{"title":"Succession planning for school principals: System control or leader agency?","authors":"T. Bush","doi":"10.1177/17411432221090727","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221090727","url":null,"abstract":"The recruitment and appointment of principals are one of the most important activities of school and system leaders. The compelling evidence (e.g. Leithwood et al., 2006, 2020) that talented leadership has a signi fi cant impact on school improvement provides empirical support for the proposition that careful preparation and selection of principals are vital if schools and their students are to thrive. The criteria used to appoint principals vary across jurisdictions but typically include teaching experience, instructional leadership knowledge and skills and notions of contextual ‘ fi t ’ . However, such educational considerations may be trumped in some settings by political or administrative imperatives (Xue and Bush, 2021).","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75044429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From the best practices of successful school leaders: Developing and validating the principal competencies inventory in South Korea","authors":"Yeseul Choi, Sanghun Lee, Hunseok Oh","doi":"10.1177/17411432221082914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221082914","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to develop and validate the Principal Competency Inventory (PCI), an instrument used to assess a principal’s leadership competencies that promote student learning in South Korea. An extensive review of prior work was conducted to understand the theoretical foundation related to school leadership and the competency construct of the PCI derived from the Behavioural Event Interview of principals. Then, the psychometric procedures used in developing and validating the PCI were followed. The significance of this study and its practical implications for the use of this new instrument was discussed. From a theoretical and practical standpoint, this study contributes to the school leadership field by describing development and validation procedures, identifying where evidence of the reliable assessment instrument is lacking, and utilising the advantage of the competency-based framework. Also, the analysis of this study provides international perspectives about school leadership practices, thus supplementing the prior Western-focused literature in this field. In addition, this study offers useful information for policymakers and principal leadership development program designers who want to assess and evaluate principal leadership competency.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Educational practice in Switzerland: Searching for diversity-engaged leadership","authors":"Cathryn Magno, Anna Becker, Marion Imboden","doi":"10.1177/17411432221086225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221086225","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the uptick in awareness of racial and other sociocultural diversity owing to recent social movements particularly in the United States but also in many countries in Europe, deep understanding of identity and bias is lacking and remedies for policy and practice inequities in the education sector remain. Steadily increasing racial and linguistic heterogeneity demands better understanding on the part of school leaders—and the larger school staff—to redress inequity and improve schooling for all students. This study utilized in-depth interviews to gather secondary school leaders’ perspectives on, and level of engagement with, diversity in Fribourg, Switzerland. Findings revealed that school leaders are, overall, inadequately prepared to tackle difficult, identity-charged conversations or to confront their own positionality and subjectivity vis-à-vis newcomer students. Recommendations are made for aspiring and current school leaders to become active by practicing <i>diversity-engaged leadership</i>.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The importance of context for leadership in education","authors":"Gabriele Lakomski, Colin W Evers","doi":"10.1177/17411432211051850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211051850","url":null,"abstract":"The doctrine of leader centrism, supported by the concept of methodological individualism, dominates contemporary accounts of leadership in education and is generally applied as the default option that explains how organizations such as schools function. We argue that methodological individualism is not defensible and that as a result, the explanatory value of leadership is an open empirical question, not a default option. Leadership, and especially problem-solving, is always exercised under a set of constraints. Making the study of these constraints the focal point for determining leadership not only requires the resources of sciences not usually employed in leadership research, but leads to a reconceptualizing how leadership ought to be studied. In this paper we identify three broad contexts that help determine the constraint sets that define problems and their solutions. A defensible theory of educational leadership, we argue, must incorporate context as sets of constraints and develop empirical procedures to investigate context. Only after investigation is it possible to determine who or what the unit of leadership was, or whether leadership occurred at all. There are no default options.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Montecinos, S. Galdames, J. Flessa, J. P. Valenzuela
{"title":"Pathways to the school principalship: An international scoping review","authors":"C. Montecinos, S. Galdames, J. Flessa, J. P. Valenzuela","doi":"10.1177/17411432211065341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211065341","url":null,"abstract":"This scoping review of the international literature published over the last 50 years in educational leadership and management journals provides a thematic exploration of factors influencing pathways at the pre-entry stage of a principal’s career. Findings from a thematic analysis of 68 publications show that attention to prospective principals increased after the year 2000 and this was driven by four main concerns: underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities, principal supply and demand, the principalship as a school improvement lever, and the expansion of leadership posts in schools. Selected articles addressed three dimensions of the pathways before a person is first appointed to this post: (a) micro (individual’s agency), (b) meso (preparation of prospective principals), and (c) macro (policies shaping access to the post). Across time and countries, pathways to the principalship are resourced by individuals’ professional orientations and by contextual factors, formal pre-service preparation may be desirable but not always available or required, and policies frame a conceptualisation of the principalship that shapes the two previous dimensions. The internationalization of research on pathways to the principalship has brought to the forefront normative assumptions that should be critically challenged when considering how to recruit, develop, and support prospective school principals.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88210460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unravelling the business of educational leaders in times of uncertainty","authors":"Petros Pashiardis, Stefan Brauckmann-Sajkiewicz","doi":"10.1177/17411432211055327","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211055327","url":null,"abstract":"The main thrust of this paper is to explore factors from the business sector, which could inspire school leaders in terms of issue/problem formulation during their decision-making process. This conceptual paper examines diachronically and conceptually the issues of uncertainty, not only in terms of context and decision-making, but also having in mind leaders’ and leadership's main characteristics as well. The question remains whether concepts of uncertainty management practices from the business sector might offer insights for school principals in order to make connections between what is happening inside and outside the organization. The paper is organized around five sections dealing with the conceptual basis of the two main terms, crisis and uncertainty and how leaders in the business sector deal with these. Following, we focus on educational leaders and their ways of navigating through crisis and uncertainty and we conclude with some observations about how leaders make the best possible decisions under the circumstances. We end the paper by stressing that, perhaps, many of the leadership qualities and characteristics needed in times of “normality” are more or less similar to those needed in times of uncertainty. However, school leaders need to learn to act faster with clearer and constant communication.