Roma Angel

Conceptualizing Instructional Leadership: The Voices of Principals.

Instructional leadership has long been advocated as a primary responsibility of principals. What is unclear, however, is the role that instructional leadership plays in the current high-stakes testing era in the daily work lives of principals, how they practice as instructional leaders, and toward what instructional outcomes they strive. This study focused on how principals understand the relationship between their daily work and the improvement of instruction in their schools. The study incorporates the voices of 20 principals. Multiple conceptions of instructional leadership are identified and problematic aspects of these conceptions are discussed.

Shared decision-making: case study analysis to promote cross-programme dialogue between administrators and media coordinators

There is a general lack of cross-course and cross-programme dialogue in US colleges of education. Few, if any, opportunities are provided to engage graduate students in authentic dialogue about real school problems and issues. A grant-funded initiative has been launched at Appalachian State University to utilise case studies and web based communication tools to create authentic learning environments that support interaction between school administration and library science students to discuss real school problems and develop lasting solutions. This paper discusses a research study in which case study analysis was used to promote online cross-programme dialogue and assist students in developing their professional voice.

Women mentoring in the academe: a faculty cross-racial and cross-cultural experience

Abstract Two women faculty members, one White from the southeastern United States and one Black African from Zimbabwe, purposefully explored their informal mentoring relationship with the goal of illuminating the complexities associated with their cross-racial, cross-cultural experience. Concentrating on their four-year mentor-mentee academic relationship at a predominantly White institution (PWI), these women employed a dialogic duoethnographic methodology to uncover emerging, nuanced characteristics contributing to the positive nature of their mentoring experience. Calling upon a seminal nine-function mentoring framework focused on advancing mentee personal growth and professional advancement, the authors, engaged in critical interplay of dialogic considerations of their mentoring experiences, relationship, and literature. The authors revealed a distinct cross-cultural and cross-racial journey where each, as participant researcher, uncovered a deeper appreciation for the importance of engaged dialog. Emerging is a complex interplay of understandings about trust, care, and power dynamics as factors in defining mentoring relationships that work for good.