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?.

List of tables and figures Abbreviations Foreword Preface 1. The Context of Education Management in South Africa by Anne McLennan and Michael Thurlow 2. The Management of Schools by Michael Thurlow 3. Theory and Practice in Educational Management by Tony Bush 4. Organisational Structure by Tony Bush 5. Organisational Culture by Tony Bush and Lesley Anderson 6. Transforming Schools: Managing the Change Process by Jacky Lumby 7. School Effectiveness and School Improvement by Marianne Coleman 8. Quality Assurance and Accountability by Marianne Coleman 9. Theories of Leadership by Marianne Coleman 10. Leadership and Roles by Marianne Coleman 11. Strategic Management and Planning by Michael Thurlow 12. Development Planning by Michael Thurlow Appendix 1. Answers for activity: Governance and management Appendix 2. Comments on activity: Generalisations about leadership

Leadership and Strategic Management in South African Schools

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the notion of instructional leadership and to apply it to the South African context, drawing on international and South African literature and research. It also addresses the conceptual and semantic confusion arising from the use of overlapping terminology to describe this aspect of leadership. This topic is significant because of increasing recognition that instructional leadership is one of the most important (if not the most important) activities for principals and other school leaders. Its centrality has been recognized by the inclusion of Managing Teaching and Learning as a core module in the national ACE: School Leadership programme. The paper discusses international and local research and literature to develop a grounded framework for instructional leadership in South Africa.

Instructional leadership and leadership for learning: global and South African perspectives

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the literature on school leadership and management in South Africa, linked to the 20th anniversary of democratic government and integrated education.
Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a systematic review of all published work since 2007 with a more selective review of sources before 2007.
Findings: The findings show emerging evidence about the development of school leadership and management in South Africa but they also highlight on-going challenges, including poor learner outcomes, conflict with teacher unions, uneasy relationships between principals and school governing bodies, and leadership which remains focused on administration rather than teaching and learning.
Research limitations/implications: The findings show that research on school leadership and management is developing but remains limited in terms of its scope and a reliance on small-scale unfunded projects.
Practical/implications: The findings confirm the need for specialist leadership training for current and aspiring principals and for other senior and middle leaders.
Social/implications: The findings show that South Africa remains a divided society with great differences in the quality of education available to learners, based on social class rather than race.
Originality/value: The paper’s value lies in the comprehensive and systematic review of research on school leadership.

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School leadership and management in South Africa: Findings from a systematic literature review

The final decade of the twentieth century saw a major shift to self‐governance for schools in many countries, including the UK and Australia. This trend is underpinned by the assumption that greater autonomy will lead to improved educational outcomes. The impact of self‐management on principals and schools is now well documented but much less attention has been given to the implications for governance, a significant omission as the process of decentralisation transfers responsibilities to governing bodies rather than school principals. Reviews the main issues of governance and illustrates them from the research in England and Wales and in Australia. It joins the debate about the appropriate balance between governance and management for governing bodies and examines the lay/professional interface in school governance. It assesses governors’ role as representatives of school interest groups and concludes by setting out a research agenda for governance in self‐managing schools.

Models of self‐governance in schools: Australia and the United Kingdom

This article will examine different international approaches to leadership preparation and induction, linked to concepts of socialization and identity. Although leadership is widely understood to b...

/pdf/preparation-and-induction-for-school-principals-global-3uke5afgo9.pdf

Tony Bush

Papers

Leadership and Strategic Management in South African Schools

Instructional leadership and leadership for learning: global and South African perspectives

School leadership and management in South Africa: Findings from a systematic literature review

Models of self‐governance in schools: Australia and the United Kingdom

Preparation and induction for school principals: global perspectives