in a participatory action research (PAR) process that was initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (ECS) in the Netherlands. It was implemented in two schools by researchers contracted by the ministry. The project’s aim was to explore possibilities for involving schools in policy processes using PAR. We conclude that PAR sheds light on the communication strategies, power and authority balances, and meaning of participation among the participants. The attempt to break through traditional hierarchies generated new insights into the institutional space at both the participating schools and the government institutions that can be used to create participatory approaches to governance. The researchers were the bridging actors between the schools and the government institutions. While previous research showed that a bridging actor can play a positive role as an objective party who is able to deliberate between the participants, we found that it impeded the creation of a participatory governance space.

Demand for school reform, particularly urban schools labeled as “failing,” requires a community engagement strategy centered on intermingled social problems: poverty, racial isolation and discrimin...

If judged against prevailing understandings of community schools (CSs) in the scholarly literature, all Romanian schools should qualify as CSs in light of the regulatory framework. However,...

Purpose: The study aimed at examining the relationship between participative decision-making and organizational commitment among employees working in mobile telecom companies in Yemen. Approach/Methodology/Design: This study is descriptive-analytical. The study population comprised the employees working at the four mobile telecom companies in Sana'a, Yemen's capital city (Yemen Mobile, Sabafon, MTN and Y-Telecom). One hundred twenty questionnaires were collected and were valid for the data analysis. Different statistical tools, including regression analysis and correlation coefficients, were applied, and data were analyzed using SPSS. Findings: The regression analysis output shows a significant positive relationship between participative decision-making and affective commitment (β = 0.48, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the regression analysis shows a significant positive relationship between participative decision making and continuance commitment (β = 0.59, p < 0.001). In addition, the significance of regression analysis tested using the regression coefficients shows a significant positive relationship between participative decision-making and normative commitment (β = 0.72, p < 0.001). Practical Implications: The study recommends that the companies managers need to motivate and inspire their employees to actively participate in the decision-making process to enhance their level of organizational commitment. Originality/value: The study presents evidence from a new setting where insufficient analysis has been performed to investigate the direct relationship between the variables tested.

While research has started to contest traditional student-supervisor power asymmetries within work-integrated learning, substantial gaps remain about work-integrated learning feedback, powe...

This paper describes a collaborative project between Tsuut’ina Education and St. Mary’s University, Faculty of Education. The project addresses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) (2015) Calls to Action in reference to language and culture. Our work with the Gunaha instructors of Tsuut’ina Education was carried out with the intent that the collaboration would benefit not only Tsuut’ina Education students but also the Tsuut’ina community. For carrying out our work with Tsuut’ina Education, we identified the following four principles as relevant to our collaboration: The research (a) is relevant to community needs and priorities and increases positive outcomes; (b) provides opportunities for co-creation; (c) honors traditional knowledge and knowledge holders and engage existing knowledge and knowledge keepers; and (d) builds respectful relationships (Riddell, Salamanca, Pepler, Cardinal, & McIvor, 2017). Finally, we discuss three implications from our partnership: reciprocal relationships, shared expertise, and respect for worldviews. Our collaboration with Tsuut’ina Education offered us an opportunity to embrace an alternate way of knowing and to appreciate the responsibility that we have to listen and learn from others.Keywords: language and culture; collaboration; partnership; reciprocal relationships; shared expertise; respect for worldviews

Senior leadership teams are the key decision-makers invested with authority who work collectively to achieve organizational goals. While there is a rich literature on this topic across many disciplines, there is a dearth of research on this topic in higher education. In this article we argue for the need for research on senior leadership teams given their centrality in facilitating the changes needed in higher education. We summarize the key literature from other sectors in order to provide a foundation for a higher education research agenda on this topic. We also review the limited number of such studies that have been conducted in higher education, and we end with implications for practice and a proposed research agenda.

The Analytical Hierarchy Process is a very common method used in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to analyze participative assessments. However, due to the qualitative nature of this methodology, a high percentage of inconsistencies need to be addressed when analyzing user preferences. This work analyzes the efficiency of the Goal Programming model in order to reduce inconsistencies with pairwise comparisons when working with inexpert participants and time limitations. A case study has been carried out that assesses online courses in higher education with the Analytical Hierarchy Process in order to understand the usefulness and feasibility of the method. Evaluation of four e-learning tools (collaboration tools, content tools, tutorial sessions and evaluation tools) used in an online business degree were collected from 72 students through a ‘Saaty-type’ survey, and the model was applied to improve the consistency of these results. This model has been able to minimize the inconsistencies of individual preferences while avoiding the loss of primary information.

