Journal of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders
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ACEL Leading & Managing | Volume 20 Number 1 | Autumn/Winter 2014 2014 Autumn/Winter | Number 1 20 Volume | Managing Leading & ACEL Journal of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders Volume 20 Number 1 2014 ISSN 1329-4539 Leading & Managing Journal of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders Patron: Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther AM, The University of Southern Queensland EDITORS Associate Professor Dorothy Andrews & Dr Marian Lewis Leadership Research International Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts The University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia Email: [email protected]; [email protected] EDITORIAL BOARD Professor Lawrence Angus Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther AM Dr David Gurr Head, School of Education Leadership Research (LRI) Senior Lecturer, University of Ballarat University of Southern Queensland Melbourne Graduate School of Education P O Box 663 Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350 University of Melbourne Ballarat, Victoria, 3353 Australia Australia Victoria, 3010 Australia Professor Les Bell Emeritus Professor Neil Dempster Professor Gabriele Lakomski Centre for Educational Leadership Griffith Institute for Educational Research Centre for the Study of Higher Education and Management Griffith University Melbourne Graduate School of Education The University of Leicester Brisbane, Queensland, 4111 Australia University of Melbourne 162-166 Upper New Walk 715 Swanston St, Victoria, 3010 Australia Leicester Emeritus Professor Patrick Duignan LE1 7QA, United Kingdom Director, ‘Leading to Inspire’ Associate Professor David Ng Foo Seong P O Box 161 Policy & Leadership Studies Associate Professor Michael Bezzina Isle of Capri Q 4217 National Institute of Education (NIE) Director, Teaching and Learning Australia 1 Nanyang Walk Singapore 637616 Catholic Education Office Sydney 38 Renwick Street Dr Scott Eacott Professor Viviane Robinson Leichhardt NSW 2040 Australia Faculty of Education Head of School of Education Australian Catholic University Faculty of Education Associate Professor Pam Bishop North Sydney NSW 2059 Australia University of Auckland, New Zealand Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, & Assoc Prof, Educational Leadership Associate Professor Lisa Ehrich Faculty of Education School of Learning & Professional Professor Louise Stoll Western University Studies, Faculty of Education Visiting Professor 1137 Western Road, London Queensland University of Technology Institute of Education Ontario, Canada N6G 1G7 Kelvin Grove Campus University of London Brisbane, Queensland, 4059 Australia 20 Bedford Way Professor Pam Christie London WC1 H OAL, UK School of Education Professor Colin Evers University of Cape Town Professor of Educational Leadership Associate Professor Karen Trimmer Private Bag X3, Rondebosch School of Education Faculty of Business, Education, Law & Arts Cape Town 7701 University of New South Wales University of Southern Queensland Republic of South Africa Sydney, New South Wales, 2052 Toowoomba Q 4350 Australia Australia Professor Neil Cranston Professor Charles Webber School of Education Professor Mike Gaffney Dean, Faculty of Continuing Education University of Tasmania Faculty of Education, Science, and Extension, Mount Royal University PMB 66 Technology & Maths 4825 Mount Royal Gate S.W. Hobart, Tasmania, 7001 University of Canberra Calgary, Alberta T3E 6K6 Australia ACT, 2601 Australia Canada ISSN 1329-4539 Leading & Managing Volume 20 Number 1 Autumn/Winter 2014 CONTENTS Editorial Marian Lewis ii Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts University of Southern Queensland Editors: DOROTHY ANDREWS & MARIAN LEWIS Articles Educational Leadership with Indigenous Partners 1 SUSAN LOVETT, NEIL DEMPSTER & BEV FLÜCKIGER Decision-Making Processes and Educational Leadership in Australia 11 CHRISTINE CUNNINGHAM Micropolitical Insights into Assistant Regional Directors’ Leadership in Queensland Education 32 RAY BLOXHAM, LISA C. EHRICH & RADHA IYER Student Advocacy, Whole-School Change and Transformation in Action: A case study 48 (RON) KIM KEAMY A Model for Effective Leadership in Disadvantaged Rural Schools in Ghana 63 ERASMUS K. NORVIEWU-MORTTY, GLENDA CAMPBELL-EVANS & MARK HACKLING Year Coordinators as Middle-Leaders in Independent Girls’ Schools: Their role and accountability 80 ADELE CRANE & JOHN DE NOBILE The Changing Nature of Australian Based Educational Leadership Research Publications 93 SCOTT EACOTT Book review The Self-Transforming School 106 B.J. Caldwell & J.M. Spinks MICHAEL GAFFNEY ii Leading and Managing, Vol 20, No. 1, 2014, pp. ii-iv Editorial In many ways, and from a range of perspectives, this