Netta Sagie

School–Nongovernmental Organization Engagement as an Entrepreneurial Venture A Case Study of Sunlight’s Engagement With Israeli Schools

Purpose: This study examines the objectives, nature, and perceived outcomes of school–nongovernmental organization (school-NGO) engagements in the Israeli education system, focusing on a single case study of a school-NGO interaction. We aim to characterize the conflicting motivations of each stakeholder involved in the creation and formulation of such engagement and to capture the process of interaction—from its initiation through the decision to continue, expand, or abolish these relations. Research Design: We employ a case study approach based on in-depth interviews with school principals, the NGO’s CEO, representatives of the local education authority and Ministry of Education, and the Israeli parliament’s Education Committee director, in addition to publication analysis, to provide a comprehensive view of the interaction from the stakeholders’ perspectives. Findings: We find that school-NGO interaction results from multidimensional relations, wherein each involved entity holds a set of aims and motivations that intermingle with those of other entities to create and form the engagement. School-NGO interaction can be considered a form of entrepreneurship within the education system, with each stakeholder acting entrepreneurially to gain value, attain resources, and mitigate risks in a proactive and innovative matter. All stakeholders employ this initiative to address their own, sometimes conflicting, goals and to benefit according to their own agendas. Conclusions: We conclude by discussing possible theoretical and practical implications involving school principals’ agency and NGO-school engagements in the local and global context.

Research on internationalisation in higher education – exploratory analysis

Research on internationalisation in higher education has dramatically expanded over the last several decades. This study aims to provide an overview of the research developments undertaken between 1980 and 2014, on internationalisation in higher education. Explorative, systematic literature screening and analysis were undertaken, encompassing over 7,000 scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed journals during that period. A novel methodology was developed for collecting, screening, coding, and analysing the gathered data. Through the coding system employed, specific trends were identified and quantified in research on internationalisation within regions, countries, disciplines, years, and subjects of study. Several patterns were revealed, reflecting changing trends in research focusing on internationalisation in education, regarding differences over time and different areas of the world. The findings provide a glimpse into the changing directions research on internationalisation in higher education has taken, and might ignite the discussion of future directions and transformations.

Parental ‘intrapreneurship’ in action: theoretical elaboration through the Israeli case study

Parents are widely acknowledged as prominent actors in schools’ success; consequently, school–parent interactions are heavily investigated from sociological, psychological, political, and cultural perspectives. By applying the “open system” perspective to schools as an eco-system, this study addresses parents as integrative stakeholders in schools and analyzes parents’ “intrapreneurial” (internally entrepreneurial) behaviors regarding initiation and implementation of new ventures within existing schools. We reveal the circumstances under which such parental initiatives are institutionalized in schools. By doing so, we define a novel concept of parental entrepreneurship and present it within empirical settings. We further characterize this phenomenon in the Israeli education system, including the identification and mapping of the power relations and motivations of different stakeholders involved. Our study uncovers an emerging new pathway for the school–parent academic discourse and notes several practical implications of this discourse for policy-making in this area.

School-NGO interaction: case studies of Israel and Germany

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction between schools and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Israeli and German education systems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved: school principals, the NGOs’ leadership, and regulatory authorities in each country. Design/methodology/approach – The study documents the process by which the interactions between schools and NGOs emerge, the motivations of each of the involved stakeholders, how stakeholders perceive the interaction and the power relations between the involved stakeholders. The study was conducted using the qualitative “grounded theory” methodology, which the authors applied to develop a concept that is anchored in data collected through the research and systematically analyzed. Findings – Using case studies, the authors examine how the relationships between the formal education system and the external entity are formed, reveal the motivations and strategies of the stakeholders involved in the interaction, and investigate the partnerships’ development process in the two different educational systems studied. Findings from the study leading to the conclusion that school-NGO interaction is based on entrepreneurial activities on the part of the school principals and the NGOs, which is gradually becoming institutionalized. Originality/value – Through this study, the authors have developed a new empirical based theory on the interaction between schools and NGOs as entrepreneurial activity.

