Using the arguments over college admissions as a point of departure, this article analyzes the idea of merit in education. Situating the concept of merit historically and philosophically, it advances the argument that merit should be considered not as an individual construct but as an institutional one. The debates over merit focus on which…

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of reflection. The author argues in favour of the necessity of conceiving the concept of reflection in a broad sense, and not using the concept in the meaning of introspection. To grasp reflection in its complexity and as a core process in organisational learning it is necessary to…

This article reflects on lessons learnt from recent research and evaluation work in secondary schools operating in urban and challenging contexts in England. It is suggested that there is a common process that effective leaders follow in order to generate and sustain tangible improvements. Central to this argument are the incremental devolution of…

Research studies strongly support the fact that the leadership of the school principal impacts directly on the climate of the school and, in turn, on student achievement. National statistics relating to principal turnover and dwindling supplies of qualified replacements show clearly that principal turnover has reached crisis proportions.…

This article reports on a key finding of a phenomenological study on the mentoring experiences of women faculty. The study revealed the political climate of the organization as an essential attribute of this experience. Women faculty identified organizational culture and gender issues that affected the mentoring they received. This study suggests…

The Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) and the field of philosophy of education seemed like a natural junction in this author's life. They provided a means by which he could begin to think about the relations between education and his own experiences as a student and teacher, and philosophy. Peters has been editor of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to set out an argument for a way to design, implement and manage IS with an emphasis on first, the learning that can be created through undertaking the approach, and second, the learning that may be created through using the IS that was implemented. The paper proposes joining two areas of research namely,…

The turbulent business environment requires business expertise from ever-larger personnel groups. The required business know-how is a combination of knowledge and several different skills, and it should provide the learners with an overall view of the functioning of a business organization as a whole. Moreover, while work is increasingly becoming…

The authors present the argument that evaluation as currently practiced is failing the needs of the social sector, if the goal is to help organizations achieve their mission. Three case studies are presented in which evaluation played a key role in the development of a learning culture within the organization. Each case highlights the positive…

This document provides a literature review and a list of suggested reading in support of "Approaches for Sustaining and Building Management and Leadership Capacity in Vocational Education and Training Providers" (ED499670), which examines the existing and potential strategies for sustaining and building greater levels of management and…

This paper reports on a study that took place in a faculty of humanities and social sciences at a UK university. The institution had recently undergone a radical restructure and the vision for the future presented by the new senior management team highlighted internationalization as one of four major areas for growth. The internationalization…

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) practitioners could benefit from recent innovations in the field of organizational development, particularly those of Peter Senge, that outline how institutions can become "learning organizations," which are responsive to change to meet the needs of their members. These techniques could be used to help…

Action research was used to study the effectiveness of Learning Organisation and Adaptive Enterprise theories for promoting organisation-wide learning and creating a more effective early childhood education organisation. This article describes the leadership steps taken to achieve shared vision via meaningful dialogue between board, management and…

One institution's attempts to implement an ambitious wholly online learning policy is examined in the Australian higher education setting. The conditions that led to a diversity of models of wholly online unit development are considered, along with teachers' design intents in establishing their online teaching and learning environments. The…

In this chapter the authors examine how the social group identities of faculty members are reflected in their pedagogical encounters and practices. More particularly, they consider how faculty members with different social group identities deal with two issues commonly faced by all faculty: questions about their subject matter expertise and…