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Descriptors:
Principals; Educational Change; Urban Schools; Elementary Schools; Instructional Leadership; Participative Decision Making; Elementary School Teachers; Hispanic Americans; Parents; Low Income Groups; Social Capital; Empowerment; Capacity Building; Leadership Role; Role Conflict; Coping; Community Organizations; Parent School Relationship; Educational Cooperation; Interviews; Observation

Abstract:
Purpose: Educational leadership is key to addressing the persistent inequities in low-income urban schools, but most principals struggle to work with parents and communities around those schools to create socially just learning environments. This article describes the conditions and experiences that enabled principals to share leadership with teachers and low-income Latino parents to improve student learning. Methods: This study used interviews, observations, and documents to examine the perceptions and experiences of the principals of three small autonomous schools initiated by a community organizing group in California. Data analysis was conducted in iterative phases using shared leadership, social capital, and role theories as lenses to identify themes, triangulate across data sources, and examine alternative hypotheses. Findings: Findings illuminate how a design team process initiated principals into a model of shared leadership with teachers and empowered parents that focused on deep relationships and capacity building. Principals enacted this model of the "principal as organizer" in the newly-opened schools, but they struggled to navigate conflicting leadership role expectations from district administration. Implications: Organizing approaches to education reform can cultivate shared leadership in principals and the capacity to partner with empowered, low-income Latino parents. District expectations and principals' broader social networks may be critical in navigating and sustaining such leadership. Further research on districts that collaborate with community organizing groups may provide promising insights into the development of a new generation of educational leaders. (Contains 1 table and 9 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Program Effectiveness; Performance Based Assessment; Organizational Change; Leadership; Models; Program Implementation; Power Structure; Participative Decision Making; Holistic Approach

Abstract:
This article explores leadership practice and change as evidenced in multiple data sources gathered during a self-study implementation of a teaching performance assessment. It offers promising models of distributed leadership and organizational change that can inform future program implementers and the field in general. Our experiences suggest that the role of program leaders was to manage key disturbances to the system, to organize activities that emerged from faculty inquiry, to support distributed leadership alignments, and to facilitate private work into the public space. Our data also suggest that distributed leadership among all program faculty was an important element in developing an inquiry versus compliance orientation to implementation. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures and 3 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Educational Philosophy; Democracy; Community Schools; Participative Decision Making; Elementary Schools; High Schools; Special Needs Students; Public Schools; School Culture; School Organization; Politics; School Activities; Educational Environment; Residential Schools; Meetings; Behavior Disorders; Emotional Disturbances; Antisocial Behavior; Social Behavior; Severe Disabilities; Student Participation

Abstract:
Serious re-examination of participatory traditions of democracy is long overdue. Iconically central to such traditions of democratic education is the practice of whole School Meetings. More usually associated with radical work within the private sector, School Meetings are here explored in detail through two examples from publicly funded education, (1) Epping House School, a mixed residential primary/elementary school for students with severe emotional, social and behavioural difficulties and (2) secondary/high schools within the Just Community School movement in the USA. In addition to providing richly textured accounts of the multiple realities and challenges of pioneering overtly democratic practices such as School Meetings within the publicly funded sector of education substantial attention is paid to analytic engagement with the kind of organisational structures, practices and cultures that seem to play an important role in their successful operation and development. The different phenomenological and theoretical strands weaving their way through the texture of Meeting practices also raise a number of key issues within the fields of social and political philosophy, in particular, whether School Meetings are best understood as predominantly political or communal phenomena. In gesturing towards the philosophical groundwork of a satisfactory answer I argue for the importance of the undeservedly neglected notion of democratic fellowship within the lexicon of democratic polity and aspiration. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Instructional Leadership; Teacher Leadership; Principals; Coaching (Performance); Teachers; Power Structure; Participative Decision Making; Context Effect; Educational Administration; Transformational Leadership

Abstract:
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to uncover what scholars know and do not know about instructional leadership, paying particular attention to what they have learned about how this work is done and where knowledge falls short. The author takes a first step at integrating three distinct literatures: (a) the traditional instructional leadership literature (centered primarily on the principal), (b) the teacher instructional leadership literature, and (c) the coach instructional leadership literature. Research Design: The author utilizes a distributed lens to examine the principal, teacher leader, and coach instructional leadership literatures. This lens illuminates what scholars know about instructional leaders in interaction with one another, their followers, and particular contexts as they work toward the improvement of teaching and learning. The author proposes that analyzing these three literatures together may allow scholars to apply findings from one research area to another, as well as to generate new knowledge around how leaders improve instruction. Conclusions: An integrated, comprehensive understanding of what scholars do and do not know about instructional leadership can begin to shape future studies that will address existing shortcomings around the "how" of leadership that emerge across these literatures. (Contains 3 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Leadership Styles; Females; Males; Hypothesis Testing; Gender Differences; Promotion (Occupational); Feedback (Response); Leadership; Measures (Individuals); Interpersonal Communication; Teamwork; Empowerment; Trust (Psychology); Coaching (Performance); Change Agents; Facilitators (Individuals); Responsibility; Employees; Participative Decision Making; Recognition (Achievement); Social Distance; Self Evaluation (Individuals)

