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The aim of this study was to explore experiences of Roman Catholic clergy who relinquish the priesthood. Ten former priests participated in semi-structured interviews that were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Overall, the study found that priests experienced needs and aspirations conflicting with their social role and the expectations made of them. They found making decisions about vocational change frustrating and stressful because of concerns about breaking community norms, fear of social stigma, and disbelief in their ability to cope in lay life. Specific guidelines for supporting priests through counseling psychologists are provided.

Conflict occurring between the roles of work and family has been heavily researched. Recently, however, research has been branching out to study roles beyond work and family. For example, a few researchers have investigated conflict that occurs between the roles of work and school. However, these studies have focused mainly on school and personal outcomes. As such, the present study seeks to contribute to the literature on work-school conflict in two main ways. First, we investigate the relationship between work-school conflict and job outcome variables. Next, we seek to understand the mediating mechanism through which work-school conflict affects job outcomes. Participants in this study were 304 students who completed a survey regarding their attitudes toward work and school. Results were largely supportive of the hypotheses predicting that work--school conflict predicted work outcomes and that burnout mediated these outcomes. Implications for organizations and universities are discussed.

Career paths, career development and participation in adult learning are to a large extent dependent on learning experiences and labour-market entrance in early life stages. However, within the group of people with relative weak educational and vocational background variance was found in terms of how people perceive their situation and how they describe, plan and realise their career. Based on narrative interviews with low-qualified adults, the presented study describes individual circumstances and approaches to lifelong learning and career development. Based on the concept of enacted career, the article shows how the differences in the perceptions of career and learning can be understood as contextualised action. The article shows inner resources and external constraints have potential influence on the educational and career development in this group. The discussion focuses on consequences for career counselling and guidance.

This paper explores the challenging situation faced by teachers as professionals and members of the community in Aceh, Indonesia during the province's civil war. It reveals how teachers' sense of agency during this period was deeply influenced by the economic/material, political and socio-cultural condition at that time -- conditions and experiences which today have bearing on a place for teachers in the post-conflict peace-building process occurring in the province. During the conflict, teachers struggled to balance their strategic societal positioning -- as civil servants and community members -- and found themselves caught in the middle of a complex range of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces at play. This position of constraint, we argue, limited the ability of teachers to act as peace-builders during the conflict, and continues to influence teachers' ability to function in such ways today.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by linking principal empowering leadership to teachers' innovative work behavior. By doing so, the author attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of this relationship by examining a moderated mediation model which encompasses exploration as a mediator and role conflict as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 201 public teachers. In order to examine the present hypotheses bootstrapping analysis, Sobel test and SPSS macro were used. Findings: The results demonstrated that teacher exploration mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior and, further, that this indirect effect is contingent on role conflict. Practical implications: Based on the present findings, in order to enhance innovation, schools need to promote both empowering leadership style and their teachers' exploration. Moreover, principals should refrain from providing conflicting orders and expectations from their teachers because such conditions will eliminate the positive effect of their empowering behaviors on teachers' exploration and innovative work behavior. Originality/value: This is the first study that develops and tests a moderated mediation model regarding the relationship between principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior.

In this study, we aim to gage students' satisfaction, learning outcomes, and experiences with student-faculty team-teaching in an undergraduate quantitative-research-methods course. Three peer tutors co-taught with a faculty instructor each year, receiving pedagogical-placement credits. Data were collected via bi-weekly journals, a focus group, and a questionnaire on students' satisfaction and learning experiences. Data were analyzed through descriptive and thematic analyses. Peer tutors reduced student anxiety, increased engagement, and availability of help inside/outside class. Peer tutors described uncertainty about their roles and tension with classmates. However, peer tutors gained new perspectives, skills, and described supportive student-faculty teaching teams as assets to improving the course experience for students.

The field of academia is frequently associated with traditional norms that aim to regulate scholarly activity, especially research. The social web, as another field, is often viewed as challenging long-established conventions with novel knowledge production practices. Hence, the two fields seem to oppose rather than complement each other. Using a Bourdieuian lens, this research examines research participants' accounts of their approaches to practice on the social web in relation to academia. The paper reports on the habitus dissonance between the two fields, before discussing the effects of the two fields' competing doxas on individuals' habitus.

