Showing papers in "Journal of Educational Administration and History in 2016"
TL;DR: In this paper, a Foucauldian notion of discursive production of the field of "principal" is proposed, and the authors explore how individual principals understand their roles and ethics within those practices of audit emerging in school governance, and how their self-regulation is constituted through NAPLAN.
Abstract: Historically, school leaders have occupied a somewhat ambiguous position within networks of power. On the one hand, they appear to be celebrated as what Ball (2003) has termed the ‘new hero of educational reform'; on the other, they are often ‘held to account’ through those same performative processes and technologies. These have become compelling in schools and principals are ‘doubly bound’ through this. Adopting a Foucauldian notion of discursive production, this paper addresses the ways that the discursive ‘field’ of ‘principal’ (within larger regimes of truth such as schools, leadership, quality and efficiency) is produced. It explores how individual principals understand their roles and ethics within those practices of audit emerging in school governance, and how their self-regulation is constituted through NAPLAN – the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy. A key effect of NAPLAN has been the rise of auditing practices that change how education is valued. Open-ended interviews with 13 p...
44 citations
TL;DR: In Australia as well as elsewhere, initial teacher education has become centre stage to a political agenda that calls for global competitiveness in the knowledge economy as mentioned in this paper and the common problem cited has been declining educational standards linked with the quality of teaching and teacher education.
Abstract: In Australia as well as elsewhere, initial teacher education has become centre stage to a political agenda that calls for global competitiveness in the knowledge economy. The common problem cited has been declining educational standards linked with the quality of teaching and teacher education. The avalanche of review and policy reform has exposed teacher education to neoliberal demands as well as political and public scrutiny. A policy web of interconnected concerns related to selection, curriculum, professional practice, graduation as well as employment fuels current reforms.
32 citations
TL;DR: An understanding and application of social theories is now more than ever a vital and fundamental expectation in the work of educational researchers as mentioned in this paper, and contemporary theory building in education is eminently relevant.
Abstract: An understanding and application of social theories is now more than ever a vital and fundamental expectation in the work of educational researchers. Contemporary theory building in education is em...
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze how Norwegian policy documents translate international discourses and re-contextualise national constructs of school leadership by identifying discursive shifts in ideas about school leadership roles and practices.
Abstract: School leadership as a key for school reforms has become a dominant theme in education, as demonstrated by a growing body of research during the last 15 years. Still, little attention has been paid to how changing international discourses on school leadership are translated into national public policy documents during the last decade. As such, this study provides additional insight into this field by analysing how Norwegian policy documents translate international discourses and re-contextualise national constructs of school leadership. Inspired by a critical approach, the authors address this issue by identifying discursive shifts in ideas about school leadership roles and practices. Based on an examination of four recent white papers on Norwegian education and school leadership, the authors argue that the policy documents constructed a tension between an international ‘explicit’ principal and a national ‘docile’ principal in 2003–2004, while recent documents construct a consensus-oriented, distributed l...
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a Foucauldian genealogical method is used to examine texts and uncover the historical development of social justice leadership and leadership for inclusion in the United States.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to engage in an historical analysis of research about two concepts: social justice leadership and leadership for inclusion. Recent experiences have caused me to wonder about our interpretations of justice, equity, and inclusion. Analysis of the relevant literature revealed a lack of consensus among scholars as to a clear, operational definition of both social justice leadership and inclusion. I use a Foucauldian genealogical method to examine texts and uncover the historical development of social justice leadership and leadership for inclusion in the United States. Uncovering past meanings and contexts should help illuminate current meanings and uses of these concepts. It is recommended that leaders engage in critical reflection to uncover the common sense language of equity-oriented leadership practices and that researchers take a more critical, historical, open stance of social justice leadership, and inclusion.
20 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined how teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents in three elementary schools in Ontario understand and enact school success and successful school leadership within this (neo-liberal) context, and found that the school-based participants defined success as academic learning, a positive school climate, and students' well-being.
