Education Commons^™

Book Challenges Popping Up All Over: What Do School Principals Need To Know?, Samantha Laine Hull, Sue Kimmel

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This chapter provides practical advice and reasons for school leaders to support students' intellectual freedom through their support of school libraries and school librarians. The chapter begins with a short but critical literature review that includes case law on the topic of censorship in schools. The concerns of teachers and librarians from a recent study are summarized and help build the foundation for practical and ready to use advice for any school leaders to uphold the intellectual freedom of all students.

A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Leadership Experiences Of School Leaders During Covid-19 Changes, Margaret H. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the leadership experiences of school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theory guiding this study was Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory as it focuses on the idea that leadership is contingent and can be adjusted based upon the factors of a situation. The situational leadership theory can help to explain the adjustments in leadership practices that could be made when the employee’s task changes, or their relationship needs change. The relationship between the situational leadership theory and this study was the change in faculty task and setting situations …

Qualitative Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study: The Lived Experiences Of School Leaders Who Have Worked Through A Merger, Olga Nelly Collazo

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of school mergers in New York State. The central research question that guided the study was: What are the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of a school merger? In addition, guiding questions were implemented to understand the phenomenon of school mergers. The guiding questions are: How do school leaders maneuver and manage the organizational structures impacted by the processes of a school merger? What role do school leaders play in the environmental demands influencing the processes of a …

School Principals’ Emotionally Draining Situations And Student Discipline Issues In The Context Of Work Intensification, Katina Pollock, Ruth Nielsen, Fei Wang

Education Publications

Over the past decade, research into principals’ work intensification has revealed that principals spend significant work hours on student discipline and attendance issues, and that they report high levels of emotionally draining situations. In the current study, we examined the relationship between student discipline issues and principals’ emotionally draining situations to determine if variables related to student discipline issues affected principals’ experiences of emotionally draining situations. Using a correlational research design with hierarchical regression, we analysed data from a digital survey of school principals in Ontario, Canada. A total of 1434 surveys were included in the final analysis, with respondents …

Trauma-Sensitive School Leadership, David Tranter, Katina Pollock, Nadine Trépanier-Bisson

Education Publications

Public schools welcome and support students from all walks of life. As a result, educators in public schools are responsible for meeting multiple and divergent student needs. Events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic – such as increased anxiety, domestic abuse, neglect and school closures – as well as growing awareness of systemic societal inequities for many under-represented groups, and historical atrocities such as the discovery of unmarked student graves at residential schools, have led to an increased public awareness of student and staff trauma.

Women Seeking The Public School Superintendency: Navigating The Gendered And Racialized-Gendered Job Search, Rachel M. Roberts

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

I have been an educator for my entire career. First, as a teacher and over the last decade as a school administrator. During my tenure, I have continually noticed the underrepresentation of women in the highest office: the school superintendent. This has vexed me over the years, and as a scholar practitioner in leadership and change, I have devoted my research to unearthing the inequalities and disproportional realities that exist within high-profile leadership, particularly the public school superintendency. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, this dissertation sought to better understand what happens at the micro-level, especially during and after the superintendent …

Rural High School Principals And The Challenge Of Standards-Based Grading, Tom Buckmiller, Matt Townsley, Robyn Cooper

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to better understand how principals in rural schools are thinking about assessment and grading practices and if they anticipate implementing policy changes in the near future that may require increased support. Principals of schools in rural areas often face challenges that are significantly different from those of their urban and suburban counterparts. The researchers used a mixed-method survey to better understand if progressive grading policies were a part of the vision for principals of rural high schools, if they possessed conceptual underpinnings of such practices, and if they believed they had the capacity within …

Peace Building Through Teacher Leadership, Jill Bradley-Levine, Seema Zainulabdin Lasi

Human Development Programme

This case study examines the motivations of, and processes used by teacher leaders to establish a peace program at their middle school. These teacher leaders creatively engaged students in transforming school culture using empowering strategies to build positive peace among students, administrators, and teachers. Theories of peace education are used as a framework to facilitate analysis of the data, which was collected through qualitative methods including observations and in-depth interviews. This study contributes to understandings of how teacher leaders promote positive peace in K-12 schools and their communities.

