International Perspectives on Education and Society, 2009
... domains: professional leadership, strategic management, staff management, relationship manage... more ... domains: professional leadership, strategic management, staff management, relationship management, financial ... that such programs might not discriminate sufficiently between participants on ... among principals' peak organisations to explore issues, challenges and opportunities ...
ABSTRACT Educational effectiveness research has identified school membership as being and importa... more ABSTRACT Educational effectiveness research has identified school membership as being and important factor in relation to academic progress but it has also pointed to the importance of teachers. Additionally, districts have been shown to be of minor importance for progress once key variables are taken into account while data from international studies suggest that countries are important when attainment is studied while controlling for background factors. A perspective, named the Proximate Variables within Jurisdictions (PVJ) theory, is introduced to help understand and predict relationships. The theory holds that variables which are closest to the student are the most influential but that the jurisdiction where the student is educated, which has its own approaches to education and upbringing is of similar importance. A child's educational success in international terms is most influenced by actions in the home and the classroom seen in the context of the country where she or he is brought up. Does the theory hold when progress in classrooms, year groups and educational systems (jurisdictions) is estimated in a single analysis? This study compared progress of pupils in over 4000 classrooms across 11 educational systems. Large differences were found between classes and the educational systems both for reading and mathematics during the first year at school. The theory holds for the most part but questions are left unanswered and the paper sets out a series of testable hypotheses which may be addressed in the future.
Doctoral education in Australia is currently under pressure to become more industry focused. This... more Doctoral education in Australia is currently under pressure to become more industry focused. This report discusses the relatively recent experience of offering doctoral education through professional doctorate programs as a contribution to the improvement of doctoral education in Australian universities. The evaluation focused on the extent to which such programs had developed practices for sustaining closer collaboration between universities and industry, through: • a review of the general literatures relating to the role of doctoral research in contributing to the growth of knowledge and innovation; • a multi-method exploration of the range of practices and relationships associated with professional doctorate programs; and • the development of strategies and policy recommendations for optimising doctoral education in Australian universities in terms of industry-focused outcomes. When set against the 800-year history of the PhD, the professional doctorate is a young doctorate, the ...
This article presents a case study of one very small school in a remote location of Western Austr... more This article presents a case study of one very small school in a remote location of Western Australia. The study is part of a larger programme, International Study of Principal Preparation, investigating the challenges facing novice principals in the first 3 years of appointment and the extent to which they felt they were adequately prepared to deal with the challenges they faced. The international study, of which this is part, involves cross-cultural comparisons of the experiences of novice principals in 13 different countries. The research described in this article addresses the question: What are the distinctive challenges facing leaders of small schools in bringing about changes to school cultures to improve student learning achievements? Two theoretical constructs were used as the lens through which to examine the culture of this small and isolated school: a culture of acceptance and a culture of inquiry. Using an interpretivist approach, data from interviews and observations w...
This paper examines the complex matter of initial principal preparation in a context where tradit... more This paper examines the complex matter of initial principal preparation in a context where traditionally beginning principals have learned their role from experience, on the job. Using data from both novice and experienced primary principals it was found that while what was needed in the job was agreed upon – how to deal with place, with people, with the system and with the sense of self – there was little understanding of what would constitute an appropriate or suitable way of learning the skills or mastering the knowledge to be able to meet these challenges as effectively as possible.
This paper proceeds from the basis that leadership can only be understood in context and by viewi... more This paper proceeds from the basis that leadership can only be understood in context and by viewing it from the inside. In particular, it argues that the contextual complexity of small school leadership warrants attention from researchers, policy makers and system administrators and describes the nature of this complexity as depicted in the literature. It then reports a study being conducted in two states of Australia which examines the ways novice principals of small schools located in rural and remote areas make sense of, and deal with, the contextual complexity of their work. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the study for promoting understanding of small school leadership and for developing authentic means of professional learning.
This article is concerned with the nature of novice teaching principals' interactions in Quee... more This article is concerned with the nature of novice teaching principals' interactions in Queensland rural communities. Stories selected from case accounts are used to provide insights into the teaching principals' interrelationship with the community. The article concludes with a discussion of some implications for practice suggested by these insights into the experience of rural teaching principals in the context of their communities. Yes Yes
The recruitment and retention of allied health workers present challenges for organizations in Au... more The recruitment and retention of allied health workers present challenges for organizations in Australia and internationally. Australia, in common with other developed countries, faces the prospect of a rapidly aging population and the high turnover of younger allied health workers (the majority of whom are female) from employing organizations. Emphases on the individual characteristics of Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y workers may provide a useful starting base for recruitment and retention strategies, but our study shows that these need to be contextualized within broader political, social, and structural factors that take account of gender and the changing needs of workers over their life span.
