ISEA, Vol.29 No.3, 2001

The Value of Shared Leadership:

Tasmanian Teachers’ and Leaders’ Differing Views

Margot Boardman

University of Tasmania, Australia.

Abstract: Much research has been undertaken and literature written concerning the positive value of shared leadership processes within schools. This study investigated how early childhood leaders and teachers perceive the success of collaborative leadership processes within two districts of the Tasmanian state school system. Analysis of the data revealed leaders were almost universally committed to utilising shared leadership processes, whilst teachers indicated less enthusiasm for this form of leadership. The principal’s teaching specialisation, the most contacted leader’s gender and the qualification level of participating teachers, were found to have statistically significant impact on perceptions of shared leadership.

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Y.L. Jack, Lam and Keith Punch

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Western Australia.

Abstract: The authors explore the concepts of "external environment" and "school organizational learning" and the relationship between the two from existing literature. In establishing the linkage, the historical evolution of different interpretations of external impacts on organizations, drawn largely from the conceptual and empirical works of organizational studies is presented. Critical school internal conditions susceptible to external changes, such as leadership, culture and structure and their inter-relationships with organizational capability to engage in learning are hypothesized. Hopefully, such a conceptual postulation should shed light on a relatively neglected but increasingly important area, which will have a profound implication for the public schools coping with current educational reforms.

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University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract: This paper describes the structure, origins, evolution, validity and reliability, administration, and appropriate uses of the Learning Improvement Strategies Questionnaire (LISQ). The LISQ was designed to monitor the quality of the learning environment of courses (taught units or components of a programme of study). The LISQ is shown to be a relatively quick, reliable and valid method of monitoring courses. It is suggested that it could also assist with formative evaluation should teaching teams develop learning improvement strategies from response distributions.

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University of Tasmania, Australia.

Abstract: Effective decision-making has emerged in the literature as an important early key to successful high school reform. However, doubts have been expressed that moves to school-based management have affected the quality of decision-making in high schools, especially as it relates to widespread as opposed to narrow involvement and educational compared with administrative matters. This article examines the decision-making process in high schools in one Australian state as perceived by principals, teachers, and school council members. As with earlier work in primary schools, it was found that the more positively teachers viewed the decision-making processes in the school, the higher the degree of influence and control they perceived to be exerted by education staff groups in the school. However, the results of the study also suggest that high schools have some way to go in improving the quality and personalisation of relationships that forms the tap-root of good schooling.

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Secondary Principals in Cyprus: The Views of the Principal Versus the Views of the Teachers - A Case Study

University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Abstract: This piece of research was undertaken with the main purpose to find out about the perceptions of secondary school teachers regarding their principal and her leadership style. The underlying (and guiding) assumption for this project was that the effectiveness of a leader is mainly depended on how others view him/her as a leader. From the overall results, it seems that there is some agreement and some disagreement between the teachers and the principal regarding the principal’s view of herself and the teachers’ perceptions of her. Generally speaking, in four out of the nine questionnaire areas there is an agreement on perceptions from both sides (in the areas of school climate, curriculum development, student management, and relations with parents and the community); in two areas there is disagreement (the areas of personnel management and professional development and in-service) and in three areas there is some agreement and some disagreement between the teachers’ and the principal’s perceptions of the school principal (in the area of school leadership and management, the area of administration and fiscal management, and the area of problem solving and decision-making).

The University of Hong Kong, China.

Abstract: In June 1999, the Hong Kong SAR government published the booklet, Leadership Training Programme for Principals, the first of its kind to be published by the Hong Kong government for the preparation of school principals. The proposal argues that future principals will face many new challenges consequent on advances in technology and higher expectations of education. These challenges include (Education Department, 1999):

• the use of information technology to support learning and teaching;
• adaptation of the school curriculum to suit the ability and disposition of students so as to maximise the potential of, and not to give up on, each individual student;
• increasing community expectations for improvements to the education system and the quality of learning processes and outcomes;
• a growing awareness of teacher professionalism;
• the globalization of the world economy, and the emergence of a knowledge-based economy which demands workers with multiple intelligences and creativity; and,
• life-long learning and the notion of the school as a learning organization.

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National Academy of Education Administration, China, East China Normal University, China.

