Bill Mulford

Schools as learning organisations: The case for system, teacher and student learning

An Australian government‐funded four‐year research project involving 96 secondary schools, over 5,000 students and 3,700 teachers and their principals has provided a rich source of information on schools conceptualised as learning organisations. The LOLSO project focused on three aspects of high school functioning: leadership, organisational learning and the impact of both on student outcomes. This research has established a relationship between the system factors of leadership and organisational learning and student outcomes as measured by student levels of participation in and engagement with school. This paper summarises this research and reports on a study that empirically tests the relationship between students’ participation in and engagement with school and student achievement using model building and path analysis. The importance of learning at the system, teacher and student level is discussed in the context of school restructuring.

Models of Successful Principal Leadership.

This article provides an Australian perspective on successful school leadership that focuses on case studies in two states (Tasmania and Victoria). Case studies for each state were developed independently and are reported separately. Two models of successful school leadership are outlined and compared, with the models, showing a remarkable degree of commonality demonstrating that the core aspects of successful school leadership can be identified in ways that can help explain the complexity of principal leadership that leads to improved student outcomes. Both studies showed the significant contributions principals made to schools, particularly in the areas of capacity building and teaching and learning. Characteristics and qualities of the principals identified showed a common and consistent set of personal traits, behaviours, values and beliefs, such as honesty and openness, highly developed communication skills, flexibility, commitment, passion, empathy with others, a sense of ‘innate goodness’, support of equity and social justice, a belief that all children are important and can succeed, being other-centred, high expectations and a belief that schools can make a difference.

Successful Principal Leadership: Australian Case Studies.

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an Australian perspective on successful school leadership.Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on case studies in two Australian states (Tasmania and Victoria). Case studies for each state were developed independently and are reported separately.Findings – The findings show a remarkable degree of commonality demonstrating that the core aspects of successful school leadership can be identified in ways that can help explain the complexity of principal leadership that leads to improved student outcomes.Originality/value – Highlights the importance and contribution of the principal to the quality of education.

Successful principalship of high‐performance schools in high‐poverty communities

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to review literature in certain areas and report on related results from a study of successful school principalship in the Australian state of Tasmania.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys on successful school principalship were distributed to a population of 195 government schools (excluding colleges and special schools) in Tasmania with a return rate of 67 per cent. Surveys sought responses in areas such as demographic characteristics (including a measure of school poverty), leadership characteristics, values and beliefs, tensions and dilemmas, learning and development, school capacity building, decision making, evaluation and accountability, and perceptions of school success. In addition, details of actual student performance on literacy and numeracy tests were supplied by the Department of Education.Findings – The literature reviewed in this article indicated that world‐wide poverty is a major issue and that there is a nexus between poverty and education. Whil...

When will they ever Learn?: Another failure of centrally-imposed change

This paper draws on the experiences of a principal and teachers in one secondary school which formed part of a four-site case study undertaken during a period when a new State government set in train the most radical change to an education system in Australias history. The study investigated trust between principals and teachers and showed that imposed school-based management affected this trust resulting in a negative impact within schools. This paper briefly considers the background and context attached to the radical change together with one of its elements, the implementation of a statewide curriculum.

Politics and School Education in Australia: A Case of Shifting Purposes.

Purpose – The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings – Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications – The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value – While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good.

Successful School Principalship in Small Schools.

Purpose – The special characteristics of small schools appear to set them apart from larger schools. In fact, small schools may be a discrete group in that their complexity may not be in direct ratio to their size. The special characteristics of small schools may include the absence of senior staff, administrative assistance on a part time basis only, conservatism and role conflict within the community, and lack of professional interaction. This paper aims to explore these issues by analysing data from a recent survey on Tasmania successful school principalship.Design/methodology/approach – Results from a survey with the population of Tasmanian principals in schools of 200 or less students are compared with previous research findings from the limited literature in the area.Findings – The study has confirmed that contextual demands result in role conflict for teaching principals, that principals of small rural schools are mobile, staying for short periods of time, and that a higher proportion are female. S...

Quality Evidence about Leadership for Organizational and Student Learning in Schools.

Where do those in schools start sorting the wheat from the chaff, genuine growth potions offering long-term improvement from the elixirs, short-term opportunism and/or unrealistic expectations? The current and growing emphasis on evidence informed policy and practice is as good a place as any. The purpose of this article is to take up the issues of the complexity and predictive validity of evidence, that is, the need for evidence to be complex enough to come close to the reality faced by schools and evidence that seeks to link leadership and student outcomes. Arising from detailed qualitative and quantitative research, two models are presented for consideration that, it is argued, better reflect this complexity and predictive validity than previous work in the field.

Successful School Leadership: What is it and Who Decides?

Arguments presented in this paper and the evidence from the Tasmanian Successful School Principals Project support broadening what counts for successful schools and school leadership. This broadening needs to embrace student outcomes, including non-cognitive social outcomes such as student empowerment. In examining who should provide the evidence for successful school leadership the need for triangulation, that is, multiple sources of evidence, became clear. Research employing only principal perceptions of success, especially on the importance of and improvement in student outcomes, should be examined much more critically than has occurred in the past.

The Global Challenge A Matter of Balance

This article is a lightly edited version of the tenth William Walker Oration. In it, the author argues for greater balance in education and its administration; greater balance between continuity and constant change, dependence and independence, individualism and community, and homogeneity and heterogeneity. More specifically the article puts the case for greater emphasis on continuity, independence, community and heterogeneity to balance what is seen as the current overemphasis on constant change, dependence, individualism, and homogeneity. It concludes by offering a key, the key of a research-based approach to development or learning, to open the way to achieving greater balance in the increasing global challenge that is the future of educational administration.