Successful School Leadership

Σύμφωνα με τις επιταγές της παγκοσμιοποιημένης ψηφιακής κοινωνίας η διαδικασία της μάθησης για εκπαιδευτικούς δεν εξαντλείται με την ολοκλήρωση της πανεπιστημιακής τους εκπαίδευσης. Τα διευθυντικά στελέχη εκπαίδευσης, όντας εκπαιδευτικοί λειτουργοί και διοικητικοί υπάλληλοι οφείλουν να ενημερώνονται διαρκώς ως προς τις τρέχουσες τάσεις της επιστήμης τους, αλλά και για ζητήματα που σχετίζονται με το νευραλγικό χώρο της εκπαίδευσης γενικότερα. Υπό το σκεπτικό αυτό, η διαρκής επιμόρφωση επιβάλλεται να αποτελεί ένα αναπόσπαστο και οργανικό τμήμα της προσωπικής και επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης των ηγετών εκπαίδευσης. Ο σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης είναι η παρουσίαση του εκπαιδευτικού σχεδιασμού ενός ψηφιακού περιβάλλοντος μάθησης για την υλοποίηση ενός προγράμματος κατάρτισης των διευθυντικών στελεχών στις κοινωνικές και ψηφιακές δεξιότητες του 21ου αιώνα. Η ομάδα-στόχος της επιμόρφωσης ήταν οι κατέχοντες ηγετική θέση σε σχολεία Δευτεροβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης της Περιφερειακής Ενότητας Θεσσαλονίκης. Τα συμπεράσματα της παρούσας μελέτης επιχείρησαν να ρίξουν φως στον επιστημονικό διάλογο σχετικά με ζητήματα που αφορούν στη μεθοδολογία του σχεδιασμού επιμορφωτικών προγραμμάτων για σχολικούς ηγέτες. Ειδικότερα, η μελέτη επιχείρησε να συνεισφέρει προς την κατεύθυνση ανάπτυξης ενός νέου εκπαιδευτικού πλαισίου επιμόρφωσης και κατάρτισης ηγετικών στελεχών εκπαίδευσης στο σύγχρονο εκπαιδευτικό γίγνεσθαι. Η μελέτη απευθύνεται στους εξ Αποστάσεως σχεδιαστές επιμορφωτικών προγραμμάτων, στους ερευνητές, στην επιστημονική κοινότητα και στους ιθύνοντες για τη χάραξη της εκπαιδευτικής πολιτικής, προκειμένου να εγείρει προβληματισμό για την αναγκαιότητα ύπαρξης προγραμμάτων επιμόρφωσης για τα στελέχη της εκπαίδευσης ως προς την ανάπτυξη των κοινωνικών και ψηφιακών δεξιοτήτων τους, οι οποίες είναι χρήσιμες όχι μόνο για τον επαγγελματικό τους στίβο, αλλά και για την κοινωνική τους ζωή και τις διαπροσωπικές τους σχέσεις.

This book presents the argument that school leader research is a potent means through which the school leader grows professionally, and is also empowered to engage more deeply, insightfully and effectively with the many variables which underpin and mediate their plans for school improvement. This concept has its genesis in a coupling of ‘practitioner research’ (Hilton & Hilton, 2017; Lynch & Sell, 2014; Robinson & Lai, 2006) with the day-to-day work of the school leader. While engagement in research from a practitioner perspective is commonplace in professions such as medicine and engineering, its application in education, particularly school leadership, is minimal at best (Anderson & Herr, 1999; Lynch & Madden, 2017; Robinson & Lai, 2006). This lack of engagement is a loss of potential and opportunity for sustainable evidence-based school improvement. The book thus seeks to explain how a ‘school leader researcher’ can leverage the approach for sustainable school improvement.

Abstract
The paper provides a review of research on middle leaders in schools. After defining middle leaders as teachers who have an additional formal organizational responsibility, the paper uses several established and more recent reviews, combined with discussion of several coherent research programs and research about the impact of middle leaders, to arrive at five trustworthy statements about the work of middle leaders. Suggestions for future research are provided.

This is a pre-publication paper submitted for publication in the 2022 Elsevier International Encyclopedia of Education, edited by Robert Tierney, Fazal Rizvi, Kadriye Ercikan and Graham Smith. The paper will be part of the policy, leadership and governance section edited by Qing Gu and Ken Leithwood. Comments are welcomed and can be sent to me via email: [email protected]

Article Info With the policy windows open for decolonial practices, educational leaders in Africa have much to ponder on as they examine and transform their leadership practices to suit the current climates. All progressive leaders seek to lead institutions where they could motivate followers, enhance performance as they utilise relevant leadership qualities. Conscientious leaders in Africa would be eager to know what it means to combine Western epistemology and indigenous knowledge to achieve the institution's goals. Arguably, today's institutions require leaders who will be able to study their contexts and utilise leadership strategies for effectiveness.