International Perspectives on Education and Society, 2009
... domains: professional leadership, strategic management, staff management, relationship manage... more ... domains: professional leadership, strategic management, staff management, relationship management, financial ... that such programs might not discriminate sufficiently between participants on ... among principals' peak organisations to explore issues, challenges and opportunities ...
ABSTRACT Educational effectiveness research has identified school membership as being and importa... more ABSTRACT Educational effectiveness research has identified school membership as being and important factor in relation to academic progress but it has also pointed to the importance of teachers. Additionally, districts have been shown to be of minor importance for progress once key variables are taken into account while data from international studies suggest that countries are important when attainment is studied while controlling for background factors. A perspective, named the Proximate Variables within Jurisdictions (PVJ) theory, is introduced to help understand and predict relationships. The theory holds that variables which are closest to the student are the most influential but that the jurisdiction where the student is educated, which has its own approaches to education and upbringing is of similar importance. A child's educational success in international terms is most influenced by actions in the home and the classroom seen in the context of the country where she or he is brought up. Does the theory hold when progress in classrooms, year groups and educational systems (jurisdictions) is estimated in a single analysis? This study compared progress of pupils in over 4000 classrooms across 11 educational systems. Large differences were found between classes and the educational systems both for reading and mathematics during the first year at school. The theory holds for the most part but questions are left unanswered and the paper sets out a series of testable hypotheses which may be addressed in the future.
Doctoral education in Australia is currently under pressure to become more industry focused. This... more Doctoral education in Australia is currently under pressure to become more industry focused. This report discusses the relatively recent experience of offering doctoral education through professional doctorate programs as a contribution to the improvement of doctoral education in Australian universities. The evaluation focused on the extent to which such programs had developed practices for sustaining closer collaboration between universities and industry, through: • a review of the general literatures relating to the role of doctoral research in contributing to the growth of knowledge and innovation; • a multi-method exploration of the range of practices and relationships associated with professional doctorate programs; and • the development of strategies and policy recommendations for optimising doctoral education in Australian universities in terms of industry-focused outcomes. When set against the 800-year history of the PhD, the professional doctorate is a young doctorate, the ...
This article presents a case study of one very small school in a remote location of Western Austr... more This article presents a case study of one very small school in a remote location of Western Australia. The study is part of a larger programme, International Study of Principal Preparation, investigating the challenges facing novice principals in the first 3 years of appointment and the extent to which they felt they were adequately prepared to deal with the challenges they faced. The international study, of which this is part, involves cross-cultural comparisons of the experiences of novice principals in 13 different countries. The research described in this article addresses the question: What are the distinctive challenges facing leaders of small schools in bringing about changes to school cultures to improve student learning achievements? Two theoretical constructs were used as the lens through which to examine the culture of this small and isolated school: a culture of acceptance and a culture of inquiry. Using an interpretivist approach, data from interviews and observations w...
This paper examines the complex matter of initial principal preparation in a context where tradit... more This paper examines the complex matter of initial principal preparation in a context where traditionally beginning principals have learned their role from experience, on the job. Using data from both novice and experienced primary principals it was found that while what was needed in the job was agreed upon – how to deal with place, with people, with the system and with the sense of self – there was little understanding of what would constitute an appropriate or suitable way of learning the skills or mastering the knowledge to be able to meet these challenges as effectively as possible.
This paper proceeds from the basis that leadership can only be understood in context and by viewi... more This paper proceeds from the basis that leadership can only be understood in context and by viewing it from the inside. In particular, it argues that the contextual complexity of small school leadership warrants attention from researchers, policy makers and system administrators and describes the nature of this complexity as depicted in the literature. It then reports a study being conducted in two states of Australia which examines the ways novice principals of small schools located in rural and remote areas make sense of, and deal with, the contextual complexity of their work. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the study for promoting understanding of small school leadership and for developing authentic means of professional learning.
This article is concerned with the nature of novice teaching principals' interactions in Quee... more This article is concerned with the nature of novice teaching principals' interactions in Queensland rural communities. Stories selected from case accounts are used to provide insights into the teaching principals' interrelationship with the community. The article concludes with a discussion of some implications for practice suggested by these insights into the experience of rural teaching principals in the context of their communities. Yes Yes
The recruitment and retention of allied health workers present challenges for organizations in Au... more The recruitment and retention of allied health workers present challenges for organizations in Australia and internationally. Australia, in common with other developed countries, faces the prospect of a rapidly aging population and the high turnover of younger allied health workers (the majority of whom are female) from employing organizations. Emphases on the individual characteristics of Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y workers may provide a useful starting base for recruitment and retention strategies, but our study shows that these need to be contextualized within broader political, social, and structural factors that take account of gender and the changing needs of workers over their life span.
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