Abstract: The Chinese government has the tradition of providing training to primary and secondary school principals. In 1955, a national training institution for principals named Central Institute of Educational Administration (now the National Academy of Educational Administration) was founded by the Ministry of Education. However, due to political reasons, the training of principals became inactive for twenty years since 1959. From 1980, many training institutions for principals were re-established in quite rapid succession. In 1982, the Ministry of Education issued a document entitled The Opinion on Strengthening The Training Work for Administrative Personnel of Elementary and Secondary Schools. It clarified the philosophy, purpose, requirements, content, and means of the training of school principals in China. Local governments were given the responsibility of offering training courses for all principals of elementary and secondary schools within three or five years. The publishing of this document brought principal training towards a new period (He Lefan et al., 1990).

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Abstract: Paper Presented in Hong Kong at the Conference: Professional Development of Professional Leaders in Hong Kong 15-18 June 1999 by Bruce Davis, who was at that time Chief Executive of the Australian Principals Centre Limited.

Author's Note Regarding Publication in 2001: This paper is a history not a research article. It was written for a particular time and place and has minimum relevance two years later. Since 1999, there has been a change of government in Victoria and consequent new policy initiatives in school education – particularly related to the professional accreditation of teachers and principals. In mid 2001, these are still being worked out, and the effect they will have on the Australian Principals Centre is not yet clear.

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National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Abstract: This paper reports on how one educational system prepared school principals. In Singapore aspiring principals attended the one-year Diploma in Educational Administration programme offered by the National Institute of Education (NIE). As part of the programme participants were involved in an eight-week practical component. In these eight weeks, each was attached to a senior, experienced principal who acted as a counsellor or coach. This practical component gave aspiring principals ample opportunities to learn from their mentors. These mentors who were role models for their protégés were carefully selected by the Ministry of Education. Among other demands made of them, mentors were expected to help their protégés reflect on their practice, so that they could see the theory/practice linkage. It was in part due to this close partnership with the Ministry of Education and the schools that the programme offered by the NIE was highly successful.

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University of Stirling, and British Virgin Isles.

Abstract: This paper looks at the evidence emerging from the implementation of the Scottish Qualification for Headship (SQH) Programme which was designed to ensure that people aspiring to be headteachers are properly prepared for the role. The programme was built on a standard that was designed to support the professional development of school leaders and have a positive impact on their practice. At the heart of the Standard for Headship in Scotland is the assumption that critical reflection on their own leadership and management performance provides the best basis for developing new headteachers.

The Programme is now entering its third year, full implementation began in the summer of 1999. This paper looks at the initial outcomes of evaluation and the issues that are emerging that have a more general significance in relation to new approaches to CPD.

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Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K.

Abstract: The paper explores briefly the history of policy making in the UK with reference to continuing professional development and the recent central role of the Teacher Training Agency. There is a consideration of significant developments in the last 100 years in the construction of the role of headteacher in the UK. This is complemented by reference to a particularly strong state of the art review of research into headship concentrating on the last ten years. These three strands contextualise the presentation of the three Teacher Training Agency (TTA) headship programmes. The National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) started in 1996 and leads to a qualification will be required of all newly appointed headteachers from 2003. HEADLAMP (Headteachers’ Leadership and Management Programme) which was introduced in 1994 provides professional development opportunities for all newly appointed headteachers for the first two years of their first headship. The Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers (LPSH) which started in November 1998 is for headteachers who have been in their current post for at least two years. This five-day programme is the first developed and funded by the DfEE. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of these national initiatives in the context of a government Green Paper, teachers meeting the challenge of change, and the role of the headteacher in this most significant change to the profession.

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Mahidol University, Thailand.

Abstract: Observers claim that the rapid pace of change around the world is unprecedented. Nowhere is change more apparent than in the rapidly developing societies of East Asia. This is similarly true of the educational systems of East Asian nations. The pressures of global economic integration have forced heretofore largely closed systems to implement many changes in educational policy that would have been unthinkable even a decade ago. At the same time however, just as with school systems elsewhere, the degree of change inside the schoolhouses of East Asia has not matched the pace of changes in government policies and public expectations.

Using Hong Kong as an example, this paper first examines the types of changes with which East Asian schools are now grappling. Then the paper analyses how cultural dimensions of East Asian societies influence the process of change in schools. The paper concludes by presenting implications for leading changes in East Asia’s educational systems.