This paper reports on multiple perspective and observational case studies of the leadership of three underperforming schools, two serving communities with relatively high educational advantage, and one with low educational advantage, yet all facing challenges related to school closure and pressure to succeed. Utilising Hallinger’s (2016) context and culture framework for school improvement to analyse the cases, it is shown that whilst these schools had very challenging contexts, they have been able to meet the needs of their local community cultures through leadership from the principal and others that has not been constrained by context.

Edited by Patrick Duignan and David Gurr and conducted through a process that involved commissioning writers from all over Australia, ACEL/DEST produced this rigorous, scholarly book about seventeen Australian principals. It is a wonderful celebration of outstanding principal leadership. It includes the following introductory and bookend chapters:
Gurr, D. & Duignan, P. (2007) Leading Australia’s schools. In Duignan, P. & Gurr, D. (Eds) Leading Australia’s Schools (Sydney: ACEL and DEST), pp. 5-12.
Duignan, P. & Gurr, D. (2007) Hope for a better future. In Duignan, P. & Gurr, D. (Eds) Leading Australia’s Schools (Sydney: ACEL and DEST), pp. 157-164.

Quality leadership in challenging contexts is a catalyst for change. Change to teaching practices is driven not just by the principal but the whole leadership team. The collaborative and democratic collaboration are key to this change. Schools that adopt a democratic approach appear to place staff and student learning at the centre of the school's mission and promote a culture where teachers are continuously looking to improve. Just as student engagement in learning is a focus of the Fair Go Program, teacher engagement is also critical for change to occur. In this paper the 'Engaging Messages for Teachers' framework is introduced to analyse school leadership practices. Grassland Public School is presented as a case study on leadership practices that promote teacher engagement. Three leadership practices are identified to support teacher engagement: (i) pedagogical change via research-informed teacher-led investigations; (ii) school-based and individual professional learning,; and (iii) affirmative interference.

This paper provides a synthesis of the six papers contained in this special issue of International Studies in Educational Administration (ISEA) focused on cases from the high needs school group of the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN). The paper provides background information about the ISLDN and summaries of the papers. Comparing the papers, there was evidence that principals adapted their interventions or practices to suit their school’s context, that despite different contexts there were educational leadership commonalities that described much of the work of the principals, the principals were best described as entrepreneurs and leaders rather than managers, and that leadership and context have a reciprocal influence.

Since the turn of the millennium there has been interest in successful school leadership, beginning as an attempt to expand the focus of effective schools research. Since then, there has been research dedicated to exploring the area, and the repositioning of other research to contribute to understanding successful school leadership. This chapter provides a history of the development of the area, and explores findings from several key studies and reviews to give a sense of the development and possibilities of the study of successful school leadership. It is not a comprehensive review, but rather a more personal reflection on the development of the area

This is the draft of a chapter that when published will be:
Gurr, D. & Drysdale, L. (accepted). International Perspectives on Successful School Leadership, in F.W. English (Ed.) Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse, (London, UK: Palgrave).

Comments are welcomed and should be addressed to David Gurr at [email protected]

This study utilized testimonio as method to unearth the voices of four Latina school leaders from the southern region of the U.S. to shed light on their experiences, including triumphs and struggles, in navigating their career trajectories. The testimonios revealed distinctions as well as commonalities among the Latina administrators related to how they drew on their experiential knowledge and various forms of cultural capital in the process of their leadership development and roles. How they enacted agency, demonstrated signs of resistance and/or a commitment to social justice, and serving Latinx communities also emerged. Ternura y tenacidad: Testimonios of Latina School Leaders Within a week [as assistant principal], I remember coming out of my office one day and there were four moms up in the front who were talking to the receptionist, and they were telling her 'we want to talk to the one, the new one, not the other one, not the white lady, we want to talk to the young one, the new girl that speaks Spanish.' And so I was coming around the corner and I hadn't met them yet. So I introduced myself to them. All they wanted to do was bring me what they had made. They had made tamales okay, what a welcome! Again, a very traditional, 'we are here to welcome you.' I didn't know who they were, I didn't know who their kids were, I didn't know nothing [sic]. But to them that was like their welcoming, we're bringing you this, and we just wanted to say

Este estudio, integrado en el marco de la red ISSPP (International Successful Principals Project), tiene por objeto identificar y examinar las características y estrategias de liderazgo que promueven un centro exitoso, así como conocer los efectos de éste en los diferentes planos de un I.E.S.: institucional, organizacional y social.
Para ello, hemos aplicado una metodología cualitativa, inspirada en el paradigma interpretativo, llevando a cabo un estudio de caso en un I.E.S. considerado exitoso.
La comunicación recoge las conclusiones más relevantes acerca del liderazgo escolar exitoso en un I.E.S. de nuestro entorno, así como la discusión de los resultados apoyándonos en la literatura reciente.