The experience of headteacher socialization has been described as challenging and often traumatic for new headteachers. The research reported in this article provides a theoretical explanation of that experience by analysing the socialization of new primary school headteachers in England from a role boundary perspective. The role boundary is the delineation between a set of practices--a role-as-practice--which are commensurate with a role-as-position and those practices that are not. Six newly appointed primary school headteachers were interviewed periodically during their first three years in post to explore their experiences. A seventh newly appointed headteacher kept a written log of his experiences during that period. From the data, 22 narratives of critical socializing incidents were developed and interpreted from a role boundary perspective. During headteacher socialization, the new headteacher and those in the school and in its wider context seek to establish and position their respective role boundaries. Role boundary interactions have the purpose of establishing the legitimacy of practices and may be immediate; intense; lead to conflict and have a high affective content. The research confirms the role boundary concept as a theoretical and methodological tool of heuristic and analytical value in understanding and explaining headteacher socialization.

This article reports on the role of the external adviser to school governing bodies in relation to headteacher performance management (HTPM) in England. School leaders are crucially important for the effective functioning of schools and there is an ever-growing body of inspection and research evidence which shows this to be the case--leadership matters, in particular principal or headteacher leadership. Oversight of the performance of school leaders is therefore crucial in the English educational system due to current initiatives promoting school autonomy coupled with tight, centralised accountability. Researchers in other countries have noted the lack of systematic understanding of the performance management of senior school leaders. The same applies to England; however, current changes to the educational system, including increased school autonomy and the centrality of school improvement, linked to inspection, make the stakes much higher than elsewhere. Understanding HTPM, especially the role of the external adviser or school improvement partner, is crucial given the evolving structure of the educational system and the shifting relationship between the state and schools. The role of the external adviser is especially pronounced in helping the governing body set objectives for its headteacher and make decisions about remuneration and salary increases. The article considers the degree to which outside assistance enables governing bodies to complete their key role in relation to managing the performance of headteachers and it outlines the main constraints under which external assistance and support operates. The article considers the role of external advisers as critical friends and concludes that good governing is at the heart of effective HTPM; the two are complementary. Governing bodies and boards of trustees will play a key role in the future, a role which can be made easier with the help of effective external advisers.

Management training in ELT organizations is often inadequate. New managers are in severe need of training, especially for tasks which are non-pedagogical, yet they operate in a milieu where there are few opportunities for support compared with colleagues in mainstream education. The purpose of this case study, a rare evidence-based contribution to discussions of ELT management, was to evaluate the experiences and perceptions of four new managers involved in an initial management training course in the private sector. Four main themes emerged from interviewing the new managers. First was appreciation (managers needing and valuing training); second, the transition from teaching (confidence in those skills which were transferable from the classroom); third, anxiety (the ability of training to reduce stress levels); and fourth, role confusion (a mismatch between different expectations of performance that was not resolved during training). In general, managers valued the training but felt some content areas more pertinent than others.

A tenured respected principal learns that supervisory relationships with staff are only one side of the leadership coin. The other side turns up when a new assistant superintendent is assigned as his supervisor. Problems are imminent when the supervisor seems ready to usurp the principal's traditional decision-making authority. The principal, as the subordinate in this scenario, ponders the role of loyalty and team play versus the political implications of supervisory conflict and pressure from a parent interest group. Questions guide current and aspiring principals to reflect and consider the facets of establishing a relationship with a new supervisor and resolving practice-related conflicts. Activities are designed for reflecting on the pitfalls and possibilities open to a principal under pressure from the supervisor, band parents, reallocated resources, and his own struggle with fair and appropriate treatment of a valued teacher he has known throughout his high school career.

One third of undergraduate students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities are considered nontraditional as defined by the single criterion of being aged 25 years and older. Nontraditional students have significantly lower graduation rates than traditional students. Using a role theory perspective this mixed-methods study examines the factors influencing persistence among a sample of 494 nontraditional men and women undergraduates attending a large public university in the southeastern United States. In this study, persistence rates did not differ between men and women although the factors influencing persistence did. Grade point average and confidence in graduating positively influenced persistence for both men and women. Women enrolled part-time were more likely to persist than those enrolled full-time. Although interrole conflict leads many women to consider withdrawing from school, most do not. Instead they exhibit a "will to persist" that enables them to overcome obstacles and ultimately graduate.

