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1 – 10 of 35Amit Avigur-Eshel and Izhak Berkovich
Scholars have identified various uses of Facebook by activists and social movements in political activism and beyond. They overlooked, however, the possibility that social…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars have identified various uses of Facebook by activists and social movements in political activism and beyond. They overlooked, however, the possibility that social movements may take advantage of certain capabilities provided by social media platforms, while neglecting others, thereby creating differences in patterns of use between movements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these differences and to assess the role of the lived experience of activists and supporters in shaping them.
Design/methodology/approach
This study compared two protests in Israel with respect to activists’ use of social media, the class profile of participants and the leadership’s demands and their resonance among various social groups. Each case was analyzed by combining thematic and quantitative analysis of online data from Facebook pages and of offline data from various sources.
Findings
The two protests exhibited distinctively different patterns of use of the capabilities provided by Facebook. These differences are associated with the lived experience of protest participants and of the individuals the movement leadership sought to mobilize.
Originality/value
This study is the first to show that successful public policy protests can exhibit distinctive use patterns of social media for political activism. It also identifies lived experience as an important factor in shaping these patterns.
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The practice of theory borrowing from other research fields is common in interdisciplinary and applied research. Nevertheless, educational administration researchers seldom…
Abstract
Purpose
The practice of theory borrowing from other research fields is common in interdisciplinary and applied research. Nevertheless, educational administration researchers seldom discuss this phenomenon and its complexities in depth.
Design/methodology/approach
This essay provides an overview of what has been written about the practice of theory borrowing.
Findings
After presenting the criticism on misusing theory borrowing, it outlines several recommendations to improve theory borrowing in education administration research by domesticating it through conceptual blending.
Originality/value
The purpose of this essay is to motivate educational administration scholars to reflect on the practice of theory borrowing. The guidelines offered here for promoting conceptual blending serve as a middle ground for mitigating a key problem of theory borrowing.
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Pascale Benoliel and Izhak Berkovich
Schools are complex and imperfect organizations; thus, it is not possible for school leaders to completely avoid failures. The capacity to learn from failure is essential to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Schools are complex and imperfect organizations; thus, it is not possible for school leaders to completely avoid failures. The capacity to learn from failure is essential to the effectiveness of teachers as individuals and for teams and schools. However, it is hardly practiced in most schools. The present theoretical article seeks to offer an integrative conceptual framework in which intelligent failure is conceptualized as an organizational learning process. The purpose is twofold: first, to address the question of why school faculty fails to learn from failure; second, to show how learning from intelligent failure in the school context can be framed as a resource for school improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The present theoretical article seeks to offer an integrative conceptual framework in which intelligent failure is conceptualized as an organizational learning process.
Findings
The present study draws upon the social capital theory as an overarching framework to develop a conceptual model that incorporates the learning settings and a leadership tolerant of “intelligent failure” that might enable us to identify the root causes of failure and the kinds of lessons that can be drawn from failure analysis. In the proposed conceptual model, school organizational features combine with a leadership tolerant of intelligent failures to enhance opportunities to analyze, manage and learn from intelligent failures in school settings.
Originality/value
An important lacuna in educational scholarship is that although detecting and correcting school failures is normal, investigating the root causes of these failures or pinpointing the behaviors necessary to avoid their reoccurrence is often neglected in both theory and practice. By integrating research from both non-educational and educational literature, this study may provide a new perspective for school management, since it emphasizes the reframing of intelligent failure as an organizational asset for school improvement. The present study broadens the literature on educational management and organizational learning and provides a new approach for school failures and failure management.
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Noa Harduf and Izhak Berkovich
The study aimed to explore the authority and power of kindergarten superintendents in public education to elucidate their leadership dynamics.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aimed to explore the authority and power of kindergarten superintendents in public education to elucidate their leadership dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 Israeli kindergarten teachers about the authority and power of their superintendents. Thematic analysis was used to construct a description of two overarching authority categories: formal and informal.
Findings
Within the realm of formal authority, two prevalent leadership types were discerned: bureaucratic management and management by exception. Each type incorporated distinct official strategies for influencing kindergarten teachers. Three predominant informal leadership types emerged – authoritarian, empowering and pedagogical – reflecting different unofficial approaches to influencing kindergarten teachers. The study elucidates the power base that underpins each leadership type, describing the resources superintendents use for influence and leverage.
Originality/value
The importance of the study lies in providing valuable insights into the authority and power of kindergarten superintendent leadership in a centralized public early childhood system.
