Sally J. Zepeda, Ed Bengtson and Oksana Parylo
The purpose of this study is to examine principal succession planning and management by analyzing current practices of handling school leader succession in four Georgia school…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine principal succession planning and management by analyzing current practices of handling school leader succession in four Georgia school systems.
Design/methodology/approach
Looking through the lens of organizational leadership succession theory, the practices of school systems as they experienced changes in school leadership were examined. Participants included superintendents, assistant superintendents, other central office leaders, and principals. A multiple‐case approach was selected with semi‐structured interviews providing the major source of data.
Findings
Findings suggest the following: there is a difference in the sense of urgency for the planning and management of the succession of principals; the development of aspiring leaders was identified as a critical component of planning and management of succession; mentoring was an essential practice through the succession process; and reliance on collaborative partnerships with outside organizations was highly valued.
Practical implications
The implications of the study include a call for further research to determine the differences in leader succession planning and management needs related to the varying contexts. In addition, the study implies that building collaborative partnerships with university preparation programs and other external professional development organizations may assist systems in the planning and management of principal succession.
Originality/value
The originality of this study stems from the lack of literature that directly examines the experiences and practices of principal succession. The findings can inform school system leaders of succession planning and management issues and practices that exist in the four systems studied. As leadership becomes more recognized for its impact on student achievement and school performance, it is imperative that succession is managed and planned to ensure sustainability and effectiveness.
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Marie Vestergaard Mikkelsen and Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt
Holidays are often conceptualized as an opportunity for individuals to escape everyday life responsibilities, roles and relations. However, families bring with them domestic…
Abstract
Purpose
Holidays are often conceptualized as an opportunity for individuals to escape everyday life responsibilities, roles and relations. However, families bring with them domestic, everyday life responsibilities, bonds and relationships while holidaying. So far, research on family holidays has emphasized the nuclear family, largely assuming that holidays include a husband-wife-child(ren) constellation. However, family holidays come in many different forms, and this paper aims to focus on the under-researched issue of grandparents and grandchildren vacationing together.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on 81 qualitative in situ interviews with grandparents, who vacation together with their grandchildren at Danish caravan sites, this paper explores how grandparents and grandchildren “do” family during joint holidays. Although attempts were made to give voice to children, the paper predominantly uses data from interviews with grandparents.
Findings
Although grandparent–grandchildren holidays resemble nuclear family holidays in a number of ways, significant differences are also identified. Key differences are that these holidays enable grandparents and grandchildren to interact both more intensively and in ways they cannot do (as easily) at home; are a means for grandparents to help and support their children; allow for grandparents and grandchildren to be both together and apart; and are critical to how contemporary families enact and “do” family across generations.
Originality/value
The paper deepens knowledge on the under-explored topic of extended family consumption in tourism and points to grandparent–grandchild holidays as an important element of how grandparents “do” family.
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Oksana Parylo, Sally J. Zepeda and Ed Bengtson
The purpose of this paper is to examine principal mentoring, a process that is significant in principal identification, socialization, development, and retention.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine principal mentoring, a process that is significant in principal identification, socialization, development, and retention.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was framed within the social constructivism paradigm and thematically examined individual perspectives to develop the thematic constructs relevant to the participants’ experiences of and perceptions about principal mentoring.
Findings
Thematic analysis of the interview data from 16 principals from the state of Georgia, USA, revealed five major themes related to leaders’ experiences of and perceptions about principal mentoring: mentoring as recruitment; mentoring as socialization; mentoring as support; mentoring as professional development; and mentoring as reciprocal learning.
Research limitations/implications
These findings were limited to the sample of principals used for this analysis. Researchers are encouraged to examine principal mentoring in other contexts.
Practical implications
The results of this inquiry suggest the need for formal and informal mentoring opportunities for new and experienced principals and call for further research on comparing mentoring practices between the large and small schools systems.
Originality/value
The paper identifies mentoring as an important path to principal effectiveness and contributes to the corpus of literature on educational mentoring by examining the perceptions and experiences of new and experienced principals about the mentoring they received and provided.