Conflict may occur in any organization (and hence school) and, for schools, conflict management style is a joint activity and the degree of its effectiveness determines the type of impact of conflict on school performance. This empirical study investigates the potential sources of conflict in Greek primary schools, determine appropriate approaches for the handling of conflicts and offers recommendations, based on the findings, for a more creative conflict management style in order to enhance school performance. Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to primary school educators in two Greek regions, one of which was the metropolitan area of Athens, resulting in a sample of 414 completed questionnaires. The results showed that school conflicts often arise in the school and that when school conflicts did occur they were mainly attributed to both interpersonal and organizational reasons. Moreover, the results showed that there is a greater likelihood for these conflicts to arise in urban schools than in other regions. This study supports the view that integration, collaboration and coherence are the key factors for cultivating a constructive conflict management strategy and enhancing better school performance.

Adult educators are often part-time workers or volunteers and, as such, they must simultaneously negotiate multiple professional identities. This negotiation process may trigger conflict among professional identities, which can provide an opportunity for transformational learning. In this case study, the authors explore this conflict and learning through interviews with five female adult secondary educators. The authors use thematic analysis and metaphor analysis to explore participants' narratives of professional identity. Each participant narrates her unique professional situation with what the authors call "metaphorical improvisation," creating new metaphors or using old metaphors in new ways. Moreover, all participants use metaphors of space and boundaries to narrate themselves as providing educational "access" for their students.

This article considers the experiences and perceptions of practising English headteachers and the tensions that they face when juggling government prescription and government initiatives, which may be antagonistic to their educational values and beliefs. Managerial control over teachers work has been particularly acute and destructive to "human flourishing". Headteachers have a moral and ethical responsibility for the welfare and education of pupils. Such professional ethics oblige the professional to seek the good of the pupil and therefore good is viewed as intrinsic to the work of an educator. Thus headteachers are directly involved in negotiating between sometimes contradictory imperatives and drivers. How then does the headteacher cope with what Colley refers to as "situated ethics work"? This article presents data derived from written responses from 10 headteachers that begin to open up this question. I argue that it is not uncommon for people to weaken in their values-driven stance when under great pressure. It is however important to recognize the extent to which educational values are constrained by neo-liberal value-based market agendas in order to continually question and re-evaluate what is happening within education rearticulating this for the benefit of pupils.

This case examines how school leaders manage the increased demands of a new state-mandated teacher evaluation process. Subject to negotiations, districts and their local teacher unions can allow for teachers to be credentialed and serve as evaluators within their own schools. The challenge is examined through both the opportunity costs of this new evaluation system and the cultural capacities of the administrators and teachers to foster trust and professionalism in a unionized educational environment.

Online surveys are increasingly used in educational research, yet little attention has focused on ethical issues associated with their use in educational settings. Here, we draw on the broader literature to discuss 5 key ethical issues in the context of educational survey research: dual teacher/researcher roles; informed consent; use of incentives; privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality; and data quality. We illustrate methods of addressing these issues with our experiences conducing online surveys in educational contexts. Moving beyond the procedural ethics approach commonly adopted in quantitative educational research, we recommend adopting a situated/process ethics approach to identify and respond to ethical issues that may arise during the conduct, analysis, and reporting of online survey research. The benefits of online surveying in comparison to traditional survey methods are highlighted, including the potential for online surveys to provide ethically defensible methods of conducting research that would not be feasible in offline education research settings.

By investigating the factors facilitating and hindering a small scale educational change, this study highlights the crucial role of leadership in designing and implementing an educational change at a transnational university in Vietnam. During its initiation stage, the programme leaders seemed to fail to (1) set up a clear schedule for changing, (2) assist external advisory groups in providing training sessions and (3) clarify the responsibilities of external advisory groups. At the implementation stage, programme leaders and teachers were less likely to (1) develop the collective knowledge and understandings required for ongoing instructional improvement, (2) adjust the teaching quality control system and (3) cooperate with advisory groups. The lessons that can be learned include (1) mutual trust between stakeholders is vital to its successful implementation as it may determine the level of efforts stakeholders would make, (2) preparations should include clarifying stakeholders' responsibilities and the accountability system and (3) the external advisory groups need to be properly managed from the very beginning of the change.

Despite profound changes to the higher education sector in the UK over recent years, which have tended to emphasise the role of prospective students as active choosers within a marketplace and encourage higher education institutions (HEIs) to place more emphasis on student engagement and representation as a means of improving the quality of the learning experience, the role of students' unions has remained largely unexplored. To start to redress this gap, this paper draws on a UK-wide survey of students' union officers and a series of focus groups with 86 students and higher education staff in 10 case study institutions. It outlines the ways in which students' unions are believed, by those closely involved with them, to have changed over recent years, focusing on: the shift towards a much greater emphasis on representation in the role and function of the students' union; the increasing importance of non-elected officers; and the emergence of more cooperative relationships between the students' union and senior institutional management. The article then discusses the implications of these findings for both our understanding of the political engagement of students, and theorising student involvement in the governance of HEIs.

