Local Education Authorities Research Articles

Inside de- and re-centralisation: the formation of governance in Swedish local education authorities during education reform

ABSTRACT This article concerns the professional work of Swedish heads of local educational authority [LEA] school administrations) with a particular focus on their relationships with local politicians since the 1990s. In recent decades, Sweden has undergone foundational educational reforms, radically de-centralising - and then re-centralising - the school system. Thus, Sweden represents an interesting case for understanding both de-centralisation and re-centralisation processes. We cover seven empirical studies of superintendents to understand how municipal governance and the role of superintendents have changed over time in response to these large-scale reforms. We show that the de-centralisation reforms of the 1990s destabilised municipal administrative structures and superintendents' roles and duties with regard to politicians. However, during the 2000s, the municipal administrative structures and the role and duties of superintendents stabilised significantly. In the mid-2010s, reforms institutionalised superintendents' roles and bound them more closely to the state administration.

Religious and moral education in Scottish non-denominational primary schools: charting curriculum change through school handbooks

ABSTRACT Religious and Moral Education (RME) in primary schools has been an under-researched aspect of state-funded schooling in Scotland. It has received little scholarly comment, and even less empirical research has been conducted on the extent and nature of provision since the implementation of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence from 2010 onwards. Using the findings from a document analysis of ninety school handbooks from one local education authority, this article contributes to the limited scholarship on this topic. Through a discussion of the themes of compliance, content, and community, the article highlights ongoing challenges concerning implementing CfE RME in the primary sector. It concludes by considering the marginalisation of RME and suggesting that focusing on professional learning and further empirical research are vital next steps.

Governance dynamics and local autonomy in large-scale governmental funding: The case of Sweden’s campaign to improve equity

This article analyses the Swedish case of the government’s funding for equity, which annually provides over 600 million euros to improve equity. Being one of the largest funding schemes ever for work towards educational equity it also provides full autonomy for local education authorities (LEAs) to use the money at their discretion. By studying local decisions through interviews and analysing applications and plans in nine cases, we deepen our understanding of governance relations between state, LEAs and schools. Our findings show that funding is used mostly for general purposes, rather than for specific measures to improve equity. Dynamics of governance that mitigate improvements in equity are also found. LEAs take advantage of their position as receivers and distributors of the funding to local schools, deciding what equity is and how to invest in improving it, rather than passing funds to their school units and let them decide on its use.

The autonomy of middle managers in local education administrations: a Swedish viewpoint

ABSTRACT The focus of this article is on how the relative autonomy of middle managers is expressed in the context of local education administrations. In the Swedish education system, middle managers often constitute the link between principals at schools and local government education administrators. Little is known about what such middle managers do and why. To fill this knowledge gap, this article presents and discusses the results of interviews with middle managers, chief education officers and principals linked to four local education administrations in Sweden. A previously developed analytical model has been adapted to facilitate the interpretation of results and how they relate to the concept of autonomy in education administration. The framework encompasses four cognitive domains: educational, social, developmental, and administrative. The results display middle manager autonomy as fostered and limited by all four domains and how the use of relative autonomy varies between middle managers. There are differences between middle managers in separate local education administrations and middle managers working in the same organization. A major finding is that autonomy is always conditioned, not only by organization but significantly also by cognition and administrative interaction.

Environmental Governance of Forests Over Limestone in Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape (GMRPLS), Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Philippines: A Gendered-Age Perspective

Environmental governance of the Forests Over Limestone (FOL) ecosystem is critical, considering its unique and fragile characteristics. However, there is a limited study on the role of gender and age in the perception of stakeholders' participation in forest governance. A survey was conducted in the Forests Over Limestone of Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape (GMRPLS), Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Philippines, to determine the perception of the residents in GMRPLS as to the responsible sectors and groups in the conservation and protection of FOL. The study results showed that men and women of various age groups identified the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Local Government Units (LGUs), people organizations, non-government organizations, education, businesses and industries, and the community comprising of men and women of various age groups, e.g., children, teenagers, adults, senior citizens, as stakeholders of the FOL in GMRPLS. The study also tried to determine the relationship between age and the respondents' perception of FOL stakeholders. However, no relationship was found between age and their perception of the various groups responsible for FOL governance. Moreover, a very weak (0.096) relationship between age and their perception that adults are responsible for FOL governance was found at a 0.05 significance level. The results indicate that older people are expected to participate in the environmental governance of the FOL ecosystem. A very weak relationship between age and their perception that men (0.123) and women (0.089) are responsible for FOL governance was also found at a 0.01 and 0.05 significance level, respectively. The results suggest a need to develop and implement policies and programs that will empower women to participate in FOL governance while ensuring equal representation of men and women from various age groups in the management of FOL. The study recommends organizing developmental activities for young men and women from different age groups to promote and instill environmental values so that they continue to support the conservation and protection of FOL as they age.