Abstract: The provincial government of Ontario, Canada, has committed itself to raising student achievement, closing achievement gaps, and increasing the public's confidence in public education. It has introduced many policies, including the Ontario Leadership Strategy (OLS), to support these goals. Our study examined how teachers, administrators, support staff, and parents in three elementary schools in Ontario understand and enact school success and successful school leadership within this (neo-liberal) context. Findings of a comparative analysis of Ontario policy texts and data from interviews with administrators, teachers, support staff, and parents in the schools demonstrate that the school-based participants defined success as academic learning, a positive school climate, and students' well-being. This definition differs from the definition prioritised by Ontario's government: high scores on standardised provincial and international tests. However, principals in the schools enacted leadership practices advoca...
19 citations
TL;DR: The importance of reflective practice within the teaching profession has been stressed heavily in recent decades as mentioned in this paper, with the risk that it becomes a cursory, ill-informed exercise in self-affirmation rather than a central pillar of professional life.
Abstract: The importance of the concept of reflective practice within the teaching profession has been stressed heavily in recent decades. How it is enacted and how beginning teachers, in particular, have been encouraged to exercise it remains somewhat unclear, with the risk that it becomes a cursory, ill-informed exercise in self-affirmation rather than a central pillar of professional life. In this paper, Hannah Arendt's thinking on judgement, drawn from her studies of Kant, and particularly her concept of ‘enlarged thought’, are used to suggest a stronger basis for the nature of reflective practice and for the validity of the professional judgement involved. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to what could be involved in making fruitful use of Arendt's concept of judgement in the development of beginning teachers as reflective practitioners.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a historical study of higher education in Thailand argues that from the onset, it has been based on international models in scope and nature, and that the impact of colonisation across South and East Asia created the pressures necessary for Thailand to establish higher education programs.
Abstract: This historical study of higher education in Thailand argues that from the onset, it has been based on international models in scope and nature. The impact of colonisation across South and East Asia created the pressures necessary for Thailand to establish higher education programmes. From the nineteenth-century formation of palace schools to the rapid growth of international higher education programmes today, the system is designed to assist Thailand in the development process through educational, social and economic modernisation while maintaining and recreating concepts of Thainess. Whereas in the nineteenth century the goal was to facilitate Thai independence from imperialist intentions, today, the goal is to participate within an economy dominated by globalisation trends and massive expansion. A chronological description of the international nature of Thai higher education begins with the initial formation of higher education institutions in the mid-nineteenth century and concludes with the c...
17 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the educational significance of the work of Hannah Arendt through reflections on four papers that constitute this special issue, focusing on the challenge of reconciling ourselves to reality, that is, of being at home in the world.
Abstract: In this paper, I explore the educational significance of the work of Hannah Arendt through reflections on four papers that constitute this special issue. I focus on the challenge of reconciling ourselves to reality, that is, of being at home in the world. Although Arendt's idea of being at home in the world is connected to her explorations of understanding, such understanding should not be approached as a matter of sense making, but in terms of ‘eccentric judgement’. For judgement to be eccentric, we must expose ourselves to otherness, which has to do with friendship if we understand friendship as a public rather than an entirely private matter. While political judgement requires a ‘being in the presence of others’ Arendt's views on thinking and its role in moral judgement indicate the necessity of solitude, of being alone with oneself. Rather than seeing this a process through which one calls oneself into question, I highlight the importance of the experience of being called into question, which ...
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use Bourdieu's notion of field as an analytical tool in order to conceptualize the schools' practices within their local markets as a symbolic and strategic "game" of competition.
Abstract: Chile is well known worldwide for its extensive use of market-driven mechanisms in education. Using a case study strategy in three schools, this paper shows that ‘universal’ voucher system and mixed provision (co-existence of subsidised private and state-funded schools) policies are reshaping school management practices. The paper draws evidence from ethnographic data in disadvantaged Chilean public schools and uses Bourdieu’s notion of field as an analytical tool in order to conceptualise the schools’ practices within their local markets as a symbolic and strategic ‘game’ of competition. One of the main findings is that, in response to market pressures and their specific positions within local markets, school leaders built a market-competitive agenda, preparing detailed strategies and undertaking decision-making practices accordingly. These practices were distinctive in relation to different school market positions, impacting the schools’ priorities, value disputes, and management goals.
