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?.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143216633659

Economics, politics and leadership: Macro-level influences on education

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1741143218817949

School leaders and accountability: Performance or performativity?:

The purpose of the paper is to report the findings of a synthesis of literature reviews and stakeholder interviews conducted in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The synthesis provides an overview of instructional leadership policy and practice in these six countries.,This paper reports the findings of a systematic literature review, and participant interviews, in six sub-Sahara African countries. The research links to the British Council's initiative to develop instructional leadership in developing contexts, including the six countries featured in this submission.,The findings show diverse policy and practice of instructional leadership in these African contexts. Three have no explicit policies on this important leadership construct, while the others have relevant policy statements but limited evidence of instructional leadership practice.,The research provides an overview of instructional leadership policy and practice in these six countries, but more school-based research is required to develop grounded evidence on whether and how this is practiced. The pandemic inhibited such school-based research in 2020. The study provides emerging evidence of the impact of instructional leadership on school and student outcomes, confirming what is known from international research.,Developing awareness of how instructional leadership can improve student learning, linked to appropriate training, could lead to more effective schools.,The Sustainable Development Goals stress the importance of high quality education for economic and social development. Leadership is an important aspect of quality, and the research reported in this paper shows the potential for instructional leadership to enhance student learning.,This is the first cross-national study of instructional leadership in sub-Saharan Africa.

Instructional leadership in sub-Saharan Africa: policy and practice

Amending the funding arrangements for maintained schools in England and Wales was among New Labour’s educational priorities when it came to power in 1997. Accordingly a new devolved system was introduced in April 1999 known as ‘Fair Funding’. This change was particularly significant for schools that had been grant maintained (GM) under the previous government because it not only ended the favourable funding situation they had enjoyed but it also, once again, directed their funding through their local education authority. This article reports research into perceptions and experiences about the new funding arrangements in such schools.

Tony Bush

Papers

Economics, politics and leadership: Macro-level influences on education

School leaders and accountability: Performance or performativity?:

Instructional leadership in sub-Saharan Africa: policy and practice

Is Funding Fair? Perceptions and Experiences from Foundation Schools

Editorial: The Global Significance of Educational Leadership and Management