Principals as instructional leaders: an exploration of school context factors that affect principals’ competence at primary schools in Tarcha town, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate school context-related factors that affect principals’ instructional leadership competence in primary schools in Tarcha Town, Ethiopia. A qualitative case-study research design was used. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Twelve senior principals were included in the study through purposive sampling. Interviews were used to collect in-depth data. The data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicated that primary school principals face both internal and external challenges. Internally, they face limited knowledge and skills, a lack of courage and commitment, and administrative work overload. Their external challenges included negative attitudes from parents and teachers, a lack of instructional materials, and little support from local education authorities. Consequently, they can’t serve effectively as instructional leaders or resource people. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education, South West Regional Education Bureau, Dawuro Zone Education Department, and Tarcha Town Administration Education Officers and Cluster Supervisors regularly monitor and support school leaders and prepare and provide pertinent teaching materials and training so that the principals can lead in the capacity that is appropriate for the position.

The relationship between culture and sustainable development goal compliance at the municipal level

AbstractThis study assesses the role of culture in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the Spanish public sector, focusing on the influence of local government cultural spending and education levels on SDG compliance in municipalities. Cultural spending, considered as a percentage of total non‐financial local government spending, municipal education levels and SDG implementation indicators from the Sustainable Development Solutions Networks (SDSN)‐Spain are used in this research, which employs an ordinary least squares regression and two‐stage least squares analysis for robustness. The results suggest that higher levels of education correlate with SDG compliance, while increased spending on culture does not. Since the existing research about the impact of culture on the SDGs is limited, this study addresses this gap. It suggests that policymakers should promote culture and integrate sustainability into education to increase SDG awareness and implementation.

Effects Of Jolly Phonics Strategy on Pupils’ Reading Achievement and Attitudes in Lagos State Lower Basic Schools

This study investigated the effectiveness of implementing the Jolly Phonics strategy on pupils’ reading achievement and attitude within the context of lower basic schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the quasi-experimental pre-testing, post-test, control group experimental design. The population of the study consisted of all basic 1 pupil in public lower basic schools in Lagos State. While the sample size was Three hundred and twenty-four (324) pupils of Lower Basic 1 and Nine (9) teachers who were randomly and purposively selected using Simple Random sampling technique. The sample size was drawn from three schools from three Local Government Education Authority Areas (LGEAs) in Lagos State public lower basic schools. Two research questions were used and three instruments used for eliciting responses were Achievement Test in Reading (ATR), Pupils’ Attitude to Reading Questionnaire (PARQ) and Pupils’ Verbal Ability Test (PVAT). The instruments were validated by experts in early childhood and measurement and evaluation. The test re-test method was adopted for instrument reliability at 0.75. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard deviation) Variance and Analysis Covariance (ANCOVA) Findings revealed that Jolly Phonics had significant effect on the academic achievement in reading of basic 1 pupil in lower basic schools and their attitude. Pupils taught with Jolly Phonics strategy performed better in reading achievement and had positive attitude than those taught with conventional method. It was recommended that Jolly phonics instructional strategies should be incorporated into basic school reading curriculum. This will help them develop reading skills easily. Individual differences in pupils’ reading ability should be identified and addressed through variation of reading strategies as was provided for in the experimental groups with jolly phonics strategy. Government, school managers and administrators should provide adequate instructional materials that will motivate pupils to easily adapt to jolly instructional strategy.

