Aimee LaPointe Terosky

From a Managerial Imperative to a Learning Imperative Experiences of Urban, Public School Principals

Purpose: This article examines the experiences of urban, public school principals noted for their instructional leadership and highlights a leadership approach grounded in a learning imperative. Framework: This article explores the concept of instructional leadership, defined as attending to instructional matters, as embedded in an urban public school district characterized by a managerial context. Based on common themes in the data, this article adds to the extant literature on leading for learning by putting forth the concept of a learning imperative for consideration. Research Methods: This qualitative, interpretive, multicase study of 18 New York City K-12 public school principals applied purposeful sampling by soliciting and vetting nominations from supervisors, staff, and students/parents. Evidence included interviews, time surveys, observations, and document analysis. Findings: Data analysis and interpretation characterized participants’ work contexts as consistent with a managerial imperative and highlighted limitations to the phrase “instructional leadership.” Further analysis found that participants followed a leadership approach grounded in a learning imperative, defined as a principal’s obligation to prioritize, attend to, and act on matters of learning. Participants’ perspectives and actions on a learning imperative followed two common themes: (a) grounding the purpose of a school in learning and (b) valuing and fostering the learning and professional growth of the adults working with the school’s students. Implications: Findings contribute to the instructional leadership and leading for learning literatures by placing learning in the forefront and emphasizing the need to prioritize learning. Suggestions for ways to operationalize a learning imperative are provided.

Engendering Faculty Professional Growth.

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Re-Envisioned Contributions: Experiences of Faculty Employed at Institutional Types That Differ from Their Original Aspirations.

Guided by the theory of figured worlds, this qualitative study focuses on 18 faculty members employed at community colleges, broad access liberal arts, comprehensives, and regional research universities, who have constructed professionally and personally meaningful careers at institutions that differ from their original aspirations and/or their graduate training. We offer two key findings that highlight how these professors re-envision their careers and contributions by advancing the learning of others and engaging in inquiry for purposes other than publication. In highlighting these two key themes, we expose tensions that participants experienced and navigated as they reenvisioned their careers.

Faculty Members’ Scholarly Learning Across Institutional Types

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Colleagueship in different types of post-secondary institutions: a lever for faculty vitality

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyzed 50 faculty interviews to explore the function of colleagueship across different types of institutions. Our findings highlight that colleagueship served toward the improvement of teaching, disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning, securing one’s research agenda, career management, and friendship. We attend to the nuances of our findings within distinct institutional types, and offer several suggestions for practice and research.

Enacting instructional leadership: perspectives and actions of public K-12 principals

ABSTRACT This article’s purpose is to highlight the perspectives and actions of urban, public school K-12 principals who are noted for prioritising instructional leadership. Grounded in the conceptual framework of agency, I examined the work experiences of 18 New York City public school principals nominated by supervisors, colleagues, trained educational consultants, parents, and students through a four-phase qualitative study consisting of interviews, time surveys, document review, and observations with participants. In order to uphold instructional leadership, analysis highlighted that participants assumed agency by engendering perspectives and actions that viewed instructional leadership as: grounded in learning, influenced by teachers/staff, requiring time and planning for principals and teachers/staff, and calls for teacher/staff empowerment.

Enhancing Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning: Professional Literature that Makes a Difference (review)

After laying out these problems, Lyall and Sell propose several way for states to construct more predictable, strategic means of funding higher education. Some of these strategies are common sense, while others are idealistic. While the authors’ recommendations would likely reduce some of the unpredictability faced by public college and university leaders, one can’t help wondering if Lyall and Sell are a bit naive when they suggest that states should fully fund rainy-day reserves. Of course, states should; but come election time, there seems to be little voter appetite for politicians proposing such reasonable ideas. The book ends with the authors identifying what public purpose universities should seek to accomplish and how statewide higher education boards can help them do so. As with the rest of the book, the authors offer little in the way of empirical support for their ideas, instead choosing to make pronouncements consistent with their experiences. For example, Lyall and Sell state that “states and statewide systems that have relied more heavily on administrative mandates and a regulatory approach have generally been less successful in marshalling the extraordinary creativity of universities toward collective goals” (p. 150). These kinds of statements will make the careful reader ask “Really?” and consider examples of states with highly centralized governing boards and world-class public institutions. Accordingly, they may call into question the authors’ perspective on these issues. In the end, the strength of True Genius is in its description rather than its analysis. Lyall and Sell have constructed a resource that provides a robust account of the realities facing states and public higher education. Students of state systems will find it useful for that purpose while more seasoned policymakers and scholar will find it less useful for their purposes.