{"title":"Tensions in data use for mission: academic data within holistic education","authors":"Mary F. Jones, Julie W. Dallavis","doi":"10.1108/jea-11-2023-0265","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"PurposeResearch shows data-informed leadership matters for school improvement and student achievement, but less is known about what motivates leaders’ data use toward such outcomes, particularly in the Catholic school context.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative interview study uses interview (n = 23) data from a sample of Catholic school leaders to unpack how they conceptualize data, the motivations encouraging their data use and the challenges inhibiting data routines.FindingsCatholic school leaders largely shared a narrow definition of data as quantitative, standardized achievement data, were motivated by a moral imperative to meet students’ needs and faced several common challenges, including time constraints, uncertainty in measurement, limited capacity and resources and issues of turnover at the classroom and school levels.Practical implicationsSchool leaders can assuage tension around data by broadening the scope of measures and appealing to teachers’ sense of personal responsibility and commitment to students.Originality/valueThese findings extend the research in three ways. They bring to light an important tension between data-informed practice and a whole child approach to education, highlight the possibility of motivating data use through conscience rather than compliance and provide insight into data perceptions in private schools, an understudied context in the literature.","PeriodicalId":47887,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Educational Administration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Educational Administration","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1108/jea-11-2023-0265","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
PurposeResearch shows data-informed leadership matters for school improvement and student achievement, but less is known about what motivates leaders’ data use toward such outcomes, particularly in the Catholic school context.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative interview study uses interview (n = 23) data from a sample of Catholic school leaders to unpack how they conceptualize data, the motivations encouraging their data use and the challenges inhibiting data routines.FindingsCatholic school leaders largely shared a narrow definition of data as quantitative, standardized achievement data, were motivated by a moral imperative to meet students’ needs and faced several common challenges, including time constraints, uncertainty in measurement, limited capacity and resources and issues of turnover at the classroom and school levels.Practical implicationsSchool leaders can assuage tension around data by broadening the scope of measures and appealing to teachers’ sense of personal responsibility and commitment to students.Originality/valueThese findings extend the research in three ways. They bring to light an important tension between data-informed practice and a whole child approach to education, highlight the possibility of motivating data use through conscience rather than compliance and provide insight into data perceptions in private schools, an understudied context in the literature.
期刊介绍:
■Career incentives of elementary school principals ■Leadership style of principals ■Multi-level school leadership ■Organizational processes in schools ■Policy implementation ■Teaching administrative theory ■University teachers, researchers, and students of educational administration.