James P. Spillane, Eric M. Camburn, James Pustejovsky, Amber Stitziel Pareja and Geoff Lewis
This paper is concerned with the epistemological and methodological challenges involved in studying the distribution of leadership across people within the school – the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is concerned with the epistemological and methodological challenges involved in studying the distribution of leadership across people within the school – the leader‐plus aspect of a distributed perspective, which it aims to investigate.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the entailments of the distributed perspective for collecting and analyzing data on school leadership and management. It considers four different operationalizations of the leader‐plus aspect of the distributed perspective and examines the results obtained from these different operationalizations. The research reported in this paper is part of a larger study, an efficacy trial of a professional development program intended to prepare principals to improve their practice. The study involved a mixed method design. For the purpose of this paper a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, including an experience sampling method (ESM) principal log, a principal questionnaire (PQ), and a school staff questionnaire (SSQ) was used.
Findings
While acknowledging broad similarities among the various approaches, the different approaches also surfaced some divergence that has implications for thinking about the epistemological and methodological challenges in measuring leadership from a distributed perspective. Approaches that focus on the lived organization as distinct from the designed organization, for example, unearth the role of individuals with no formal leadership designations in leading and managing the school.
Research limitations/implications
Limited by the data set, the paper focuses on only four operationalizations of the leader plus aspect of the distributed perspective rather than taking a more comprehensive look at how the leader plus aspect might be operationalized.
Originality/value
The primary value of this paper is that it will prompt scholars to think about the entailments of different ways of operationalizing the leader plus aspect when using a distributed perspective.
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Craig Hochbein, Abby Mahone and Sara Vanderbeck
To advance the study of principal time use (PTU), the purpose of this study is to report findings from a systematic review of PTU research. In addition to identifying common…
Abstract
Purpose
To advance the study of principal time use (PTU), the purpose of this study is to report findings from a systematic review of PTU research. In addition to identifying common findings, this study also examined the supporting evidence and methodologies of PTU studies. From this dual approach, this study specified the evidence that supports claims about PTU, as well as identified areas requiring future examination.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic reference review process considered 5,746 potential PTU manuscripts. The inclusion criteria identified 55 studies published between 1920 and 2015. This review synthesized data pertaining to the methodologies and findings of PTU research.
Findings
Findings from studies conducted across decades indicated that principals worked extensive hours. Moreover, the workdays of principals consisted of brief and unrelated activities, most often focused on noninstructional tasks. Contrary to common hypotheses, studies indicated that PTU dedicated to administrative tasks exhibited positive correlations with educational outcomes. However, claims about PTU have been derived from samples overrepresented by large urban school districts and limited periods of observation.
Practical implications
Future studies should implement diversified sampling strategies and extended observation periods. For principal preparation programs, the results indicated an opportunity for increased instruction on time management skills.
Originality/value
This systematic review identifies the overlooked history of the research and specifies the evidence that supports common claims about PTU, which provides empirically derived guidance for future PTU studies.
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Ellen Goldring, Jason Huff, Henry May and Eric Camburn
As they operate in complex schools principals must allocate their attention to numerous responsibilities. This paper seeks to ask three questions: how do principals allocate their…
Abstract
Purpose
As they operate in complex schools principals must allocate their attention to numerous responsibilities. This paper seeks to ask three questions: how do principals allocate their attention across major realms of responsibility; to what extent do principals in different contexts emphasize different realms of responsibility; and to what extent do individual attributes affect how principals allocate their attention across realms?
Design/methodology/approach
A cluster analysis is applied to data from a daily log of principal practices to identify principals who allocate their attention across major realms of responsibility in similar ways. With the three groups identified in the cluster analysis a discriminant analysis is then used to examine the individual attributes of the principals and the contexts within which these groups work to identify those individual characteristics and contextual conditions that best predict each principal's cluster membership.
Findings
The data from the log indicate that principals are not as fragmented across numerous realms of responsibility as previous research suggests. Some principals do spend considerable time on instructional leadership. The cluster analysis revealed three groups: “Eclectic” Leaders (their activities are distributed more evenly across different activities); Instructional Leaders (they focused most on Instructional Leadership); and Student Leaders (they emphasized student affairs). In the paper's discriminant analyses no individual attributes distinguished amongst the three types of principals; only contextual conditions predicted membership.
Research limitations/implications
The results point to the influence that context plays on school principals' practice; principals appear to prioritize and focus their actions under more challenging contextual conditions. The next step in the analysis is to determine how the leadership clusters and principal practices relate to important school outcomes.
Originality/value
The paper provides useful information on influences on school principals' practice.
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Ashley Oleszewski, Alan Shoho and Bruce Barnett
The purpose of this review is to add to the discussion of assistant principals (APs), a position that has been under‐represented in the professional literature.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this review is to add to the discussion of assistant principals (APs), a position that has been under‐represented in the professional literature.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive search was undertaken on assistant principals, vice principals, and deputy head teachers from various sources, including journals, conference papers, doctoral dissertations, ERIC documents, articles from professional publications and organizations, and relevant books and chapters. Each document was thoroughly analyzed and common themes were identified.
