Education Commons^™

Innovation And Change In Jesuit Education: Horizon 2020, A Case Study In The Jesuit School Network In Catalonia, Spain, Hugo Nelson Gomez-Sevilla

Dissertations

Innovation has taken place in education as a necessity to respond to a rapidly

changing world. In their commitment to contribute to the creative and healing mission of the

Society of Jesus, the Jesuit School Network of Catalonia created HORIZON 2020 to

envision a new school to effectively educate in the 21st Century and adapt the Ignatian

tradition to the present day.

Understanding the case and extracting the main lessons from it were best

accomplished by using a qualitative research approach. Particularly, this study used

descriptive single-case design with embedded units. The project Horizon 2020 of the

Jesuit Education Foundation …

Universal Design For Learning: An Examination Of Leadership Promoting Student Learning For All, Martha Ryan-Toye

Dissertations

Martha Ryan-Toye

Loyola University Chicago

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING: AN EXAMINATION OF LEADERSHIP PROMOTING STUDENT LEARNING FOR ALL

This study examines the intersection of leadership, Universal Design for Learning and a framework for continuous improvement. Universal Design for Learning is a tool that unites beliefs and actions to address the needs of all children in our educational systems. We fall short in our efforts to close the learning gaps for children with disabilities, children of lower income and children of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds. Universal Design for Learning demonstrates a commitment to proactively addressing the variability of learners so …

The Challenge Of Leading Change: How Sources Of Authority And Change Management Models Intersect To Promote School Improvement, Samantha Joyce Lam

Dissertations

A gap in research exists that demonstrates how principals use their authority to make decisions and how that intersects with change management models. The purpose of the study is to examine how one elementary school principal has led change and how teachers perceive the effectiveness of the change. The study seeks to explore principal's and teachers' perceptions of the impact of the change on the school.

Through a bounded, qualitative case study design, the researcher used several techniques to gather data: teacher survey, principal interview, teacher interview, and document analysis. Multiple sources of data were used to adequately shed light …

Examining The Words And Actions Superintendents Used To Lead An Educational System Through A Culture Shift Following The Occurrence Of A Scandalous Critical Incident, Dale Ross Fisher

Dissertations

The dissertation examines the words and actions district superintendents used to lead an educational system through a culture shift following the occurrence of a scandalous critical incident. This qualitative study deeply investigated the specific words and actions as offered by the superintendents of two educational systems and members of their respective leadership teams. Those actions were then filtered through two lenses. The first lens was John Kotter's eight steps for change, and the second lens was Thomas Sergiovanni's five sources of authority. The study generated five themes of specific actions taken by the superintendents, determined that four of Kotter's eight …

Secondary School Science Department Chairs Leading Change, Julie Ann Gaubatz

Dissertations

Secondary school department chairs are content area specialists in their schools and are responsible for providing students with the most appropriate curricula. However, most secondary school department chairs have limited authority to institute change unilaterally (Gmelch, 1993; Hannay & Erb, 1999). To explore how these educational leaders navigate the change process within their departments, this study examined the change stories of six secondary school science department chairs who had led change attempts. In total, these department chairs shared six stories of successful change attempts and four unsuccessful change attempts. The topics of leadership and change were accessed through department chair …

Building Level Principals As Change Agents In A Response To Intervention Reform Initiative, Kristen Elizabeth Ninni

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the principal in a systems change effort. Utilizing Response to Intervention (RtI) as a means of studying principals as change agents, this researcher examined the principals' ability to implement and sustain a reform effort such as RtI as perceived by the principal, problem solving team, and teachers. This study examined how the perceptions influenced the change process and the extent to which the principal demonstrated characteristics of change such as knowledge of change, self-efficacy or their belief in their ability to make changes, and skills of change as supported …