On the problems of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20s and 30s of the XXcentury (on the materials of Northern Kazakhstan)

The article is an analysis of the problem of education of national minorities in Kazakhstan in the 20–30 years of the XX centuries.The focus of the researchers is on the initial period of Soviet power, when the processes of modernization and national self-determination intensified in the country. The main trends in the creation of the school system of national minorities, such as the opening of national schools, national cultural and educa-tional institutions, training of national teaching staff are considered. The peculiarity of the ethnic structure of the population of Kazakhstan in the studied period was the diversity of its national composition as a result of the active resettlement policy of the Russian Empire and migration processes of the Soviet period. The au-thors also pay attention to regional peculiarities in the development of the school system in Kazakhstan.The specificity of Northern Kazakhstan was that the German, Ukrainian, and Tatar populations were represented to a greater extent here; accordingly, the provincial education authorities paid special attention to the creation of schools for these ethnic groups, the number of which was increasing every year. The authors dwell sepa-rately on the problems and difficulties encountered by local education authorities —the lack of educational literature in the native language, the lack of basic conditions for organizing educational activities for national minorities, weak teaching staff, and the lack of experience in carrying out effective work to solve these prob-lems. The main reasons for overcoming these difficulties were the great diversity and dispersion of the popuation of Kazakhstan, the peculiarities of its economic way of life, the colonial past, the lack of specialists in local authorities to solve the problems of national minorities, the lack of funds for the development of nation-al schools.

School quality matters: how mentoring can be restructured to support beginning teachers in different schools from a social capital perspective

ABSTRACT This study qualitatively and exploratively investigates mentoring for four beginning teachers from four schools with different levels of quality, as defined by the local education authority, to explore whether school quality positively correlates with the effectiveness of mentoring from a social capital perspective. We found that beginning teachers in high-quality schools are more likely to obtain effective mentoring than their colleagues working in disadvantaged and ordinary schools because they have more significant opportunities to obtain high-quality social capital through mentoring networks. This study proposes a regional support system for restructuring mentoring to support beginning teachers in different schools. Several insights that emerge from the results are discussed.

Large-scale school improvement: results of and conditions for systemic changes within coupled school systems

The aim of this study was to explore the results of and conditions for systemic large-scale school improvement. Through a multi-level analysis and a theoretical framework inspired by organization- and sensemaking-oriented theories, the study examines how a Swedish large-scale school improvement program, “Collaboration for the Best School Possible,” played out in two Swedish municipalities. School actors at four organizational levels (at the National Education Agency, Local Education Authority, school leader, and teacher levels) in the two municipalities were interviewed. Because these school actors’ sensemaking is linked to different aspects of the national largescale improvement program, the analysis shows a variation in the strengthening of the couplings between these organizational levels. The different nature of the couplings affected the implementation process and the results of the program. While the national large-scale program seemed to have contributed to an improvement in the schools’ quality assurance systems and leadership practices, there were difficulties in maintaining general and sustainable changes in schools’ instructional practices. The conclusion of the study was that, even if a national large-scale school improvement program is well designed and backed up with many resources, it must be perceived as legitimate among the local school actors at the different organizational levels. This points to the importance of managing the balance between top-down efforts and visions and local professional knowledge and experience.

Integrative Approaches to Internal Quality Assurance in Junior High Schools: Exploring Impacts on Student Learning, Teacher Effectiveness, and School Management

The concept of Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) in Indonesian junior high schools is examined in this study, focusing on its effects on student learning, teacher effectiveness, and school management. Employing a qualitative case study method, the research involved teachers, students, administrators, parents, local education authorities, and Quality Assurance officers. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, findings reveal that IQA enhances classroom organization and student engagement, while providing valuable feedback and professional development for teachers. Despite these benefits, challenges include increased administrative tasks and potential teacher burnout. IQA also improves resource management but requires adaptation to specific local needs. The study advocates for an IQA approach that balances educational quality with community impact, emphasizing the importance of managing stress and administrative burdens to optimize benefits. Limitations noted include biases from self-reported data, recommending future mixed-methods research to expand participant diversity.

Assessment of the Use of Emerging Educational Technologies in The Teaching and Learning of Social Studies in Secondary Schools in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria

This paper examined the level of usage of emerging technologies in the teaching and learning of Social Studies in secondary schools in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. The paper maintained that teaching and learning are crucial in any educational endeavour, and Social Studies is an indispensable component of the school curriculum that requires the best, modern technological approach in its pedagogical process. The study was anchored on Bruner’s theory of instruction and survey research design. The population comprised all Social Studies teachers in public secondary schools in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State. This amounted to 234 teachers and 1855 students in five local government education authorities (LGEA). Using stratified and simple random sampling technique, three LGEAs were selected from which 72 teachers and 282 students were chosen for the study. A structured and validated questionnaire was the major instrument for data collection. Data was analysed using simple percentages, mean and standard deviation. Result showed that only very few teachers and students were aware emerging technologies and the utilisation in the study area. The major challenge in the use of emerging technologies is unavailability and inaccessibility of resources to procure and operate the technologies. It was recommended that faculties and colleges of education should provide adequate teacher-education training to enhance teachers’ capacity to use emerging technologies in schools.