Background: the UNCRC (1989) established the importance of listening to children’s views globally. In England, seeking the views of pupils with special educational needs and disability about their education, and involving them in decision-making, has been mandatory since 2015. Autistic children’s views and experiences are particularly underrepresented in this context.Aims: to provide a detailed, exploratory analysis of practices that enable autistic pupils to participate in educational decision-making; and to generate new knowledge about pupil participation in a school context, using the Framework for Participation (Black-Hawkins, 2010) as an analytical frame.Sample: Four male pupils aged 11-15, with autism spectrum diagnoses, and 11 staff members from a specialist, independent school took part in this case study.Methods: observations were made of pupils in lessons, and pupils completed a photo-voice activity focusing on where they felt ‘most listened to’ in the school. Staff members participated in semi-structured interviews.Results: a range of practices supported pupils’ participation in everyday decision-making, underpinned by a respectful and positive culture led by the senior management team. The focus was on what learners can do, and how they make decisions to facilitate achievement. Pupils and staff developed mutually respectful relationships, within which boundaries were negotiated and compromises offered. Flexibility through decision making was provided within the timetabling and content of the curriculum. Pupils’ special interests and expertise were valued as ‘keys’ to supporting their engagement. Conclusions: these insights provide a tool for reflection by educators and Educational Psychologists for considering how they might promote the participation of autistic pupils in different educational contexts.

The topic of distributed pedagogical leadership has attracted researchers’ interest in early childhood education leadership. A growing body of research focuses on investigating leadership enacted between directors and teachers in ECE settings. This small-scale study aimed at identifying the functions of distributed pedagogical leadership in ECE and understanding the interdependence of leadership enactments by the centre directors and ECE teachers within ECE settings. Data on the perceptions of six ECE professionals, two ECE centre directors, two ECE teachers and two child care nurses on distributed pedagogical leadership were collected via individual interviews and written documents. The results indicated that the studied ECE professionals perceived the core functions of distributed pedagogical leadership as constructing shared visions, goals and mutual values between centre staff, developing ECE pedagogy within the centre, facilitating learning and expertise of educators, building the operational structures and the culture of the centre and enhancing efficient and participative decision-making within centres. Within all the five functions of distributed pedagogical leadership, the leadership enactment included responsibilities at both the centre level enacted by the centre directors, and at the team level enacted by the ECE teachers. All the five functions were operated within ECE centres in a way in which they had separate but interdependent leadership responsibilities. The study clearly indicated that the teachers played an active role in leading pedagogical development in their teams, and teacher leadership worked as a mediator of pedagogical leadership within the whole centre.

While many studies explain the contributions of economics and environmental protection to social sustainability, and discuss how to achieve sustainable development (SD) through education, less is known about change processes in order to ensure the sustainable development at school. The authors emphasize that as active members of the school community, students should get involved in the school transformation processes. However, is a contemporary school ready for this? The study aims at answering the following questions: How are students as active participants of educational relationship involved in the change processes and how should their involvement be managed seeking sustainability by examining the education institution located in Lithuania? The findings demonstrate that the process of the student involvement in the school transformation process has been explored applying the qualitative approach strategies (integrated theoretical model for change management and case study) from two points of view: theoretical (by analyzing the documents governing the school transformation process) and practical (by analyzing the reflections of the school principalís in-depth interview concerning the student involvement in school transformation processes). Key words: student, rules for students, sustainability, process of change.

There is little empirical research related to the readiness and capacity of academics for team-based collaboration. This case study used the existing literature about collaboration as a term of ref...

Conventional definitions of “on-time graduation” and “college readiness” often place the needs of traditionally marginalized students (first-generation, low-income, immigrant and/or students of color) in a deficit light. This multi-case study explores how school leaders at two public high schools are redefining and reframing these policies for their specific student populations. The findings suggest that extending graduation beyond 4 years and using intersectional understandings of college readiness increase traditionally marginalized students’ opportunities to finish high school and pursuing postsecondary education.