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The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Abstract: This paper begins with a close examination of the issues and problems generally encountered by trainers in preparing principals for an increasingly demanding role in this global movement towards decentralization in the form of school-based management. These include the dual purpose of training to control and develop, diversity of needs, areas of development, and coherence of the programme. In the second part, a cyclical professional development model is proposed on how principal training can be provided in a more holistic and effective way. Special features of this model are described and the ways in which they can help address the issues and problems identified are elaborated.

University of Benin, Nigeria, and Delta State University, Nigeria.

Abstract: The study investigated the rate of absenteeism among secondary school teachers in ten states of the federation between 1995 and 1997. It also identified the perceived causes.

The result showed that 126,850 days were lost in the 1995/96 school year while the figure rose to 129,387 days in the 1996/97 school year or 2.0 percent annual rate of increase. On the average, the result showed a national rate of teacher absenteeism of 10 percent, with Ogun State having the highest rate of 18.95 percent. The study also found that male teachers are more absent than female teachers; teachers in rural areas more absent than their urban counterparts and the single teachers more absent than the married ones.

Illness, family problems, youthfulness of teachers, poor conditions of service and lack of motivation to attend were identified as the major factors responsible for teacher absenteeism. Useful suggestions were made in line with the findings to reduce the rate of absenteeism to its barest minimum.

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Leicester University, UK.

Abstract: In 1998 the Department for Education and Employment announced the creation of 75 ‘Beacon Schools’ which would be drawn from the highest performing institutions in England. These schools have received additional funding in return for an agreement to ‘share their success’ with others. It has been suggested, however, that the institutions selected for the initiative will find it difficult to fulfil the requirements of assisting other schools whilst maintaining their own levels of perceived excellence (Ghouri, 1999). This article is based on an empirical survey of all 75 schools and upon case studies of ten of the institutions involved in the scheme. The authors attempt, firstly, to delineate those processes by which these Beacon schools are endeavouring to assist others in enhancing their effectiveness, and, secondly, to assess the extent to which there is a tension between assisting other institutions and the continued assurance of high quality teaching and learning in the schools selected for the initiative.

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University of London, U.K.

Abstract: For over a decade, types of school-based management have been implemented in a range of countries. It is within this apparent international movement to school-based management that the policy of Devolved School Management (DSM) was implemented in Scotland from 1994 onwards. Therefore, this article offers an evaluation of the policy and practice of school-based management developing specifically in Scotland. However, as MacKenzie (1994) has suggested, this focus is intended not only to develop specific understanding of the Scottish education system, but also to develop understanding of reforms in education policy and management in general. Therefore, through research with those implementing DSM in Scotland, this article considers some of the opportunities and limitations associated with school-based management in principle and practice. The article is not intended to be comparative, but it is hoped that issues raised offer illustration and illumination to understanding the international development of school-based management.

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University of Nottingham, U.K.

Abstract: The connection between leadership and school performance is well established within the school effectiveness and school improvement research literature (e.g. Teddlie and Reynolds, 2000; Hopkins et al, 1994; Harris, 1999). Essentially, schools that are effective and have the capacity to improve are led by headteachers who make a significant and measurable contribution to the effectiveness of their staff (Sammons et al, 1995). The centrality of ‘purposeful leadership’ within school effectiveness (Mortimore et al, 1988) has been reiterated in numerous research studies (Scheerens, 1992; Teddlie and Stringfield, 1993; Hallinger and Heck, 1996; Durland and Teddlie, 1996; Sammons, 1999). Within this complex area of research activity, the contribution of leadership to school effectiveness and improvement remains undisputed.

This study conducted in 1999 by a research team from the University of Nottingham, focused upon effective leadership practice. This article describes the research project and outlines its findings concerning effective school leadership from the perspective of the headteachers’ involved in the study.

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University of Benin, Nigeria.

Abstract: This paper highlights the factors affecting the quality of education in Nigerian universities. The main factor identified is under-funding in the presence of increasing but unsatisfied demand for university education. The universities are also faced with shortage of talented, highly qualified and experienced academics. Furthermore, physical and research facilities are inadequate in the universities. Since the total government expenditure on university education cannot keep pace with rising demand for a better quality education, this paper recommends in addition to proper planning of university education, the adoption of a strategy of cost recovery involving the introduction of user fees and students loan programme in order to improve the quality of university education in Nigeria.