A comparative case-study of school-LEA-NGO interactions across different socio-economic strata in Israel

Abstract This study examines the interaction between non-governmental organization (NGO), the Local Education Authority (LEA), and public schools in communities of different socioeconomic backgrounds in Israel. We characterize how schools serving more and less affluent communities create, cultivate, and preserve interactions with NGOs; how NGOs form, and sustain interactions with schools serving communities of different socioeconomic backgrounds; and how this process is maintained through LEA regulation. We show how school–NGO–LEA interaction is largely shaped by the affluence of respective schools’ communities within given educational settings. Analysis of interviews conducted with different stakeholders exposed two main themes: (1) the differing capabilities of various actors in this interaction to express agency; (2) the power relations between involved parties, whereby NGO and LEA impose a global agenda on local schools (particularly those serving less affluent communities) – occasionally in contrast to the needs as perceived by schools’ leaders. Our conclusions offer some insights into the nature and possible consequences of the interaction between third sector organizations and schools serving communities of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

Project Monitoring, Control, and Evaluation: The Unique Aspects of Projects in Schools

This chapter focuses on the process of evaluating the project success: first, briefly, in the broad context of the business and industrial literature and afterwards with reference to the unique aspects of educational projects executed in schools. It is important to note that a considerable portion of project management literature deals with strategies to increase the project success; however, we will not discuss this subject here, but rather focus on evaluation of project success. Next, we will present a specific aspect of the process of monitoring and control—managing the risks in projects—while emphasizing the unique characteristics of project management in the educational field, which in certain contexts requires a specific approach to this subject.

Educational Planning and Its Unique Characteristics

The primary purpose of planning is to prepare a set of directions that will be sufficient for project implementation in a way that will ensure that the project objectives are accomplished. Research shows that investment in planning is positively related to project success. During this chapter, we will discuss and detail the process of project planning within the school context and we will provide specific examples and templates for each phase of planning.

Project Implementation in Schools

The phase of project implementation refers to the efforts involved in directing the progress of a project against the project plan, intended to minimize the variances between the planned and actual progress. Inherent in this phase is change management and process inevitably taken by the project manager and team to meet the project goals and plan. In fact, project implementation encompasses educational changes on different levels that take place as the design and development of the project mature.

Implementing Project Management in Schools

The first chapter outlines the history and definitions of projects and project management from the managerial approach (Meredith & Mantel, Project management: A managerial approach, Wiley, 2011) in diverse organizations and makes the reader familiar with major concepts used in the discipline of project management. It then goes on to discuss the particular features of schools as a distinguished form of organization that is different from for-profit firms and businesses as well as from other non-profit organizations that therefore make it necessary to propose a different modeling of project management in educational institutions. The chapter concludes with the presentation of the uniqueness of project management in the education sector and particularly in schools, discussing the specificities of schools in relation to initiation and development of projects at pedagogical, organizational, ethical, political, social, and other levels. This book implicitly focuses on public schooling, but most of the implications are suitable for use in private schooling as well.

Institutional Entrepreneurship in Education Policy: Societal Transformation in Israel

It has long been recognized that entrepreneurship plays a significant role in the economic development of organizations and countries (Cuervo, Ribeiro, & Roig, 2007; Drucker, 1985; Foster, 1986; Morris & Lewis, 1991; Morris & Sexton, 1996; Peters, 1987). Promoting entrepreneurship as a mechanism to stimulate growth and to generate higher employment and competition in global markets has thus become a central strategy of governments worldwide, who have begun to develop policies that promote and institutionalize entrepreneurship in their countries (Audretsch & Beckmann, 2007; Minniti, 2008). While most of the theoretical discourse was once attached to classic forms of entrepreneurship (the establishment of new businesses in order to maximize economic profit), in recent decades more attention has been devoted to corporate entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in education, as well as to policy formation and enactment in each of these domains.