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?.

Managing Secondary Schools in China.

E‐technology as a basis of research is now being more widely considered as potential respondents can be drawn from an ever widening audience. Early work by others has shown that many respondents are keen to use the medium and that response rates are generally higher than by conventional approaches. This article summarizes the experience of researchers who have contacted all participants in a major training and development initiative for newly appointed head teachers in England and Wales. All participants were asked to complete an online survey including closed, open and semi‐structured questions. The 40% response rate was higher than for postal questionnaires and the space flexibility of the e‐survey yielded a considerable amount of data to the open questions which is normally limited by design constraints in conventional surveys. Results were analysed using Excel, SPSS and Sphinx programmes. The approach offers a worthwhile means of securing opinion on process, content and philosophical issues but is les...

The online or e‐survey: a research approach for the ICT age

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143217701827

The enduring power of transformational leadership

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143204044414

Editorial: The National College for School Leadership: Purpose, Power and Prospects

New heads taking up their appointments in English schools in recent years have had supportive programmes to help them, both prior to headship and on taking up the role This study examines the experience of heads new to their role in primary and secondary schools over the period 2002–2004 All were participants in the National College for School Leadership ‘New Visions’ programme for new heads The study analyses the early experiences of these heads, following the framework offered by O'Mahony and Matthews, and considers what influence the New Visions programme had on the way they addressed issues and problems encountered in their role

Tony Bush

Papers

Managing Secondary Schools in China.

The online or e‐survey: a research approach for the ICT age

The enduring power of transformational leadership

Editorial: The National College for School Leadership: Purpose, Power and Prospects

From immersion to establishment. The challenges facing new school heads and the role of ‘New Visions’ in resolving them