David Gurr, Lawrie Drysdale and Helen Goode
Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school…
Abstract
Purpose
Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and these descriptions are then used inductively to create a new successful school leadership model.
Findings
The open systems approach adopted depicts schools as a continuous cycle of input-transformation-output with feedback loops that inform each stage of the cycle. The inputs are the variables that lead to transformation. The transformation stage is the actions or processes that individuals, groups and organisations engage in because of the inputs, and these lead to a range of student and school outcomes. Feedback loops connect the stages, and the whole model is open to the influence of five contextual forces: economic, political, socio-cultural, technological and system, institutional and educational.
Originality/value
Models are an important way to make sense of complex phenomena. A new model of successful school leadership, with an open systems approach, provides a different frame to consider the findings of the ISSPP and potentially allows the ISSPP research to inform practice and connect with other school leadership views in new ways.
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Lawrie Drysdale, Helen Goode and David Gurr
This paper seeks to demonstrate how the principal was instrumental in turning around an underperforming school by using a leadership style that modelled appropriate behaviour, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to demonstrate how the principal was instrumental in turning around an underperforming school by using a leadership style that modelled appropriate behaviour, and which was consultative, conciliatory, inspirational and empathetic, through having a clearly articulated whole‐child‐focused educational philosophy, by building relationships and developing staff, and through displaying a range of appropriate personal qualities such as integrity, high energy, sensitivity, enthusiasm, and persistence.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a multiple‐perspective, observational case study that included individual and group interviews with the principal, staff, parents and students, and involved shadowing the principal for a total of three days.
Findings
The four themes found in the original study remained important. In addition, the leadership of the assistant principal, and increasingly that of teachers working in teams, were important for success. During the study it became obvious that to move the school from a good school to a great school would likely require a different approach to leadership, changes to school direction, and new improvement strategies. The principal indicated that she was not able to do this and it was time for a new principal to take on this challenge.
Originality/value
This is part of a larger study that is revisiting case studies of successful principals to explore sustainability of successful school leadership and successful schools.
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Rose Ylimaki and Stephen Jacobson
The aim of this paper is to utilize successful leadership practices drawn from seven nations to improve leadership preparation.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to utilize successful leadership practices drawn from seven nations to improve leadership preparation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a case study approach to gain a contextualized understanding of successful leadership across seven nations. Data sources primarily featured interviews with principals, teachers, staff members, parents, and students. Cases were analyzed within and then across nations with regards to organizational learning (OL), instructional leadership (IL), and culturally responsive practices (CRP).
Findings
The cross‐national analysis of successful leaders indicated emerging policy trends, demographic changes, similarities and differences among leaders, and recommendations for leadership preparation.
Originality/value
This paper draws from successful practices in OL, IL and CRP in seven nations to make recommendations for improving leadership preparation.
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The intent of this chapter is to discuss women managers as change agents in higher education. It focuses women’s increased access to senior academic management positions in…
Abstract
Purpose
The intent of this chapter is to discuss women managers as change agents in higher education. It focuses women’s increased access to senior academic management positions in Swedish higher education and investigates to what extent this increase is accompanied by changes to a masculine management norm.
Methodology/approach
The chapter draws on a study that involved qualitative interviews with 22 women in senior management positions in 10 Swedish higher education institutions.
Findings
The analysis highlights how women managers become agents of change by challenging a masculine management norm in a work setting where men have dominated management positions. The women challenged the masculine management norm by their mere presence as women but also by adopting a different management style. It also illustrates the multiple aspects of women’s potential to take on the role as change agent.
Social implications
The results could benefit the development of gender equality strategies and the making of structural changes in organizations dominated by a masculine managerial norm.
Originality/value of the chapter
The study is based on unique empirical material. The interviewees are women pioneers in the Swedish Higher Education Sector, contributing to the demographic feminization of senior academic management positions and the organizational restructuring.
