Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B. (2007), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 21 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2007.06021eaa.001

Editorial

A very warm welcome to subscribers and readers to this issue of the Journal. I would like especially to welcome three new members to the advisory board – Professor Hechuan Sun of Shenyang Normal University, Professor Wendy Pan of Taiwan Normal University and Professor Magdalena Mok of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. I wish them every good luck and satisfaction in their work with me. There are a number of varied contributions in this issue from Norway, Cyprus, UK, Australia, Singapore and USA.

In the first paper Petter Aasen and Bjorn Stenraker offer a joint paper first presented at a conference in Rome on “Balancing trust and technocracy? Leadership training in higher education”. The purpose of the study is to analyse how participants in leadership training programmes in higher education value and perceive their training process. The authors developed a stylised theoretical model indicating that leadership training may be designed along a collegial managerial continuum. To study how participants placed themselves on this continuum, a questionnaire was distributed to participants in three different leadership programmes. The study showed that leadership training programmes are tools to modernise higher education without resulting in a rejection of inherent values and characteristics of the sector.

In the next contribution Dr Marios Stylianides and Professor Petros Pashiardis of the Open University of Cyprus write on “The future of our schools: an example of the Delphi technique in action and the case of Cyprus”. The study investigated the future of education in Cyprus until the year 2020. A three round Delphi forecasting technique was used in order to make predictions about the future of schools and schooling in Cyprus based upon the opinions of a panel of Cypriot based experts. Possible and desirable features of the Cypriot school until 2020 were identified, characteristics which should be of significance to educators and educational policy makers. Among the features are – increased influence of the free market, compatibility of the school with the information society, keeping pace with developments in European schools, replanning of the school infrastructure and programmes, the increase in pupil violence, an increased emphasis on evaluation procedures and staff development, and increased openness towards society as a whole.

Dr Marion Spendlove is Research fellow at Aston business school and she sets out to investigate the role of the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Rector or Principal of a university, and the competencies/attitudes, knowledge and behaviour that are needed for effective leadership in higher education. The study is small involving semi structured interviews with Pro Vice Chancellors at ten English universities. Most respondents perceived that academic credibility and experience of university life were crucial for effective leadership in higher education and they continued with their research and teaching activities alongside their managerial roles. People skills including the ability to communicate and negotiate with others were also felt to be important. Most universities in the study had no systematic approach for either identifying or developing leadership skills.

In the fourth paper John Hannon and Brian D’Netto of the University of South Australia combine on the topic of “Cultural diversity online: Student Engagement with learning techniques”. The study focuses on how students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds encounter online learning environments, and assess the extent to which cultural factors impact on learners’ engagement with online learning. The study explored how a culturally diverse cohort of students engage with the organisational,technological and pedagogical aspects of online learning depicted in Conole’s 2004 framework for e-learning. 241 students in online learning programmes in a large university in South Australia were surveyed yielding a response rate of 65 per cent. Analysis of this study indicated that cultural differences do have an impact on participant satisfaction with organisational and technological issues, with local respondents indicating significantly more positive perceptions than international respondents. Significant also was a reported lack of peer engagement and intercultural communication.

Dr Lim of the National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University contributes, “Illuminating the core of Singapore school leadership preparation: two decades of inservice experience”. The paper examines the distinctive features that surface in school leadership development programmes over two decades in Singapore. The diploma in educational administration programme and the leaders in education programme of Nanyang primarily adopted the mentoring and innovation models respectively. Irrespective of the models, evidence is provided to illuminate the co-creation approach as well as synergy with the schools and Ministry of Education that permeate both programmes. The practical implications drawn are that instead of discarding the past, it is suggested that programme developers take cognisance of local features in leadership programmes and build on their strengths in an attempt to generate changes.

In the final paper Dr Susan White of the George Washington University offers, with a number of others a paper on “Outsourcing American campuses: National developments and the food service experience at GWU”. The paper is based upon research of a case study of the food experience at the university. It may appear at first sight more appropriate to a catering journal but actually it gives education insight into outsourcing with implications for educational administrators. The potential implications are that, as outsourcing increases at universities, administrators need to consider the unique aspects of the local environment – with respect to labour availability and wage structure, the student population and their relationship to the contracted employees, the surrounding communities and the interplay among the local residents, the contractor and its employees – as they develop the contract and structure long term agreements. These are new and key skills needed by those involved in education decision making, for failure to manage the system can lead to financial penalties and student/staff dissatisfaction.

Brian Roberts