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Pascale Benoliel and Izhak Berkovich
The concept of teams tends to be marginalized in the scholarly discussion of school improvement. The purpose of this paper is to argue that teams play a crucial role in promoting…
Abstract
Purpose
The concept of teams tends to be marginalized in the scholarly discussion of school improvement. The purpose of this paper is to argue that teams play a crucial role in promoting an holistic integration of school operation necessary to support school change. Specifically, the paper outlines the dynamic of effective teams at times of school improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents the concept of teams, elaborates on their central function as a “coupling mechanism,” and describes the reciprocal relations between teams and school change.
Findings
The paper emphasizes the reciprocal effects of teams and change, suggesting that teams can serve as key change agents in school restructuring processes, specifically when balancing between “coping” and “pushing” forces. Based on the model, effective team leadership and effective school leadership at times of school change are introduced. Practical implications are discussed for school leaders.
Originality/value
The integration of the concept of teams into the school improvement discourse might assist school leaders to develop processes and procedures that will enable both school teams and schools to react more effectively in times of change and restructuring.
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Izhak Berkovich and Tahani Hassan
The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the relationship between principals' perceived distributed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the relationship between principals' perceived distributed leadership and organizational learning capability in schools.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a quantitative research design and a survey methodology. Data were collected from 400 teachers in Bahrain.
Findings
The results reveal that teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation fully mediates the relationship between principals' perceived distributed leadership and organizational learning capability in schools.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on distributed leadership, organizational learning and motivation by highlighting the important mediating role of teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the relationship between principals' perceived distributed leadership and organizational learning capability. The study also has practical implications for school administrators by suggesting that distributed leadership practices can be an effective strategy for promoting organizational learning capability in schools.
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Ori Eyal, Talya R. Schwartz and Izhak Berkovich
This study aims to explore the conception and construct of ideological leadership (IL) as it relates to public organizations, such as public schools, and to validate a tool for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the conception and construct of ideological leadership (IL) as it relates to public organizations, such as public schools, and to validate a tool for its measurement in this setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 633 teachers working at 69 randomly-sampled Israeli public schools. In each school, an average of nine (SD = 2) randomly-sampled teachers completed questionnaires that measure IL, transformational leadership, organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and motivational factors. The data underwent validity and hypotheses tests.
Findings
The hypothesized presence of the personalized and socialized IL orientations among public-school principals has been confirmed. Only personalized IL predicted teachers' outcomes above and beyond transformational leadership, affecting measures of organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and controlled motivation.
Originality/value
New evidence supports the validity of this proposed measurement tool. New evidence also suggests that although ideology has been known to be a factor of charismatic leadership, IL in close public-school settings accentuates practices of control, rather than proselytizing coherent worldviews to teachers. This, in turn, may have a deleterious influence on work outcomes and outweigh the possible benefits of IL. Accordingly, it is suggested that school leaders should critically consider the desirability of embracing ideological zeal as part of their leadership tools.
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Tahani Hassan and Izhak Berkovich
This study investigated the relationship between principals' abusive leadership and teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, exploring the potential moderating effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the relationship between principals' abusive leadership and teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, exploring the potential moderating effects of the duration of the relationship and group size within educational settings.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a sample of teachers in Bahrain, using self-report measures. The data were analyzed using regression analyses.
Findings
The findings reveal a significant negative relationship between principals' abusive leadership and teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The results also show that the duration of the relationship moderates the correlation between abusive leadership and teachers' extrinsic motivation, with teachers who have been in longer relationships with their principals showing greater resistance to the detrimental effects of abusive leadership on their extrinsic motivation. Group size was found to moderate this correlation, with larger groups exhibiting stronger buffering against the negative effect of abusive leadership.
Originality/value
The findings provide valuable insights into the dynamics of abusive leadership in educational settings and the potential moderating factors that can help alleviate its detrimental effects on teachers' motivations.
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The caring leadership of principals is viewed as a professional method for utilizing emotional capital. The present study investigated the moderating relationship of caring…
Abstract
Purpose
The caring leadership of principals is viewed as a professional method for utilizing emotional capital. The present study investigated the moderating relationship of caring leadership with the associations between emotional geographies, emotional distance and school climate.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a cross-sectional survey of 305 Israeli teachers working in public schools were used to investigate a model of moderated mediation.
Findings
Caring leadership of principals moderates the association of emotional distance with school climate and is related to mediated associations between emotional geographies and school climate.
Originality/value
This is the first study to combine Hargreaves' theory of emotional geographies of schools with principals' caring leadership, providing insight on the role of school leadership in bridging fundamental gaps between key actors and treating crippling emotional dynamics.
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