Professional learning community (PLC) has drawn global attention in the field of adult learning. This study applies paradox theory to examine how a group of Chinese school teachers transform their teaching practices in a self-organized PLC without school policy support. The researchers applied the biographic-narrative-interpretive method (BNIM) to…

This paper examines the influence of professional learning communities (PLCs) on informal teacher leadership in Hong Kong schools to overcome issues reported in the literature on the challenges to teacher leadership posed by Chinese hierarchical school contexts. We test the relations among PLC, informal teacher leadership, teacher focus on…

Effective implementation of educational reforms requires collaboration between stakeholders. The current paper describes and analyzes the findings of a qualitative research, which examined the perceptions of the three hierarchic levels of stakeholders, assigned by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 2010 to introduce and implement a new policy…

Teacher professional learning plays a critical role in education reform by enabling teachers to refine their professional skills and keep up with changing content knowledge, pedagogy, and trends in schooling. This study examines how and under what conditions principal instructional leadership contributes to teachers' professional learning in…

Against the background of the recently published Policy on the South African Standard for Principals, the aim of this article is to determine whether distributed leadership is catered for in the South African regulatory and policy framework. It is argued that due to the accountability demands of a fundamentally bureaucratic education system,…

To meet the increasingly complex challenges associated with school leadership and reform (York-Barr & Duke, 2004; Whitaker, 1996; Hertling, 2001), researchers and practitioners have begun to push schools to move away from traditional, hierarchical leadership models and towards more "distributed" ones (Elmore, 1995; Spillane,…

This paper addresses some fundamental methodological and ethical issues confronting non-Chinese researchers undertaking research in Hong Kong Chinese society. Among other things, it considers problems pertaining to data collection, the challenges of data interpretation, and the implication that this has for research. Whilst the issues are by no…

In this article, the author clarifies why his use of the term "my teachers" in a lunch meeting--a term that is open to interpretation and one that principals should use with great care--had given him a nagging feeling. When a student says "my teacher," there is a clear meaning. The student is literally referring to his or her teacher, usually with…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the demographic variables of tenure and functional track have a moderating effect on the strategic leadership of school leaders. Design/methodology/approach: Using a conceptual framework developed by the researcher, a static/cross-sectional questionnaire-based study on a convenience…

Within-school climates and culture are predicated on organizational structures, distributions of power, and roles that are highly interactive. Hierarchical structures and uneven power distributions, primarily those of teacher-principal, have been found to challenge levels of trust. School interaction patterns form the basis of much of the school…

Power is the basis of any form of leadership and "Leadership", according to Adair (1990: 145), "is the intelligent and sensitive use of power." The exercise of power is a social process. It requires that one person submits or concedes to the will or direction of another, for whatever purpose or reason. As a phenomenon, it ("power") explains how…

Fiscal efficiency and organizational effectiveness were the primary objectives that underpinned the reform of educational administration in New Zealand in the late 1980s. The consequent re-organization of schools and schooling located responsibility and accountability for school performance, teachers' work and student outcomes firmly at the door…

Investigated Elliott Jaques's theories of organizational depth structure and timespan of discretion in two Ontario school systems. Both superintendents and principals were working at two-year timespans; system directors worked at a maximum three-year timespan. Findings imply that principals' responsibilities resemble those of assistant…

Documents the growing tension between primary heads' administrative and professional roles and between top-down and collegial management styles, based on qualitative data from a national sample of 50 Welsh and English schools. Highlights the 1988 Education Reform Act's emphasis on monitoring and quality assurance and headteachers' developing…

This study examined the relationship among principals' behavior in administering regulations, their hierarchical influence, and teacher loyalty to principals. A significant relationship was found between rule behavior of secondary principals and teacher loyalty, and hierarchical influence was significantly related to teacher loyalty for both…