School social media use and its impact upon children's rights to privacy and autonomy

The role schools are playing in children's datafication is increasingly recognised. This article explores how school publication of children's images on social media is contributing to children's datafication and how it is negatively impacting upon children's rights more generally. Identifying that schools across the UK, the US, Australia and Europe are now publishing children's images online, it situates the findings of an inquiry into UK practice within wider discussion of school practices worldwide.This article uses practice-based documentary analysis to evaluate guidance provided to schools by local education authorities (LEAs) across England, Scotland and Wales. It identifies that LEAs are failing to recognise children's Article 12 UNCRC right to be heard. LEAs frequently advise schools to seek consent from parents, denying children agency. Online publications which identify children potentially contravene Article 16 UNCRC's requirement not to subject a child to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy and may expose children to harms such as harassment and grooming. Nonetheless the template consent forms provided to parents provide minimal information about such risks. Concerns are raised that online publications are not always in children's best interests, thus contravening Article 3 UNCRC.With similar concerns having been raised in other jurisdictions, this article argues for a new child-rights focused approach. Drawing upon Dimopoulos’ (2021) theory of children's decisional privacy and upon best practice from the UK, it suggests how schools across the globe can ensure children's rights and views inform school decisions to share children's images via social media.

Evaluating the Donor Organizations’ Impact on School Administration with Reference to Primary Education in Katsina Education Zone, Katsina State of Nigeria

This study explores the donor organisations’ impact on school administration with reference to primary education in Katsina education zone, Katsina State of Nigeria. Descriptive Survey Research Design and self-structured questionnaires were adopted in the study. The total population was 4,825, while the sample of the study comprised 343 primary school teachers, 7 administrators of local government education authorities and 10 P.T.A. officials was 362 as guided. Consequently, R – value of 0.97 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha Value, which depicted the suitability of the instrument. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviations (SD) as well as inferential statistics (Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and SPSS V 23.0 as the statistical tools for analyzing the data. The study found that donor organisations’ impact on the provision of training and retraining of public primary school teachers in Katsina education zone was positive. The null hypothesis was retained, because the P. value was greater than the 0.05 significant Level. It was also recommended that Katsina State Universal Basic Education Board – SUBEB should decentralize and democratize its processes of selecting participants in training and retraining, thereby involving all school administrators in Katsina Education zone in selecting public primary school teachers to participate in any training and retraining. Keywords: Academic performance, Donor Organisations, Impact, Primary education, School Administration.

The local governance of Swedish schools in light of a new educational policy landscape empirical exploration and theoretical elaboration

ABSTRACT In the Nordic curriculum theory (CT) tradition, questions linked to educational change and school governance have long been a crucial research issue. However, despite several decades of decentralized school systems, local school governance has been a highly neglected field of research. Considering the changing landscape of school governance in terms of re-centralization, where the state’s aim is to take stronger control of school outcomes, the conditions for local school governance have changed. Based on results from two research projects in two Swedish municipalities, and from a neo-institutional theoretical perspective, the aim of this article is to contribute to the CT research field by exploring and theorizing on local school governance. Four management strategies that local educational authorities (LEAs) employed to manage the schools could be distinguished: local school management via i) data use, ii) the standardization and formalization of schools’ quality assurance processes and routines, iii) quality dialogues, iv) professional learning and best practices. These management strategies and activities were mostly organized, and conducted within the scope of the LEAs’ quality assurance systems and were primarily built on normative and cultural – cognitive elements. A way to conceptualize this form of governance is through the concept of ‘local quality management’.

Regional climate risks and government education expenditure: evidence from China

Faced with the impact of climate risks, what responses do local governments make, particularly in the domain of social public policy? This study uses provincial panel data from China from 2009 to 2020 to investigate how climate risks affect local government education expenditure and its mechanisms. Analysis using spatial econometric models reveals the following. First, local climate risks significantly increase government education expenditure. This conclusion remains consistent across different proxy variables, model specifications, and estimation methods. Additionally, there is a spatial dependency on local government education expenditure, meaning that educational spending in neighboring areas positively influences the education expenditure of a specific location. Second, further mechanism analysis shows that climate risks lead to credit easing and drive the digital economic transformation of a location, thereby increasing its education expenditure. Third, considering the heterogeneity in the spatial dimension, it is found that this positive impetus exists only in the economically more developed eastern region. This study provides insights into understanding how the Chinese government responds to the impact of climate risks and its fiscal policy choices.