Abstract:
In this study, researchers used a customized 360-degree method to examine the frequency with which 1,546 men and 721 women leaders perceived themselves and were perceived by colleagues as using 10 relational and 10 task-oriented leadership behaviors, as addressed in the Management-Leadership Practices Inventory (MLPI). As hypothesized, men and women leaders, as well as their supervisors, employees, and peers, perceived women leaders to employ nine of the 10 relational leadership behaviors significantly more frequently than men leaders. Additionally, the employees' perceptions of their women leaders' use of task-oriented behaviors were significantly higher when compared to similar assessments from the employees of men leaders. However, the leaders as well as their supervisors and peers perceived men and women leaders' use of task-oriented behaviors as approximately equal. Broader implications of these findings are discussed. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
College Faculty; Governance; Neoliberalism; Commercialization; Participative Decision Making; Action Research; Leaders; Leadership Role; Communication (Thought Transfer); Universities

Abstract:
Few faculty members are immune from the deleterious impact of neoliberal values, policies and practices that have resulted in the "corporatization" of universities, with the reduction of teaching and research to "products" and faculty to "producers," and students to "clients." The role of faculty governance in this process has been debated yielding diverse perspectives on its effectiveness in challenging this influence, particularly, in regard to the role of democratic decision making at the college-level of governance where administrators may push for furthering market-driven agendas. This critical action research project highlights how two faculty assembly leaders facilitated participatory decision making as they re-conceptualized their leadership roles as team-based representatives, and developed multiple communicative networks that supported faculty voice and leadership listening at the grassroots level--two processes that may thwart corporatization and marketization at the college-level. This article highlights how characteristics of desired communication practices for more democratic decision making at the college-level lay the groundwork for building the collective faculty capacity to respond in a timely manner to neoliberal agendas. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Social Work; Child Custody; Synthesis; Qualitative Research; Preferences; Child Advocacy; Childhood Attitudes; Meta Analysis; Ethnography; Participative Decision Making; Literature Reviews; Divorce; Child Behavior; Conflict Resolution

Abstract:
Objectives: This qualitative synthesis explores the voices of children in the context of child custody disputes over the last 20 years. The purpose was to (1) systematically retrieve qualitative studies to explore children's views and preferences in the context of decision making postseparation and divorce and (2) explore how children's voices are being heard or not. Method: Qualitative studies were identified through a systematic retrieval process using an inclusion and exclusion criteria. A meta-ethnographic approach was used for the qualitative synthesis of included studies. Results: Thirty-five qualitative studies were included in the final analysis, involving 1,325 children from 11 countries. Conclusions: Findings reveal that children generally want to be engaged in the decision-making process regarding custody and access, even if they are not making the final decisions. Implications for social work practice and policy are discussed, including providing space for children's voices within the context of this work. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Leadership Qualities; Elementary Secondary Education; Definitions; Teacher Leadership; Change Strategies; Educational Change; Transformational Leadership; Participative Decision Making; Leadership Role; Teacher Role; Interviews; Observation; Occupational Information; Organizational Development; Models; Performance Factors; Performance Technology; Personnel Policy; Educational Practices

Abstract:
This article examines teacher leader role development and definition by looking at one emergent model of distributed leadership: the hybrid teacher leader (HTL). HTLs are teachers whose official schedule includes both teaching K-12 students and leading teachers in some capacity. Participants included six HTLs across four school districts over 2 years, as well as their administrators. Extensive qualitative data were collected and subsequently analyzed, including interviews, on-site observations, and artifacts. Findings included a pervasive lack of role definition for the HTLs amid heightened organizational complexity, leading to numerous de facto definitions emerging. Conflicting de facto definitions led to diminished success for the HTLs, relationship deterioration, a reversion to professional development removed from the classroom, and a lack of capacity to account for HTL efficacy. The study concludes that for new teacher leaders to be successful, states and districts will need to much more clearly define roles and priorities and be specific about how budget-compensated teacher leader time is used. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Internet; Computer Simulation; Computer Mediated Communication; Conflict; Governance; Cultural Differences; Social Systems; Ethnography; Discourse Analysis; Democracy; Participative Decision Making; Cultural Pluralism; Science and Society; Political Issues; Values

Abstract:
Early utopian notions of Internet-based community as enabling transcendence of earthly governments and cultural divides manifested in the massively multiplayer online nongame platform, Second Life. However, while platform users nearly unanimously chose governance regimes based on professional management rather than democratic self-governance, one of the few democratic experiments experienced deep conflict over precisely the utopian notions it held in common. This article examines a failed merger between two experimental democratic communities in the virtual world of Second Life as an example of the general failure of internet utopianism and a specific failure to transcend distinctions in cultures of origin (the "failure of 'convivencia,'" of the title, a term reflecting a historical model chosen by one of the communities) in a common online space. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article will analyze a distinction between radically different, and ultimately incommensurable, discourses around governance in the merged community amid the failure of participatory, democratic models of online governance. (Contains 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Superintendents; Females; Career Development; African Americans; American Indians; African American Achievement; Whites; School Districts; Suburban Schools; Social Justice; Community Development; Democracy; Leadership; Values; Leadership Styles; Participative Decision Making; Power Structure; Collegiality; Korean Culture; Cultural Awareness; Parent School Relationship; English Language Learners; Second Language Instruction

Abstract:
Much of the earlier research on women in leadership has told the stories of White women. Since there are very low numbers of superintendents of color both male and female nationwide, there have been very few stories reported of women leaders of color (Brunner & Grogan, 2007). This article describes the leadership issues involved when one Black woman crossed a border (geographically and culturally) to lead a school district. Delia (pseudonym) became the first woman and the first person of color to lead a small suburban school district whose population was very different from what she was and what she knew. Delia was a participant in a study designed to investigate how women school superintendents promote and support social justice and democratic community building in their school districts. Six women participated in that study: three were African American, one was American Indian, and two were White. This article briefly describes that study and then focuses on Delia, one participant in it who took a risk to apply for her first superintendency in a district not far from her old district in miles but miles apart in population, ideology, and community values. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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