Findings
The assistant principalship is a unique entity because the position lacks a precise job description yet entails numerous tasks to ensure the success of a school. Although the assistant principal is a critical leader in schools, the position is underutilized and under‐researched. This review analyzes the roles, responsibilities, training, socialization, and typologies of the assistant principal.
Research limitations/implications
As a result of this research, it is suggested that the role of the assistant principal needs to be reconfigured. Additional research is needed in the areas of training, professional development, and transition to the principalship.
Originality/value
This article presents a unique comparison of the roles of APs throughout the past 30 years both in the USA and abroad. In addition, after examining the lack of university training and professional development for the assistant principalship, suggestions are made as to how APs can be better prepared for this critical leadership position.
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Victoria Hunter Gibney, Kristine L. West and Seth Gershenson
The burnout, stress, and work-life balance challenges faced by teachers have received renewed interest due to the myriad disruptions and changes to K-12 schooling brought about by…
Abstract
The burnout, stress, and work-life balance challenges faced by teachers have received renewed interest due to the myriad disruptions and changes to K-12 schooling brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even prior to the pandemic, relatively little was known about teachers' time use outside of the classroom, the blurring of work and home boundaries, and how teachers compare to similar professionals in these regards. We use daily time-diary data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) for 3,168 teachers and 1,886 professionals in similarly prosocial occupations from 2003 to 2019 to examine occupational differences in time use. Compared to observationally similar non-teachers, teachers spend significantly more time volunteering at their workplace and completing work outside the workplace during the school year. On average, teachers spend 19 more minutes working outside of the workplace on weekdays than observably similar non-teachers and 38 more minutes on weekends. The weekend disparity is particularly large among secondary school teachers. This suggests that before the widespread switch to online and hybrid learning necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were already navigating blurrier work-life boundaries than their counterparts in similar professions. This has important implications for teacher turnover and for the effectiveness and wellness of teachers who remain in the profession.
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Peter J.C. Sleegers, Eric E.J. Thoonen, Frans J. Oort and Thea T.D. Peetsma
Elementary schools have been confronted with large-scale educational reforms as strategies to improve the educational quality. While building school-wide capacity for improvement…
Abstract
Purpose
Elementary schools have been confronted with large-scale educational reforms as strategies to improve the educational quality. While building school-wide capacity for improvement is considered critical for changing teachers’ classroom practices, there is still little empirical evidence for link between enhanced school capacity for improvement and instructional change. In this study, the authors examined the impact of school improvement capacity on changes in teachers’ classroom practices over a period of time. Leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivation and teacher learning were used to measure school-wide capacity for improvement. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed-model analysis of longitudinal data over a four years (2005-2008) period of time from 862 teachers of 32 Dutch elementary schools were used to test the impact of school improvement capacity on changing teachers’ instructional practices.
Findings
The results showed that organizational-level conditions and teacher-level conditions play an important, but different role in changing teachers’ classroom practices. Whereas teacher factors mainly affect changes in teachers’ classroom practices, organizational factors are of significant importance to enhance teacher motivation and teacher learning.
Research limitations/implications
More longitudinal research is needed to gain better insight into the opportunities and limits of building school-wide capacity to stimulate instructional change.
Practical implications
By encouraging teachers to question their own beliefs, facilitating opportunities for teachers to work together to solve problems, and through the promotion of shared decision making, school leaders can reinforce the personal and social identification of teachers with the organization. As a consequence, teachers will feel increasingly committed and are more willing to change their classroom practices. Additionally, school leaders can use the findings from this study and the related instrument as a tool for school self-evaluation.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature of changes in conditions for school improvement and its influence on changes in teachers’ instructional practices over a period of time.
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Paul Hanselman, Jeffrey Grigg, Sarah K. Bruch and Adam Gamoran
Staff turnover may have important consequences for the development of collective social resources based on trust, shared norms, and support among school professionals. We outline…
Abstract
Staff turnover may have important consequences for the development of collective social resources based on trust, shared norms, and support among school professionals. We outline the theoretical role-specific consequences of principal and teacher turnover for features of principal leadership and teacher community, and we test these ideas in repeated teacher survey data from a sample of 73 Los Angeles elementary schools. We find evidence that principal turnover fundamentally disrupts but does not systematically decrease relational qualities of principal leadership; negative changes for initially high social resource schools offset positive changes for initially low social resource schools, suggesting that relational instability “resets” the resources that develop in the relationships between leadership and teachers. Greater consistency in measures of teacher community in the face of teacher turnover implies that the social resources inhering in the relationships among teachers are more robust to instability.
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American choral music of the present day reflects the variety of styles found in vocal and instrumental music throughout the Western world during the twentieth century. However…
Abstract
American choral music of the present day reflects the variety of styles found in vocal and instrumental music throughout the Western world during the twentieth century. However, the majority of choral music is more conservative in form and tonality than is instrumental music, due probably to the heritage of American choral music. Approximately the first two hundred years of choral singing in America were based on religious texts and simple tunes. Choral music in America did not “flower” until the nineteenth century, when composers began to write in a variety of styles, using secular as well as sacred texts.