FACTORS AFFECTING SUSTAINABLE POVERTY REDUCTION LIVELIHOODS IN RURAL AREAS IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

Sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas is a comprehensive process to solve current problems and build sustainability for the future. Sustainable Poverty Reduction Livelihoods in Rural Areas aims at solutions to reduce poverty and ensure complete and sustainable development of rural communities. The research seeks to discover factors affecting sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas. Research data was collected in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. In the survey with the questionnaire, 750 people responded directly to the questionnaire. SPSS 20 and AMOS 24 software are used to analyze data. The data collection process takes place from August to October 2023. Implementation methods include data descriptive statistics, testing scales, analyzing factors' suitability, and testing research structure. The research results show that six factors affect sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction in rural areas in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, including local government policies, infrastructure, education and training, labour market, community involvement, and finance and banking services. From the study's findings, several contents are discussed and suggested to help understand the relationship between factors affecting sustainable poverty reduction livelihoods in rural areas.

ЕНЕРГОСПОЖИВАННЯ ШКОЛИ В УМОВАХ НЕПОВНОЇ ЗАЙНЯТОСТІ ДЛЯ РІЗНИХ РЕЖИМІВ ОПАЛЕННЯ ПРИМІЩЕНЬ

The challenges facing the Ukrainian education system, particularly in light of demo-graphic changes and the impact of war, are examined in this research. It highlights the poten-tial for optimizing the operation modes of school buildings under conditions of partial occu-pancy to reduce energy consumption and ensure comfortable conditions for students. Energy modeling analysis using DesignBuilder software shows that the configuration of classrooms significantly impacts the energy efficiency of buildings. The best results for energy efficiency were achieved with rooms stacked on top of each other, outperforming the variant with three rooms on the middle floor by 22.3%, and mixed configurations by 8.5% and 16%. This efficiency is due to minimized contact with unheated premises and maximized solar heat gains. However, without appropriate building upgrades, the use of limited spaces may not provide adequate comfort conditions in colder periods. For the rooms studied (45-48m^2), the required heating device capacity to maintain comfortable conditions varies from 7.5 to 10.5 kW, depending on the level of insulation, which is 3-5 times more than the standard capacity for such spaces. Providing comfortable conditions without upgrading the heating system in cold periods is unfeasible, even with high levels of building insulation and a constant heating schedule. Therefore, implementing partial use of school buildings, despite their high potential for en-ergy savings, cannot satisfy student comfort needs without corresponding improvements. Future research could provide a foundation for developing comprehensive strategies for managing school spaces, considering variable building usage conditions and ensuring an optimal combination of energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and comfort for students and staff. The findings can be useful for school administrations, local educational authorities, and policymakers in education and energy efficiency. Further studies are suggested to explore the impact of internal wall insulation, increased heating device capacity, and heating uncondi-tioned rooms to a certain temperature level on energy efficiency and comfort conditions in occupied spaces.

Attitude of Government School Teachers Towards Including Children with Disabilities in Mainstream Education: A Case Study of Larkana

This study aims to examine attitude of government school teachers towards integration of Children with Disabilities (CWD) in mainstream education. Their perception of the phenomenon, challenges and possible solutions in their views were covered. Qualitative method, particularly case study design, was used for data collection, and its interpretive approach was utilized in order to gain detailed data from the participants. In the case study, a school in Larkana was selected. Utilizing purposive sampling and criterion-based selection, ten teachers from the school were chosen as respondents to obtain data. Out of ten respondents, eight teachers eventually became part of the study, and the data was collected from them. The data collection tools were semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The obtained data was subjected to content analysis during which different themes emerged: the establishment of an inclusive school, the role of teachers in mainstream schools to implement inclusive education in schools, and the role of the Education and Literacy Department in establishing inclusive schools. In case the mainstream school is converted into an inclusive school, the respondents were aware of the challenges that they might face and the role that they will have to play concerning differentiation, individualized type of support, and collaboration. Findings revealed that the respondents considered the school unfit for turning into an inclusive school due to missing men and material resources, overcrowded classrooms that will make it difficult to teach children with disabilities, and lack of support from local educational authorities. They recommended contextually responsive support for teachers along with their specialized training, keeping into account the real classroom environment, to successfully convert a mainstream school into an inclusive school. Reducing teacher student ratio and recruitment of teaching assistants were also recommended.