Leading Research In Educational Administration

Leading Research in Educational Administration: A Festschrift for Wayne K. Hoy is the tenth in a series on research and theory dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis that was initiated by Wayne and Cecil G. Miskel. This tenth anniversary edition honors and celebrates the research leadership Wayne has provided in the field of educational administration through his distinguished career. The festschrift is organized around the analysis of school contexts and includes constructs Wayne and his protégés have studied and researched: climate, trust, efficacy, academic optimism, organizational citizenship, and mindfulness. It concludes with the work of colleagues on the salient contemporary issues of innovation, power, leadership succession, and several others focused on improving schools. Chapter authors all have close connections to Wayne - former students and their students, as well as colleagues and friends.

This book, the product of the task force on research co-sponsored by the American Educational Research Association Division A and the University Council on Educational Administration, sets an ambitious agenda for research in educational leadership. Prominent scholars in the field review current knowledge about leadership, frame new questions to generate important research in the field, and direct researchers and policymakers to rethink how educational administration, leadership, and policy should be understood. Covering a broad range of topics, from accountability systems and school?community relationships to the education of students from diverse backgrounds, the authors submit current research to critical scrutiny in order to develop frameworks for new research that can have a significant impact on policy and practice.

"Reading this book is like having a conversation with several great colleagues sharing their ideas and expertise. The ideas and suggestions are clear, relevant, and doable. This book is inspiring!"-Pam Newell Bradley, PrincipalIrving Elementary School, Muskogee, OKTeachers reveal how principals can empower them to perform their best!What strategies do great principals use to influence teachers, students, and classroom instruction? This best-selling book by Joseph Blase and Peggy C. Kirby, now in its third edition, provides the answers from the teachers themselves. New material in this revised edition compares the authors' original research findings with recent literature on transformational leadership, school productivity, and adult learning, as well as the ISLLC and ELCC standards. Such comparisons underscore the continued timeliness and timelessness of this teacher's-eye view of effective school leadership. The book offers strategies and related practices that allow leaders toUse the power of praise Influence others by using expectations and involvement Encourage professional autonomy Lead by standing behind Suggest rather than direct Use formal authority positivelyIdeal for experienced or aspiring school principals, this enlightening and compact resource provides invaluable perspectives on how to motivate and inspire classroom teachers.

This series is dedicated to advancing our understanding of schools through empirical study and theoretical analysis. Scholars, both young and established, are invited to publish original analyses, but we especially encourage young scholars to contribute to Theory and Research in Educational Administration. This first issue provides a mix of beginning and established scholars and a range of theoretical perspectives. Eight separate but related studies were selected for this first issue. Three of the research pieces deal with the intended and unintended consequences of policy and political initiatives in schools. Do high-stakes accountability environments threaten the potential of learning organizations? Marks and Printy grapple with that question. Not surprisingly, they anticipate the latent dysfunctional consequences of high-stakes accountability as they provide a careful analysis of urban school district responses to state policies. Well-intended initiatives produced unintended consequences that threatened the capacity for organizational learning in these schools. In a similar fashion, Jones and Malen’s findings suggest that political strategies that use insider dynamics can foster successful enactment of reforms but often at a cost of undermining efforts to implement the policy. Song and Miskel focus their analysis on national reading policy. An examination of national interests groups and policymakers suggests that an assessment of various groups’ influence is necessary if policy actors are to make sensible judgments in choosing allies and building coalitions for effective actions. Two of the papers are informed by contingency theory. Ogawa and Studer are concerned with the relationship between the school and its community. They propose that both buffering and bridging strategies enable schools to deal with parents effectively. Because schools depend on parents for resources, they bridge to parents in cooperative fashion, but because parents often pose uncertainty, schools also buffer parent influence by limiting their access. Yet, there is divergence from contingency theory because schools depend primarily on parents to provide socio-cultural rather than material resources; hence, schools often use strategies that shape rather than diminish dependence on parents. Rowan, also draws ideas from contingency theory to examine the extent to which the nature of teachers’ instructional work affects patterns of instructional management in schools. His data support the explanation that teachers who face increased task variety actively work to construct "organic" patterns of instructional management to reduce task uncertainty and to increase workplace motivation and commitment. Three papers examine teachers in schools. Rowan is intrigued by the variation in the nature of teachers’ work both in terms of task variety and task uncertainty. He finds that teachers do not see their work as many organizational theorists do, that is, as a non-routine form of work; in fact, teachers view teaching as either as a routine task or "expert task." In spite of the fact that many teachers endorsed a constructivist view of teaching, few concluded it was a non-routine task. Moreover, teachers in different disciplines have different views about both the nature of academic knowledge and desirable teaching practices. Both Goddard and Hoy and his colleagues use social cognitive theory to develop an argument of the importance of collective efficacy in positively influencing student achievement. Hoy, Smith, and Sweetland build on their earlier work to demonstrate that collective efficacy of schools is pivotal in explaining student achievement in a sample of rural schools. Goddard shows that that collective efficacy is also an important predictor of the practice of involving teachers in important school decisions. He concludes that the more we learn how school practices are related to collective efficacy, the more we will know about what school leaders

This book provides a unique map of the focus and directions of contemporary research on school leadership since 2000 in 24 countries. Each of these directions has its own particular cultural, educational and policy history. Taken together, the various chapters in the volume provide a rich and varied mosaic of what is currently known and what is yet to be discovered about the roles and practices of principals, and their contributions to the improvement of teaching and the learning and achievement of students. The particular foci and methodological emphases of the research reported illustrate the different phases in the development of educational policies and provision in each country. This collection is an important addition to existing international research that has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that the influence of school principals is second only to that of teachers in their capacity to impact students’ progress and achievement and to promote equity and social justice.

TEACHING LEADERS TO LEAD TEACHERS: EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ERA OF CONSTANT CRISIS In the 21st century, the perceived crisis in how schools educate students significantly influences the decision of teachers to move into administrative positions as well as their ability to succeed once they take on these positions. Influenced by the media, the community and the teacher’s lounge, many good educators are increasingly unwilling or simply unprepared to make the jump into school leadership and management. This book addresses some of the issues that affect school leadership by providing insights into the current state of educational administration in the hope of demystifying or dismissing some of the popular assumptions regarding what really takes place in the administration office. In doing so, this text examines topics related to the preparation and training of prospective administrators, factors that affect the process of leading in learning environments and perspectives on the state and structure of school leadership research and development.

`Researchers interested in various aspects of college leadership and management will find this book a convenient and scholarly introduction to related research in the school sector′ - Further Education Development Agency, College Research Journal `Educational management has become an important academic subject. The contributors to this volume have gauaranteed its survival as such by undertaking this review in order that they and others working in the field may take account of a range of agendas and initiatives. The outcome must be a fresh stance and a new sense of direction to enable a study of educational managment to meet the needs of teachers and their schools in the new millennium′ - Educational Research Educational Management brings together important original contributions from leading thinkers in the field. Edited by some of the key figures in educational management today, chapters examine the following key areas: Has self-management achieved the success predicted for it?; What should be the nature of professional development for educational leaders?; to what extent can education benefit by drawing from practice in business and industry?; can theory inform management practice in education?; how can research contribute to educational improvement?; how can leaders help improve classroom practice? Educational Management is one of the major outcomes of the ESRC ( Economic and Social Research Council) seminar series which aimed to redefine educational management in the light of the many developments in policy, practice, theory and research since the subject became established in the 1970s.