Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 28 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-03-2014-0038

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Educational Management, Volume 28, Issue 5.

In Issue 5 of Volume 28 there are contributions from the USA, Hong Kong, the UK, Israel, Finland and Australia. The first paper is by Lauren Bailes and Wayne K. Hoy of The Ohio State University and is on “Designing school contexts for success-paternalism or liberalism? The purpose of the piece is to demonstrate the utility of social science research and theory in solving the problems of school practice. A mental toolbox of concepts has been developed to help school leaders design contexts that benefit teachers and students. Choice architecture is the process of designing these contexts by nudging individuals to make decisions in their own best interests. The underlying theory of choice architecture unites two opposing philosophies, libertarianism and paternalism, which are blended by taking the best from each and avoiding the pitfalls of both.

Dora Ho and Haze Lam of the Hong Kong Institute of Education submit work on the study of male participation in early childhood education. Whilst female predominance in early education especially is recognised, yet both sexes have useful participation roles to play. Most stakeholders supported the hiring of male teachers in kindergartens in Hong Kong but resistance within society needs to be overcome.

David William Stoten of Havant Sixth Form College contributes work on “Authentic leadership in English education-what do college teachers tell us?” The purpose of the paper is to investigate the degree to which teachers in the sixth form college sector recognise behaviours associated with authentic leadership and in so doing identify values based leadership practice, particularly difficult at a time of reduction in government spending.

Peter Beusch of Gothenburg University writes about “Towards sustainable capitalism in the development of Higher Education business school curricula and management”. The paper accounts for and conceptualises the internal and external forces that influence HE business schools as they strive to integrate sustainability issues into their curricula in the effort to achieve a more sustainable (yet capitalist) world. Although this is a single case study research two tentative models are presented that map the various internal and external forces behind business schools’ curriculum change. One important finding describes how supply and demand influences business schools and recruiters of business students.

In the next work Izhar Oplatka and Idit Nupar of the Tel Aviv University contribute on the intellectual identity of educational administration – the views of Israeli academics. The purpose of the study was to answer two questions – how do senior educational administration field members perceive the scholarly aims and boundaries and the meaning of their intellectual work? What are the similarities and differences between “outsider” and “insider” perceptions of the field's major purposes and directions? The work was carried out by semi-structured interviews with 12 Israeli academics working in departments of educational administration in various universities and colleges.

Symbolic leadership culture and its subcultures in a Finnish comprehensive school is the subject chosen by Tapio Juhani Lahtero of the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. The investigation of the leadership culture of the school student showed that it seemed to be based upon an equality, communality, appreciation, flow of information and humour. As well as examining the general leadership culture of the school, six subject groups were also investigated. Only one subculture was found (in mathematics) and it had several common features with the main leadership.

Philip S. Chong and Ming Cheng with Xuemei Su of the California State University, Long Beach have looked at a comparative study of behavioural mindsets in team decisions. Resource allocation is an important area of strategic planning in any organisation including higher education. In comparing two case examples of a college's efforts in shared governance in allocating budget to its five departments, this paper shows the importance of a college's awareness and understanding of team behavioural mindsets and contextual factors when practising continuous improvement each time it applies shared governance.

In the last work Angel Po Cheung Lai, Paul Gibson and Siva Muthaly of the RMIT University of Technology and Design, Melbourne and the Hong Kong Baptist University, contribute on becoming an education provider of choice in Hong Kong – an inquiry into student decision making. Managers in higher education require cost effective ways to attract the optimum number of students. The study addresses that problem at college level and doing so points towards strategies that could also be relevant at the university or national level. Two crucial issues are whether potential students are more influenced by parents or by peers when it comes to choosing a college, and whether spending money on advertising is more efficacious than spending money on making direct contact with potential students. The fundings provide essential market intelligence for strategically managing the scarce resources available for attracting students.

Brian Roberts