IEJLL: International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning
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Staff Development: Creating A Community of Learners 8(2)
No full textOne of the most crucial roles of the school leader is to develop and maintain the professional level of the staff which he/she supervises. It is generally agreed upon that the desired school culture is one in which the focus is on the development of a community of learners. Consequently, intellectual growth can never happen for children unless it first happens for adults. It is of great concern to many practitioners that staff development experiences for educators are not of the serious, intellectual caliber as other professions. This article presents the findings of a formal study of practitioners\u27 perspectives on staff development efforts and the relation to professional improvement. Additionally, the article discusses elements that make for quality staff development and those elements that hinder the intellectual growth of adults
Collaboration: A Framework for School Improvement, 8(5)
No full textThe ability to work collaboratively with others is becoming an essential component of contemporary school reform. This article reviews current trends in school reform that embody collaborative principles and also draws on the literature to provide a theoretical overview of collaboration itself. The article then outlines the findings from a qualitative, self-contained focus group study that involved 16 individuals (parents, teachers, and administrators) who were selected using a purposeful sampling technique. According to Patton (1990), “the purpose of purposeful sampling is to select information rich cases whose study will illuminate the questions under study” (p.169). Accordingly, because of their experience in collaborative school improvement activities, the participants were able to assist the researcher in addressing the general research question, what are the understandings, skills, and attitudes held by participants in school improvement initiatives that result in successful collaboration. This study allowed the essential nature of collaboration to show itself and speak for itself through participants’ descriptions of their experiences. The findings are presented within a graphic conceptualization that not only represents the large number of issues that participants identified in their collaborations, but also demonstrates the complexity of the interrelations between these issues and school improvement. The model provides a framework for thinking about the school improvement process that is anchored in collaboration
Theater as Representation (TAR) in the Teaching of Teacher and Administrator Preparation Programs, 8(6)
No full textTheater as representation (TAR) has been used in pre-service and in-service teacher and administrator preparation programs since 1998. This paper places TAR within a pedagogical arena that further solidifies its place as an instrument for leadership professional development in B.Ed., M.Ed., and in-service programs.
Maxine Greene (1995) challenges us to seek the use of imagination within our pre-service teacher preparation programs.
… It is difficult for me to teach educational history or philosophy to teachers-to-be without engaging them in the domain of imagination and metaphor. How else are they to make meaning out of the discrepant things they learn? How else are they to see themselves as practitioners, working to choose, working to teach in an often indecipherable world? (p. 99
Leadership Success in Schools: Planning, Recruitment, and Socialization, 8(10)
No full textThis article presents findings from an exploratory study that compared and contrasted leadership succession planning in two large Ontario school districts with focus on three themes: (a) leadership succession planning, (b) recruitment and selection, and (c) professional and organizational socialization of school administrators. Among the findings from the two comparative cases were: (a) a need for financial support for leadership preparation, (b) a need for structured recruitment teams, (b) a need for structured administration preparation and training programs, (c) self-selection, (d) a need to examine policy for rotating leaders, and (e) a need for internal and external promotion
Integral Vision for Restorative Justice in Education, 8(13)
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to examine traditional organizational structures and leadership styles in Canada, to assess their responsiveness to a changing educational, social and political context, and to propose an alternative approach. We argue that the educational enterprise would benefit from distancing itself from these traditional models, and moving towards embracing a transformational style of leadership based on a restorative justice model. This paradigm would include a holistic, inclusive, integral approach from which educational leaders and their constituents could bring about change both within learning communities and the larger social order by challenging existing patriarchal constructs and practices
Systemic Thinking and Educational Leadership: Some Considerations, 8(7)
No full textThe practice of education leadership has its challenges not only in myriad events that arise but also in working with various stakeholders in education, from children and their parents, to teachers, other administrators and support staff, to community members. With this practice comes an attending challenge of complexity to which the education leadership might respond status quo or in a variation of spot attempts at novel approaches, like additives people put in their vehicles to improve performance. In this complexity that infuses education and its leadership, to rely on tried and true practices or ad hoc patches of this or that approach now runs a great risk of failure or compounding problems. The application of systemic thinking, through the introduction of the three systemic clusters of Purposes, Form/Design and Infrastructure, arguably ensures a more productive approach to life events in the education setting. This paper serves as an introduction to these three clusters and the corresponding application of a Systemic Factors Inventory Analysis matrix as a viable option to education leaders dealing with any life event
Review Essay: Teacher Education Through Open and Distance Learning, edited by Bernadette Robinson and Colin Latchem, 7(7)
No full textCan an Electronic Mailing List Help Build Community and Increase Undergraduate Cognition? 7(1)
No full textThis study presents data to support the cognitive benefits and the community-building capacity of using an electronic mailing list in an undergraduate college course. Seventeen undergraduate electronic mailing list users were surveyed, and data were analyzed using a Rasch analysis. A qualitative analysis was also conducted to help us further understand the themes that emerged
A Balanced Approach to High-Stakes Achievement Testing:An Analysis of the Literature With Policy Implications, 7(4)
No full textThis article examines the intended and unintended impacts of large-scale, high-stakes achievement tests on teachers and students through analysis of the arguments put forth by testing advocates and critics. A key objective is to inform both the evolving dialogue around testing and assessment policy development. Attention is given to: (1) the role of values and beliefs as determiners of one’s approach to testing, (2) methodological issues, (3) the impacts of testing on teacher and student behaviours, and (4) accountability and political implications of testing. A key conclusion of the article is that many of the arguments for and against testing concern the issues of fairness and usefulness of testing for teachers and students, juxtaposed with the public’s and government’s need to know how well schools are performing. Reconciling the two sides in the interest of advancing assessment policy is a matter of building the case that a balanced approach to testing exists. Such an approach must give appropriate attention to the multiple functions of classroom assessment relative to the functions of high-stakes achievement testing. Summative, formative, criterion-referenced, and norm-referenced testing models all have specific attributes and benefits that fit varying testing needs in given situations. However, finding the right balance in their applications and usages is the key to building a fair and integrated model of classroom assessment