Clive Dimmock

Developing Comparative and International Educational Leadership and Management: A cross-cultural model

While educational leadership and management has experienced impressive development over the last three decades the fact that a robust comparative branch of the field has failed to emerge is equally conspicuous. This article builds a case for comparative and international educational leadership and management, arguing that the development of conceptual frameworks and instrumentation are imperative if the field is to keep abreast of globalisation of policy and practice. Accordingly, a conceptual framework is described and justified based on a cultural and cross-cultural approach focusing on the school level as the baseline unit for analysis. Specifically, the proposed framework is architectured around the interrelationship between two levels of culture, societal and organisational, and four elements comprising schooling and school-based management, namely, organisational structures, leadership and management processes, curriculum, and teaching and learning. Finally, limitations and implications of the model are discussed, including the need for the framework to be operationalised by developing appropriate research instruments.

Comparative Educational Administration: Developing a Cross-Cultural Conceptual Framework

Although educational administration has experienced impressive development over the past three decades, the fact that a robust comparative branch of the field has failed to emerge is equally conspicuous. This article acknowledges and highlights the need for comparative educational administration and argues that the development of conceptual frameworks is imperative in building a comparative dimension. A conceptual framework is described and justified based on a cultural and cross-cultural approach focusing on the school level as the baseline unit for analysis. Specifically, the proposed framework is architectured around the interrelationship between the core concepts of culture, organizational structures, leadership and management processes, curriculum, and teaching and learning. Finally, implicatitons of the model are discussed, including the need for the framework to be operationalized by the development of appropriate research instruments.

Singapore schools and professional learning communities: teacher professional development and school leadership in an Asian hierarchical system

While the literature on professional learning communities (PLCs) has proliferated, much of it derived from and contextualised in Anglo-American settings, the concept and practice of PLCs in Asian contexts of strong hierarchies have largely been ignored. Based on literature and documentary analysis, this paper investigates the systemic implementation of PLCs in Singapore schools. The authors seek to show first how policy developments have in effect been laying the seedbed for PLCs for some 13 years, and yet evidence suggests that teacher pedagogy has been slow to change. Secondly, Singapore educational cultural and institutional contexts are reviewed to reveal how they mediate and filter “Western” notions of PLCs. Three potential implementation difficulties are identified – high teacher workloads, ambiguity of PLC processes and their efficacy, and hierarchical system and workplaces. Conclusions and implications emphasise the importance of effective school leadership in developing PLC practices, and how societal culture and context fundamentally shape the form that PLCs take.

Moving School Leadership Beyond its Narrow Boundaries: Developing a Cross-cultural Approach

Although scholars of educational administration and leadership persistently recognize the place and influence of organizational culture and its relationship with leadership and school life, the field lags behind other disciplines in understanding the influence of societal culture on leadership and organizational behavior. The field is also constrained by an over reliance on theories and practices predominantly developed by a relatively culturally homogeneous cadre of scholars from English-speaking backgrounds. Our salient argument in this chapter is that societal culture is a significant influence on school organization and leadership in different societies because it helps shape school leader’s thoughts about concepts such as leadership, followership, communication and learning and teaching. We suggest that the field of educational administration and leadership should look to societal culture for at least partial explanations of school leaders’ behaviors and actions. We further submit that cross-cultural understanding may be usefully pursued through a comparative approach — one that allows administrative and leadership practices in different societies and cultures to be seen in relation to each other.

Preparing Leaders, Preparing Learners: The Hong Kong Experience.

Trainers and developers of school leaders across the globe are currently searching for models of best practice leadership development programmes. Are there generic features and principles of design underpinning such programmes? This article argues that corroborative evidence of what works in leadership training and development – to influence principals’ knowledge, skills, values and behaviours – is now emerging. It describes a model of best practice in Hong Kong called Blue Skies, founded on and derived from a body of international research-based evidence from successful principal leadership programmes, together with evaluation evidence from another recent Hong Kong leadership programme. First, however, the policy background to leadership preparation in Hong Kong since 1990 is outlined. This is followed by an explanation of the structure for school leader training and development established by the Hong Kong Government since 2000. It is argued that with the structure in place, attention has been able to shift to the design principles of effective leadership programmes that maximize leader learning. Designs based on research evidence of what works emphasize, inter alia, learning linked to real school contexts, substantial involvement of trained and experienced principals as mentors, flexibility to meet diverse needs, multiple opportunities for reflection, and cohort bonding and networking – all of which form the platform for Blue Skies.