From The Chalkboard To The Bank: Teaching Educational Leaders To Be Effective Fundraisers, Michael T. Miller, Mei-Yan Lu, G. David Gearhart

Faculty Publications

The effective use of financial resources is critical for all educational institutions, especially those K-12 schools that rely on public funding for their main operating revenue. As public entities and state governments increasingly struggle to find the revenue necessary to operate prisons, fund Medicaid/Medicare, improve an aging infrastructure, support social welfare programs, and recover from the Great Recession, educational institutions are finding themselves directly competing with other public agencies for scarce resources. These factors resulted in 29 states reducing funding for public education (Evans, Schwab & Wagner, 2019; Leachman, Masterson, & Figueroa, 2017). In the face of fierce competition, educational …

Book Excerpt: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Teachers – The Heroes Of Real India, S Giridhar

Teacher India

In his book ‘Ordinary people, extraordinary teachers’, S Giridhar describes how teachers in government schools are determined to work beyond the call of duty based on a strong belief that ‘every child can learn’.

Considering Standards-Based Grading: Challenges For Secondary School Leaders, Matt Townsley

Faculty Publications

Rather than awarding points for a combination of worksheet completion, quiz performance, in-class participation, and essay writing, standards-based grading separates academics from non-academic factors and communicates students' nonprogress towards mastery of course or grade-level standards. Some secondary schools are moving towards standards-based grading (SBG) in an attempt to produce more consistent grading practices, however the empirical evidence resulting from this change is mixed. The purpose of this article is to describe principles of standards-based grading, empirical support of SBG, and several common challenges secondary school leaders may face when considering this philosophical shift. Future research recommendations include exploring the perspectives …

Women School Leaders: Entrepreneurs In Low-Fee Private Schools In Three West African Nations, Paula A. Cordeiro, Corinne Brion

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This study explores the opportunities and challenges of women who own low-fee private schools in three West African nations. With the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, it has become obvious to policymakers that school leadership needs to be a policy priority around the world. Increased school autonomy and a greater focus on schooling and school results have made it essential to understand and support the role of school leaders. Few countries however have strong and systematic initiatives to professionalize school leadership and to nurture and support current school leaders. …

Who Is More Free? A Comparison Of The Decision-Making Of Private And Public School Principals, M. Danish Shakeel, Corey A. Deangelis

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

While an abundance of school choice literature focuses on student achievement outcomes, little has been done to determine the mechanisms involved in producing such outcomes. We present a comparative analysis of private and public school principals using data from the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) 2011-2012. We add to the literature by examining the differences in private and public school principals’ abilities to influence important decisions at their schools. We conclude that private schooling may have a systematic advantage over public schooling since private school leadership exhibits more autonomy in influencing relevant decisions.

Learning Transfer: The Missing Link To Learning Among School Leaders In Burkina Faso And Ghana, Corinne Brion, Paula A. Cordeiro

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Every year, billions of dollars are spent on development aid and training around the world. However, only 10% of this training results in the transfer of knowledge, skills, or behaviors learned in the training to the work place. Ideally, learning transfer produces effective and continued application by learners of the knowledge and skills they gained through their learning activities. Currently, there is a limited body of research examining the factors that hinder and promote learning transfer in professional development, particularly the professional development of school leaders in developing countries. This qualitative exploratory study sought to address the gap in the …

Transformative Leadership: An Asset-Based Approach To Leadership For Diverse Schools And Learners, Marilyn Sudsberry, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Traditionally, school leadership has been viewed as emanating from a sole source, the school administrator. This top-down perspective suggests that school leadership lives and dies by the leader's specific skills, mind-set, and preferred activities. This perspective ultimately oversimplifies the difficult work that school administrators must navigate in order to ensure the success of all learners. While there is no doubt that many individual school administrators are empathetic and compassionate educators, unilateral decision-making means that the cultural, linguistic and social lenses utilized to inform decision-making are limited to the perspective of the administrator.

In this chapter we propose that school leadership …