International Journal of Educational Management最新文献

Purpose

In view of the expanding global interest in leadership learning and development programmes for centre leaders, this study aims to investigate how an early childhood education leadership programme can enhance Norwegian centre leaders’ learning and development as a network professional learning community (PLC) by way of Schön’s reflective model, the hall of mirrors.

Design/methodology/approach

In this qualitative case study, we interviewed four centre leaders, the owner of the centres and a facilitator and/or coach from the local work and competence centre for inclusive work who was leading the leadership programme.

Findings

The findings demonstrate three aspects of the hall of mirrors that enhanced the centre leaders as a network PLC: engaging in collective inquiry towards shared visions and values, enhancing professionalism through distributed leadership and cultivating a trusting learning climate.

Research limitations/implications

Data were collected in a single smaller municipality in Norway and therefore may not be generalisable to other areas.

Practical and social implications

The findings can be used to further discuss how early childhood education and care (ECEC) leadership development programmes can be employed to establish and sustain professional leadership teams and professional learning communities.

Originality/value

As there are parallels between the leadership programme and the workplace and the programme promoted a network PLC, this study contributes to existing knowledge by offering a transformative reflective model for leadership learning and change through the reconceptualisation of the hall of mirrors.

Purpose

Education is one among the major service sectors which is continuously growing and contributing significantly to a country’s economy. Students’ positive feedback through word-of-mouth (WOM) is one of the key influences attracting new admissions thereby providing competitive advantage for a university to sustain. There are numerous antecedents identified and implemented to enhance positive WOM and increase intakes in higher education however the students’ choice is still being unpredicted. This study attempts to develop a framework that exemplifies the links between service quality (SQ), relational trust (RT) and students' attitudes toward institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

A correlational research design was adopted with a non-probability convenience sampling technique, the data were collected from students in public and private higher education institutions (HEIs) across India. Multivariate regression was the statistical tool used to estimate the path model. SmartPLS 3.0 software performing structural equation modelling (SEM) helped in determining the coefficient values.

Findings

The result of the study indicated the magnitude and directional relationship between SQ and trust and justified that they are the key determinants of building a positive attitude towards the institution, enhancing the intention to recommend it among peer groups.

Research limitations/implications

Academic institutions and their public relations departments must prioritize reducing SQ gaps and create strategies to build strong RT among all institution stakeholders to gain a competitive advantage. Socially, this study aims in assisting universities in establishing high-quality education.

Originality/value

The empirical estimation of the relationships between trust, attitude, quality and intention provides the reasons for incorporating and building positive WOM among students’ benefit institutions over the long run.

Purpose

The present study was intended to investigate the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy, sentiments and concerns toward disability and burnout in pre-service special education teachers.

Design/methodology/approach

Three hundred seventy-two special education teachers participated in the study. Participants were administered the following self-reports: Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices, Sentiments and Concerns Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to examine the study’s hypotheses.

Findings

SEM analysis showed the role of teachers’ concerns as a mediator for teacher efficacy in inclusive practices for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Furthermore, the findings showed a significant association between teacher efficacy in inclusive practices, sentiments and concerns and each dimension of burnout. In addition, significant relations between teachers’ concerns, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were clear.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study suggest the importance of promoting special education teachers’ self-efficacy to change negative attitudes and prevent burnout.

Originality/value

This study extends the current literature on special education teachers and provides new information on the relationship between self-efficacy, attitudes and burnout.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the implementation of flexible working arrangements and satisfaction, family work conflicts and the performance of educators. The potential benefits of FWA implementation for life balance highlight the importance of this research. The study’s results can be used as study material to make policies on implementing FWA for educators.

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses the survey method and conducts interviews with educators who are selected and willing to be interviewed. The research sample was taken by the non-probability sampling method from 245 participants. The analysis used is PLS-SEM.

Findings

The findings indicated that flexible working arrangements had no impact on job satisfaction. The variable that has the greatest influence on determining the performance of educators is job satisfaction.

Originality/value

The study provides information about the application of flexible working arrangements, provides flexibility for educators to change work schedules, do work from anywhere, regulate work patterns and regulate work duration. This study is unique as it focuses more on flexible work arrangements related to remote work arrangements for educators, as the authors understand that no previous study was conducted.

Purpose

The current study seeks first to examine the prediction of school functioning in crises during the COVID-19 pandemic by school principals’ self-efficacy; second, to explore the differences in all dimensions of self-efficacy and school functioning during crises in Arab and Jewish schools in Israel and third, to determine which of school principals’ self-efficacy dimensions best predicted school functioning during the COVID-19 crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were aggregated at the school level for structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using AMOS analysis of 103 middle schools across Israel, 53 from Jewish and 50 from Arab society. Participants included 103 school principals (who answered the school principals’ self-efficacy questionnaire) and 1,031 teachers who answered the school functioning during crises questionnaire (477 Jewish teachers and 554 Arab teachers).

Findings

The findings showed that the principals’ self-efficacy positively predicted school functioning during the crisis. Among the five self-efficacy dimensions (general management efficacy, leadership efficacy, human relations efficacy, efficacy in managing external relations and pedagogical management efficacy), significant differences were found only in “external relations efficacy,” which was higher for “Arab” school principals; the only dimension that predicted school functioning during crises in both societies was “human relations efficacy.”

Originality/value

The current results emphasize the importance of principals’ self-efficacy in general and specifically caring leadership practices “human relations efficacy” in their relations with the school staff, the students and the parents for effective school coping and functioning during crises in two societies in Israel: Arab and Jewish. Further, no previous studies have explored this correlation.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to reveal the different ways in which a group of teachers understand the anger they feel toward the school principals with whom they interact.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study was designed and conducted as a phenomenography. In phenomenographic research, the number of different ways in which participants understand a particular phenomenon is revealed. The data from semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers who differed in terms of school level, gender and age were analyzed according to the phenomenographic tradition.

