Senior management teams in schools : understanding their dynamics, enhancing their effectiveness

Increasingly it has been argued that senior management teams (SMTs), comprising principals, deputy heads and other personnel, play a critical role in the governance of schools. In recent years, many researchers have drawn upon the tools of micropolitics to illuminate the relationships, dynamics and power plays between and amongst members of SMTs. The paper has two foci. Firstly, it overviews some of the seminal literature in the field of SMTs and micropolitics in an attempt to identify the working practices of and challenges facing members of SMTs. Secondly, it discusses an instrument, the TEAM Development Questionnaire, that emerged from a synthesis of this writing and research. The questionnaire presented here was especially devised to use with members of SMTs to help them (i) identify the dynamics amongst team members; and (ii) identify areas for the team to improve. A set of procedures for implementing the TEAM Development Questionnaire is provided to demonstrate its application to the field.

Coping with Generation Y in schools

In recent times, complaining about the Y Generation and its perceived lack of work ethic has become standard dinner-party conversation amongst Baby Boomers. Discussions in the popular press (Salt, 2008) and amongst some social commentators (Levy, Carroll, Francoeur, & Logue, 2003) indicate that the group labelled Gen Y have distinct and different generational characteristics. Whether or not the differences are clearly delineated on age is still open to discussion but in the introduction to "The Generational Mirage? a pilot study into the perceptions of leadership by Generation X and Y", Levy et al. argue that "the calibre of leadership in competing organisations and the way they value new and existing employees will play a substantial role in attracting or discouraging these workers regardless of generational labels". Kunreuther's (2002) suggests that the difference between younger workers and their older counterparts may have more to do with situational phenomena and their position in the life cycle than deeper generational difference. However this is still an issue for leadership in schools.

Principals as architects of formal mentoring programs in schools

An important responsibility of principals in schools is fostering a healthy learning-rich environment for both staff and students. Previous research (Duignan & Gurr, 2008; Ehrich, 1998; Leithwood & Day, 2007; Nias, Southworth, & Campbell, 1992) has shown that effective principals create opportunities for teachers to learn with and from each other. For instance, they are involved in establishing supportive structures and creating environments for collaboration and learning to take place (Leithwood & Day, 2007). They do this in a variety of ways such as providing resources and professional development opportunities, structuring time for staff to learn and work together, and establishing a host of other conditions to facilitate learning and sharing.

Changing assessment practices : the case for online moderation

Online moderation meetings have the potential to support the collaborative professional development of teachers, and the formation of a common understanding of what denotes quality in student work in a standards based assessment system. In doing so systemic calls for consistency across education systems are also being met. In this paper a case for employing online moderation meetings is developed through recourse to the demands of learning in the twenty-first century and the place of assessment within those discourses. It is argued that empirical data is needed on the efficacy of online moderation meetings to guide future practice as the use of information and communication technologies increases in education systems. Online moderation is one way of gathering teachers across vast distances to share their understandings and develop common meanings of assessment. While it is suggested that online moderation is one possible procedure to meet systemic requirements and support teachers’ professional collaboration, the implementation of such a system also introduces new challenges for schools and teachers. Meeting online to discuss professional understandings is a new way of operating for teachers and involves technology that has not yet been fully utilised within education departments. Issues such as the types of interactions that are afforded within such an environment, as well as technical operating problems that occur when using technology impact on the employment of online meetings. Online moderation meetings while potentially solving the issue of developing common understandings across an entire department also pose new issues to be resolved. There is a need for research into the efficacy of online moderation meetings so that future policy decisions may be based on sound empirical data. It is imperative that as new ways of knowing and acting are incorporated into school curriculum and pedagogy, assessment practices are also aligned. Online moderation meetings can support such practices by enabling teachers to communicate with a wider and more diverse group of teachers to establish common understandings.

