IEJLL: International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning
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Perception, Curriculum, and Subject Matter: Reforming Instruction, 12(3)
No full textThe purpose of this study is to illuminate the reciprocal relation between teacher leaders’ perception and practice to subject matter. The researcher conducted interviews and observations of 30 teachers from 8 urban elementary schools. The data and results evidently identify those teachers’ views of subject matter both shaped and were shaped by their teaching strategies. Teachers’ strategies for improving math instruction focused on external supports such as professional training in mathematics and building skills through sequenced instruction and curriculum. In improving literacy instruction, teachers emphasized the school community as the locus for development of literacy programs and materials that applied to a variety of academic subjects
Becoming a School Leader: Voices of Transformation from Principal Interns, 12(7)
No full textThis article describes a two-year longitudinal study of how potential principals recorded shifting challenges during their internship process. Interns were trained to use a thinking process called Habits of Mind and an online journaling process called Journey Mapping. The study recorded 6,491 electronic reflections, which were coded qualitatively into critical themes. The most challenging situations for principal interns were those concerning students; next were interactions with the principal; and the third were interactions with staff. This study includes tables of two-week intervals during which interns recorded their challenges and quotations from the challenges. This study is the beginning of the process of recording the data and looking at change in the minds of new leaders
Instructional Leadership in Elementary School Science, 12(12)
No full textInstructional leadership is internationally recognized as being a key role for school administrators to advance in their relationships with teachers. But what happens when a principal lacks content knowledge or specific pedagogical knowledge about certain curriculum areas? How do administrators support instructional practices of teachers who teach subjects in which the administrators have little to no experience? In this paper, these questions are considered in relation to the teaching of upper elementary school science. Twenty-five principals of elementary schools were interviewed about the ways they provide instructional leadership in upper elementary science, an area where many elementary teachers are challenged with regard to their understanding of science content and to their knowledge of specific pedagogical approaches. Many principals describe their own challenges in providing appropriate instructional leadership for these teachers
Productive School Governance: Success Case Studies from New Zealand, 12(28)
No full textThe rhetoric abounds concerning the types of effective, high trust, interactions that should exist
for a school governing body. In practise, however, such interactions are often difficult to
define, establish, maintain, and sustain. The study reported on in this paper attempted to
identify interactions linked to perceptions of high trust via a ‘success case study’ examination
of characteristics of productive and defensive strategies utilised by three New Zealand (NZ)
primary level school governing bodies (Boards of Trustees) that had been identified as being
effective. All three schools exhibited strong productive interactions where open, evidence
based, discussions predominated in a dialogue (informed debate) context. The case studies
provide a set of indicators that illustrate the detailed strategies that can be employed that lead to
effectiveness and high trust
A Chinese Teacher\u27s on Professional Development in Literacy Education, 12(10)
No full textThis paper presents the teaching and learning experiences of a Chinese literacy teacher in narrative form. The participant\u27s story is presented in his own voice, as constructed from interview transcripts. Challenges and struggles faced by the participant include limited professional autonomy in a hierarchal school system, awareness of conflict between educational theory and classroom practices, and lack of social and institutional support for teachers\u27 professional development initiatives. This narrative is situated in China, but the challenges faced by the participant (Hao-Ying) are similar to my own experiences (as a teacher in Pakistan and Canada) and may strike a chord with other literacy teachers
Entrepreneurship and Educational Leadership Development: Canadian and Australian Perspectives, 12(14)
No full textThis article reports the entrepreneurial activities of two university faculties, one Canadian and the other Australian, that were designed to meet the educational needs of students and to garner the resources necessary for program delivery. A conceptual framework for educational entrepreneurship, containing six dimensions, is proposed. The dimensions are: innovative behavior, networking, time-space communication framework, local-global perspective, educational organizations as knowledge centers, and integrated face-to-face and Internet-based learning. Major considerations suggested for entrepreneurial initiatives include access, equity, quality, and sustainability. Educational entrepreneurship is defined as the strategic focus on creating short and long-term opportunities for learning that will make a significant difference for individuals and their societies. Elements of educational entrepreneurship highlighted are strategic planning, the capacity to make responsible but timely decisions, business acumen, faculty development, and strategic alliances. Entrepreneurial leadership must be found among academic and support staff, as well as students. Impact on students is discussed. Other lessons learned include the need for a multi-faced approach to institutional change that incorporates a clearly articulated educational vision, well developed policies and procedures to guide action, sustainable funding plans, and evidence-based practices. Although educational entrepreneurship is reported to be difficult to achieve and seen as vulnerable to changes in personnel and political influences from within the organization and beyond, it is seen as providing a more equitable access to graduate studies and promoting growth in social and human capacity
\u27New professionalism,\u27 workforce remodeling and the restructuring of teachers\u27 work, 11(15)
No full textSince its election in 1997 the Labour government\u27s policy has sought to promote a \u27new professionalism\u27 amongst teachers. First mooted at the time when new performance management arrangements were introduced, the discourse of new professionalism has now become closely associated with the \u27workforce remodeling\u27 agenda in which teachers\u27 work is being reconfigured and increased use is being made of support staff to undertake work previously performed by teachers. Promotion of the new professionalism agenda derives in large part from an alliance between the state and some teacher unions under the banner of a social partnership
Teacher Unions, school districts, universities, governments: Time to tango and promote convergence?, 11(20)
No full textThis paper considers \u27convergence\u27 as deliberate acts of will to achieve common goals within the context of the education service in general and school sector industrial relations in particular. Such language is unusual in the field of industrial relations, where assumptions are often based on notions of conflictual relationships. However, this paper argues that educational organizations, including ones where relationships might be considered adversarial, can move beyond occasional partnerships and collaboration towards a more systematic approach to joint working-convergence. This paper draws on the author\u27s experience as a teacher union researcher in British Columbia involved in a number of innovative projects involving the teachers\u27 union, school districts, and universities, to consider where common interests might occur and how such forms of working can be developed. A number of challenges to convergent working are identified, including notions of vested interests, issues of power and control, and system fragmentation resulting from site-based management. However, convergence is suggested as one way to reduce fragmentation in educational systems and as a way to build trust between governments, school districts, and teacher unions; providing essential building blocks to sustainable system improvement
Union Learning Representatives: Facilitating Professional Development for Scottish Teachers, 11(19)
No full textIn the United Kingdom, teachers\u27 professional associations and labor organizations, notably in the form of trade unions have historically been involved in education and training in the workplace. Recently, in the United Kingdom this activity has gained greater credence and importance due to the emergence of trade union learning representatives who are a new category of unpaid lay representation with statutory rights who operate within the workplace. They are part of the present UK government\u27s drive to expand and improve lifelong learning and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to create the new learning society within the UK. In Scotland, a constituent part of the UK with its own distinctive education system, the McCrone Report (2000), particularly its CPD recommendations and the subsequent 21st Century Agreement (Scottish Executive Education Department [SEED], 2001) has added impetus to the role of these learning representatives within the Scottish teaching profession. This article examines how the Educational Institute of Scotland, a professional trade union, which represents the overwhelming majority of teachers in Scotland, has launched a learning representatives initiative with the aim that the representatives work to advise, broker, and facilitate improved CPD opportunities for their colleagues, particularly in relation to Chartered Teacher status (O\u27Brien & Hunt, 2005)