Brent Davies and Linda Ellison
This article builds on an earlier one which we published in this journal, in which we proposed a new model for school planning. In proposing the new model, we recognised that it…
Abstract
This article builds on an earlier one which we published in this journal, in which we proposed a new model for school planning. In proposing the new model, we recognised that it provided a framework for school planning but that it did not discuss the process of building a plan for the school’s future. Here we explain how the new model has developed and how we now propose to link it to important aspects of organisational learning such as the development of the school’s core purpose and values. This linkage, and the ongoing involvement of a range of stakeholders, should help to ensure that the school learns strategically so that plans are effective and there is no gap between strategy and implementation.
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Brent Davies and Linda Ellison
Focuses on school staff as part of the authors’ work involving surveys of pupils, parents and staff in a range of school planning and improvement strategies. Believes there is a…
Abstract
Focuses on school staff as part of the authors’ work involving surveys of pupils, parents and staff in a range of school planning and improvement strategies. Believes there is a danger that assumptions will be made about what staff think of the school. It is important to have mechanisms to gather genuine views rather than making such assumptions. An honest view of the staff’s perceptions of a school will provide significant information for school improvement. The authors worked with the schools and used a questionnaire approach. Questions were designed to be answered quite quickly but to cover a range of areas in‐depth. The 30 questions were randomized in the questionnaire but regrouped into categories for analysis. Discusses process issues such as the implementation of the survey and the follow‐up required in the school in terms of school planning and improvement.
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Brent Davies and Linda Ellison
The English education system is going through an era of radicalchange which has been initiated by central government. A major thrust ofthis change focuses on local management of…
Abstract
The English education system is going through an era of radical change which has been initiated by central government. A major thrust of this change focuses on local management of schools (LMS) – the extensive delegation of financial control to the school level. The effect of this is not just a financial one because it has a radical impact on the nature of schools and of the education system as a whole. This financial change has been paralleled by other changes such as the introduction of a national curriculum and open enrolment. Sets the major financial changes in context. Explains the structure of finance in the English education system and outlines central government′s increasing interest in delegated school finance (school site management), which culminated in the 1988 Education Reform Act. Finally, considers the significance at school level of the LMS legislation.
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Brent Davies and Linda Ellison
School planning has developed significantly over the last ten years with the universal acceptance of school development planning formats and approaches. However, the move to…
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School planning has developed significantly over the last ten years with the universal acceptance of school development planning formats and approaches. However, the move to school‐based management and greater autonomy has increased the need for schools to take on a wider planning role and responsibility. This paper considers three models of planning. It briefly outlines the original model of school development planning that the authors articulated in 1992 but then examines the need for schools to extend their planning from short‐term school development planning to longer‐term strategic planning and, most significantly, to incorporate “futures thinking”. It then develops a new model which the authors believe should be more responsive to the needs of school planning in the future.
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Terry Creissen and Linda Ellison
There have, over the last 15 years, been many UK government initiatives aimed at improving the leadership and management of schools but there has never been any compulsion to…
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There have, over the last 15 years, been many UK government initiatives aimed at improving the leadership and management of schools but there has never been any compulsion to receive training either before or after taking up post as a headteacher (principal). Greater responsibilities at the school level have resulted in greater pressure from a wide range of sources, including government and the teaching profession, for a more coherent approach to leadership and management development for both middle managers and for headteachers. Examines the initiatives which have been introduced in the last 15 years. Then discusses the need for and the development of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) which is being trialled and piloted across England and Wales from 1996‐98.
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School leaders face many changes and challenges as they navigate their schools through complex and turbulent educational environments. Highly effective school leaders cope with…
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School leaders face many changes and challenges as they navigate their schools through complex and turbulent educational environments. Highly effective school leaders cope with complexity by building mental models or frameworks to understand the world that they face and operate in. This paper sets out a framework of six changes and six challenges for school leaders to consider as they move through the first decade of the new millennium. The paper is intended to be a means of providing a strategic discussion framework for leadership development within schools.
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The boom in online products and services is radically changing many aspects of both the economy and everyday life, and will increasingly affect individuals’ learning needs. This…
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The boom in online products and services is radically changing many aspects of both the economy and everyday life, and will increasingly affect individuals’ learning needs. This article examines how education systems see their role in the “new economy”, and the means by which they can prepare students for the new tasks, challenges and opportunities they will encounter, while still having to cope with the constraints and contradictions affecting how they operate today.
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Stuart Scheingold's path-breaking The Politics of Rights ignited scholarly interest in the political mobilization of rights. The book was a challenge to the reigning popular and…
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Stuart Scheingold's path-breaking The Politics of Rights ignited scholarly interest in the political mobilization of rights. The book was a challenge to the reigning popular and scholarly common sense regarding the supposedly self-executing nature of rights (what Scheingold called the “myth of rights”). Rights, Scheingold argued, could be resources for the pursuit of social change; but their realization in court doctrine and legislative output was not itself tantamount to meaningful social change. Thus embedded in The Politics of Rights is skepticism (or at least ambivalence) about the utility of rights politics for social movements. Scheingold was not ambivalent about the moral or normative value of rights themselves, although he did argue that the realization of rights was not by itself enough to overcome the manifold inequalities that structure modern life. The Politics of Rights, accordingly, is clear-eyed, but not cynical about rights advocacy. It is thus surprising, and keenly revealing, that Scheingold's final work – The Political Novel, which is ostensibly not about rights at all – points to mass cynicism, alienation, and the collapse of faith in governing institutions and logics as the animating elements of modern liberal democracies, including especially the United States. That rights are a vital part of the civic mythology whose collapse defines modern times suggests that the civil rights context of aspiration and struggle in which Scheingold, and nearly all of his followers (this author included), have conceived rights may be unnecessarily narrow. Rights may also be embedded, that is, in the modern condition of alienation, despair, and felt powerlessness. Inspired by Scheingold's investigation of how literature points to this modern condition of political estrangement, I offer an alternative backdrop for The Politics of Rights that is rooted in the bleak renderings of the American character found in much 1970's American popular and intellectual culture. Such a contextualization, I will argue, suggests that we envision The Political Novel as a companion piece to The Politics of Rights; together they illuminate both the mobilizing and demobilizing potential of the myth of rights.
Cathy Bailey, Glenda Cook, Linda Herman, Christine McMillan, Jo Rose, Roy Marston, Eleanor Binks and Emma Barron
The purpose of this paper is to report on a small telehealth pilot in local authority sheltered housing in NE England. This explored the training and capacity building needed to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a small telehealth pilot in local authority sheltered housing in NE England. This explored the training and capacity building needed to develop a workforce/older person, telehealth partnership and service that is integrated within existing health, social care and housing services.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study approach on the implementation and deployment of a pilot telehealth service, supporting sheltered housing tenants with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=4).
Findings
Telehealth training and capacity building, needs to develop from within the workforce/older person partnership, if a usable and acceptable telehealth service is to be developed and integrated within existing health, care and housing services. To be adaptable to changing circumstances and individual need, flexible monitoring is also required.
Practical implications
Service users and workforces, need to work together to provide flexible telehealth monitoring, that in the longer term, may improve service user, quality of life.
Originality/value
The pilot explored a workforce/older person partnership to consider how to add and implement telehealth services, into existing health and housing services.