Engaging with the promises of education : African refugee students in Australian secondary schools

The research reported in this paper investigated the engagement of students who arrived in Australian secondary schools as refugees from Africa. Enrolment of large cohorts of refugees from Africa is a relatively new phenomenon in the English-speaking West. The literature provides evidence that emotional engagement with the promises of schooling is strong for many of the young African refugees. Students envision successful professional careers as doctors, engineers, lawyers, and IT experts; they envision returning to their country as professionals able to help the people. The question investigated in this paper is: How does schooling in Australia impact on young African refugees’ education and career aspirations? Engagement is understood in Bourdieuian terms as dispositions to be and to become an educated person. This is a disposition which entails fundamental belief in the value of the stakes of schooling. The data analysed in the paper were produced in a study undertaken in the state of Queensland where 5000 of the 39 000 African refugees who have arrived in Australia since 2000 have settled. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and their parents and teachers after arrival in an intensive language school, and then after transition to a regular secondary school. The findings show both the durability and malleability of educational dispositions in conditions of dramatic social change occasioned by refugee experience. Engagement in the stakes of schooling is both built and eroded as students flee their homelands for countries of refuge. Previously unimaginable educational dreams are possible for some; but for others, long-held dreams become unattainable. The paper concludes with recommendations for better supporting young people through this re-shaping of self.

Schools and Diversity, 2nd ed.

Schools and diversity aims to address the need for schools and teachers to provide quality education for all students in rapidly changing social contexts. Community and student voices are telling schools that traditional education is too authoritarian and restrictive. Students do not feel valued and respected in their school community. Schools are obliged to respond to this critique with more democratic and relevant policies and processes that connect all students with their learning futures. This text is about developing a more inclusive approach to education which aims to identify and dismantle actual and potential sources of exclusion that limit opportunities and outcomes for all students.

Teacher Reporting Questionnaire - Western Australia Government Schools

This instrument was used in the project named Teachers Reporting Child Sexual Abuse: Towards Evidence-based Reform of Law, Policy and Practice (ARC DP0664847)

Teacher Reporting Questionnaire : Western Australia Non-Government Schools

This instrument was used in the project named Teachers Reporting Child Sexual Abuse: Towards Evidence-based Reform of Law, Policy and Practice (ARC DP0664847)

Can theories about leadership in schools inform the work of Principals in schools?

This paper explores recent theorising on the ways in which Principals exercise leadership in their schools with reference to the Leading 21st Century Schools Project in Australia. First, it provides an historical overview of approaches to leadership. Second, it utilises a rhetorical question about leadership to analyse the ways in which leadership and management tensions pose challenges to Principals' efforts to capacity build their staff. Third, it and suggests that the notion of distributed leadership has been the most useful method in fostering Asia literacy in the Leading 21st Century Schools Project.

The studio sans frontières : the open-studio as an answer to the challenges of teaching contemporary art

Since at least the 1960s, art has assumed a breadth of form and medium as diverse as social reality itself. Where once it was marginal and transgressive for artists to work across a spectrum of media, today it is common practice. In this ‘post-medium’ age, fidelity to a specific branch of media is a matter of preference, rather than a code of practice policed by gallerists, curators and critics. Despite the openness of contemporary art practice, the teaching of art at most universities remains steadfastly discipline-based. Discipline-based art teaching, while offering the promise of focussed ‘mastery’ of a particular set of technical skills and theoretical concerns, does so at the expense of a deeper and more complex understanding of the possibilities of creative experimentation in the artist’s studio. By maintaining an hermetic approach to medium, it does not prepare students sufficiently for the reality of art making in the twenty-first century. In fact, by pretending that there is a select range of techniques fundamental to the artist’s trade, discipline-based teaching can often appear to be more engaged with the notion of skills preservation than purposeful art training. If art schools are to survive and prosper in an increasingly vocationally-oriented university environment, they need to fully synthesise the professional reality of contemporary art practice into their approach to teaching and learning. This paper discusses the way in which the ‘open’ studio approach to visual art study at QUT endeavours to incorporate the diversity and complexity of contemporary art while preserving the sense of collective purpose that discipline-based teaching fosters. By allowing students to independently develop their own art practices while also applying collaborative models of learning and assessment, the QUT studio program aims to equip students with a strong sense of self-reliance, a broad awareness and appreciation of contemporary art, and a deep understanding of studio-based experimentation unfettered by the boundaries of traditional media: all skills fundamental to the practice of contemporary art.

Saving schools from abomination and abnormal sex : a discourse analysis of online public commentary about 'queering' school spaces

Homophobic hatred: these words summarise online commentary made by people in support of a school that banned gay students from taking their same sex partners to a school formal. With the growing popularity of online news sites, it seems appropriate to critically examine how these sites are becoming a new arena in which people can express personal opinions about controversial topics. While commentators equally expressed two dominant viewpoints about the school ban (homophobic hatred and human rights), this paper focuses on homophobic hatred as a discursive position and how the comments work to confirm the legitimacy of the schools’ decision. Drawing on the work of Foucault and others, the paper examines how the comments constitute certain types of subjectivity drawing on dominant ideas about what it means to be homophobic. The analysis demonstrates the complex and competing skein of strategies that constitute queering school social spaces as a social problem.

