Educational Management Administration & Leadership

This qualitative multiple case study explored the sources of emotional stress experienced by 12 female Zimbabwean primary heads leading in socio-economic disadvantaged schools in Masvingo District and their attempts to alleviate the challenges that the children from these disadvantaged contexts presented them with. Data was generated through individual semi-structured interviews, and observations and the data was analysed thematically to elicit the sources of their emotional labour that emanated from stress-related cultural and contextual factors. The study revealed that despite the school heads experiencing anxiety, pain, sorrow, sympathy, frustration, sadness, and concern they were happy about their appointments to leadership positions. The sources of their emotional stress were related to the plight of children; stereotypical gender expectations; lack of parental cooperation; and unrealistic professional and social expectations. The study suggests wellness recesses; the establishment of social networks through which heads could share their experiences; and professional development programmes on stress management as possible interventions that could help the heads deal with these stressful circumstances.

Education researchers and policymakers have been focusing for the last three decades on increasing parental involvement in schools. Their work focused on the positive effects that parental involvement has on varied aspects of school quality and functioning. In this study we examined ‘trust’, a known predictor of parental involvement in schools. Specifically we examined how generalized trust and different types of particularized trust affect parental active and passive participation in schools of choice, through multivariate logistic regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) of data from a survey of 404 parents in 12 Israeli Democratic Schools. Our findings show that different types of trust have diverse direct, indirect and sometimes paradoxical effects on parent participation in schools of choice. Following these findings we suggest that educators and policymakers should consider the positive and negative implications of our findings when planning programs of parental involvement.

The present study aims to extend and integrate previous research on the mediating effects of trust in supervisor and job satisfaction on the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on previous research, we argue that transformational leadership impacts OCB directly and indirectly via employees’ trust in supervisor and job satisfaction. Our sample comprised of 211 Arab male and female teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The results of structural equation modeling indicated a direct effect between transformational leadership and OCB, and an indirect effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. However, trust in supervisor did not mediate the effect between transformational leadership and OCB. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study presents part of a research project currently underway which aims to characterise the best practices of highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Multilevel statistical modelling and hierarchical linear models were used to select 32 highly effective schools, with highly effective being taken to mean any school with higher-than-expected student results after adjusting for the effect of contextual factors. Subsequently, qualitative techniques were used to record the perceptions of the management teams, educational advisors and inspectors of the selected schools regarding the practices in place in their organisations. This paper presents the results obtained in relation to leadership. These results indicate that leadership comprises a number of different competences that are manifested to different extents in the different schools, although a set of elements was identified as being common to the majority, namely: positive leadership in the school management, a clearly defined mission shared by all professionals, a positive attitude to training and lifelong learning, the ability to foster the commitment and motivation of the teaching staff in relation to a common school project, support for teaching and learning processes, attention paid to questions of peaceful and harmonious coexistence and well-organised coordination.

In this article we examine the mentoring program for novice headteachers and what they perceive as its purposes, as well as the constraints to successfully implementing it in Malaysian schools. Using a survey research design we analysed responses from 200 newly appointed headteachers from two state departments of education, and interviewed six headteachers through two focus group interview sessions. As expected, headteachers revealed that mentoring had significantly improved their professional values as a school leader, and had led to the creation of a knowledge sharing culture that boosted their confidence level and improved their practical knowledge related to school leadership. However, headteachers also revealed that time constraints negatively impacted on the effective implementation of mentoring. The study also offers practical suggestions for the headship training system in Malaysian context.

This study examines the degree to which senior executive members of a school’s decision-making team (senior management team and board of directors) are aligned on fundamental principles of school strategy. Our study is based on a conceptual framework of strategic leadership as it applies in an Australian independent school context. We also examine the differences between the senior management team and board of directors based on top management team (TMT) tenure heterogeneity, and how these differences account for TMT associations with school strategy. Implications for research and practice complete the study. The terms top management team, senior management team, and senior leadership team are used interchangeably in this article.

This study examined the possible relationship between emotional competence and transformational leadership in K-12 school leaders as a function of self–other agreement. The study found that, for those school leaders whose self-assessment of their leadership agreed with that of their subordinates, the self-ratings of emotional competence were strongly and significantly correlated with the self-ratings of transformational leadership. However, the correlations between emotional competence and leadership self-ratings were not significant for those school leaders who either over- or under-estimated their transformational leadership. In contrast, the correlations of others’ ratings of the leaders’ emotional competence and transformational leadership were equally strong and significant for all leaders. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that those leaders who agreed with their subordinates in the assessment of their transformational leadership also agreed with their subordinates in the rating their social and emotional competence, whereas leaders who over-estimated their transformational leadership were likely to rate their emotional competence higher than were their subordinates. These identified relationships have potential implications for professional development programming for school leaders and for furthering establishing the degree to which development of emotional competence promotes the development of transformational leadership.

This phenomenological study intends to capture and describe Filipino college deans’ lived experiences of ethical dilemmas as they carry out their work as administrators. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews and following Collaizzi’s method, data was collected and subjected to cool and warm analyses yielding a set of themes and sub-themes that typify what these deans consider to be ethical dilemmas. The resulting ‘Wheel’ of School Leaders’ Ethical Dilemmas depicts the nature of the dilemmas faced by these deans, the critical incidents which trigger the onset of the dilemmas, and the value conflicts that are embedded in them. This article intends to add to the growing body of research on ethical decision making in educational management, particularly on the ethical dilemmas faced by Filipino college deans. At a practical level, the findings of this study provide valuable resource to assist practicing and aspiring deans to be more adept in identifying the moral and ethical dimensions of their work as academic administrators. Finally the findings of this study could serve as a knowledge base for curriculum planners in designing ethics courses offered in educational leadership programs in the Philippines to develop academic leaders’ competencies and skills in ethical decision making.

This paper presents the leadership implications from a study that explored how to increase the quality of teaching in a university thereby presenting data from the bottom up – the academic perspective – to inform leadership, policies, and academic development which generally flows from the top down. We report academics’ perceptions of and motivations to engage with teaching and learning, as well as their opinions of the university’s recognition and rewards for quality teaching. Pedagogical professional development needs of academics were also examined. Tensions existed between teaching and research in this research-intensive university; even so, academics valued teaching, were committed to students, but were resentful that institutional values and rewards remained focused on research. A common perception was that having a doctorate was all that was required to be an effective teacher. Administrators were reported as privileging research-oriented professoriate activities over the work of teaching-focused lecturers. We present a model of leadership considerations that can inform leadership decision-making and priorities that findings indicated influence academic engagement.