This paper is about school reform for the purpose of improving student academic achievement. More specifically the paper provides an insight into the concept of 'School Readiness for Teaching Improvement' by providing an account of an underpinning theory complete with an examination of an associated process and report format. The paper concludes with a sample of an associated 'Readiness Report' and an explanation of its key elements and how such a report is read for key points of reference.

Greve, Rikke; Andersson, Caroline and Basic, Goran (2021) “Interactive advantage, cementing of positions, and social pedagogical recognition: a narratively inspired analysis of professional actors’ oral representations of health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts”. Pedagogical Sciences: Theory and Practice, 39(3): 91-102, https://doi.org/10.26661/2786-5622-2021-3-12 .

Abstract [en]
The purpose of this study is to present new knowledge about the oral representations of the health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts of professional actors working with young people who use alcohol and narcotics. The narrative empirical material is based on 36 interviews with professionals working with this population of young people within the context of upper-secondary school activities and outpatient treatment units in Sweden. In their oral representations, professional actors depict themselves as having an interactive advantage in relation to the verbal category of “young people who use alcohol and narcotics”. These verbal patterns seem to cement the professional actor as a superior who sets the agenda for placing these young people within a prevailing normative order. The analysis indicates that an inclusive approach by professionals is crucial to achieving several important aims. An inclusive approach also imposes demands, however, on how upper-secondary schools and outpatient treatment units collaborate with each other in this work with young people. This approach also plays a role in determining the support and room for manoeuvring that professional actors have relative to normatively right and deviant actions and to laws and policies that to some extent govern this practical work. Good relationships between young people and professional actors constitute an important dimension in which the social pedagogical recognition is based on caring, trust, and mutual interactions. It is crucial for professionals to take an approach of inclusion of young people (students) in the school and treatment contexts, with attention to their ability to develop and change in a social pedagogical and educational sense.

Abstract [uk]
Метою дослідження є представлення нових знань про усні уявленнящодо промоції здоров’я, профілактики та реабілітаційної діяльностіпрофесійних акторів, які працюють із молодими людьми, котрі вживаютьалкоголь і наркотики. Емпіричне дослідження базується на 36 інтерв’юз фахівцями, які працюють із цією віковою групою в навчальних закладахта амбулаторних лікувальних відділеннях у Швеції. У своїх усних уявленнях професійні актори зображують себе як таких, хтомає інтерактивну перевагу щодо категорії «молодь, яка вживає алкогольта наркотики». Ці вербальні моделі «зміцнюють» професійного актораяк керівника, який встановлює процедуру для розміщення цих молодихлюдей у межах нормативного порядку. Аналіз показує, що інклюзивнийпідхід із боку професіоналів має вирішальне значення у процесідосягнення декількох важливих цілей. Інклюзивний підхід також висуваєвимоги до того, як старші школи та амбулаторні лікувальні відділенняспівпрацюють одне з одним під час зазначеної роботи з молоддю. Цейпідхід також відіграє певну роль у визначенні підтримки та опцій, яківиконують професійні актори щодо нормативно правильних і девіантнихдій, а також законів та політики, що регулюють цю практичну роботу.Гарні стосунки молодих людей і професійних акторів є важливим виміром,у якому соціально-педагогічне визнання ґрунтується на турботі, довіріта спільній взаємодії. Важливо, щоб професіонали використовувалипідхід до включення молоді (учнів) у шкільний і лікувальний контексти,звертали увагу на їхню здатність розвиватися та змінюватися в соціально-педагогічному й освітньому сенсі.

Post-panopticism is aligned with the Foucauldian conception of power and illustrates its apparatuses and mechanisms, for instance the visibility of bodies under the gaze, the facility to mobilise power relations for political purposes, and the capacity to engage self-technologies where there is self-surveillance and surveillance of others. As a concept, it is a confluence of the disciplinary power of panoptic control and the ubiquitous security mechanism of biopower in action. Post-panopticism in the discipline provides a means to identify areas of lack in teacher and student populations. Post-panoptic surveillance in Australian schools is illustrated in this article around the use of data wall displays. Data walls are a collective mechanism that produces biopower through its alignment with panoptic disciplinary power in schools. These data assemblages are an example of a suite of technologies that profile student performance, mould teaching practices, and shape subjectivities of leaders, teachers, and students.