Findings

The analysis revealed that although the participants had eight different understandings of the anger in question, all participants had an understanding that was described as “An emotion arising from not being treated with the respect we deserve.”

Practical implications

The source of anger for the participating teachers was the behavior of their principals, which made them feel that they were not considered respectable and valuable. Incorporating this insight into the training of school leaders may lead to useful outcomes in improving the quality of interactions between principals and teachers.

Originality/value

As one of the few examples of phenomenographic research in educational management, the present study contributes to providing a solid foundation for exploring the anger that teachers feel toward their principals by showing how and in what ways participating teachers may understand this feeling.

Purpose

Student engagement evaluation is considered to be connected to many aspects of the management of higher education, but outside Western higher education, research and evaluation on student engagement and experiences has been limited so far. Our study focuses on the underexplored aspects of Palestinian higher education with the aim of gaining an actionable understanding from the overall student engagement situation to enhance the management and development of local teaching and learning practices.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitatively oriented, sequential mixed-methods design was adopted. With the applied and validated engagement measurement we collected 946 engagement questionnaire responses from Palestinian university students. Quantitative data were analysed using structural equation modelling, K-means cluster analysis and chi-squared tests. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis was employed for the open answers.

Findings

With the three validated student engagement dimensions, the applied cluster analysis allowed three different engagement profile groups to be distinguished: strongly, moderately and loosely engaged. In the subsequent statistical and qualitative thematic analyses, these three engagement clusters differ in the degree to which they had a clear vision of a future profession or in their academic engagement with their studies. Moreover, qualitative analysis brought up many shared concerns regarding theoretically oriented studies and uncertain professional and career prospects in the Palestinian higher education context.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first attempts to develop tools for student engagement management in Palestinian higher education. The study findings are particularly significant for developing micro- and meso-level management practices in Palestinian higher education institutions.

Purpose

Pedagogical leadership (PL) has been regarded as the best leadership style in the education sector. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a pedagogical leadership scale (PLS).

Design/methodology/approach

Two distinct approaches (inductive and deductive) were utilized. First, a review of the literature was conducted, and then qualitative data were collected through interviews, and their responses were categorized into 40 items. These items were thematized using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) by involving 300 participants. To examine the fitness of the scale, the researchers conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 470 participants.

Findings

EFA discovered a total variance of 64.766% for four factors. In CFA, RMSEA, NFI, RFI, NNFI, CFI, GFI and AGFI values were accepted. The highest correlation was found among constructs of PL. Path analysis revealed PL affected social, professional, intellectual and academic capitals. The correlations between the PLS and psychological empowerment demonstrated the theoretically predicted relationships with these variables. Thus, with the initial evidence of a valid and reliable PLS, a pool of 32 items under 4 factors (social, academic, professional and intellectual capital) were developed.

Originality/value

Despite the management of childhood education requiring the practice of PL, it is underexplored in childhood schools, particularly to our knowledge, no studies have been conducted to develop and confirm the PLS in Ethiopia.

Purpose

This article aims at presenting the concept of the Brazilian university’s third mission and its relevance for predicting teaching behavior. To that end, this article presents a conceptual model of that third mission in Brazil and how its relationship with stakeholders was built.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual article. The authors analyze the third mission and the Brazilian educational model to suggest predicting teaching behavior as a possibility to optimize the third mission in higher education institutions.

Findings

The Brazilian third mission is related to civilian participation, John Dewey’s democratic education management, Paulo Freire’s transformative education, Triple-Helix and the knowledge ecology. This association enables insight into the relevance of the third mission and into the need for professors’ participation.

Practical implications

Revealing the factors of behavior prediction to perform the third mission is the first mission of the theory of planned behavior. Based on these data, the theory suggests interventions without changing teaching behavior. This possibility might increase the adherence of the professor to activities related to the third mission.

Originality/value

This article contributes to studies on the development of the third mission and to the sharing of a conceptual model that is partially different from the European model, thus promoting broader results for stakeholders. The indications made here can lead to empirical studies to further approximate the higher education institutions and the various sectors of society. Moreover, there is room for investigations that aim at a conceptual convergence at the international level for the third mission, as it happens for teaching and researching.

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its effects on education in general, has influenced the leadership landscape of school principals, which may have necessitated adaptations and transitions in their leadership orientation. To better comprehend any variations in the leadership orientation of school principals in response to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines leadership orientation in both the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

Design/methodology/approach

In this quantitative research, the authors collected data from 297 school principals in the Balochistan province of Pakistan using the leadership orientation survey (LOS) in a quantitative research approach.

Findings

The results indicated that principals’ leadership orientation underwent an observable transition before and after the pandemic. Principals’ preferred leadership orientation notably changed from solely political before the pandemic to a combination of highly political and symbolic after the pandemic.

Research limitations/implications

Using a survey, the study investigated the transition in school principals’ leadership orientation before and after the pandemic. However, the results do not explain what caused the transition in principals’ leadership orientation, which is the key limitation of this study. Future research within a qualitative approach can study the factors associated with changes in principles’ leadership frames.

Practical implications

The overall findings of the study have implications for scholars, policymakers and educational leaders to reexamine and gain a deeper understanding of the leadership roles of principals in the post-pandemic age. This is because principals now operate in a distinct context characterized by new difficulties and opportunities compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Originality/value

This is an original study that examined the transition of school principals’ leadership orientation before and after the pandemic. The body of literature related to the transition between pre- and post-pandemic is limited both in Pakistan and the rest of the world. This study illuminates the literature in this regard.