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In the months leading up to, and during, the 2021 legislative session – the most dangerous for trans athletes in the history of the United States – 1,224 news articles, public…
Abstract
In the months leading up to, and during, the 2021 legislative session – the most dangerous for trans athletes in the history of the United States – 1,224 news articles, public statements and opinion pieces were published through online sources about trans people having access to sport. Conducting a textual analysis of those mediated articles, we conclude that trans athletes are being used by conservative political forces to instigate a social, moral panic. We identified three primary framings being used to instil a moral panic in articles published between 1 December 2020, and 1 June 2021, inflaming the debate over trans athletes. First, trans athletes have been positioned as spectres haunting the future of sport. Second, narratives of fear frame trans women as psychologically malevolent. Finally, conservative politicians are creating a moral panic to paint themselves as protectors of cisgender girls in sport. We conclude by describing the ways fears about trans athletes are being politicized by larger conservative forces that may have especially harmful ramifications for both trans athletes and cisgender women athletes.
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While transgender people have had some success in gaining recognition and human rights in the collection of nations known colloquially as ‘the West’, a well-financed reactionary…
Abstract
While transgender people have had some success in gaining recognition and human rights in the collection of nations known colloquially as ‘the West’, a well-financed reactionary movement is attempting to roll back these gains. A constellation of white supremacist, conservative, and heteropatriarchal organizations and movements are in collusion with so-called ‘gender critical feminists’ to resist feminist and gender-inclusive challenges to traditional gender and sexual hierarchies by targeting trans girls and women – more so than trans boys, trans men and non-binary people – for surveillance and exclusion (Sharrow, 2021a, 2021b). In the past several years, bills designed to delegitimize and exclude trans people in various ways have been introduced in many US state legislatures. Within this larger anti-trans campaign, bills designed specifically to block trans girls and women from participating in ‘female’ sport have been signed into law in 11 US states to date and proposed in many others. It is no accident that organized sport is a site for contesting the inclusion of transgender people and that transgender girls and women are the primary targets of these campaigns. Debates about criteria for female eligibility and a succession of pseudo-scientific forms of ‘sex testing’ in elite levels of sport highlight both the ideological nature of the two-sex system and the intense material and cultural investment in maintaining its façade. In this chapter, I mobilize moral panic theory to focus specifically on anti-trans campaigns in the United States aimed at preventing trans girls and women from participating in ‘female’ sport as evidence of a testosterone panic.
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Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these…
Abstract
Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these shortages are very real and quite severe.
Victoria Magrath and Helen McCormick
Literature concerning branding elements is vast yet sporadic. Whilst many academics focus on one or a number of branding design elements, none have yet designed a holistic…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature concerning branding elements is vast yet sporadic. Whilst many academics focus on one or a number of branding design elements, none have yet designed a holistic framework to demonstrate the variety of alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to identify the branding design elements within online fashion web sites and propose how they may be utilised within the design of mobile applications. An academic or practitioner must outline a taxonomy of branding elements before they can begin to empirically test their effects. It cannot be assumed that the online consumer is the same as the mobile consumer, and therefore research into how to design successful mobile fashion applications is essential.
Design/methodology/approach
Branding design elements are extracted from branding literature and described in the context of online and mobile utilisation. The elements are demonstrated within a holistic framework of m‐branding design elements presented for both commercial and academic appreciation. Research implications and future research avenues are additionally explored.
Findings
The paper identifies 11 m‐branding design elements classified within four key categories relating to their purpose and consistency to the brand identity.
Originality/value
Literature concerning the design of fashion mobile applications is scarce. With expectations of smart phone figures reaching 1.7 billion by 2013, it is the most lucrative time to be researching how the design of the mobile application might affect the behaviours of the mobile consumer. This paper is a first step in providing information as to the m‐branding elements available for utilisation within a fashion brand's mobile strategy.
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Jeff Gold, Helen Rodgers and Vikki Smith
Professional work is facing significant forces for change which, as suggested by futurists, threaten the dominance of professionals in our lives. The paper examines the extent to…
Abstract
Professional work is facing significant forces for change which, as suggested by futurists, threaten the dominance of professionals in our lives. The paper examines the extent to which professional associations in the UK are responding to changes and preparing their members for the future. The nature of professional power and status is explored before an analysis of findings is presented. It is argued that while many professional associations have begun discussions about their plans for the future, a more purposeful and strategic approach is required, based on a re‐view of their status as learned societies.