2021 Social Pedagogy and Social Education International Online Conference: Hope in Dystopia, Social Pedagogy Association; ThemPra Social Pedagogy, Mount Pleasant, UK; University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK; Arizona State University, Tempe, USA (20210622-20210624). ”Interactive advantage, cementing of positions, and social pedagogical recognition – a narratively inspired analysis of professional actors’ oral representations of health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts targeting young people who use alcohol and narcotics”. Rikke Greve, Caroline Andersson & Goran Basic.

The purpose of this study is to present new knowledge about the oral representations of the health promotion, prevention, and remediation efforts of professional actors working with young people who use alcohol and narcotics. The narrative empirical material is based on 23 interviews with professionals working with this population of young people within the context of upper-secondary school activities and outpatient treatment units in Sweden. In their oral representations, professional actors depict themselves as having an interactive advantage in relation to the verbal category of “young people who use alcohol and narcotics”. These verbal patterns seem to cement the professional actor as a superior who sets the agenda for placing these young people within a prevailing normative order. The analysis indicates that an inclusive approach by professionals is crucial to achieving several important aims. An inclusive approach also imposes demands, however, on how upper-secondary schools and outpatient treatment units collaborate with each other in this work with young people. This approach also plays a role in determining the support and room for manoeuvring that professional actors have relative to normatively right and deviant actions and to laws and policies that to some extent govern this practical work.

This completed work is dedicated to my family. Thank you for your understanding and patience as I researched, wrote, and read during our vacations, your games, and the holidays. To my husband, thank you for your support and patience. This dissertation wouldn't have been completed without the support of my mentor, Dr. Mary Hawkins.

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this issue is to understand school success of migrant students by analyzing individual, social, and societal factors of resilience among students. Despite existing educational inequalities, the literature hardly provides empirically validated insights on school success pathways of migrants. One of the main challenges migrant students experience while adjusting to the mainstream culture is known as acculturation. Acculturation outcomes in the school context can be measured in terms of students’ sociocultural and psychological adjustment to the new teaching and learning environment, as well as to the new academic culture. It is therefore important to consider the process of acculturation and its outcomes in schools while discussing the academic success or failure of minority students. The aim of the Special Issue is to empirically identify and compare pathways for policy actions in schools and communities to tackle barriers of migrant students’ school success. These resilience pathways will address differences in individual and social risks and identify protective factors for young immigrants to overcome obstacles linked to discrimination and low educational outcomes. The Special Issue focusses especially on international empirical research comparing and explaining school success factors for migrant students in different countries. Interestingly, international research so far has not conclusively identified if migrant students have special or even specific school success patterns, diverging from school success styles of native students.

Teacher collaboration could play a key role in the development of education systems, as this approach helps to improve student performance through teachers' professional learning (Hargreaves and Fullan, 2012; OECD, 2005). TALIS-research (OECD, 2009) highlighted that an 'exchange and cooperation' type of collaboration is dominating more significantly in Hungary than in Europe in general, while 'professional col-laboration' rarely appears. During the recent trend of developing teacher collaboration, a significant body of research has pointed out the importance of school leaders in forming a school culture based on teacher collaboration (Ashley, 2017; Hord and Sommers, 2008). This research aims to examine the elements and components of the two aforementioned types of teacher collaboration, with an in-depth investigation of the operation of two schools, identifying the characteristics of school leaders impacting the different cultures of collaboration. In this comparative case study the system that Vangrieken et al. used in their literature review (Vangrieken et al., 2015) serves as a base for our analysis of impact factors of teacher collaboration. The results enumerate the factors, which are directly connected to school leaders and their views, and that reveal the mechanisms that effect teacher collaboration. These results serve as a foundation for a future teacher collaboration development program aiming to train principals.