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Denise T. Airola, Ed Bengtson, Deborah A. Davis and Diana K. Peer
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school principals’ sense of efficacy and their involvement with the Arkansas Leadership Academy's (the Academy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school principals’ sense of efficacy and their involvement with the Arkansas Leadership Academy's (the Academy) School Support Program (SSP).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from participating SSP principals to explore differences in mean principal self-efficacy given varied years of participation in SSP. The Principal Self-Efficacy Survey was used to measure the construct of principal self-efficacy of 27 principals participating in the Academy's SSP for low-performing schools.
Findings
The findings suggest that principals of low-performing schools that participated in the Arkansas Leadership Academy's SSP for more years have a stronger sense of leadership efficacy than principals of low-performing schools that are just beginning the SSP. Post hoc qualitative data were collected through a focus group discussion to provide insight regarding actual practices that led to increased perceived self-efficacy as a result of participating in the SSP.
Research limitations/implications
This study is highly contextualized to the principals and school systems participating in the SSP, a limited population due to conditions under which schools qualify to participate in the program.
Practical implications
As schools continue to be identified as needing to improve based on accountability measures, external sources of leadership development for the principals leading these schools should be considered as a possible means for increasing their senses of efficacy, and indirectly supporting the potential for improved school performance.
Social implications
The attributes of highly efficacious principals – self-regulating, confident, and calm in difficult situations – may be more critical to leaders engaged in systemic change in low-performing schools where the challenges may be more complex.
Originality/value
There could be a strong argument that the influence of an outside support program might be one strategy to consider when addressing the improvement of low-performing schools through raising leader efficacy.
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Andrew J. Hobson, Linda J. Searby, Lorraine Harrison and Pam Firth
Norella M. Putney and Vern L. Bengtson
A major aim of contemporary research on multigenerational families is to investigate changes in intergenerational dynamics within the context of changing historical times. We…
Abstract
A major aim of contemporary research on multigenerational families is to investigate changes in intergenerational dynamics within the context of changing historical times. We highlight ways in which recent historical trends such as population aging, changing patterns of family formation and dissolution, changing life cycle boundaries and women’s increased laborforce participation have altered family structures, functions, and role expectations, especially those of women. Illustrating the usefulness of the life course perspective in family research, results from a longitudinal study of five cohorts of women are presented. Findings show that in midlife Baby Boom women are significantly more depressed and have lower self‐esteem than older cohorts of women, despite their earlier advantages. Work/family stress contributed to higher depression. Baby Boom women dissatisfied with their marriages were significantly more depressed in midlife than Silent Generation women, at comparable levels of dissatisfaction, suggesting the meaning of marriage may have shifted. Biographical and historical timing appeared to matter for the psychological functioning of Baby Boom women in midlife. Silent Generation women did not have to juggle work and family in the same way as Baby Boom women. Having started their child bearing at a later age, Baby Boomers were then confronted by a changing economy, the intensified demands of work and family and the growing contingency of marriage and employment.
This chapter focuses on the proactive adaptations that patients can undertake to successfully navigate today's increasingly complex health care system. Our report urges a paradigm…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the proactive adaptations that patients can undertake to successfully navigate today's increasingly complex health care system. Our report urges a paradigm shift in patient and family expectations, moving from expectations of “patiently” awaiting good care to taking responsibility for finding and getting optimal health care services. We consider the role that key informal health care partners (caregivers) can play in facilitating these proactive adaptations. Based on extensive participant observations by the authors during recent illness episodes, we present a framework for planning and implementing proactive adaptations which can improve the health care that consumers receive.
Older women living in medically underserved areas (MUA) might have particular problems with access to health care. This is an in-depth report of the accessibility issues raised by…
Abstract
Older women living in medically underserved areas (MUA) might have particular problems with access to health care. This is an in-depth report of the accessibility issues raised by six frail older women (age 82–93 years) during a longitudinal descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of home care. Three White women lived in the same rural MUA, and three Black women lived in the same urban MUA. The need for health service was understood subjectively and prospectively as the personal perception of a situation requiring relief or supply. Some women reported presenting needs for accessibility to providers, whereas others reported needs for their future accessibility to providers or services. Some intentions were likely linked to residence location, and residence in a rural MUA was relevant to the phenomenon of securing the help that I might need down the road. Feasibility was proposed as a new parameter of access. Research and practice implications were proposed.