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Courtney, Steven J; McGinity, Ruth
doi: 10.1177/1741143220962101pmid: N/A
System leadership continues to be constructed largely as a desirable, even normative, evolution of educational leadership, with critiques often focusing on implementation rather than principles. This belies its increasingly recognised role in processes of disintermediation, in which the ‘middle tier’ comprising local government is dismantled. In this article, we draw on interview and observation data from our case study research in a new multi-academy trust to argue that system leadership is better understood as a manifestation of, and mechanism for, depoliticisation. We present a reconceptualisation of system leadership in which its primary function is to enable and operationalise three forms of depoliticisation: governmental, societal and discursive. We conclude that system leadership as depoliticisation is a suite of professional practices with linked identities and dispositions that operationalises the state’s project to depoliticise education in England through multi-academisation, or the creation of multi-academy trusts.
doi: 10.1177/1741143220957328pmid: N/A
The further education sector is a challenging working environment with expectations to deliver high-quality education against a backdrop of continuous policy and structural reforms. Further education managers play a key part in how further education institutions respond to this dynamic operating environment. However, despite the importance of this role there is an absence of an agreed set of professional expectations for further education middle managers.Sector bodies have commissioned research to address recruitment challenges and support workforce development, but this is often directed towards teachers. As a result, the credibility of further education teachers has increased markedly, which is welcomed. However, further education middle managers who are responsible for the management of teachers and operationalisation of organisational strategies have not benefited from comparable opportunities for professionalisation. In contrast, they suffer from a lack of support when assimilating into the role. This paper investigates the role of further education middle managers through the lens of those responsible for their recruitment and development, human resource managers. Through the administration of a national survey of human resource managers, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper establishes a new theoretical framework: four pillars of professional expectations for further education middle managers. Furthermore, it highlights the value in a contextualised approach, moving away from generic management standards.
de Jong, WA; Lockhorst, D; de Kleijn, RAM; Noordegraaf, M; van Tartwijk, JWF
doi: 10.1177/1741143220962098pmid: N/A
School principals and teachers are expected to continuously innovate their practices in changing school environments. These innovation processes can be shared more widely through collaboration between principals and teachers, i.e. collaborative innovation. In order to gain more insight into how school principals enact their leadership practices in leading collaborative innovation, we interviewed 22 school principals of primary, secondary and vocational education in the Netherlands. All participants have implemented the same collaborative innovation programme, aimed at enhancement of collaboration between teachers and school principals within schools, that has already been implemented by 900 Dutch schools. They were interviewed twice during the implementation year. Interview transcripts were analysed using an open coding strategy looking for leadership practices. Based on 11 leadership practices, we described two main leadership patterns: school principals enacting leadership practices as either a team player or as a facilitator. We conclude that our findings suggest a wider repertoire of leadership practices than is reported in previous studies. Future studies would need to address the generalisability of the practices and patterns as found in this specific context of collaborative innovation.
doi: 10.1177/1741143220953585pmid: N/A
Educational collaborative networks (ECNs), as instruments for achieving educational goals through the integration of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have become frequent elements of public education worldwide. Despite their contribution of additional resources to the education enterprise, the roles of philanthropic foundations in ECNs are particularly controversial. Research suggests that leaders of ECNs such as policy makers, administrators, and school principals design and coordinate governance structures to guide participants’ behaviour. However, the importance of governance design and coordination in ECNs for governing philanthropic roles is yet to be systematically analysed. This article centres on the relationship between the design and coordination of governance boards and role-related participation of philanthropic foundations. A mixed methods design is implemented based on secondary analysis of a German large-scale standardised survey and an in-depth case study conducted in a south German municipality. Results confirm that leaders of ECNs impact philanthropic engagement via the design and coordination of governance boards. Participation in ECNs can take on diverse roles of representing particular interests, pursuing innovation, or providing services and are explained by underlying governance-related mechanisms. Identified associations within governance boards and role-related participation of philanthropic foundations in ECNs offer valuable insights for leadership in education.
Vennebo, Kirsten Foshaug; Aas, Marit
doi: 10.1177/1741143220962102pmid: N/A
This article examines the leadership of school principals who, based on the narrative case of the Blueberry School, discuss how they as principals would have responded to a similar problematic situation regarding a school change process. The study is grounded in the context of the Norwegian National School Leadership Programme. Theoretically, the study is informed by cultural–historical activity theory. The findings exemplify how the principals’ responses encompass various viewpoints and arguments through which tensions inherent in the context of the change process are provoked and displayed. This study has three implications for school leadership and change. First, when principals experience problematic change processes at their school, they should take time to identify the tensions, discuss how to understand them and think through their implications for leadership. Second, leading these types of tension-laden change processes in schools requires analytic and reflective skills and training; thus, steps to strengthen these skills should be included in leadership programmes. Finally, there is a need for research focussing on how to conduct informed analysis to reveal tensions when problematic situations occur in school change processes. This is because informed analysis may lay the groundwork for how school leaders can utilise tensions as productive driving forces in change processes.
Fonsén, Elina; Lahtinen, Leena; Sillman, Mari; Reunamo, Jyrki
doi: 10.1177/1741143220962105pmid: N/A
In this paper, we present research that focuses on pedagogical leadership that is evaluated by the staff in the early education unit. The evaluations relate to the observed indicators of the well-being of children and leadership evaluations conducted by the early education centre directors. The methods include systematic observation of children, educators’ evaluation of leadership and directors’ evaluation of their leadership. The measurements are independent of each other. The data were collected between 2017 and 2019 in Finnish early education units. The results indicate the connection between the pedagogical leadership of director and observed activities of children, including involved learning, positive emotion, physical activity and participation. The connection between pedagogical leadership evaluated by the staff was also connected with leadership evaluated by the director, highlighting the need for the director to focus on pedagogical leadership and staff involvement. The results provide a perspective to help the director to focus on the main task of early education, the well-being of the children.
Berkovich, Izhak; Gueta, Batel
doi: 10.1177/1741143220957340pmid: N/A
The present study explores the effect of teachers’ authentic leadership in second chance programmes on students’ psychological need satisfaction climate (according to self-determination theory), and the manner in which teachers’ gender moderates this effect. Data collected from 60 teachers and 183 students in second chance programmes in Israel were analysed at the group level. The study found that for male teachers, authentic leadership negatively predicted psychological need satisfaction climate in the classroom. The implications of findings for authentic leadership in general and for teaching in second chance programmes are discussed.
doi: 10.1177/1741143220957331pmid: N/A
Job demands overburden school administrators’ personal and professional capacity and affect their performance and well-being. However, studies on principals and vice-principals’ work intensification fail to highlight how their work demands and challenges are manifested, and how work demands contribute to the changing nature of their work. This qualitative study explores in what ways job demands are manifested in school administers’ intensified work conditions and how their perceptions of job demands help them create a sense of control. The study utilizes the job demands model as a framework to help closely examine two types of job demands: job challenges; and job hindrances though principals’ accounts. The results show that job challenges tend to be transitory and are more likely to be overcome; job hindrances however tend to be more institutional and less temporary and harder to overcome. Attempting to deal with job challenges the same as dealing with job hindrances may become challenging itself and build up rather than alleviate work-related stress among school principals.
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