The current practice of the least restrictive environment (LRE) policy in physical education (PE) settings is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to explore how PE and adapted physic...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of teacher’s psychological empowerment between school leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A total of 711 teachers from 31 Estonian schools were surveyed with a questionnaire measuring four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self-determination and impact), school leadership characteristics (leadership style, leader’s empowering behavior and trust in leader) and teacher’s work-related outcomes (job satisfaction and workplace attachment). AMOS path analysis was used to investigate the direct and indirect relations between the teachers’ perceptions of school leadership, their psychological empowerment and their workplace attachment and job satisfaction. Findings This study found that psychological empowerment (subscales meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership empowerment behavior and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Also, the psychological empowerment (meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Trust in the principal has direct and indirect effect (through psychological empowerment) on job satisfaction, whereas there only seems to be indirect effect on workplace attachment through two components of psychological empowerment. Practical implications The mediating role of psychological empowerment includes an important message for school principals – in order to empower employees it is not sufficient to merely delegate formal power and decision-making rights. To facilitate the development of psychological empowerment, it is important to provide employees with an opportunity to experience agency, to experience that their voice and opinions are taken into account (perceived impact) and the purpose and targets of the whole organization are discussed with the employees and formulated in collaboration with them (perceived meaning). Originality/value Psychological empowerment as a mediating variable has not been widely researched, especially in school environment. The results will provide important signals for school principals, where and how to find leverage to improve teachers’ job satisfaction and workplace attachment.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of information search effort on the relationship between leader narcissism and team creativity in China based on attention theory. The paper also explores participative decision making as a moderator in the relationship between team leader narcissism and information search effort. Design/methodology/approach Through a survey of 667 team members and their team leaders from 96 research and development teams at 23 high-tech enterprises in China with paired samples, cross-time data were collected. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression and path analysis were adopted to analyze the data. Findings This paper found that leader narcissism had a positive impact on team information search effort, thereby promoting team creativity, and the effect of leader narcissism on team information search effort is more positive in the context of high participation in decision making. Practical implications Narcissism should be a noteworthy trait in manager selection and promotion especially for the departments and teams which focus on innovation and creation. And companies should pay attention to the team work processes to ensure that team members have the opportunity to participate in decision making for promoting the team leader’s narcissistic “bright” side in the institutional environment and avoiding the “dark” side. Originality/value This paper discusses how and when leader narcissism influences team creativity in Chinese high-technology enterprises based on attention theory. This research expands the application of attention theory at the team level.

Background Partnerships between schools and universities are increasingly advocated as a way to bridge the research–practice gap in education. Empirical research has revealed a wide variety of benefits that these partnerships can bring to merging research and practice. Yet, empirical studies also demonstrate that merging research and practice through partnerships at local sites is neither straightforward nor a guaranteed process. Rather, it is a fragile process fraught with tension that often stems from the relationship between the school and university partners. Purpose Kornfeld and Leyden reflected that if schools and universities are to successfully partner, they “should be ever mindful of … the infinite complexities and potential pitfalls in the relationship.” The purpose of this literature review is to document these complexities and pitfalls more fully so that schools and universities involved in partnerships can have more realistic expectations of the demanding work entailed in maintaining healthy relationships. Realistic expectations can help school and university partners to more successfully navigate the fragility of their work. Furthermore, the research literature suggests that when partners work collaboratively to address these challenges, they will strengthen their relationships. Research Design A literature review was conducted using an intellectual social network analysis and an extensive database search. A total of 56 studies were selected for analysis using relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings The 56 studies reveal that challenges to maintaining partnerships emerge from the differences in schools and universities along three high-level categories: organizational structures, discourse practices, and power relations. Yet, schools and universities can mitigate these challenges by working together to collaboratively build organizational infrastructure, shared meaning, and trusting relationships. Recommendations Schools and universities that partner to close the gap between research and practice at local sites should be mindful of the ways that their differences in organizational structures, discourse practices, and power relations can complicate their work together. At the same time, schools and universities can strengthen their relationships by intentionally working to collaboratively build organizational infrastructure, shared meaning, and trusting relationships. By working to reconcile the differences between themselves, schools and universities can better learn how to navigate the fragility inherent in their partnership.

Leadership is no longer centred on a singular person, but task sharing through collective interactions of multiple leaders. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the effect of an individ...

This article explores the historical and contemporary commitment of the student affairs profession to fostering democratic engagement. Shortcomings of current approaches are analyzed, and a deliber...

Increasingly, educational systems are appreciating the importance of middle leaders leading educational improvement in schools. Schools depend on middle leaders to lead site-based educational development in areas including curriculum development, teacher professional learning and student learning improvement. Middle leaders are in a unique but complex position where they influence both executive leadership and teachers within the school organisation. Adopting case study methodology to investigate the practices and influence of middle leaders leading a school-based educational development project, three semi-structured interviews and artefacts from two middle leaders were collected over eight months. The theory of practice architectures afforded an examination of data to explain the conditions and arrangements enabling and constraining the middle leaders’ practices of influence. The findings showed middle leaders’ influence was dependent on executive leadership support, time, formal role descriptions and trusting relationship. Furthermore, the results reveal middle leaders can influence educational development at the school level through advocating for, collaborating with, and empowering colleagues to support teacher ownership of site-based projects. Of interest, this study showed influence can be reciprocal, between middle leaders and colleagues, and between middle leaders and executive leadership.

