School Leadership in Diverse Contexts

Simon Clarke, Tom O'Donoghue

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317595915
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

School Leadership in Diverse Contexts demonstrates the centrality of context to understanding school leadership. It offers varied portrayals of leadership in a diverse range of distinct settings. Each chapter highlights the prominence of context in understanding the realities of school leadership, focusing on issues and influences that school leaders face, strategies school leaders adopt to deal with the complexities of their work, and conceptualisations of school leadership relevant to the context.

An impressive array of international experts examine this neglected area of research by considering school leadership in nine heterogeneous contexts, providing rich and varied portrayals of school leadership and suggesting ways in which the leadership may be enhanced.

School Leadership in Diverse Contexts is an ideal book for undergraduate and postgraduate students, particularly those studying units in educational leadership, comparative education and educational policy. Similarly undergraduate and postgraduate students engaged with development studies, history, sociology, law, human geography will be attracted to this text.

1
Introduction

Simon Clarke and Tom O’Donoghue

The understanding and practice of leadership are often contested. Also, they can vary significantly from context to context. As a result, academics, policy makers and educational leaders, including school leaders, need to spend a significant amount of time deliberating on the crucial importance of considering matters of context alongside leadership theories when engaging with school improvement for any particular setting. Herein lays the fundamental premise underpinning the overall thrust of the present work.

The central concern of this book is with the way in which school leadership is understood and practised in a diverse range of distinctive contexts. This consideration is demonstrated most persuasively by means of rich and varied portrayals of school leadership as it is pursued in widely differing settings. In doing so, the book, we believe, contributes greatly to understanding of the nuances of school leadership as they are shaped by distinct environments and the ways in which this leadership may be enhanced.

To date, empirical research into leadership of educational organisations, and particularly schools, has tended largely to ignore the emphasis placed by those like Gronn and Ribbins (1996) since the 1990s, on the importance of being sensitive to context. On this, Dimmock (2005, p. 82) commented as follows nearly ten years ago: ‘It is depressing to find so many scholars in the field who feel qualified to write about leadership while divorcing it from, and even ignoring, the specific contexts within which it is exercised.’

It is fair to say that his observation still largely holds true today. At the same time, however, there are some indications of change. For example, a number of insights have emerged from investigations into leadership in small, remote schools (Clarke and Wildy, 2004) into the idiosyncratic characteristics of leadership in multi-ethnic (Walker, 2004) and faith-based schools (Sullivan, 2006) and into lead ership in ‘schools facing challenging circumstances’ (Chapman and Harris, 2004). In similar a vein, our most recent work has considered the complexity of school leadership as it is exercised in post-conflict settings (Clarke and O’Donoghue, 2013). We argue, however, that there are many other distinctive environments which warrant closer academic attention because of their implications for the situated understanding and exercise of school leadership. This book, therefore, incorporates portrayals of nine very different contexts to provide rare insights into the diversity of approaches to school leadership that are mediated by specific settings. Each depiction of school leadership lends a distinctive edge to scholarly discussion about the influence a particular context can have on the agency of leaders. Collectively, the depictions illuminate critical aspects of conceptualisations and practices of school leadership.

Given that the specific focus of this book is on school leadership as it is understood and practised in distinctive contexts, we considered that an effective way to provide the broadest array of appropriate settings was to invite a number of recognised experts to write on the topic in relation to the particular contexts with which they have been most concerned in both their academic and professional work. For this purpose, we were keen to encourage combinations of authors comprising practitioners and researchers. Each contributor approached (listed below) agreed to participate and, in relation to his or her respective setting, to provide a chapter accommodating each of the following key considerations:

• The issues and influences that school leaders face as they perform;
• their day-to-day work within the given context;
• the nature of the context within which these issues and influences arise;
• the strategies that school leaders adopt to deal with the complexities of their work within their contexts;
• the reasons why these strategies are adopted;
• possible conceptualisations of school leadership that may be germane to the given distinctive environment.

Overall, the book consists of twelve chapters. Following this chapter, Chapter 2 presents the broad background to the remaining chapters in the book, each of which deals with school leadership as it is understood and practised in a distinctive context. In particular, the chapter examines what is meant by context (both in-school context and out-of-school context) and its component parts. It goes on to outline the thrust of the tradition in comparative education which stresses that the possibility of any set of educational ideas and practices proposed for any context being adopted successfully is maximised when attention is paid to the nature of that context. Consideration is then given to how those involved in educational leadership can benefit not only from taking into account each of these two matters, but also by deliberating on the extent to which other sub-branches within educational scholarship have paid attention to them and the consequences that have followed. The possibility that much school leadership practice for the future could be unsuccessful if leaders are not sufficiently sensitive to context provides the justification for considering the sorts of cases reported in the chapters that follow.

