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?.

Happy new year and a warm welcome to the first issue of the journal bearing its new name of Educational Management Administration and Leadership (EMAL) We hope that you are happy with the revised title and that you also like the new design Please let me know what you think The journal began its life as Educational Administration, adding ‘Management’ when the former British Educational Administration Society (BEAS) became the British Educational Management and Administration Society (BEMAS) The recent change to the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) prompted consideration of a parallel change in the title of the journal The new title was approved unanimously by the Editorial Board in May 2003, received the wholehearted backing of the BELMAS Council in June and also enjoyed the active support of our publishers, SAGE I am grateful for the involvement of SAGE colleagues who have done splendid work in revising the journal’s design against a tight timetable This description sets out the process of change but the wider rationale underpinning the new title requires further explanation The proposal was prompted by the growing national and international significance of the concept of ‘leadership’ In England, this has led to the establishment of a National College for School Leadership (NCSL), which is having a major impact on our field and is likely to continue to do so The third issue of this volume, 32(3), will be a special issue focusing exclusively on NCSL, with a number of specially commissioned articles from both national and international perspectives The concept of leadership has been of growing significance for at least 15 years In 1989 Beare et al stressed its importance:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143204040017

Editorial: What’s in a Name? Leadership in the Ascendancy

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143211403372

School Leadership Development: Top-down or Bottom-up?

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143218758555

Research on educational leadership and management: Broadening the base

Transformational leadership is a process of transforming the organizational behavior, the culture and the individuals; simultaneously transforming the leader himself. Transformational leaders constantly articulate new visions to motivate the organization, they exhibit high passion and confidence in their beliefs, they give importance to ethics and values while setting accountable standards in the organization. Transformational leaders are often charismatic who are able to have an exceptional influence on their followers, compelling them to share the leader’s vision and to take actions beyond their specified responsibilities. Transformational leader’s exhibit good organizational abilities, they are able to align the individual aspirations and motivations to that of organization’s vision.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143218795731

Transformational leadership: Exploring common conceptions

The literature on educational leadership and management is dominated by authors from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. This inevitably means that researchers seeking evidence on aspects of leadership are drawn to this dominant body of literature. However, these contexts are very different from those in many other parts of the world and most readers of this journal are well aware of the dangers of ‘policy borrowing’; applying models from Western contexts to very different settings, for example in Asia or Africa. This special themed issue of EMAL provides a valuable opportunity to build the knowledge base in Africa, where resources are often very limited, teachers and principals may be inadequately trained, and classrooms usually contain large numbers of poor and disadvantaged learners (Bush and Oduro 2006, Bush and Glover 2013). Many African states are also patriarchal, making it difficult for women to access leadership positions. The first four papers in this issue explore aspects of gendered leadership. In the opening article, Pontso Moorosi discusses leadership identity construction through a leadership development programme in South Africa. She notes the gender inequity in school leadership and argues that inter-sectionality is helpful in addressing leadership diversity as it reveals the multiple identities of participants. She reports on a national leadership development programme, piloted from 2007 2010, and notes the intention of the Department of Education to enrol equal numbers of women and men on this programme. She concludes that leadership development experiences were characterised by a complex intersection of gender, race, context and background. Bhaigiavathie Naidoo and Juliet Perumal examine the role of female principals in disadvantaged schools in Johannesburg. They note the impact of redress policies in enabling women to access school leadership positions, where they were once ‘rarely seen’. In 2012, one-third of principals in the Gauteng province were women. They explore the experience of three such principals, drawing on interviews, observation and field notes. They show that these women subscribed to a leadership style which is relational, inclusive and compassionate and conclude that the social expectations of women need to change. Gauteng is a relatively advantaged province but it still has many disadvantaged schools, as the title of the paper discussed above suggests. However, socio-economic problems are far greater in Eastern Cape, South Africa’s poorest region. Nolutho Diko explores gendered leadership in one rural secondary school in this province, led by a male principal but with female representation in the School Management Team (SMT). She comments that gender equality at this school was interpreted as the ‘token inclusion’ of women in leadership structures while they remained outside the informal networks. She concludes that ‘the selective implementation of gender equality is a way of defending male authority and perpetuating past practices’. Educational Management Administration & Leadership 2014, Vol. 42(6) 787–791 a The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1741143214549135 emal.sagepub.com

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143214549135

Tony Bush

Papers

Editorial: What’s in a Name? Leadership in the Ascendancy

School Leadership Development: Top-down or Bottom-up?

Research on educational leadership and management: Broadening the base

Transformational leadership: Exploring common conceptions

Educational leadership and leadership development in Africa Building the knowledge base