16 citations
TL;DR: The authors provided an introduction to the enduring friendship between Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers and showed how their intellectual development as public educators was sustained by their ongoing dialogue which flourished not in spite of but because of their huge differences of circumstance and personality.
Abstract: This paper provides an introduction to the enduring friendship between Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers. It shows how their intellectual development as public educators was sustained by their ongoing dialogue which flourished not in spite of but because of their huge differences of circumstance and personality. This friendship between two renowned scholars raises – by implication at least – the question as to what part friendship plays in academic and intellectual development and to what extent institutions, in their administrative systems and practices, encourage or even allow for the kind of friendship that Arendt and Jaspers shared. The paper does not seek to address these questions directly, but rather to ground them in the particularities of a unique correspondence between two major public intellectuals and to highlight their relevance for those currently working in the higher education sector.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the localisation of the global and European discourse of educational governance in the Greek education system through the changes that have been introduced in the field of education administration since 2009 by the then socialist government.
Abstract: This article explores the localisation of the global and European discourse of educational governance in the Greek education system through the changes that have been introduced in the field of education administration since 2009 by the then socialist government. Our research aims to contribute to the critical policy literature on the spreading marketisation and privatisation in the governing of education around the world and in Europe – through the adoption of New Public Management and Educational Leadership models. In developing our theoretical perspective, we use the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and discourse, and in order to conceptualise power and control relations in the organisation, transmission, acquisition, and evaluation of pedagogical knowledge, we draw on Bernstein's theory of symbolic control. Our study has examined how the field of education administration is governed through power and knowledge transformations. We trace these transformations by analysing systematically the pedag...
TL;DR: The authors make connections between Arendt and Whitehead in an attempt to think about education within and beyond "dark times" by making connections between action, process, imagination and adventure.
Abstract: Understanding and action are central themes in Hannah Arendt's thought and an idea that runs throughout her work is that whenever human beings act, they start processes. It is in this light that she saw education as a process whose aim is to make human beings feel at home in the world. Given the centrality of process in understanding action, early on in her work, Arendt reflected and drew upon the ideas of Alfred Whitehead, the philosopher of process. Education in his thought is an art and an adventure whose object should be to enable students to grasp the process of life itself and imagine different worlds. In this light, universities are crucial in creating conditions of possibility for imaginative learning and intellectual adventures. Taking action, process, imagination and adventure as my central ideas, in this paper, I make connections between Arendt and Whitehead in an attempt to think about education within and beyond ‘dark times’.
TL;DR: The authors explored the effects of both the global and local policy discourse of networks and networking on the practising leaders, in addition to their reaction to the policy document mandating these multi-site school collaboratives, with a particular interest on their imposed nature and how this reform impinged on individual school autonomy.
Abstract: Policy discourse officially operates to distinctly influence public perception in an irrevocable and normalising manner. In a Maltese educational scenario of gradual decentralisation and increased accountability, I explore the ‘effects’ of both the global and the local policy discourse of networks and networking on the practising leaders, in addition to their reaction to the policy document mandating these multi-site school collaboratives, with a particular interest on their imposed nature and how this reform impinged on individual school autonomy. This research adopts a case study methodology, with data collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews; participant observation; and documentary analysis, interpreted via a Foucauldian theoretical framework through narrative analysis. The findings reveal an inherent tension among autonomy, centralisation, and decentralisation both within the policy discourse and the unfolding network leadership dynamics. This paper has particular philosophical implicat...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed three different educational contexts for preparing school principals such as Australia, England and the United States, and found that administrator development is unproductive when the administrators themselves are not given the power to make decisions such as selecting teaching staff and managing finances.
Abstract: In this paper will be analysed three different educational contexts for preparing school principals such as Australia, England and the United States. This study analyses the professional development of academic leadership in the countries previously mentioned in order to apply the successful aspects to the Chilean education system, a system greatly need of improvement. The main finding of this study is that school administrator development is unproductive when the administrators themselves are not given the power to make decisions such as selecting teaching staff and managing finances. In this context, legal and bureaucratic structures in Chile act as barriers in consolidating and practicing these new ideas and recommendations.
