Roles in further education colleges, at various levels of the management structure, are in flux. For the people involved in this process of transformation, the situation can appear ambiguous, unsettling and unclear. This places an imperative upon colleges to deal with the process of change effectively, and to help those involved to make sense of…

What do the National Staff Development Council's standards look like in practice for teachers, principals, central office staff, superintendents, and board members? Newly developed Innovation Configurations help everyone on the list understand where they fall along the continuum of effective practices aligned to the standards.

Many researchers in the field of education aspire to influence what actually happens in schools and classrooms. They entered their profession aware of the need to improve educational practice; many of them want to make a difference. Yet few observers would claim that the results of education research are eagerly awaited by teachers, school…

This paper is based on the experience of working alongside new practitioners with the role of learning mentor as they engage in a national training programme. It considers the issues raised by evaluation at a range of times within and beyond the training. The main factors that emerge from the data focus on the role of inspiration, creativity,…

Worldwide there seems to be an interest in enhancing the student learning experience through particularly interactive learning, which is an educational philosophy that places the student at the centre of the learning process. Such an approach acknowledges the educational contexts from which students come. What is even more important is the fact…

This article sets out to discuss the impact that urban living has had on the lives of young Indigenous people. It will seek to discover some of the problems that occur when there is a meeting of two cultures, in this case the Indigenous culture of Australian Aboriginal people and the mainstream culture that has been derived largely from west…

Within the literature of social psychology, there exists a body of information that deals with role theory, defined as the expectations persons have at any given time and the norms that govern their behavior. This paper discusses role theory as it applies to school-age child caregivers and as part of the process of professionalism.…

To clarify dominant perspectives on women in adult education publications, ethnographic content analysis was used to examine 112 journal articles in 4 major adult education journals. Articles analyzed were from two North American journals ("Adult Education"/"Adult Education Quarterly" and "Adult…

Mentoring programs depend on a complex personal and professional relationship between a novice teacher and a veteran teacher. The study described here was designed to add to the knowledge of mentor roles, benefits of mentoring, and obstacles to mentoring. This report is based on the first of two meetings with a diverse group of mentor teachers…

Many researchers have attempted to assess power in marital dyads. Specifically, the question of which spouse carries the most power has been frequently examined. Confusion between spouses in decision-making roles, number of marital arguments, and self-esteem of spouses were examined in this study. Data were gathered from 31 married couples from…

This booklet addresses issues concerning the various responsibilities of trustees on governing boards of independent colleges and universities. Introductory information notes the increasing complexity and significance of the trusteeship role and its unique context in independent institutions. The booklet distinguishes between board and individual…

This research examines how department heads in (British) secondary schools perceive their management roles and their access to the real decision-making power that occurs outside departmental confines, but within schools. In structured interviews, 30 department heads from 21 schools were encouraged to reflect on opportunities for collegial…

This paper explores perceptual differences found in a study of California superintendents and U.S. superintendents. Data were collected from 273 U.S. and 103 California superintendents using "The Survey of Influences on Female Superintendents' Careers." The instrument collected demographic data, career-path data, ratings of strengths and…

This study examined expectations, with respect to the role of the special education administrator, held by key administrative personnel within West Virginia's rural school systems. Surveys were sent to all county superintendents, all county special education administrators, and a randomly selected sample of 150 school principals, resulting in 202…

Previous research by W. Cross (1980) concluded that blacks have a multifaceted reference group orientation which utilizes both black and white anchor points dependent upon situational cues. To further delineate the relationship between the group and self identity and to determine if the relationship between these constructs differs for black male…