Background: This article reports research about the experiences of families with an adult child with intellectual disability as they engaged in the NDIS planning processes in Australia. Method: Par...

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) of 2006 has been in effect in China for a decade since 31 August 2008. This treaty impacts the rights of persons with disabilities in China in different ways, especially with regard to the public understanding of disability and accessibility for social inclusion. This article scrutinizes two major and interrelated areas: accessible testing to promote the rights of persons with disabilities to inclusive higher education and the contribution of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in pertinent policy development. It introduces the evolvement of polices on testing accommodations for the national college entrance examination (Gaokao). It also indicates the gap between policy and service provision for accessible testing in Gaokao and the individual needs of persons with disabilities in taking the test. It further emphasizes the strategic and collaborative advocacy of organizations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) to address the challenges for the improvement of disability policy and practice.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to know the extent to which a decision-making framework assists in providing holistic, comprehensive descriptions of strategies used by school leaders engaging with distributed leadership practices. The process by which principals and other education leaders interact various school-based actors to arrive at a distributed decision-making process is addressed through this paper. The position taken suggests that leadership does not reside solely with principals or other education leaders, but sustains the view that the actions of various actors within a school setting contribute to fuller and more comprehensive accounts of distributed leadership. Design/methodology/approach While the application of rational/analytical approaches to organizational problems or issues can lead to effective decisions, dilemmas faced by principals are often messy, complex, ill-defined and not easily resolved through algorithmic reason or by the application of rules, as evidenced by the two stories provided by Agnes, a third-year principal in a small countryside elementary school in a small northeastern community, and by John, a novice principal in a suburb of a large Southwestern metropolitan area. Findings The value of the objective knowledge growth framework (OKGF) process is found in its ability to focus Agnes’s attention on things that she may have overlooked, such as options she might have ignored or information that she might have resisted or accepted, as well as innumerable preparations she might have neglected had she not involved all the teachers in her school. Research limitations/implications The implementation of the OKGF may appear, occasionally, to introduce unnecessary points along this route and may not be laboriously applied to all decision-making situations. However, the instinctively pragmatic solutions provided by this framework will often produce effective results. Therefore, in order to reduce potentially irrational outcomes, the systematic approach employed by the OKGF is preferable. The OKGF must be managed, implemented and sustained locally if it is to provide maximum benefits to educational decision makers. Practical implications Given the principals’ changing roles, it is abundantly clear that leadership practice can no longer involve just one person, by necessity, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine how things could have been accomplished otherwise. Expecting the principal to single-handedly lead efforts to improve instruction is impractical, particularly when leadership may be portrayed as what school principals do, especially when other potential sources of leadership have been ignored or treated as secondary or unimportant because that leadership has not emanated from the principal’s office (Spillane, 2006). In this paper, the authors have striven to reveal how a perspective of distributed leadership, when used in conjunction with the objective knowledge growth framework, can be effective in assisting principals in resolving problems of practice. Social implications Different school leaders of varying status within the educative organization benefit from obtaining different answers to similar issues, as evidenced by John’s and Agnes’s leadership tangles. Lumby and English (2009) differentiate between “routinization” and “ritualization.” They argue, “They are not the same. The former erases the need for human agency while the latter requires it” (p. 112). The OKGF process, therefore, cannot provide school leaders with the “right” answers to their educative quandaries, simply because any two school leaders, facing the same issues, may utilize differing theories, solutions, choices or options which may satisfy their issues in response to their own individual contextual factors. Similarly, in a busy day or week, school leaders may be inclined to take the shortest distance between two points in the decision-making process; problem identification to problem resolution. Originality/value Should the OKGF process empower decision makers to obtain sound resolutions to their educative issues by assisting them in distancing themselves from emotions or confirmation biases that may distract them from resolving school problems, its use will have been worthwhile.

The research investigated whether teachers’ participation in decision-making (PDM) contributes to the development of affective trust during school reform over time, or vice versa. A model including principals’ interpersonal skills was tested during implementation of the organizational reform. Teachers ( n = 1,482) from 113 Israeli elementary schools participated in the first measurement, and 1,390 teachers from 106 of these schools participated in the second measurement. A cross-lagged design for 2 years showed that PDM leads to affective trust over time. Furthermore, PDM mediated the relationship between principals’ interpersonal skills and affective trust over time.

