The academic library middle manager (ALMM) role is little understood and understudied. Using Organizational Role Theory, Middle Managers' Four Strategic Roles, and the Taxonomy of Managerial Performance Requirements as frameworks, this study was designed to identify and describe the expectations of the middle manager role in academic libraries; to…

This paper offers a new perspective on exploring peer observation (PO) as an event or system, and contributes to the discussion on what happens "after" the PO cycle in terms of opportunities for dissemination. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with members of academic staff in a UK higher education institution about…

This account of practice examines the implementation of and reactions to action learning through the Lean methodology in a unique, cross-cultural context. I review my time spent as a Lean coach; engaging with, training, and using action learning with employees in a garment manufacturing facility located in Bali, Indonesia. This research addresses…

This paper uses a hybrid leadership framework to examine how formal teacher leaders at the middle management level direct and facilitate staff resources for distributed pedagogical leadership. By conducting qualitative shadowing, involving video observation, field notes and stimulated recall interviews, and abductive analysis, this study…

This study explored effective writing strategies and scholarly identity formation during a structured program intended to help mid-level student affairs professionals produce manuscripts for publication. The most important strategy participants identified was to create a habit of practice to foster writing. After working with the researchers,…

This paper is written to outline our ideas on rituals and reflective places and how this thinking has emerged through our writing, facilitation and reflections around critical action learning and critical leadership. We attempt to show the conceptual framework that underpins our vision of Critical Leadership and how out of this work we have begun…

This paper reports on a large national project that explored successful numeracy practices in remote and very remote schools. While there have been a number of significant findings, the middle leader has been identified as a key role in the development of successful numeracy/mathematics practices in schools. The middle leader plays a critical role…

This paper examines middle leadership of the heads of English, maths and science departments in four international secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on their roles, responsibilities, role relationships, instructional engagement and leadership involvement within the theoretical framework of instructional, distributed and teacher leadership.…

This multiple case study explored classified staff interactions with students as a possible strategy for increasing student success. Individual interviews, observations, and a focus group with support staff were used to investigate their interactions with students, their view of these interactions, and their expectations of students. Findings…

Research has long accorded heads of subject departments a key middle leadership role in secondary schools. Unfortunately, researchers have found that the exact nature of this leadership is "blurred" in that it is difficult to isolate its distinctive qualities. In addition, there are also debates concerning whether professional and emotional…