Sitting in the "Hot Seat": New Headteachers in the UK.

Purpose – This article aims to identify the main challenges faced by headteachers after taking up their first headship in the UK. It also compares how these challenges have changed over time. Other purposes include the setting of the initial phase of headship within a whole career model and how heads become socialised into the role.Design/methodology/approach – Based on evidence from empirical studies using longitudinal data over a period of 20 years, the paper reviews the challenges faced by new headteachers in the UK; it also advocates a stage model for studying the principalship.Findings – Many of the main challenges experienced by new headteachers remained the same over a 20‐year period; most of the differences were accounted for by changes in government policy over the period. The main difficulties included catering with the legacy of previous incumbents, overcoming established school cultures and communication behaviours, coping with poorly performing staff, and countering a poor public image of the...

One Size Fits All? Teacher Appraisal in a Chinese Culture

In this article we suggest that the penetration of Western policies and practices—in particular, teacher appraisal—into Asian cultural contexts needs to be questioned. We begin by making a general case for considering the influence of societal culture on educational policies and practices, and a more specific argument for assessing its role in the implementation of teacher appraisal in different cultures. We argue that it may be unwise simply to clone appraisal practices in contexts and cultures quite different from those in which they are chartered. The study briefly reviews the status of teacher appraisal in Hong Kong, given that in the next few years all Hong Kong schools must implement appraisal schemes, a fact causing considerable consternation. We then suggest that the most common forms of appraisal being promoted and implemented in Hong Kong are based on traditional Anglo-American understandings and practices. This leads to a discussion of the possible influence exerted by culture on teacher appraisal in the Chinese society of Hong Kong. Noteworthy features of Hong Kongs culture are collectivism and high power distance, both of which are sufficiently different from Anglo-American cultures to suggest that the forms taken by teacher appraisal in those countries may be inappropriate for Hong Kong. In the final section, we briefly discuss a number of issues that, it is suggested, deserve consideration when Hong Kong schools design and implement teacher appraisal schemes. As we stress throughout the study, our discussion is not intended to be definitive. Rather, we hope it will stimulate discussion and research into discovering more culturally sensitive ways of appraising teachers in different parts of the world.

Instructional Leadership in Primary and Secondary Schools in Western Australia

There is increasing support for the importance of the principal′s instructional leadership in school effectiveness. However, there is uncertainty over the extent to which principals actually engage in instructional leadership tasks. Investigates the perceptions held by principals and teachers of principals′ instructional leadership in a sample of Western Australian government primary and secondary schools using the Instructional Leadership Questionnaire. Instructional leadership was found to be a shared responsibility. Principals were perceived to be least involved in “managing the curriculum” and “evaluating and providing feedback”. Primary school principals were perceived to be more responsible for instructional leadership than their secondary counterparts. Principals of very small primary schools (less than 100 students) were most involved in tasks and those of middlesized primary schools (300 to 500 students) were least involved. “Providing rewards and recognition for high quality teaching” was the on...

Transforming Hong Kong’s schools: trends and emerging issues

This paper addresses in three parts the theme of school transformation in Hong Kong. First, it outlines the three main reforms of the 1990s affecting both school management and curriculum, namely, the School Management Initiative), the target‐oriented curriculum, and the Education Commission Report No. 7 on Quality Education. Second, it reviews the effects of these reforms to date. Finally, it discusses two important issues arising from the reforms, namely, the need to re‐orientate the nature and form of the school‐based management system adopted and the need to take greater cognisance of the societal culture of Hong Kong, especially at the school level, the point of implementation of the reforms.

Towards comparative educational administration: building the case for a cross-cultural school-based approach

Promotes and justifies a stronger comparative emphasis in the study of educational administration and management. Addresses questions such as, why adopt a comparative approach to educational administration? Why ground a comparative approach in culture? and, why focus on school organisation, leadership and management as the baseline unit for comparison? In systematically addressing these questions, the paper begins by acknowledging that comparative educational administration has, at best, a weak knowledge base. It goes on to clarify the potential importance of a comparative dimension to the field, and in particular, a comparative approach reflecting a cross‐cultural perspective. Finally, the paper briefly addresses a number of key issues which, it is argued, could inform initiatives to create a robust cross‐cultural approach to comparative educational administration