Chapters 3 to 11 are written by the invited contributors. They were guided in their writing by the key considerations outlined above. At the same time, they were given latitude to bring their own individual mode of presentation to bear as much as possible. On this, we point out that while some chapters are focused on an individual school within its context, others are more general in their examination of schools that are located in distinctive settings.

Chapter 3, by Bruce Barnett and Howard Stevenson, is concerned with leading high poverty urban schools while dealing with such context-specific factors as a multiplicity of economic, emotional and social challenges. Professor Barnett is a Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA. Previously, he worked at the Far West Laboratory, Indiana University, and the University of Northern Colorado. Howard Stevenson is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy studies at the University of Nottingham. He has extensive experience directing doctoral programmes and collaborative action research projects in schools.

Chapter 4, by Karen Starr, is concerned with leading small, remote schools while dealing with such context-specific factors as isolation and the community. Professor Starr is Foundation Professor in School Development and Leadership, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. She was a school principal for fifteen years in South Australia and Victoria and was Chief Writer of South Australia’s Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA).

Chapter 5, by Gilbert Karareba, Simon Clarke and Tom O’Donoghue, is concerned with leading schools in circumstances attributable to conflict and trauma while dealing with such context-specific factors as the provision of education in situations where survival and livelihood priorities are overwhelming. Gilbert Karareba is from Rwanda. He is currently an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship holder at The University of Western Australia (UWA), where he is undertaking his Ph.D. studies in the Graduate School of Education. Simon Clarke is a Professor in the Faculty of Education, The University of Western Australia, where he teaches, supervises and researches in the substantive area of educational leadership. Tom O’Donoghue is also Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a former President of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society.

Chapter 6, by Anthony Kelly, is concerned with challenges in leading schools in historically tense, diverse community settings. Professor Kelly is the Head of Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton, where he specialises in educational effectiveness and improvement; in particular, as it relates to educational leadership, governance and policy analysis. Previously, he was a school head in Ireland.

Chapter 7, by Fiona Walton, Joanne Tompkins, Jukeepa Hainnu and Denise Toney is concerned with such context-specific factors as language, culture, health, attendance, racism, and family and peer relationships while leading indigenous schools. Fiona Walton is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Canada. She worked in the Northwest Territories from 1982 to 1999, holding positions of leadership as a special education consultant, supervisor of schools, teacher education instructor, and director of curriculum and school services. Joanne Tompkins has worked as an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at St Francis Xavier University (StFX), Nova Scotia, Canada since 1996. She worked as a teacher, consultant, principal and teacher educator in Pangnirtung, Hall Beach, and Cape Dorset in the Northwest Territories from 1982 to 1995. Jukeepa Hainnu was born in Clyde River, Nunavut, and received her education in both English and Inuktitut at the local school. Hired as a Classroom Assistant in 1982, Jukeepa went on to complete her Bachelor of Education from McGill University in 1984 and her Master of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown in 2007. Jukeepa taught for many years, becoming a co-principal in 1998 and principal in 2008. Denise Toney is a member of the Eskasoni Mi’kmaw community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She is a fluent speaker of the Mi’kmaw language and a strong believer in the place of language and culture in schools. She is currently the principal of Eskasoni Middle School. Denise received her Bachelor of Arts from Cape Breton University and her Bachelor of Education from St Francis Xavier University (1990). She holds an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (2003) and an M.Ed. in Administration and Policy from St Francis Xavier University (2012).

Chapter 8, by Ralph Townsend, is concerned with leading exclusive private schools in dealing with such context-specific factors as complex governance and the relentless pressure to achieve. Dr Townsend has been Headmaster of Winchester College in England since 2005. He was previously Headmaster of Oundle School (1999–2005) and before that Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School (1989–1999).

Chapter 9, by Christopher Chapman, is concerned with leading autonomous state schools while dealing with such tensions as that which exists between enhanced autonomy and increased accountability in an especially fluid policy environment. Professor Chapman was appointed Professor of Educational Policy and Practice at the University of Glasgow in January 2013. Prior to this he was Professor of Education at the University of Manchester, and previously held academic and research posts at the universities of Nottingham and Warwick.

Chapter 10, by Qian Haiyan and Allan Walker, is concerned with leading schools in Communist China while adapting to neoliberal pressures. Qian Haiyan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership, Hong Kong Institute of Education. Her research focuses on understanding school leadership and educational change in the Chinese societies. Allan Walker is Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Dean of Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at The Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research focuses on expanding knowledge of school leadership in Chinese and other Asian societies and disseminating this internationally.

