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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Michèle J. Schmidt

The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that leadership preparation programmes in the new millennium should be required to train school leaders emotionally as well as…

2032

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that leadership preparation programmes in the new millennium should be required to train school leaders emotionally as well as cognitively. A number of scholars have stressed that leaders are increasingly working within roles that are politically sensitive, conflicted and complex, resulting in role anxiety, emotional stress, and professional burnout. Principals and vice‐principals are frustrated because they are being forced to manage the marketplace, curriculum change, and governance factors with an increased emphasis on accountability, marketability, and globalisation, often at the expense of their primary role as educators.

Design/methodology/approach

Such a discussion is framed within a sociological perspective of emotions and presents the importance of acknowledging the primacy of school leaders' emotions in leadership preparation programs.

Findings

Sociological aspects of emotions are examined within a context of the globalisation, marketisation, and accountability confronting Western education and their implications for extant leadership preparation programs; the latent influences of these broader issues; and, more specifically, their effect on the emotions of leaders within a context unique to Western Canada. Recommendations for what apotropaic the role of leadership preparation programmes should play in shielding leaders from being overwhelmed from within a changing educational landscape are also discussed.

Originality/value

An examination of the emotions of school leaders and the importance of acknowledging their emotions within preparation programmes remains an understudied topic in the field of education.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Eugenie A. Samier and Michele Schmidt

929

Abstract

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Janice Wallace

The purpose of this paper is to argue that emotions characterise organisations and, therefore, emotional labour and performance is central to the work of school administration…

1384

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that emotions characterise organisations and, therefore, emotional labour and performance is central to the work of school administration. Thus, the study of emotions needs careful attention in educational administration programmes. The author also considers whether school leadership preparation programmes in Canada and elsewhere provide theoretical knowledge to support this. Finally, the author posits three theoretical perspectives on emotion in administrative work and organisational settings, including education, that might be included in school leadership courses to better support principals in the emotional work that is core to their effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

The author draws on two research studies to inform the analysis offered: one on the effects of restructuring on the work of school administrators and the other a consideration of principal preparation programmes in Canada. Both employ qualitative methods, including document searches. A broad literature review in relation to the research focus is also offered.

Findings

The paper finds that principals talk a great deal about the emotional aspects of their work yet there is no explicit exploration of theories of emotion in principal preparation programmes. The author provides brief examples of the efficacy of psychoanalytic, socio‐cultural, and feminist post‐structural analysis of emotional labour as useful for emotional praxis in administrative work.

Originality/value

The analysis offered will be useful in reviewing principal preparation programmes with regard to their effectiveness in addressing central concerns of emotional praxis in the work of school administrators.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Carol E. Harris

The purpose of this end piece, framed in aesthetic and critical theory, is to review the author's own approach with graduate students regarding the omnipresence and significance…

666

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this end piece, framed in aesthetic and critical theory, is to review the author's own approach with graduate students regarding the omnipresence and significance of emotion in organizational leadership, and to comment on the contributions to emotional theory found in this volume of the Journal of Educational Administration. The objective in the author's own research is to assist students, through aesthetic awareness, in moving beyond “one‐dimensional” thinking and the “iron cages” of organizational experience.

Design/methodology/approach

As personal affect and perspectives of meaning were of primary importance in the author's research, she employed participatory action research methods. Qualitative data were drawn from students over a ten‐year period as they responded to a question about connections between aesthetic presentations – given by their colleagues as short introductions to each class – and organizational life as they experienced it personally and theoretically.

Findings

Aesthetics, understood not only as appreciation, but also as action, brings to students the illuminating power of multiple forms of expression. Through expression, that is, students named feeling, affect, and begin to understand the nature of emotion. The arts provide ways of expression apart from, and including, the spoken word.

Originality/value

The arts, and an understanding of aesthetics, opens a rarely travelled route whereupon students may engage in organizational theory as a humane science.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Michalinos Zembylas

The paper seeks to examine the potential implications for leadership preparation programs of the intersection between emotions and leadership for social justice.

2582

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to examine the potential implications for leadership preparation programs of the intersection between emotions and leadership for social justice.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology followed was grounded in an ethnographic case study of a Greek‐Cypriot principal who struggled to transform his elementary school into a community that truly included students from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Findings

The findings of the case study highlight: the vision and practices of leadership for social justice; the ambivalent emotions of social justice leadership; and strategies for coping with the personal and structural dimensions of social justice leadership.

Practical implications

The practical implications are discussed in relation to the emotional knowledge and skills that are needed for preparing social justice leaders to navigate emotionally through existing school structures and to cultivate critical emotional reflexivity about the changes that are needed to school discourses and practices so that justice and equity are placed at the center of school leadership.

Originality/value

The paper offers insights into the emotional aspects of leadership for social justice, focusing on the implications for leadership preparation programs.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 18 July 2008

Michèle Schmidt, Marisa Castellano, Athena Tapales, Sam Stringfield and James R. Stone

This chapter examines one vocational high school's response to a state exit exam. Many states now require high school students to pass an exit exam before graduating, a key…

Abstract

This chapter examines one vocational high school's response to a state exit exam. Many states now require high school students to pass an exit exam before graduating, a key element of standards-based accountability reforms. Little is known about how educators and students inside vocational schools respond to these exams which typically emphasize literacy and academic skills. We examine how one such school attempted to respond to demands linked to the exit exam and the state's labeling the school as underperforming. While teachers reported support for state intervention and placing stronger demands on the school, one remedy involved becoming more selective in terms of new students admitted. As a result, tensions arose between academic subject and vocational teachers. Deep frustrations were voiced by several teachers and students about whether preparation was sufficient to ensure a reasonable pass rate. We employ a critical public policy framework to illuminate how this policy shock spurred positive action while penalizing students for years of insufficient preparation in the public schools.

