Emerging technologies in global communication: Using appreciative inquiry to improve the preparation of school administrators
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 19 September 2008
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how practitioners from Canada, the UK, Singapore, and the USA, university educational administration faculty from the USA, and the editor of a premier international journal of educational management engaged in a collaborative process to discover how to improve the preparation and practice of educational administration on a global basis.
Design/methodology/approach
An appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective was used to discover a positive core of experiences that could add to cultural proficiency as it relates to educational administration.
Findings
In each cultural context, the central nature of the highpoint stories focused on appreciative ways to work with other people. The stories suggest that relationships and collaboration are at the heart of an educational administrator's practice. It was discovered that twenty‐first century educational administrators operating in a global context believed that they could become difference makers in education.
Originality/value
The findings from this study provide encouragement for extended global collaboration for practicing educational administrators as well as those who are responsible for their preparation. The findings also suggest that using collaborative technologies in the framework of a cross‐cultural educator partnership can enhance the preparation and practice in educational administration programs.
Keywords
Citation
Calabrese, R.L., Roberts, B.E., McLeod, S., Niles, R., Christopherson, K., Singh, P. and Berry, M. (2008), "Emerging technologies in global communication: Using appreciative inquiry to improve the preparation of school administrators", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 696-709. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540810908593
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited