Enactment Of Leadership Research Articles

“Above must be above, and below must be below”: enactment of relational school leadership in Vietnam

Over the past 20 years, relational theories of leadership have gained increased traction in the global discourse in educational leadership. This is observable in the increased frequency with which scholars have begun to construct leadership within the sociocultural and institutional systems of different societies. This study addressed the question, “How is effective school leadership constructed in the multi-faceted education context of modern day Vietnam?” We employed a multi-site case study research design to collect qualitative data from several stakeholder groups in three Vietnamese schools. Analysis centered on describing and synthesizing how principal leadership was constructed in these settings. This study “contextualized school leadership” by describing how leadership themes of managing relationships, preserving harmony, and teacher empowerment were shaped by institutional, political and socio-cultural forces in Vietnamese society. The findings support the importance of contextualizing leadership in order to understand differences in how “effective school leadership” is constructed and understood across different societies.

Social Justice Leadership and Family Engagement

Research Approach: This in-depth qualitative case study explores one school leader’s enactment of social justice leadership in an elementary school in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Analysis of interviews and observations revealed how this leader adapted her leadership to prioritize the severe needs of families and students in one of the world’s most violent cities. Findings: The article describes how the leader made sense of the community and its needs. Then, it examines how the leader enacted social justice leadership by addressing the out-of-school challenges that affected student achievement and well-being. Consequently, the leader’s focus shifted toward meaningful family engagement through adult education, community advocacy, and critical questioning of the status quo. Implications: Implications for future research, theory, and administrator preparation programs are presented at the conclusion of the article.

Distribution dilemmas

In this paper, I explore the relationship of democracy to educational leadership; more specifically, to the notion of distributed leadership as it unfolds within policy-mandated multi-site school collaboratives, with particular reference to practices in Malta. Under the policy framework ‘For All Children To Succeed’ introduced in Malta in 2005, Maltese primary and secondary state schools embarked on the process of being organized into networks, legally termed ‘colleges’. I explore leadership distribution among the leaders constituting the college and the subsequent inherent tensions within this educational scenario. The notion of distributed leadership as perceived by the leaders is examined, and especially the leaders’ reception of its presentation in the policy document as the leadership discourse; and its eventual (non-)enactment at both school and college level. A Foucauldian theoretical framework, specifically Foucault’s concepts of power relations, governmentality, discourse, and subjectification, is used to carry out a case study of a Maltese college, collecting data via semi-structured, in-depth interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis. Narrative is both the phenomenon under study and the method of analysis. The policy discourse does not unfold in a participatory democratic manner in practice, resulting in an organizational paradox where leadership enactment in a Maltese college is ‘directed’ from above, rather than ‘distributed’. These findings may be significant for educational practice, policy and theory in terms of the generation of problematization which may lead to further research on this contested topic.

Perceptions of early childhood education professionals on teacher leadership in Finland

ABSTRACTThis study investigated perceptions of early childhood education (ECE) professionals employed at three ECE centres on teacher leadership enactment in Finland. These professionals comprised childcare nurses, teachers and ECE centre directors. Theoretically, the study was anchored on an analysis of teacher leadership and distributed leadership literature comprising research based in early childhood and school education contexts. Findings based on focus groups and interviews with participants suggest that teacher leadership was perceived as a responsibility of ECE pedagogy in Finland. Centre directors were considered remote from daily practice and leadership for pedagogy within the centres was shared with teachers. Teacher leadership was enacted through assessment, planning and ensuring that pedagogy was connected with each centre’s goals. Participants’ perceptions also indicated that centres differed on how support was being provided to teacher leaders.

Competing Priorities and Challenges: Principal Leadership for Social Justice along the U.S.–Mexico Border

Background/ContextPrevious research has focused on the importance of a social justice leadership approach to improve schools that serve marginalized students, but less attention has been focused on potential dilemmas associated with social justice leadership and the ways in which principals prioritize when dilemmas or challenges arise. Principals may be frequently confronting challenges and dilemmas when they lead for social justice, especially considering the pressures and unintended consequences of high-stakes accountability, dwindling school budgets, and increased teacher turnover rates. By examining the nature of social justice leadership in a high-poverty elementary school located along the U.S./Texas–Mexico border, this study explores how certain facets of social justice generate contradictions, tradeoffs, and dilemmas that have implications for marginalized student groups and communities.PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore one principal's enactment of social justice leadership, particularly in relation to how emergent circumstances influence the way social justice challenges are identified, prioritized, and addressed.SettingData were collected at one predominantly Hispanic serving elementary school located along the border: Saenz Elementary Schools (pseudonym).Research DesignIn this study, I employed a qualitative case study methodology and conducted ongoing interviews and observations with the school's principal (Ms. Uribe) to see how she enacted social justice leadership over the course of one school year. Additionally, I interviewed and observed teachers, the school's assistant principal, and other staff to explore alternative perspectives of Ms. Uribe's leadership.FindingsFindings reveal the specific leadership actions Ms. Uribe applied to create a more socially just school, but also highlights the complicated nature of social justice leadership. Contextual circumstances associated with the school and community, as well as Ms. Uribe's own personal and professional experiences and worldviews influenced the way she identified, prioritized, and addressed the many social justice challenges present in her school.Conclusions/RecommendationsMajor conclusions and recommendations from this study include the importance to further explore the way school context and principal experience influence the enactment of social justice leadership, the importance of ongoing critical refection for school leaders addressing issues of marginalization, and the necessity to further consider how principal preparation programs can prepare principals with the knowledge, expertise, experience, and habits of mind to recognize and grapple with competing facets of social justice as well as the challenges and barriers to educational equity.

Clinician's Commentary on McGowan et al.1.

Leadership is a universal phenomenon;2 however, how it is practised varies around the world. Leadership in health care is widely recognized as a requirement of professionals working in evolving and complex health care systems so that they can make sustainable changes and provide effective and efficient care.3 We know that in physiotherapy (PT), leadership is necessary to respond to emerging health care trends and increase the profile of the profession,1 but questions remain about how socio-cultural factors influence the enactment of leadership in PT around the world. Exploring cross-cultural perceptions of leadership is a necessary first step in facilitating global collaboration and educational initiatives that target the development of leadership skills in the profession. I commend McGowan and colleagues1 for their study, which is the first to examine cultural comparisons of leadership in the field of PT. Gaining an international view of leadership has significant implications for physiotherapists across health care systems, both here in Canada and around the world.

Barriers and enablers to advanced practitioners’ ability to enact their leadership role: A scoping review

BackgroundAdvanced roles such as nurse practitioner, nurse consultant and advanced nurse or midwife practitioner are increasing across the world. In most countries, clinical practice, education, leadership and research are the four components that define the advanced practitioner's role. Of these, leadership is perhaps the most important part of the role, but its study has largely been neglected. There is a risk that failure to identify and respond to barriers to enacting the advanced practitioners’ leadership role will limit the extent to which they can become strategic leaders for professional development, and jeopardise the long-term sustainability of the role. ObjectivesTo identify the barriers and enablers to advanced practitioner's ability to enact their leadership role. Data sourcesA search of the research literature was undertaken in electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertation and Theses, from inception to 4–6th June 2015), unpublished research in seventeen online research repositories and institutes, and hand search of 2 leadership journals (March/April 2010–4th June 2015). Review methodsUsing pre-set inclusion criteria, the 1506 titles found were screened by two authors working independently. The 140 full text reports selected were reviewed by two authors separately and 34 were included, and data extracted and cross-checked. Any disagreements were discussed by the scoping team until consensus was reached. Using content analysis, the barriers and enablers relating to leadership enactment were sorted into themes based on their common characteristics, and using a Structure-Process-Outcome conceptual framework were categorised under the four structural layers: (1) healthcare system-level, (2) organisational-level, (3) team-level, and (4) advanced practitioner-level. ResultsThirteen barriers to, and 11 enablers of, leadership were identified. Of these a majority (n=14) were related to organisational-level factors such as mentoring, support from senior management, opportunity to participate at strategic level, structural supports for the role, and size of clinical caseload. Advanced practitioner-level factors relating to personal attributes, knowledge, skills and values of the advanced practitioner were identified. ConclusionsAlthough building leadership capabilities at advanced practitioner-level and team-level are important, without key inputs from healthcare managers, advanced practitioners’ leadership enactment will remain at the level of clinical practice, and their contribution as change agents and innovators at the strategic level of service development and development of the nursing profession will be not be realised.

Co-mentoring: The Iterative Process of Learning about Self and “Becoming” Leaders

Two pre-tenured faculty members at dissimilar institutions found themselves in similar positions – both were assigned to administrative positions that they did not seek. This self-study is an investigation of their processes of becoming leaders and how they aligned and/or conflicted with their espoused beliefs. A review of the literature that guided them is also included. Throughout the process, the two served as co-mentors for each other as they navigated the unfamiliar territory of educational leadership at the university level. Together, they strove to remain committed to shared ideals of democratic practice, transparency, and collaboration. As evidenced in the data, tensions existed as they learned and performed their new roles. Administrative duties and their enactment at times conflicted with their ideals of effective leadership. Electronic journals kept throughout the process were the main data source, which they then revisited to chart their own and each other’s learning and growth while leading. Looking back at their progression, they were able to identify four iterative phases in their development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Discussions of each phase, with examples, are focal points of the study. The co-mentoring model is one that, while not typically or formally used, was shown to be effective for these two new leaders. Leading each other’s learning helped them align ideals of leading (in teaching and scholarship) with traditional ideas of administration (management tasks and leadership enactments). This study provides clear recommendations for new leaders and those who support them in becoming leaders.

Attainment and enactment of leadership among women in the United Arab Emirates: proposing relevant theoretical foundations

Scholarly research on women and leadership within the Arab Middle East (AME) region is still in its infancy, despite significant developments in the regional socio-economic context. This conceptual paper presents a review of the Western and Arab Middle East literature, focusing on key aspects such as gender role expectations, gender stereotypes, and leadership evaluation prejudice as they relate to women and leadership. We also highlight the influence of contextual variables identified in the AME literature, such as traditional and contemporary socio-cultural norms. While this literature provides rich information on the issues of women's leadership in the region, it falls behind the Western literature in terms of established theoretical foundations. We suggest that the context-based application of relevant theoretical perspectives to research on women's leadership in the AME region, can generate potential adaptations of existing theory, or highlight the influences of new variables.

Attainment and enactment of leadership among women in the United Arab Emirates: proposing relevant theoretical foundations

Scholarly research on women and leadership within the Arab Middle East (AME) region is still in its infancy, despite significant developments in the regional socio-economic context. This conceptual paper presents a review of the Western and Arab Middle East literature, focusing on key aspects such as gender role expectations, gender stereotypes, and leadership evaluation prejudice as they relate to women and leadership. We also highlight the influence of contextual variables identified in the AME literature, such as traditional and contemporary socio-cultural norms. While this literature provides rich information on the issues of women's leadership in the region, it falls behind the Western literature in terms of established theoretical foundations. We suggest that the context-based application of relevant theoretical perspectives to research on women's leadership in the AME region, can generate potential adaptations of existing theory, or highlight the influences of new variables.

Responsible Leadership: A Real Need or Transient Curiosity

Responsible leadership is a process of interaction with stakeholders integrating around a shared goal, taking place in the company and outside and based on values and principles of ethics. In Poland, the concept of responsible leadership began to appear only in times of political and economic transformation (after 1989), with the influx of foreign investment. In contrast to countries with about 100 years of experience in the implementation of the concept of responsible leadership, its Polish history is quite short. The purpose of this paper is to explore how responsible leadership is understood in Polish companies, to analyze how RL exists in a transitional country and region, and how organisations can develop leaders who have competencies necessary to ensure the sustainability of the company. A qualitative and quantitative methodology was used to summarize the research among entrepreneurs and businesses. Exploring the construct of social responsibility orientation among entrepreneurs, we show that executives in these businesses hold different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership.

Making sense of images of fact and fiction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review both international and domestic (i.e. Vietnamese language) journal articles and graduate theses and dissertations on educational leadership in Vietnam. The review addresses two specific goals: first, to describe and critically assess the nature of the formal knowledge base on principal leadership in Vietnam, second, to synthesize findings from the existing literature on principal leadership in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employed a method for conducting systematic reviews of research. The authors conducted a detailed, exhaustive search for international and “local” papers from Vietnam, yielding 120 research sources. Information from these papers was extracted and evaluated prior to analysis. Data analysis included both quantitative description of the “review database” as well as critical synthesis of substantive findings. Findings – The review supports and extends an earlier review which found that the practice of educational leadership in Vietnam remains largely “invisible” to the international community of scholars. The review also yielded a highly critical assessment of research perspectives and methods used in the “local” Vietnamese studies which comprised the bulk of the authors’ database. Synthesis of substantive findings highlighted the manner by which organizational, political, and socio-cultural forces in the Vietnamese context shapes the practice of school leadership. Research limitations/implications – First, qualitative studies are recommended that seek to describe, in-depth, the enactment of leadership in the Vietnamese context. Second, broad-scale surveys of characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs of school leaders across Vietnam are warranted. Third, the authors encourage graduate students and scholars studying school leadership in Vietnam to undertake a new generation of theory-informed studies that connect with the global literature. Practical implications – Due to the relatively weak nature of the existing knowledge base, the authors were unable to identify specific implications for leadership practice. However, practical implications are identified for developing the research capacity needed to improve research quality in Vietnam’s universities. Originality/value – This review is the first systematic review of educational leadership and management conducted of the Vietnamese literature. Moreover, the authors suggest that the review is original in its comprehensive coverage of both the local and international literature on educational leadership in Vietnam.

A synthesis of reviews of research on principal leadership in East Asia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from five systematic reviews of research on principal leadership in East Asia contained in this special issue. The goal is to identify commonalities as well as differences concerning both approaches to research and the enactment of school leadership within this rapidly developing and increasingly influential region of the world. Design/methodology/approach – The review uses thematic analysis of both structural elements and substantive findings drawn from the composite review papers. Findings – The synthesis of the research reviews found considerable variability across the five societies in terms of the volume of work accessible to international audiences, topical foci, the conceptual and methodological sophistication, and findings. Three content patterns were discerned via the thematic analysis of the five reviews: first, influences on the principalship (incorporating personal, cultural and political sub themes); second, principal leadership practices (including qualities and styles, vision, indirect influence on student learning and shared decision making); and third, principal development (including preparation, training and professional development). Research limitations/implications – In a broader sense, this synthesis paper seeks to assess the development of the field of applied study in East Asia over the past two decades. As such, the paper highlights implications for further building the knowledge base both in the region and globally. Originality/value – This synthesis, as well as the five reviews, represent the first effort to mark the boundaries of knowledge about school leadership in these East Asian societies. As such, they lay a foundation for the future development of the field in the region, and in so doing also make a contribution to a more diverse global literature in the field.

The Effect of Trust on the Relationship Between Instructional Leadership and Student Outcomes in Hong Kong Secondary Schools

In discussions on the contribution of leadership in improving schools, transformational leadership and instructional leadership are, more often than not, portrayed as disparate practices. The former argues for developing teacher collaborative capacity in schools, whereas the latter advocates establishing controlling measures on teaching quality; both lines of thought attract their own supporters. The recent finding that instructional leadership practices have a greater impact on student learning has apparently marginalised researchers’ attention paid to transformational leadership. This study argues that both leadership practices are important to student performance; transformational leadership can foster a trusting environment in schools for facilitating the effective enactment of instructional leadership. Based on a dataset on Hong Kong vice-principals, this quantitative study found that the widely recognised link between instructional leadership and student outcomes did not hold in low-trust schools. As transformational leadership was conducive for trust building, its role in shaping student performance should be re-addressed.

Perceptions of leadership: a comparison of the views of physiotherapists in Canada and Ireland

Background: Culture has an effect on perceptions and enactment of leadership. At present there are no cross-cultural comparative studies of leadership in physiotherapy. This cross-cultural comparative study of Ireland and Canada will form the first step in taking a global view of leadership in physiotherapy.

A Critical Analysis of the Australian ECEC Policy Reform: An Opportunity for Transforming Educators into Pedagogical Leaders?

THIS PAPER SEEKS TO engage the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) leadership in critical analysis. Drawing on theorisations from the ‘new image of the child’, the paper is structured to provide some analytic insight into the implications that current conceptualisations of children have for leadership practices in the field of ECEC. The discussion highlights the need for multi-layered understanding of leadership among ECEC professionals and the importance of leadership for quality ECEC. This paper also identifies and analyses two main issues present in the current Australian ECEC context that appeared to be hindering leadership enactment among ECEC educators. The ultimate intent of this paper is not to critique the existing state of ECEC practice; rather, the value of this work is its potential to intervene in the scholarship of the ECEC transformation and practice, to disrupt dominant practices and highlight the benefits of embracing the explicit and implicit layers of leadership in early childhood pedagogical practices.

Teacher leadership enactment in professional learning community contexts: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the importance of teacher leaders. In this article, we report on an ethnographic case study involving three PLCs investigating how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework provided by the research team. The findings showed that teacher leadership has potential in supporting PLC conversations along three dimensions of its construct.

Foundations of Responsible Leadership: Asian Versus Western Executive Responsibility Orientations Toward Key Stakeholders

Exploring the construct of social-responsibility orientation across three Asian and two Western societies (Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States), we show evidence that top-level executives in these societies hold fundamentally different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership. We further find that these variations are more closely aligned with institutional factors than with cultural variables, suggesting a need to clarify the connection between culture and institutions on the one hand and culture and social-responsibility orientations on the other.

Responsible Leadership Contribution to Human Resource Management - A Study of CSR-HR Interface

Responsible leadership (RL) is a process of interaction with stakeholders integrating around a shared goal, taking place in the company and outside and based on values and principles of ethics. In Poland, the concept of responsible leadership began to appear only in times of political and economic transformation (after 1989), with the influx of foreign investment. In contrast to countries with about 100 years of experience in the implementation of the concept of responsible leadership, its Polish history is quite short. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how RL exists in a transitional country and region, and how RL contributes to Human Resource Management (HRM). A qualitative and quantitative methodology was used to summarize the research among entrepreneurs and businesses. Exploring the construct of social responsibility orientation among entrepreneurs, we show that executives in these businesses hold different beliefs about their responsibilities toward different stakeholders, with concomitant implications for their understanding and enactment of responsible leadership.

Leading Professional Learning in Early Childhood Centres: Who are the Educational Leaders?

IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRES directors have responsibility for ongoing professional learning to support the implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Currently there is limited understanding about how early childhood leaders support educators to participate in professional learning. This article presents findings from two case studies undertaken as part of a larger research project aimed at exploring the enactment of leadership for professional learning in early childhood centres. Key findings from this research show that directors played a key role as the centre's educational leader and distributing leadership to room leaders was critical in supporting educators' professional learning.