Details

Strong States, Weak Schools: The Benefits and Dilemmas of Centralized Accountability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84663-910-4

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Eugenie A. Samier and Terryl Atkins

The paper seeks to examine the problem of destructive narcissism as an aspect of the emotional dimension of educational administration. Positions of power and influence provide…

1865

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to examine the problem of destructive narcissism as an aspect of the emotional dimension of educational administration. Positions of power and influence provide motive and opportunity for the damaging character of this personality disorder to negatively affect the work life of colleagues and sabotage organizational effectiveness, ranging in degree from mild annoyance to extreme disabling.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper presents a model of narcissism composed of the typical profile and organisational expression in educational settings, drawing on narcissism theory. This includes the narcissist's illegitimate sense of entitlement, inappropriate need for admiration and attention, lack of empathy, and projection of negative traits onto others that affect the politics and culture of schools and universities, including social interaction and work styles, that produces an objectified use of people.

Findings

Four aspects of graduate professional programs are examined for the effects of destructive narcissistic pattern – student recruitment, curriculum, narcissistic professors, and research activities – and strategies recommended for dealing with this problem.

Originality/value

The problem of narcissism in educational administration and leadership professional programmes is not addressed in the field.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Cheryl L. Bolton and Fenwick W. English

The purpose of this paper is to de‐construct the traditional bifurcation of logic and emotion in the preparation of educational leaders which, following regnant business planning…

1183

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to de‐construct the traditional bifurcation of logic and emotion in the preparation of educational leaders which, following regnant business planning and management models anchored in economics, focuses almost exclusively on social science methodology and the tenets of normative decision theory in formal university based‐preparation programmes in the UK and the USA. This dominant approach has many drawbacks and does not reflect how educational leaders actually engage in decision making.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a conceptual/logical analysis of the apparent weaknesses in traditional preparatory curricula as well as a report of preliminary qualitative research derived from a non‐probability, convenience sample of 13 interviews in the UK and the USA of middle‐level managers in institutions of higher education.

Findings

The major findings lie in the development of an initial schematic that challenges the dominant binary in considered decisions in educational leadership. The binary regarding the separation of logic and emotion simply does not exist as emotion is always a factor in decision making. The schematic proposes a way to make emotion an inclusive part of considering decision making.

Practical implications

Traditional notions of effective decision making should be revised to include how decision makers come to understand the role their own emotions play in rendering educational decisions on the job, and university providers should begin to revamp courses and curricula which more accurately portray them.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is in the analysis of decision making which suggests that the role of emotion is in fact, logical and rational, as opposed to non‐rational in educational decision‐making contexts. The value of this position is that it restores to decision‐making preparation a more “real world” perspective which is often not present when so‐called non‐rational variables are factored out in problem‐solving training in university preparation programmes.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Jill Blackmore

This paper argues that because leadership is a relational practice and leaders are gendered and racialised, in socially diverse schools and societies, leader preparation around…

3576

Abstract

Purpose

This paper argues that because leadership is a relational practice and leaders are gendered and racialised, in socially diverse schools and societies, leader preparation around difference is potentially emotionally confronting to leaders' professional and personal identities.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on critical race and feminist theoretical perspectives to undertake a review and analysis of current approaches to professional development.

Findings

The paper concludes that because there is significant agreement now that leadership is considered to be emotional management work, then leadership learning, if it seeks to change practice, is also emotionally laden. The paper concludes that to develop more reflexive leaders, professional learning should begin with scrutiny of the self as gendered and racialised to consider what that means for “the Other” in terms of leadership in culturally diverse communities and schools.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is context specific, largely drawing on Australian data with reference to indigeneity. This is consistent with its theoretical position that leadership is relational and situated.

Practical implications

The paper identifies possible strategies that could be undertaken in professional learning forums that address issues of difference.

Originality/value

While there are significant issues around professional learning to develop pedagogical practices that address student diversity, there is less theorising around leadership diversity and what that might mean in terms of professional development of leaders.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 48 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 30 November 2023

Cameron Hauseman

School-level leaders should not be expected to be mired in emotional turmoil and sacrifice their own health, happiness and well-being to do their jobs effectively. While the…

Abstract

School-level leaders should not be expected to be mired in emotional turmoil and sacrifice their own health, happiness and well-being to do their jobs effectively. While the emotional aspects of school-level leadership have continued to evolve and become increasingly complex since the turn of the twenty-first century, the supports available to these individuals remain outdated, ineffective, and moribund. If mentoring, anonymous telephone support lines and other ‘old school’ approaches for supporting school leaders were still effective, they would not be struggling to deal with the emotional aspects of their work and workload. Further, there is a need to provide ‘just-in-time’ supports that are available to school-level leaders when concerns arise. Absent structural changes, isolated and individualized approaches to self-care cannot mitigate the challenges principals face or the physical, mental and emotional toll associated with their work and workload. Communal strategies and policy levers are recommended in an effort to go beyond mindfulness and other (potentially) individualistic and neoliberal approaches to self-care. This chapter also explores how principal preparation programmes and other formal professional learning opportunities are an untapped resource in terms of strengthening school-level leaders' emotional regulation capacity and building a general appreciation for the emotional aspects of school-level leadership.

Details

The Emotional Life of School-Level Leaders
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-137-0

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