TL;DR: The first question I ask when reading any new educational leadership book is, "What is different about this one that I haven't read before?" And the second question is, ‘What do the authors offer t...
Abstract: The first question I ask when reading any new educational leadership book is, ‘What is different about this one that I haven't read before?’ And the second question is, ‘What do the authors offer t...
TL;DR: The authors argue that non-thinking is a form of instrumental thinking which is not only a threat to critical thought but also to the development autonomy and the capacity for moral judgement, and expose the wider dangers of instrumentalism and the performative models of education.
Abstract: Dissatisfied with the Western tradition of political philosophy, Arendt maintained a tension between the political, which she associates primarily with the freedom to act, and the philosophical, which she associates primarily with the activity of thinking, throughout her works. Whilst Arendt’s work is underpinned by a focus on political action, her work on the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy is of significant educational value. Taking a broadly phenomenological approach, and reading Arendt through an educational lens, this paper seeks to demonstrate how the thinking/non-thinking dichotomy and the perils of ‘non- thinking’ reveal the wider dangers of instrumentalism and the performative models of education that accompanies it. It is suggested here that Arendt’s work exposes ‘non-thinking’ as a form of instrumental thinking which is not only a threat to the development of the capacity for critical thought but also to the development autonomy and the capacity for moral judgement.
TL;DR: In this article, the question of tenure/non-tenure of the Greek school principals and its possible impact on their role in the light of the international influences is addressed, and the authors find that in the 1836-1981 period, tenure had become an integral part of the centralised educational system and since 1981, the introduction of decentralised policies along with the abolition of tenure has resulted in the renewal of the same politics.
Abstract: This study deals with the question of tenure/non-tenure of the Greek school principals and its possible impact on their role in the light of the international influences. In developing our theoretical perspective, we draw on the tenure/non-tenure discourse and the centralised bureaucratic and new public management model. After examining the relevant legislation issued from 1836 up to 2015 by following the qualitative content analysis, we find out that in the 1836–1981 period, tenure had become an integral part of the centralised educational system. Since 1981, the introduction of decentralised policies along with the abolition of tenure has resulted in the renewal of the same politics. By linking in a direct way the tenure/non-tenure topic with the international policies, we support the view that in the Greek centralised educational system, school principals have limited power to bring about effective changes at schools regardless of their tenure/non-tenure status.
TL;DR: In this paper, Ball is right to ask, ‘Do we really need another book about Foucault?’ Notwithstanding the huge amount written discussing Foucaine's works, id...
Abstract: At the start of Foucault, power and education, Stephen Ball is right to ask, ‘do we really need another book about Foucault?’ Notwithstanding the huge amount written discussing Foucault's works, id...
TL;DR: In this article, the educational leadership of Dorothy Walker, head teacher of St Peter's Infant School and the youngest head teacher in Birmingham, and Lillian de Lissa, longstanding principal of Gipsy Hill Training College (where Walker trained) and national advocate for early childhood education is discussed.
Abstract: While there is a wealth of feminist research on women's educational leadership and policy-making in the interwar years, this article extends the discussion into the Second World War. My focus is the educational leadership of Dorothy Walker, head teacher of St Peter's Infant School and the youngest head teacher in Birmingham, and Lillian de Lissa, longstanding principal of Gipsy Hill Training College (where Walker trained) and national advocate for early childhood education. I highlight Walker and de Lissa's ongoing challenges to patriarchal authority and their continuing commitments to progressive education, as well as many war-related issues they encountered in their lives and work. Working at different levels of policy-making and contrasting in age, Walker and de Lissa invested their leadership with a national significance during the war.
TL;DR: In this paper, an interview-based study of the eight permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education from 1976 to 2012 is presented. But the authors focus on the career of one of them, Sir Tim Lankester, and focus on his working relationship with his Secretaries of State, his view of the role of permanent secretary, his policy contribution, and his style and achievements.