issue is illustrative of the impact of current discourses on educational leadership. Taken together, the articles question or challenge prevailing discourses or, at least, suggest the need to do this. The exercise of power, in one form or another, is a key element in a number of the articles. Important questions are raised, including how important is it to recognise the political nature of leadership and decision making? How can dialogic spaces be created that allow new conversations to take place – whether in intercultural spaces or through student advocacy? Other significant questions relate to how power is used to reinforce particular agendas and how significant initiatives might avoid being modified and absorbed into existing systems that change their parameters. It is an interesting issue and you are invited to explore the articles, identifying what you see as the emerging themes and question. It is hoped that discussion will indeed be prompted. In the first article, Lovett, Dempster and Flückiger report on the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. A total of 48 schools, located across three Australian states and territories, participated in the 2011-2012 project which sought to support literacy learning (specifically reading) through a modularised professional learning program. Recognising the importance of both home and school in successful learning, ‘two way’ leadership partnerships with indigenous members of each participating school’s community were established. This required engaging in dialogue in shared inter-cultural spaces, where equal value is given to the cultural knowledge and experience of Indigenous people and school leaders, and where the focus is on helping children with their reading. The article reports on initial questionnaire responses from principals and Indigenous leadership partners which indicate some success – though it is recognised that creating intercultural spaces, within the community, where leadership can be shared, is not without its challenges. Further work may be required to develop processes that support this effort. The notion of power relationships in the sharing of leadership is not specifically addressed – but this is at the heart of the article which follows. In the second article, Cunningham critiques decision making from an emancipatory perspective – taking the position that decision making is a privilege of power and that it is problematic to analyse it within an apolitical framework. The article reports on research carried out with a cohort of educational leadership Master of Education students in Western Australia – who shared their current experiences of school decision-making practices and also imagined what this could plausibly be like if their organisations were transformed. They were asked to respond to three situational leadership scenarios and the preference expressed for participatory decision making in the ‘preferred world’ is interesting and contributes to a theme clearly emerging in this issue. As Cunningham notes, focusing on the process of decision making in schools opens up the possibility of discussing power and privilege – and this has the potential to change the focus of discussion and bring out some of the assumptions about leadership that tend to be hidden in ‘usual’ practice, including the (perhaps) assumed political neutrality of school leadership. This would also allow schools to be influential role models for students by demonstrating more participatory democratic ways of making decisions. In the third article, the theme of educational leadership and power relationships is also explored, though from a different perspective. Insights are provided about how power operates in Editorial iii large bureaucratic systems. Bloxham, Ehrich and Iyer report on a study into the work of Assistant Regional Directors, School Performance (ARDs-SP) in Queensland whose role, since 2010, has been to improve student learning through the supervision of principals. In Queensland, as elsewhere, principals are under pressure to demonstrate their success through improved student learning, as evidenced in test results. The article explores how ARDs-SP see their role and analyses how micropolitical forms of power operate within this supervision. The authors draw on the Blasé and Andrews (1995) micropolitical leadership matrix that incorporates three different power arrangements (power over, through and with) within four different leadership styles. The findings and discussions make interesting reading, including the observation that ARD-SP leadership focuses on meeting the corporate agenda through the supervision of principals. It is also observed that a focus on compliance and meeting corporate goals leads to a limited view of school leadership and the importance of local school contexts is not recognised. In perhaps another example of contemplating what