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88551231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leadership for equality in education: 50 years marching forward or marching on the spot?","authors":"J. Lumby, Pontso Moorosi","doi":"10.1177/17411432211064425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211064425","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how Educational Management, Administration and Leadership has embodied the values, concepts and practice of the field of educational leadership over 50 years and so played a part in challenging or sustaining inequality in education. The article explores selected key concepts, equal opportunities, diversity, and social justice, the disciplinary base and prevalent research methods underpinning work on inequality, the geographic location and characteristics of relevant published authors and the two areas which attract most attention, gender and ethnicity/race. All areas embody both a push for change and structural inhibitors that limit its extent. Omissions, silences and displacements are also examined, questioning why, for example, a focus on masculinity, white privilege, learner voice and lower status sectors of education hardly surfaces in half a century. The article concludes that despite the positive achievements of the journal in forwarding equality, there is an equality double bind whereby, like a Trojan virus, parameters limiting change are embedded in the very work that seeks to promote it. A number of positive suggestions for changes in the journal and field are made to encourage researchers and practitioners to detect and resist previous strategies of evasion and limitation.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80677045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An intellectual history of the political in the educational management, administration and leadership field","authors":"H. Gunter","doi":"10.1177/17411432211051916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211051916","url":null,"abstract":"Research and practice regarding politics within and for the educational management administration and leadership community are well established. The 50th anniversary issue of the journal educational management, administration and leadership is an opportunity to examine knowledge production where I have developed a new conceptual framework based on three approaches to ontology and epistemology in the social sciences. This framework presents positivist, interpretive and critical approaches to political relationality, and I deploy this conceptualisation in order to read and analyse field outputs. I present an account of each of these three approaches where I show the main authors, projects and knowledge claims that have raised awareness and established a conceptual and empirical database. I identify the resilience and dominance of positivist politics, but recognise the ongoing validity of interpretive and critical politics.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77419584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is educational leadership (still) worth studying? An epistemic worthiness-informed analysis","authors":"Linda Evans","doi":"10.1177/17411432211066273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432211066273","url":null,"abstract":"This article is exploratory and experimental. It starts from the premise that leadership scholarship is a site of disagreement, where mainstream claims are challenged by critical scholars. Some criticism focuses on conceptual clarity, and incorporates consideration of who should be categorised as a leader, and on what basis, and whether it is helpful to refer to ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’. The ‘new wave’ of critical leadership studies generates controversial questions relating to whether leadership exists or is in fact a myth that we have reified. The bulk of criticism directed at educational leadership challenges three mainstream knowledge claims – underpinned by what I call the causality belief, the leadership dependency belief, and the conceptual belief – and which are the focus of this article's analysis. While criticism of these knowledge claims is well-rehearsed, the article breaks new ground by analysing them through an epistemic justification lens to address the question: is educational leadership (still) worth studying? Represented by these three component beliefs, the mainstream educational leadership scholarship belief system is analysed within a frame derived from the philosophy of science, and draws on BonJour's coherentist theory of epistemic justification to apply a more structured assessment than has hitherto been achieved by critical scholarship.","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83372662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reviewing fifty years of EMAL scholarship: Longitudinal perspectives on the journal and the field of educational leadership and management","authors":"T. Bush","doi":"10.1177/17411432221077767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432221077767","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to this very special 50th Anniversary edition of EMAL. The issue features longitudinal overview papers on several significant aspects of educational leadership, by influential authors who play a major part in the development of the journal, and of the field of educational management, administration, and leadership. All lead authors are members of the UK or International Editorial Boards, and thus contribute strongly to the strategic direction of the journal. As noted in my previous editorial, the first edition of the journal was published in June 1972, with the title of Educational Administration. Initially, there were only two issues per volume, but this increased to three each year in the 1980s and to four from 1989. This continued until 2009, when the current pattern of six editions of each volume was introduced, with up to 54 articles published each year. This expansion reflects the growing importance of the field as an arena for study and practice. The increase in the size of each volume is also a response to author demand to publish in the journal, with more than 600 submissions in both 2020 and 2021. A related development is the internationalisation of the journal, with submissions from 80 countries in the past year (see Table 1). Table 1 shows the international spread of submissions to the journal, illustrating the global significance of the field, amid increasing recognition of the importance of effective leadership for school improvement and student learning. Knowledge production is one measure of the priority given to school leadership in each jurisdiction. The widespread interest in EMAL is in sharp contrast to the early years of the journal when all contributors were British. The journal quickly became a forum for debates about the nature of educational administration. A prominent example came in 1976, when Educational Administration featured a symposium entitled ‘Barr Greenfield and Organisational Theory: A Symposium’. Greenfield challenged 1970s conventional wisdom about organisations, arguing that they have no meaning beyond that of the people who work in, or relate to, schools or other educational institutions. He rejected the widespread assumption that organisations exist, have goals, and can act independently from the people who inhabit them. Greenfield’s critique led to an extended debate, played out in the journal and elsewhere, and remains important deep into the 21st century. My book on Theories of Educational Leadership and Management (Bush, 2020), now in its fifth edition, features his work extensively in the chapter on subjective models. The debate includes contemporary issues, such as vision and mission, and whether such constructs Editorial","PeriodicalId":47885,"journal":{"name":"Educational Management Administration & Leadership","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78185331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}