This study uses a phenomenological approach to examine how Latino male students at community colleges engage with their male peers. The analysis utilizes a male gender role conflict (MGRC) framework and employs cultural conceptions of masculinity, specifically machismo and caballerismo. Practitioners and researchers might leverage positive aspects of masculinity associated with caballerismo to help men succeed academically, while promoting reflection on and interrogation of aspects of masculinity that might lead to negative educational outcomes.

Based on interviews with 18 parents who were enrolled in higher education and student affairs master's programs and also employed on college and university campuses, this article explores the ways that student parents navigate their academic, familial, and professional responsibilities. Using role conflict theory as a theoretical guide, this study considers the strategies student parents use to meet the demands of multiple roles. Findings suggest that while participants value their identities as students and take steps to meet the expectations associated with that role, they prioritize their roles as parents above all else.

This study aims at exploring several individual, organizational, and contextual factors that may affect beginning teachers' turnover intentions during their first years of practice. The sample consists of 227 beginning teachers (69% female and 31% male) from 133 schools in Norway. The results show four important antecedents of beginning teachers' turnover intentions: collective teacher efficacy, teacher-principal trust, role conflict, and affective commitment. Our findings suggest that organizational and contextual factors, and not necessarily individual competence perceptions, have a significant impact on beginning teachers' turnover intentions. Also the findings suggest that beginning teachers should be studied separately from more experienced teachers. Implications for school leadership are discussed.

Inspired by real-life events, this case describes the dilemma of a novice assistant principal who must balance her role as an administrator at her high school campus where a cousin's son, Eddie, recently enrolled and is proving to be disruptive the first month of school. Troubled by questions of ethics and loyalty, the issue is complicated after Eddie's father Rick engages in what might be considered disruptive or inappropriate behaviors on campus. Coincidentally, Rick seeks the assistant's help, as he believes Eddie's basketball coach is utilizing questionable discipline practices with the team. The administration is left to investigate the issue.

Although the role of the school social worker has historically been inconsistent, fragmented, and contextual, concerns about the need to advocate for school social work positions, demonstrate the effectiveness of school social work practice, understand the consequences of role ambiguity, and respond in a proactive way to policy changes has necessitated a focus on the development of a more clearly defined school social work role. The purpose of the current exploratory-descriptive study was to examine the role of school social workers in Louisiana (N = 378). Results of the analysis led to a consistent role definition in Louisiana and the development of a conceptual practice model. This conceptual model and role definition has implications for school social workers' ability to advocate for their positions, provide accountability for their work, and guide the training and education of school social workers.

European countries are striving to increase secondary school completion rates as part of their labor market planning. Denmark has taken an approach that places youth education guidance counselors at the center of their efforts. Based on interviews with 25 counselors and 10 other education leaders, this article explores the role and practice of these Danish counselors in regard to meeting state education goals. While the counselors strongly support the country's high educational goal, they have concerns about its attainability, its across-the-board application, and coercive, or 'individual-blaming' elements of its implementation. Countries wishing to adopt this model should consider the fit between counseling philosophy and policy so as to avoid role conflict.

The constructs of role stressors, burnout, and resilience have been the topic of numerous research studies in physical education and education more generally. Specific to physical education, much effort has been devoted to the study of teacher/coach role conflict. However, no prior studies have examined how role stressors, burnout, and resilience experienced by teacher/coaches differ from what is experienced by noncoaching teachers. Using role theory as a guiding framework, this study sought to examine differences in role stressors, burnout, and resilience among teacher/coaches and noncoaching teachers from core (e.g., mathematics, language arts) and noncore (e.g., physical education, music) subjects. Analyses were conducted using 2 × 2 (coaching status × subject affiliation) Factorial ANOVAs. While some group differences are highlighted, overall the results suggest that there are more similarities than differences among teacher/ coaches and noncoaching teachers. These findings suggest that it is not safe to assume that dual role teacher/coaches will always experience more role stress and burnout than noncoaching teachers. Additional research is needed to more fully understand the implications of being a dual role teacher/coach.

