Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook, by David Silverman, Los Angeles, Sage, 2010, 456 pp., AU$65.00, ISBN 978-1-84860-033-1, ISBN 978-1-94960-034-8. Available in Australia and New Zeal...

Doing qualitative research: a practical handbook

International evidence suggests that educational reform’s progress
depends on teachers’ individual and collective capacity and its link with schoolwide
capacity for promoting pupils’ learning. Building capacity is therefore
critical. Capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning,
organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together,
it gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the
power to get involved in and sustain learning over time. Developing professional
learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building
for sustainable improvement. As such, it has become a ‘hot topic’ in many
countries.

Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature

This article argues for a reconceptualization of leadership. Possible substitutes for leadership are reviewed along with a number of existing dualisms. These are rejected in favour of the claim that the leadership of organizations is most appropriately understood as a distributed, rather thanas a focused, phenomenon. Various attributes, dimensions and applications of distribution are then considered, and a revised approach to action and influence in organizations centred on conjointly performed activities is thenproposed. For this new formulation a summary is provided of the core concepts of, and recent developments in, activity theory. It is shown that two particular advantages of this approach include the helpful model it provides for contextual analysis—an aspect sorely neglected by the field of leadership—and its focus on the evolving division of labour in organizations, the prime mover for tracking emerging patterns of distributed leadership.

Distributed Properties A New Architecture for Leadership

This article considers the relationship between distributed leadership and school improvement. Drawing upon empirical evidence from two contemporary studies of successful school leadership and recent studies of school improvement, it explores the extent to which distributed forms of leadership can contribute to school improvement. The article argues that the distributed perspective offers a new and important theoretical lens through which leadership practice in school can be reconfigured and reconceptualized. It concludes by suggesting that, while evidence would suggest that distributed forms of leadership can assist capacity building within schools which contributes to school improvement, further research is needed to confirm a relationship between distributed forms of leadership and improved student learning outcomes.

Distributed Leadership and School Improvement: Leading or Misleading?.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership is normatively preferred in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the country’s major policy reform document. The research was conducted in two dissimilar Malaysian states (Selangor and Sarawak).,The research was a multiple case-study design, with 14 schools (seven in each state). Sampling was purposive, with schools selected from the different bands used to categorise school performance in Malaysia. Within each school, interviews were conducted with principals (secondary schools), headteachers (primary schools) and a range of teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders, to achieve respondent triangulation.,The findings confirm that the MEB prescribes distributed leadership as part of a strategy to move principals and head teachers away from their traditional administrative leadership styles. While there were some variations, most schools adopted a modified distributed leadership approach. Instead of the emergent model discussed and advocated in the literature, these schools embraced an allocative model, with principals sharing responsibilities with senior leaders in a manner that was often indistinguishable from delegation.,A significant implication of the research is that policy prescriptions in major reform initiatives can lead to unintended consequences when applied in different cultural contexts. While distributed leadership is presented as “emergent” in the international (mostly western) literature, it has been captured and adapted for use in this highly centralised context, where structures and culture assume a top-down model of leadership. As a result, distributed leadership has taken on a different meaning, to fit the dominant culture.,The main practical implication is that principals and head teachers are more likely to enact leadership in ways which are congruent with their cultural backgrounds and assumptions than to embrace policy prescriptions, even when unproblematic adoption of policy might be expected, as in this centralised context.,The main social implications are that policy change is dependent on socio-cultural considerations and that reform will not be whole-hearted and secure if it is not congruent with the values of institutions such as schools, and the wider society which they serve.,The paper is significant in exploring a popular leadership model in an unfamiliar context. Beyond its importance in Malaysia, it has wider resonance for other centralised systems which have also shown interest in distributed leadership but have been unable and/or unwilling to embrace it in the ways assumed in the literature. This leads to theoretical significance because it adds to the limited body of literature which shows that allocative distributed leadership has emerged as a device for accommodating this model within centralised contexts.

/pdf/distributed-leadership-and-the-malaysia-education-blueprint-t1u8jxbfy2.pdf

Distributed leadership and the Malaysia Education Blueprint: From prescription to partial school-based enactment in a highly centralised context

Instructional leadership is one of the most enduring constructs in the shifting typology of leadership models (Bush 2011, Bush and Glover 2014). It emerged in the United States as evidence accumulated that leadership could have a positive outcome on student learning outcomes. Described as the ‘new orthdoxy’ in the 1980s, Hallinger (1992: 37) noted that ‘the instructional leader was viewed as the primary source of knowledge for the development of the school’s educational programme’. However, the focus of attention switched to transformational leadership, and subsequently to distributed leadership, as the limitations of the instructional model became increasingly apparent. These may be summarised as follows:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143215577035

Understanding instructional leadership

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the Malaysian literature on three prominent leadership models (instructional, distributed and transformational), linked to a major educational reform initiative captured in the Ministry of Education’s Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB).,The approach is a systematic review of all relevant Malaysian literature, in English and Bahasa Malaysia, on instructional, distributed and transformational leadership and alternative terms linked to these models.,The findings show that there is an emerging literature on these leadership models and their prevalence in Malaysian schools but that they have been interpreted in ways that are distinctive to the highly centralised Malaysian context. For example, instructional leadership is prescribed, so there is some evidence of its practice, notably in respect of monitoring. Similarly, distributed leadership is allocative, rather than emergent, as suggested in western literature.,The findings show that, while research on these models is emerging, much more research is required to establish whether and how leadership practice in Malaysia differs from that outlined in the normative western literature.,There is emerging evidence to suggest that instructional and distributed leadership, if enacted carefully, can have a positive impact on student outcomes.,The leadership models were developed in western, mainly decentralised, contexts, and there are clear implications for how such models might apply in highly centralised cultures, such as that prevailing in Malaysia.,This is believed to be the first systematic review of the Malaysian literature on school leadership models, linked to the MEB. It is also distinctive in including both English language and Bahasa Malaysia sources.

/pdf/school-leadership-theories-and-the-malaysia-education-h81e9v66jv.pdf

School leadership theories and the Malaysia Education Blueprint: Findings from a systematic literature review

This paper examines middle leadership of the heads of English, maths and science departments in four international secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on their roles, responsibilities, role relationships, instructional engagement and leadership involvement within the theoretical framework of instructional, distributed and teacher leadership. The study is a qualitative multi-method case study, involving observation, documentary analysis, and semi-structured interviews with 12 heads of department, 36 teachers, and four principals. With respect to the middle leaders’ roles and responsibilities, the findings illustrate cross-school and in-school differential developments, with contextual factors contributing to uneasy role relationships. The results also show that, while broad-based leadership opportunities are limited for the middle leaders and teachers, the most powerful and common feature of all these international schools is the centrality of teaching and learning.

/pdf/middle-leadership-in-international-schools-evidence-from-1orr9ll0dn.pdf

Middle leadership in international schools: evidence from Malaysia

Succession planning has become increasingly important because of the shortage of headship applicants in England, and in many other countries. Leadership development is a central part of any succession planning strategy. This article compares the findings from two longitudinal studies, in England and South Africa, where the governments are seeking to improve the supply and quality of school principals, and links them to the literature. The article concludes that ensuring a good supply of able principals requires a proactive approach and should not be left to chance.

Tony Bush

Papers

Distributed leadership and the Malaysia Education Blueprint: From prescription to partial school-based enactment in a highly centralised context

Understanding instructional leadership

School leadership theories and the Malaysia Education Blueprint: Findings from a systematic literature review

Middle leadership in international schools: evidence from Malaysia

Succession planning and leadership development for school principals: comparing English and South African approaches