Leadership construction : an exploratory case study of two exemplary female principals in urban primary schools in mainland China

Worldwide, education systems have undergone unprecedented change due to a variety of economic, social, and political forces (Limerick, Cunnington & Crowther, 2002). The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is no exception. Continuous educational reform at primary and secondary levels in Mainland China has created new challenges and accountabilities for school principals. The important role of principals in primary and secondary schools has been acknowledged in both policy documents and the broader literature (Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, 1985; F. Chen, 2005; Chu, 2003; W. Huang, 2005; T. Wang, 2003). Yet, most of the literature on primary and secondary school principals in Mainland China is prescriptive in nature, identifying from the perspectives of researchers and academics what principals should do and how they should enact leadership. Lacking in this research is an awareness of the daily practices and lived experiences of principals. Furthermore, within the small body of writing on primary and secondary school principals in Mainland China, gender is seldom given any attention. To date, only a small number of empirical studies have focused on female principals as a specific category of research (Zen, 2004; Zhong, 2004). This study aimed to explore the professional lives of two female exemplary school principals in urban primary schools in Mainland China. A qualitative exploratory case study was used. Semi-structured interviews with each individual female principal, with six teachers in each of the school sites and with the superintendent of each principal were conducted. Field observations and document analysis were also undertaken to obtain multiple insights about their leadership practices. The conceptual framework was based largely on the theory of Gronn (1999) and incorporated five core leadership practices (vision building, ethical considerations, teaching and learning, power utilisation, and dealing with risks and challenges) taken from the wider literature. The key findings of this study were twofold. Firstly, while the five leadership practices were evident in the leadership of the two principals, this study identified some subtle differences in the way they approached each of them. Secondly, contextual factors such as Chinese traditional culture, the contemporary societal context, and the school organisational context, in addition to the biographical experiences of each principal were significant factors in shaping the way in which they exercised their leadership practices in the schools.

Graduate Attribute Mapping With the Extended CDIO Framework

The CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) Initiative has been globally recognised as an enabler for engineering education reform. With the CDIO process, the CDIO Standards and the CDIO Syllabus, many scholarly contributions have been made around cultural change, curriculum reform and learning environments. In the Australasian region, reform is gaining significant momentum within the engineering education community, the profession, and higher education institutions. This paper presents the CDIO Syllabus cast into the Australian context by mapping it to the Engineers Australia Graduate Attributes, the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and the Queensland University of Technology Graduate Capabilities. Furthermore, in recognition that many secondary schools and technical training institutions offer introductory engineering technology subjects, this paper presents an extended self-rating framework suited for recognising developing levels of proficiency at a preparatory level. A demonstrator mapping tool has been created to demonstrate the application of this extended graduate attribute mapping framework as a precursor to an integrated curriculum information model.

An extended CDIO syllabus framework with preparatory engineering proficiencies

The CDIO Initiative has been globally recognised as an enabler for engineering education reform. With the CDIO process, the CDIO Standards and the CDIO Syllabus, many scholarly contributions have been made around cultural change, curriculum reform and learning environments. In the Australasian region, reform is gaining significant momentum within the engineering education community, the profession, and higher education institutions. This paper presents the CDIO Syllabus cast into the Australian context by mapping it to the Engineers Australia Graduate Attributes, the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and the Queensland University of Technology Graduate Capabilities. Furthermore, in recognition that many secondary schools and technical training institutions offer introductory engineering technology subjects, this paper presents an extended self-rating framework suited for recognising developing levels of proficiency at a preparatory level. The framework is consistent with conventional application to undergraduate programs and professional practice, but adapted for the preparatory context. As with the original CDIO framework with proficiency levels, this extended framework is informed by Bloom’s Educational Objectives. A proficiency evaluation of Queensland Study Authority’s Engineering Technology senior syllabus is demonstrated indicating proficiency levels embedded within this secondary school subject within a preparatory scope. Through this extended CDIO framework, students and faculty have greater awareness and access to tools to promote (i) student engagement in their own graduate capability development, (ii) faculty engagement in course and program design, through greater transparency and utility of the continuum of graduate capability development with associate levels of proficiency, and the context in which they exist in terms of pre-tertiary engineering studies; and (iii) course maintenance and quality audit methodology for the purpose of continuous improvement processes and program accreditation.