It is a common phenomenon for many mature female international students enrolled in high education overseas to experience strain from managing conflicting roles of student and family, and difficulties of cross-cultural adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine perceptions and behavioral intentions of international female students toward e-learning as a tool for resolving overseas high education and family strain from a technology acceptance standpoint. To achieve this goal, Davis's (1989) technology acceptance model is used as the study's conceptual framework, to investigate perceived usefulness, ease of use and behavioral intentions toward e-learning. The research draws on face-to-face interviews with 21 female international students enrolled in classroom-taught degree programs at a university in Wuhan, China. The data is analyzed through coding and transcribing. The findings reveal that given its convenience, e-learning is generally perceived as practical in balancing study with family as well as feasible in saving time, money, and energy. However, key concerns were raised over the issues of poor and costly Internet connectivity in developing countries, as well as perceived negative reputation, lack of face-to-face interaction, and lack of motivation in online environment. Important issues and recommendations are raised for consideration when promoting e-learning program. This study emphasizes the need to revisit gender supporting policies and effective marketing to re-position the prevailing image of e-learning as a reputable and reliable education delivery method.

This research explores six language teacher educators' professional experiences in Hong Kong. Drawing on the data from their narrative frames, the study identified some distinct roles in the participants' professional lives, including teacher, supervisor, learner, researcher, scholar, and change agent. While some of the roles were satisfying and rewarding (e.g., teacher and supervisor), conflicts and tensions occurred in other roles (e.g., researcher and change agent), which could be attributed to the lack of professional support for their continuous learning, the institutional pressure to publish, and the difficulty in bridging the research-practice divide. By taking a reflective stance and exercising their professional agency, the participants attempted to cope with the conflicting roles and found meaning and satisfaction in their work. The study concludes that teacher educators should be encouraged to inquire into their own professional practice and provided with more opportunities and resources to engage in their continuous professional development.

For students who view themselves as different from the majority and those in positions of influence, doctoral education may present challenges beyond the typical pressures and stresses of the graduate student experience. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study of otherness as described by 31 full-time doctoral students in two academic departments within one university. We explore identity-based otherness and its related outcomes for students and the academy. Findings from our analysis of interview data indicate that doctoral students experience otherness across a diverse range of characteristics related to professional, relational, and personal components of their identities. Findings also indicate that experiences of otherness may prevent students from viewing themselves as accepted and supported members of departmental, disciplinary, and professional communities. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

The high attrition rate of female physicians pursuing an academic medicine research career has not been examined in the context of career development theory. We explored how internal medicine residents and faculty experience their work within the context of their broader life domain in order to identify strategies for facilitating career advancement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 18 residents and 34 faculty members representing male and female physicians at different career stages. Using thematic analysis, three themes emerged: (1) the love of being a physician ("Raison d'être"), (2) family obligations ("2nd Shift"), and (3) balancing work demands with non-work life ("Negotiating Academic Medicine"). Female researchers and educators reported more strategies for multiple role planning and management than female practitioners. Interventions aimed at enhancing academic internists' planning and self-efficacy for multiple role management should be investigated as a potential means for increasing participation and facilitate advancement.

The expansion of school-based teacher training is impacting onthe practice of universities, schools and trainees. University tutors and managers were interviewed on how they experienced working in partnership with schools and how this impacted on the composition of their work. They variously reported on how their sense of professional purpose had been challenged as a result of changing expectations. Their involvement in research is used as a barometer for these changes. The teacher educators are depicted as wavering between governmental regulation (master discourse) and professional imperatives (university discourse), where the latter comprise an uneasy alliance of expertise in school and academic rigour. Through depicting the unsettlement of practice and accounts of it (hysteric discourse), the study points to possible resolutions that might be achieved through more systematic resistance to external demands (analytic discourse). The university teacher educator identity results from attempted resolution of these conflicting demands.

One of the fastest-growing subpopulations of nontraditional college students is military veterans who enroll in institutions of higher education following their returns from deployment. Although much research has been conducted on veteran-students, much of that work has focused on issues such as veterans' finances or academic achievement, rather than the individuals' transitions from deployment to student life. Prior to the 2008 passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, only 22% of institutions offered transition assistance to veteran-students; four years later, that figure has dramatically grown to 37%. Due to the rapidly increasing interest in transition assistance among student-veteran service providers, it is clear that more research is needed on these transitions. Six veteran-students at a large research university in the Midwest were interviewed using a qualitative case study approach. Subjects' responses were then analyzed within the framework provided by Schlossberg's Transition Theory. The influences that most strongly impacted the participants' transitions were assets and deficits that were financial, physical, emotional, psychological, and, most significantly, social in nature.