John L. Keedy

The need for school‐constructed theories in practice in US school restructuring

States that research on school restructuring provides little evidence that teacher‐student‐principal relationships are changing. Staffs may be confusing structural thinking (adopting and implementing organization structures such as shared governance, co‐operative learning groups, teacher‐student advisories) with normative thinking (reconceptualizing how norms characterizing ideal relationships among teachers, principals, and students can be supported and developed through organization structures). Argues that normative thinking requires staffs to reflect critically about their schools as workplaces but that US schools have not been reflective workplaces. As a vehicle for this normative thinking, suggests school‐site constructed theories in practice, which have two steps: critical inquiry and monitoring the change progress. Makes three policy suggestions based on the need for staffs to theorize about their practice: an action research role for professors; a caveat about prescribing only measurable outcomes for administrator preparation programmes; and time for teacher‐leader and principal reflection on their practice.

Examining Teacher Instructional Leadership within the Small Group Dynamics of Collegial Groups.

Abstract For schools to succeed with students who historically have never graduated from high school, teachers will be instructional leaders. The purposes of this qualitative case study were to: (a) assess the instructional leadership of two teachers as collegial group facilitators, and (b) examine teacher mediation effects upon this leadership. Jessie, framing her leadership in guiding and supporting teacher collegiality and recruited by the principal, provided an instructional orientation within her group. Teacher mediation effects were analyzed as collegial and supportive. Danielle, interpreting her leadership in teacher–administrator dynamics and apparently not recruited by the principal, was miscast for the role of group facilitator: She exhibited little instructional leadership. Mediation effects were neutralized, largely because Danielle did not focus group interactions around instruction. Whereas previous researchers found that teacher mediation effects often countered teacher leadership, this study uncovered little evidence for this phenomenon. Facilitator practical knowledge and principal support emerged as factors influencing teacher leadership development.

Reconciling the theory and practice schism in educational administration through practitioner‐developed theories in practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international debate over the university as the service provider for school administrator preparation programs from the United States perspective.Design/methodology/approach – The authors approach is that of using historical analysis in developing a conceptual position: the author argues that the university professoriate in the United States now has little choice but to heal the historic rift between theory and practice if it wants to survive this current ideological era characterized by accountability for public schools to improve student outcomes and by the competitive marketplace.Findings – The authors analysis consists of four separate explications. He first explains the genesis of the schism between theory and practice endemic to all professional schools: 19th century Positivism and early 20th century Technical Rationality. Second, he points out that the university, which traditionally protected education administration programs from const...

Examining School Improvement Through the Lens of Principal and Teacher Flow of Influence in High-Achieving, High-Poverty Schools

Based on the social exchange theory of Homans, Gouldner, and Malinowski, this sociocultural analysis of three elementary schools focused on principal-teacher and teacher-teacher exchanges of instructional influence. Two questions were asked: (a) In what ways, if any, do principals and teachers in high-achieving, high-poverty schools exchange social influence? and (b) How might these exchanges contribute to a schools instructional capacity? Collected through interview, observation, and document mining, data were analyzed inductively. Two major findings emerged from the data. First, principal and teachers exchanged influence reciprocally through (a) informal prerequisites that created a zone of trust for other exchanges of influence, (b) exchanges initiated by assertive teachers that provided reciprocity and indirect social equilibrium between teachers and principals, and (c) exchanges perceived by all players as instructionally valuable. Second, three processes were analyzed as increasing schoolwide instructional capacity: (a) principal-initiated instructional efforts, (b) teacher-directed instructional initiatives, and (c) principal and teacher access to instructional resources.

An assessment of school councils, collegial groups, and professional Development as Teacher Empowerment Strategies

Abstract In the mid-1980s teacher empowerment emerged as the centerpiece of school reform for teachers in the USA. A policy issue now is: How can we empower teachers to become influential teacher leaders and more skilled teachers? In this article the researchers examine three strategies for their effect on empowering teachers within the new policy context of school autonomy. Teacher service on Kentuckys school councils seemed to have little effect on empowering teachers since the researchers found in two studies that teachers were not even attracted to the job in the first place. Facilitators of teacher collegial groups were found to have potential in empowering group members – provided the facilitators conceptualise their role as a learner and supporter of the classroom experimentation process. (;The principal selection of facilitator was a key factor in this empowerment strategy.) Professional development conceptualised as growth opportunities for teachers seemed effective when several factors converge at the school site: an atmosphere of support and trust; teachers assuming leadership roles through administrator encouragement; voluntary participation combined with professional norms fostering teacher involvement; diverse, active learning and self-directed learning experiences connected to teacher work context and expertise; integration of efforts to improve classroom teaching and learning with school-level improvement and PD programmes; professional development ‘as a way of life.’ In the articles last section, implications including suggestions for policymakers are made for building school instructional capacity

Assessing school council contribution to the enabling conditions for instructional capacity building : An Urban district in Kentucky

This study identified the enabling conditions related to building instructional capacity created by the councils in three high-performance schools in an urban district. The authors collected the data through observation, interview, and document mining. School-level data were sorted inductively into themes through constant comparative analysis. These school-level data then were analyzed cross-case. Four enabling conditions generalized across the three councils:(a) principal facilitation of decision making through sharing power with council members,(b) schoolwide networking facilitating “bottom-up” problem solving with staff and parents,(c) a focus on student achievement through use of assessment data, and (d) promotion of staff collective accountability for student achievement. The authors extended these findings to those of other studies and discussed why other enabling conditions identified in the literature were not found in this study: financial resources, systematic professional development, program coherence, and “constructive” conflict.

Local Board Chair Perspectives on Reform in North Carolina: State Decentralization as a Challenge for District Leadership.

Investigators interviewed 16 local board chairs in North Carolina to glean their perspectives toward the ABCs legislation, a landmark reform package. We also assessed whether these chairs demonstrate the ability to conceptualize school policy within larger systemic policy frameworks. Two themes comprised our analysis of chair perspectives. First, our chairs reverberated the ubiquitous “dissatisfaction with government.” Because the state bureaucratic machinery over the previous 15 years had not improved schools to the satisfaction of their clientele, the forthcoming autonomy for districts promised by the ABCs was viewed as a much-welcomed breath of fresh air for the local agency. Our second theme provided a paradox between centralization and decentralization forces within state policy. Decentralization meant loss of political protection traditionally provided by the state bureaucratic apparatus in Raleigh. This lack of organization buffering threatened to tilt the playing field in favor of parents as “smart shoppers” organized into self-interest groups over poorer parents lacking in political influence; in favor of larger districts over smaller districts in terms of district-level resources; and in favor of wealthy districts over poorer districts at least in terms of local ability to raise tax revenue. Five of these 16 chairs exhibited systemic thinking and positioned school reform within larger conceptual frameworks (community colleges, social agencies, and public attitudes toward marketplace competition). Casting reform as a vague dissatisfaction with the status quo, the other 11 chairs exhibited far less systems thinking. This assessment casts some doubt as to their leadership capacity in dealing with this studys emerging hypothesis: The very autonomy that systemic decentralization provides localities makes them potentially vulnerable to local activism across a states political landscape and may result in inequities for certain groups.