Chapter 11, by Jim Ryan and Stephanie Tuters, is concerned with leading diverse schools in dealing with such context-specific factors as constructing and nurturing an inclusive school culture. Professor Ryan is a professor in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at The University of Toronto, Canada, and is co-director of the University’s Centre for Leadership and Diversity (CLD). Prior to his present appointment he worked at Lakehead University where he was involved in teacher education and graduate studies. Stephanie Tuters is a doctoral candidate at OISE/University of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada. Her doctoral research examines the experiences of elementary teachers who engage in equity work.

Chapter 12, by Simon Clarke and Tom O’Donoghue, provides a synthesis of the previous chapters. The focus of the chapter is on highlighting similar, different and unique ways in which school leadership is understood and practised between and among the distinctive contexts featured in the overall commentary. By examining the combination of contexts, it is hoped to reveal more clearly the issues and influences that school leaders face as they perform their work, the nature of the context within which these issues and influences arise, the strategies school leaders adopt to deal with the complexities of their work and the reasons behind these strategies, and the implications of the specific needs, concerns, challenges and problems faced by school leaders in distinctive contexts for policy and practice.

References

Chapman, C. and Harris, A. (2004). Improving schools in difficult and challenging contexts: Strategies for improvement. Educational Research, 46(3), 219–228.

Clarke, S. R. P., and O’Donoghue, T. A. (eds). (2013). School-level leadership in post-conflict societies: The importance of context. London: Routledge.

Clarke, S. and Wildy, H. (2004). Context counts: Viewing small school leadership from the inside out. Journal of Educational Administration, 42(5), 555–572.

Dimmock, C. (2005). The leadership of multi-ethnic schools: What we know and don’t know about values-driven leadership. Education Research and Perspectives, 22(2), 80–96.

Gronn, P. and Ribbins, P. (1996). Leaders in context: Postpositivist approaches to understanding school leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 32(3), 452–473.

Sullivan, J. (2006). Faith schools: A culture within a culture in a changing world. In M. de Souza, G. Durka, K. Engebretson and A. McGready (eds). International handbook of the religious, moral and spiritual dimensions in education (pp. 937–947). Heidelberg: Springer.

Walker, A. (2004). Priorities, strategies and challenges: Proactive leadership in multi-ethnic schools. National College for School Leadership. Available at: www.ncsl.org.uk/publications-index.htm

2
The Crucial Matter of School Leaders Taking Cognizance of Educational Contexts

Tom O’Donoghue and Simon Clarke

Introduction

This chapter provides the broad background to the remaining chapters in the book, each of which deals with school leadership as it is understood and practised in a distinctive context. It opens by examining what is meant by context in relation to individual schools. It goes on to detail the thrust of the tradition in comparative education which stresses that the possibility of any set of educational ideas and practices proposed for any context being adopted successfully is maximised when attention is paid to the nature of that context. Consideration is then given to how those involved in educational leadership can benefit not only from taking into account each of these two matters, but also by deliberating on the extent to which other subdisciplines within educational studies have paid attention to them and the consequences that have followed. Overall, the chapter is aimed at impressing that much school leadership practice for the future could be unsuccessful if leaders are not sufficiently sensitive to context. This position provides the justification for considering the sorts of cases reported in the chapters that follow.

What is meant by context

In a relatively recent work addressing policy makers and policy analysts, Braun et al. (2011) recognise that educational policies are informed by various commitments, values and forms of experience, and that these should be made explicit in frameworks for policy enactment. They also hold very strongly to the importance of those using such frameworks taking cognizance of the reality that policies are ‘enacted in material conditions, with varying resources’ (Braun et al., 2011, p. 588). They conceptualise this situation in terms of four sets of contexts: the ‘situated contexts’, the ‘professional contexts’, the ‘material contexts’ and the ‘external contexts’. The argument is that while it is helpful to isolate each of these sets of contexts in order to facilitate policy analysis and to plan for policy enactment, it needs to be recognised that disaggregating them can sometimes be an artificial exercise since, in certain instances, they are interconnected an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The crucial matter of school leaders taking cognizance of educational contexts
• 3 Leading high poverty urban schools
• 4 Small rural school leadership: creating opportunity through collaboration
• 5 Leading primary schools in post-conflict Rwanda: some current concerns of the practitioners
• 6 Leading schools in times of conflict: between a rock and a hard place: a case study from the borderlands of Ireland
• 7 School leadership in Inuit and Mi’kmaw contexts in Canada
• 8 Leading an independent school in England in the new millennium
• 9 Leading autonomous schools: academies, leadership and the self-improving school system in England
• 10 Leading as state agents: narratives of Shanghai principals
• 11 Leadership and emotions: promoting social justice
• 12 School leadership in diverse contexts: picking up the thread through the labyrinth
• Index