COVID-19 pandemi süreci birçok özel ve kamu örgütünü ciddi bir şekilde etkilemiştir. En çok etkilenen kurumların başında okul örgütleri gelmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, okul müdürlerinin COVID-19 pandemi sürecine ilişkin görüşlerinin araştırılmasıdır. Nitel araştırma paradigmasının olgubilim (fenomenoloji) temelinde desenlenen araştırmada çalışma grubu, maksimum çeşitlilik örnekleme tekniği ile tespit edilmiştir. Çalışmaya farklı okul kademelerinde görev yapmakta olan 16 okul müdürü katılmıştır. Araştırmadaki verilerin toplanması için yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formunda yer alan 11 soru sorulmuştur. Araştırma sonucunda elde edilen verilerin kodlanarak analiz edilmesi sonucunda bulgular elde edilmiştir. Bulgular, müdür algılarına göre alınan önlemler, öne çıkan sorunlar ve pandeminin etkileri olmak üzere üç kısımda kategorize edilmiştir. Okul müdürleri alınan önlemleri fırsat eşitsizliğine ilişkin önlemler ve öğretimsel önlemler şeklinde sınıflandırmışlardır. Elde edilen ikinci bulguya göre ise okul müdürleri karşılaştıkları sorunları uzaktan eğitim, bireysel ve yönetimsel şekilde kategorilendirmişlerdir. Elde edilen son bulgulara göre ise okul müdürleri COVID-19 salgınının etkilerini iletişim süreci, öğretim süreci ve okul yönetimine etkileri şeklinde değerlendirmişlerdir. (The COVID-19 pandemic process has seriously affected many private and public organizations. Schools are one of the most affected organizations during the pandemic. The aim of this study is to investigate school administrators' views on the COVID-19 pandemic process. In this study, the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used.. The participants of the study include 16 school administrators and are selected through the maximum variation of the sampling technique. They are from different types of school. In order to collect the data in the study, 11 questions in the semi-structured interview form are asked. The study findings of the study are categorized according to the perceptions of the administrators as; measures taken, main issues, and the effects of the pandemic. School administrators classify the measures taken as the ones regarding inequality of opportunity and instructional measures. Secondly, school administrators categorized the issues they encountered as distance education, individual ones and administrative ones. Lastly, school administrators evaluated the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic based on communication process, teaching process, and school administration).

This chapter presents a practical model for the establishment and activation of school leader research. In effect it scaffolds a culture of inquiry in a school through a focus on the school leader. As Chapter 1 outlined, the school leader has a key role to establish and promote the required conditions for quality teaching and learning and in this book’s context, the important associated culture of inquiry.

Schools are dynamic institutions whose leadership approach draws representation from different constituents of the school. One of the constituents that has received momentum in recent years is learner leadership, which involves giving learners a voice to participate in the management and leadership activities of their schools. The purpose of the study was to establish the qualities essential for learner leadership within a school context, with the aim of cultivating learner leadership structures that draws on learners with established learner leadership qualities. A case study design was used as a methodology for the research, whose sample comprised of a school principal, teachers and learners of Oshana Region. All participants were selected using purposive sampling. The data was collected with document analysis, semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, observation and journaling. The collected data was analysed by establishing themes. The study established that learner leadership is associated with specific human resources capabilities related to influencing, leading, directing and motivating other learners at school. Good learner leadership requires an established learner who is exemplary and a role model for other learners. In addition, learner leadership is about having the power to enforce compliance with school rules and regulations. As informed by traditional theories on leadership, learner leadership can be made possible by innate qualities as can be evident with individual learners, making them electable candidates to learner leadership positions. It becomes evident that learner leadership comes with specific leadership qualities, begging the need to elect learners to learner leadership structures on the basis of established learner leadership qualities for successful execution of leadership responsibilities. Keywords: Learner leadership, Learner Representative Council, LRC, Leadership, Management, Learner voice, Learner leader

The development of an instrument, known as a ‘Readiness for Teaching Improvement Report’ and built on scales of Alignment, Capabilities and Engagement for schools (ACE-S) is described. This instrument has helped to inform decisions made regarding readiness for change in schools participating in whole of school improvement projects at Southern Cross University. This chapter explores a study associated with such a report for key points of reference in the whole of school improving teaching agenda.

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have for decades grappled with bridging the gap in enrolment numbers between male and female students. Education for All (EFA) goals have provided guidance to these countries on attainment of gender equality in education. EFA goal number 5 articulates the international commitments aimed at achieving global gender equality in education by 2015. This is to be arrived at by increasing the enrolment of female learners at different levels of education. The Ministry of Education in Kenya developed policies and strategies to enable an increase in female students enrolling in school. With these policies and strategies, Kenya has realised tremendous successes in terms of enrolment numbers. However the country still faces challenges in some geographic areas. In as much as there is an increase in the number of girls participating in primary and secondary school levels, Kenya is yet to attain gender equality in education. The number of boys in these levels of education still surpass that of girls by a concerning proportion. Interestingly these trends change in post secondary education levels. Universities have recorded an amplified enrolment of female. This paper documents trends in enrolment numbers by gender in primary, secondary and post-secondary levels of education in Kenya. Further, the paper interrogates the facets that promote the shifts in the enrolment trends.