Educational Management Administration & Leadership current issue

Assessing Teacher Performance

Bush, T. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

Investigating Secondary School Leaders' Perceptions of Performance Management

Moreland, J. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

Much of the research into teacher appraisal and performance management has focused on the experience of the classroom teacher. In this article, I will: (1) concentrate on the perspectives of the senior managers in secondary schools; (2) consider their views of the purpose of performance management; (3) compare their methods of implementation of the statutory regulations; (4) reflect on their leadership ethos; and (5) review the links between their ideology and their perceptions of performance management. I have reflected on the links between performance management and strategic management—looking particularly at the work of Storey (2002) on using a balanced scorecard approach in education and Hartle et al. (2001), on leadership effectiveness and on the use of teaching and management competences. A major additional area for investigation that emerged as a result of this study is a possible link between implementation and practice of performance management in a particular school with the leadership style of the headteacher and her/his ideological relationship with the senior leader responsible for performance management.

Assessing the Performance of Secondary School Headteachers: A Survey Study Based on Teachers' Views in Punjab

Khan, S. H., Saeed, M., Fatima, K. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

This article focuses on assessing the performance of government secondary school headteachers in the context of heads’ leadership qualities, instructional behavior, capabilities of interpersonal relationships, professional attitude and managerial abilities. The small-scale survey was carried out in 2006 in district Mianwali, Pakistan. The sample comprised 150 secondary school teachers drawn at random from 15 government schools. Data was collected through a questionnaire comprising 38 items on a five-point rating scale on various aspects of headteacher performance. The instrument was validated through a pilot study and its reliability was established at 0.901 (Cronbach’s alpha). Results revealed that the performance indicators of professional attitude, interpersonal relationship, leadership qualities and managerial abilities were found to be better, but the aspect of instructional behavior was weaker among the headteachers. The performance of female headteachers in regard to instructional behavior, professional attitude and managerial abilities was found to be relatively better than those of their male counterparts. There were significant intercorrelations among all the independent variables of headteacher performance.

Quasi-regulation and Principal--Agent Relationships: Secondary School Admissions in London, England

West, A., Pennell, H., Hind, A. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

Market-oriented reforms and school choice policies have had a high political profile in a number of developed countries. This article examines the issue of school choice through the lens of the English market-oriented reforms; it focuses on the quasi-regulation and regulation of admissions to publicly funded secondary schools. It examines admissions to state-maintained secondary schools in London in terms of the criteria and practices used in the event of there being more applicants than places available. It also explores changes in admissions criteria and practices between 2001 and 2005 given the legislative and policy changes introduced in the intervening period. Principal—agent theory is used heuristically to explain the differing responses of schools with responsibility for admissions and local authorities to the legislative and policy framework. It is argued that while local authorities act broadly in line with government guidance and regulations as the agent of the government, schools acting as agents do not necessarily do so and more appear to select particular groups of children as opposed to others. This, it is argued, is because the regulatory mechanisms have been insufficient to motivate them to act as intended in relation to their admissions policies and practices in the light of the other policy goals and incentives accompanying the market-oriented reforms.

Leading Small Scottish Primary Schools: Still a Unique Style?

Wilson, V. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

Between 1996 and 1998, research commissioned by the Scottish Office Education Department was undertaken on the management of small Scottish primary schools, the results of which were published in this journal (Wilson and McPake, 1998). This article reports the findings from a follow-up study of a sample of 100 schools that participated in the original study (Wilson, 2007). The aim was to explore whether the leadership and management styles of small school headteachers had changed in the intervening years. The research is based upon a postal survey of 100 headteachers of very small schools, i.e. those with rolls of fewer than 50 pupils, in 10 local authorities in Scotland, and also nine case studies. The researcher argues that although the style demonstrated by these headteachers is largely a contingent one that is appropriate to their situations as teaching headteachers, the pressures on them have increased in the intervening years. Questions regarding the sustainability of the role are raised.

Community Involvement in School Development: Modifying School Improvement Concepts to the Needs of South African Township Schools

Prew, M. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

The article posits a paradigm for school development (SD) in the context of a developing country, which is somewhat different from the dominant SD and school improvement (SI) paradigm in the West. Within this paradigm the norm of a school—parent engagement over pedagogical issues as in the West is replaced by imperatives based on full community involvement in the school on the local community’s own terms. This article uses evidence collected from a case study of 96 schools in Soshanguve township outside Pretoria. The Soshanguve School Development Project (SSDP), a partnership between the local education district office and a non-government organization (Link Community Development), aimed to implement a school development planning process in all the schools in the township. Over the course of the project, the school development approach used led to a novel, highly contextualized response to the needs of the local communities and schools and ultimately to full community participation in most of the schools—and so to real school development within a developing world context.

Adolescent Leadership Development: Building a Case for an Authenticity Framework

Whitehead, G. — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:07:45 PDT

This article reviews the literature on adolescent leadership development and connects the concept of leadership authenticity as a way to influence anti-social adolescent behavior for pro-social outcomes. Because adolescent leaders develop from both pro-social and anti-social constructs, educators must recognize the unique power of both leadership funnels. Pro-social leaders are inclusive and build affiliation, while anti-social leaders are exclusive and rely on power. Leadership studies overly focus on adult-level leadership development. This article centers on the idea that leadership development is essential at the adolescent level, and opportunities for productive adolescent leadership development research, though difficult, do exist. In this article a functional definition for authentic leadership is developed along with a proposed research framework with researchable variables for studying leadership authenticity in adolescents. A case for using an authentic leadership paradigm for helping adolescents build their own leadership attitudes, skills, and experiences is advanced. Finally a review of the processes whereby adolescent leaders are selected, and the existing leadership development solutions existing in the American high school setting are discussed.