A growing body of research has suggested that teachers who give their students the opportunity to voice their opinions by purposefully negotiating the curriculum can improve engagement and realize ...

Teachers play a key role in the implementation of self-regulated learning (SRL). Nevertheless, research has found that SRL implementation in primary schools remains limited. This qualitative study ...

Background: While the school leader’s role is undoubtedly instrumental in school effectiveness, the specific influence of formal leadership on pupil learning is indirect and can be difficult to det...

This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-sabotage behaviours of school administrators and teachers and their perceptions of organizational climate in schools. In the present study, ‘correlational screening model’ which is a quantitative research method was used. A sample consisting of 1204 teachers and 166 administrators working in 74 Turkish schools was selected through stratified cluster sampling method to carry out this study. In order to measure self-sabotage levels of teachers and administrators, “The Self-Handicapping Scale” and “School Climate Scale” were conducted as data collection tools. “Pearson Product Moment Correlation” (PPMC) was used to investigate the relationship between self-sabotage and organizational climate in schools and “Multiple Linear Regression Analysis” was used to find out to what extent organizational climate predicts the self-sabotage. It was found out that self-sabotage and organizational climate in schools and all of its sub-dimensions were negatively correlated at a low level. As a result of the regression analysis, it was revealed that the collaboration sub-dimension of the school climate was an important predictor of self-sabotage. According to results of this study, it is recommended that there should be an increase in positive perception in the organizational climate of educational institutions and effective communication between employees as this will create respect, trust, sincerity, friendship and reduce self-sabotage among administrators and teachers. Key words: Self-sabotage, school climate, organizational climate, leadership and participation, collaboration, educational environment.

When facilitating large-scale instructional change, leaders face stakeholder tensions that arise from different institutional pressures. Over the past 4 years, we have created an innovative live case competition in a strategic management course as our college’s signature undergraduate experiential learning opportunity. This case has integrated the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business’ (AACSB) business knowledge and skill areas with grounded learning elements and course learning objectives. Each semester, over 350 students apply strategy concepts to analyze challenges provided by a local company. Course section winners present to executive judges in the final competition. We contribute to the literature by describing the live case competition created from a six-step collaborative process that managed stakeholder tensions as institutional pressures changed. Using distributed leadership and information-sharing approaches, our collaboration model helped us address different needs, share resources, adapt to institutional pressures and create sustainable experiential learning opportunities. With shared decision making and constructive dialogue, we developed high-quality student learning experiences that respected faculty autonomy, addressed resource limitations, and institutionalized business partnerships. We describe our motivation, context, and key stakeholders’ (faculty, students, executives, and administrators) challenges and solutions. We hope our collaborative model helps others successfully implement large-scale instructional change.

According to the 2014–2015 State of the States in Gifted Education, Colorado is the only state in the United States where a series of on-site, customized twice-exceptional professional development (2E PD) opportunities have been implemented. The purpose of this case study evaluation was to understand the implementation of 2E PD during 2014–2016 in a school district in Colorado. Seven training participants and four administrators who were involved in the training were purposefully selected. Data sources consisted of interviews, documentation, and archival records. Eight major themes emerged: (a) increased knowledge and skills, (b) evolved attitudes, (c) recurring challenges, (d) utilizing a team approach, (e) improved performance, (f) difficulty in measuring impact, (g) improved school culture, and (h) planning for the future. In addition to a discussion of themes, implications for improving educator and student outcomes and for creating organizational support and changes are presented.

Collaboration is a powerful tool for professional development that creates opportunities for teachers to reflect on their practice. However, school districts continue to have difficulty both implementing and sustaining collaboration. The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences the teachers in a creative, instructional collaboration. This study yielded several observations. The first was that teachers can experience successful, high-level collaboration in which they perceive a sense of satisfaction, mutuality, trust, and growth. For five middle grades teachers in a private, faith-based school, their satisfactory experience with collaboration was teacher-initiated. When participating teachers believed that they had power over their collaboration, they perceived the collaborative experience as productive to the extent that they were able to engage in collegial learning. The teachers in this study found that teacher-initiated collaboration offered them trust and they were more comfortable, transparent, and open with their partners. They were more willing to question their existing approaches and try new ones. The results also supported the claim that teacher collaboration can facilitate school reform. Participating teachers felt less isolation and developed more teacher knowledge.