School Management and Leadership, Education Politics and Planning, School-Public Relations and Adult Education.

School-based management and citizen participation: lessons for public education from local educational projects

by Claudia Santizo-Rodall

İlköğretim ve Ortaöğretim Kurumlarında Görev Yapan Okul Yöneticilerinin İşkoliklik Eğilimleri/ Workaholic Tendencies among School Administators Employed in Primary and Secondary Schools

by Salih BARDAKCI

The Bible in Public Schools: Report on the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (Austin: Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, 2005 …

by Mark Chancey

Umwelterklärung Schubart-Gymnasium Aalen

by Ulf Scharrer

So Noxious a Premonition

by Mohamed Eno

Excerpted from my forthcoming volume Guilt of Otherness: A Brief Personal Memoir in Poetry

Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is... more Strong and weak leadership exist everywhere, in every profession, and academia is not an exception. This verse is dedicated to all men and women academics who at some point in their professional life felt oppressed, frustrated or marginalized for one reason or another by the powers that be in their respective institutions.

Assessing Instructional Leadership: A Longitudinal Study Of New Principals

by Gavin Brown

co-authored with Dr. Constance Chai, The University of Auckland.

We are grateful to Prof. Viviane Robinson, The University of Auckland, for giving us access to the SALTAL data and for assistance with earlier drafts of the paper.

Current Citation: Brown, G. T. L., & Chai, C. (2012, accepted). Assessing instructional leadership: A longitudinal study of new principals. Journal of Educational Administration, 50(6).

Purpose. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Self Assessment of Leadership of... more Purpose. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Self Assessment of Leadership of Teaching and Learning (SALTAL) inventory in conditions of repeated administration.
Research Methods/Approach. In 2006 and 2007 nearly all of New Zealand’s newly appointed school principals participated in an 18 month induction program (First Time Principals). The SALTAL self-report was administered in three waves (i.e., before FTP, after 2 residential courses, and at the end of the FTP) to two cohorts. This voluntary survey was completed all three times by 55% (n=86) and 44% (n=85) of 2006 and 2007 participants respectively. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis evaluated the stability of the SALTAL factor structure for each of the six administrations. Longitudinal curve modeling evaluated the linear effect of time on SALTAL responses.
Findings. Responses to SALTAL were statistically equivalent across all six administrations. The longitudinal model was statistically invariant between cohorts. Initial scores were inversely correlated with changes over time. Increased time had a significant effect on SALTAL scores.
Implications for Research and Practice. The SALTAL has demonstrable stability in eliciting response in repeated administration and is useful for studying the impact of leadership development programs.

2011 Brown Leading SBA for accountability

by Gavin Brown

Keynote address to the Third International Conference ‘Excellence in School Education’, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, December 29-31, 2011

Acknowledgement: I wish to thank my colleagues at the University of Auckland who helped me understand the methods and progress they had made in helping school leaders make a difference to staff and student learning. Specifically, thanks go to Dr. Brian Annan, Dr. Mei Kuin Lai, Prof. Stuart McNaughton, Prof. Judy Parr, and Prof. Helen Timperley.

Increasing accountability pressure to have schools and teachers show improvements in student learning outcomes is... more Increasing accountability pressure to have schools and teachers show improvements in student learning outcomes is being advocated by politicians, public policy, and parent populations. This requires school leaders to transform their leadership practices to instructional leadership practices that lead to greater learning outcomes for students. The most powerful effects on student learning are associated with leaders who (1) promote and
participate in teacher learning; (2) plan, coordinate, and evaluate teaching; (3) establish goals and expectations; (4) deal with strategic resourcing, and (5) provide an orderly and supportive
environment. Large learning gains have been documented when school leaders are actively involved in collecting and evaluating assessment data and in designing and monitoring pedagogical responses to the assessment results. Two important constraints have been identified: (1) assessment instruments must be formatively diagnostic rather than simply producing total or rank order scores and (2) consequences around assessment results must be structured so as to take advantage of teachers’ dominant commitment to improvement as the fundamental rationale for assessment. This paper will describe the model used in New Zealand for instructional leadership that transforms school learning outcomes through effective use of educational assessment tools and data.

Liberating schools through devolution: the Trojan horse of the state

by Scott Eacott

'Published in 'Leading & Managing', 2011'

The Gillard Labor Government seeks to liberate schools through the mechanisms of devolving authority to the school... more The Gillard Labor Government seeks to liberate schools through the mechanisms of devolving authority to the school level. Such devolution is often advocated for on the basis that they enable schools to shape their own directions. However, despite the rhetoric of empowerment and participation at the school level, the state, through various apparatus such as systemic authorities and publicly available data continues to set the agenda by defining what is an ‘effective school’. This article argues that school-based strategic planning, as a devolutionary practice, is little more than the Trojan horse of the state. That is, school level planning has been used by the state to get beyond the school fence and into the daily practices of school leaders. Drawing on empirical work undertaken in the NSW public school system, primarily through policy analysis and interviews with principals, this article seeks to bring to the level of discussion some of the seemingly invisible actions of the state in the management of education.