Central office coordinators of advanced academics and gifted education programs--otherwise known as district gifted education coordinators (DGECs)--play an important role in closing excellence gaps, promoting achievement for all learners, and ensuring equity in gifted education programs and advanced courses. Training and preparation programs for…

Resilience training for Further Education (FE) managers has become an increasingly familiar aspect of management development. This paper challenges the accepted orthodoxies underpinning resilience as a 'learnable' skill required to succeed as a manager. In particular, it addresses the concepts of toxic positivity, growth mindset (Dweck) and Grit…

This paper critically explores the opportunity for leadership development in higher education within an interpretative inquiry paradigm from the perspective of middle-level academics transitioning into leadership/management roles in Australian universities. Middle-level academics are described as being at a mid-point in their careers and…

In Australia, there is a national education agenda for school improvement with an increasing focus on how school leaders can fulfil this agenda. As school principals are arguably faced with increasing demands, the importance of school middle leaders is increasing. This article presents the initial findings from a larger project on middle…

This paper sets out to examine the role of middle leaders and their quest for effective appraisal and leadership development online--the two towers. Research that focuses on the role of middle leaders, in terms of their appraisal and leadership development, suggests there is a crisis in the "middle." Currently, middle leaders do not have…

In a rapidly changing and increasingly complex environment, the importance of reflection for public managers has been acknowledged almost unanimously by academics as well as practitioners. In this article we highlight the necessity to look at reflection in a more nuanced way. Reflection is a broad and multifaceted concept and public sector work…

Programs for developing the managerial capacities of department heads in secondary schools tend to be of two types. One type concentrates on the dynamics of interactions between participants during the program. In this type of program, consultants either call for active involvement of the participants in the analysis of their interactions, or…

Summarizes results of a project examining to what extent middle managers in education and industry have received job training and identifying the common principles underlying effective training. Although a higher proportion of industrial middle managers receive training than their secondary school counterparts, this training seems no more…

Major British, French, and German industrial companies are increasingly recruiting higher education graduates (HEGs) for middle management posts, traditionally filled through promotion of operatives. This new form of recruitment does not occur on the same scale or at the same rate in all the companies using it, and it is closely tied to the…

In December 1986, a study was conducted at Illinois' William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to determine the feasibility of beginning a Business Information Management (BIM) program aimed at the middle-management level. A survey was mailed to 795 organizations with 250 or more employees in neighboring counties, requesting information on the interest…