Abstract: This paper reports on part of an on-going interview-based study of the eight permanent secretaries who served at the Department for Education from 1976 to 2012. Following a discussion of the relevance of biography to the study of public sector administrators, it presents a portrait of Sir Tim Lankester. Based on his own account and that of relevant others it draws on a four-stage career model to describe his life before and during his time as a civil servant. Centring on his career as permanent secretary in three it considers, inter alia, his working relationship with his Secretaries of State; his view of the role of permanent secretary; his policy contribution; and, his style and achievements. Following an examination of the merits of such research, the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the possible contribution of prosopography and a call for ethnographic studies of public administration.
TL;DR: In this paper, the crisis in education is defined as "for the sake of what is new and revolutiona...", paraphrases a pivotal line from Hannah Arendt's famous and provocative essay The Crisis in Education.
Abstract: Having cited a pivotal line from Hannah Arendt's renowned and provocative essay, The crisis in education, in which Arendt proclaims that it is precisely ‘for the sake of what is new and revolutiona...
TL;DR: The authors examines the school leadership experiences of an infant school head teacher in Birmingham, England, during the Second World War, drawing on the letters of Dorothy Walker, the essay offers insights into school leadership wartime deprivations.
Abstract: This essay examines the school leadership experiences of an infant school head teacher in Birmingham, England, during the Second World War. Drawing on the letters of Dorothy Walker, the essay offers insights into school leadership wartime deprivations. The impact of an international war on the home front was not head teacher Dorothy Walker's only challenge. As the youngest and one of the few women head teachers in Birmingham, Dorothy Walker struggled with the traditional masculine hierarchy of the local educational system and with traditional social and familial gender roles. Dorothy Walker also battled with a traditional educational school culture as she promoted progressive educational practices. These three challenges – the war, gender relations, and progressivism – are referred to as ‘Dorothy's Wars’, or the battles that she faced as a woman school leader in Birmingham during the early years of the Second World War.
TL;DR: This paper explored the lasting impressions that Hannah Arendt had on former students, colleagues, and friends through the lens of narrative inquiry and found that it is the spectator, not the actor, who is better able to assess the "who" of a person.
Abstract: Hannah Arendt’s work is gaining increasing recognition in educational administration. But less has been written about her as an educator, colleague, and provocateur. Here, I explore the lasting impressions that Arendt had on former students, colleagues, and friends. This exploration is conducted through the lens of Arendtian narrative inquiry. For Arendt, narrative is fundamental to understanding lived experience, not least because stories provide us with a deeper understanding of an individual. She maintains, however, that it is the spectator, not the actor, who is better able to assess the ‘who’ of a person. Because each spectator has a particular viewpoint, I include diverse recollections that gathered together, create a silhouette of the ‘who’ of Hannah Arendt. I use the term ‘silhouette,’ purposefully, since this is not an in-depth portrait. Rather, it is an impressionistic account of the lasting effects she made on others. These lasting impressions serve to reaffirm Arendt’s belief in the va...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the work of Dennis Marsden (with his colleague Brian Jackson) in education and the working class, and argue that this pioneering work done in working-class Huddersfield the 1950s, remains a stoic statement of what is wrong with working class education, and is as rich in substantive and methodological insights as when it was written in 1962.
Abstract: This paper is both a careful analysis of a seminal piece of work in the sociology of education, as well as a passionate plea to revisit with renewed urgency, the way in which education continues to fail unacceptably large numbers of working-class children. Through closely examining the work of Dennis Marsden (with his colleague Brian Jackson) in Education and the working class, the paper argues that this pioneering work done in working-class Huddersfield the 1950s, remains a stoic statement of what is wrong with working-class education, and is as rich in substantive and methodological insights as when it was written in 1962. By taking some biographical slices of key contemporary scholars, in particular Stephen Ball and Diane Reay, who have themselves been prolific scholars in this field, the paper speaks to the central arguments of Marsden’s unique work through their biographies, while establishing the distinctiveness of Marsden’s contribution to understanding social class within the wider field o...
TL;DR: In this article, Nixon's book about Hannah Arendt, friendship and its political significance situates Arendts's ideas within the context of her lived experiences of friendship, and it is a novel approach, which sees...
Abstract: Jon Nixon's book about Hannah Arendt, friendship and its political significance situates Arendt's ideas within the context of her lived experiences of friendship. It is a novel approach, which sees...