Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to conduct a critical analysis of the origins and implementation of problem-based learning in educational administration as a window into the limitations of this approach and more generally administrator preparation. Design/methodology/approach: The author reviewed the published work of the originator from…

School leaders face tensions at global, macropolitical, policy, and school levels resulting from simultaneous and contradictory influences toward sameness and difference. Government and school leaders can deal with these tensions by challenging the sameness that typifies school operations and valuing and learning from differences among school…

Examines school reform's effects on principals' professional leadership culture, drawing on research findings from 1993 to 1998, and highlighting possible future reforms in Victoria, Australia. Principals are more satisfied with present, than past, work arrangements. Leadership is more strategic and empowering than heroic or hands-on. (44…

This article first summarizes literature that argues educators are highly stressed, as well as small but growing body of literature that indicates a contrary point of view. Then presents the outcomes of three studies conducted in New York State that indicate relatively low stress in school principals and teachers. Finally, it explores possible…

Summarizes a study using latent-trait theory to construct a variable that conceptualizes practitioner perspectives about the deputy principalship in self-managing (Australian) primary schools. A sample of 403 deputy principals, 179 principals, and 138 teachers was analyzed according to both actual and ideal situations, using a Rasch measurement…

Examines whether findings on teacher role conflict may be generalized to instructors in (Israeli) military academies and training facilities. Aims to identify additional antecedents of instructor role conflict that may have especially powerful effects in total educational organizations (TEOs). Although work design characteristics may influence the…

An Australian principal who participated in an exploratory study to ascertain the extent and sources of stress among school principals realized that many of his colleagues felt isolated and unsupported. The study relates the high incidence of anxiety and depression among principals to conceiving educational administration as a technical activity.…

Investigates the sources, incidence, and intensity of administrative stress among Zimbabwean headteachers, based on a survey of 95 principals. Respondents experienced relatively high stress levels. Several demographic characteristics and school variables (particularly double-shift schools) affected principals' perceptions of stress-inducing…

Queried 15 midwestern public school superintendents concerning the qualities valued in subordinates, factors limiting professional success, and criteria used to determine successful problem resolution. Superintendents also described the most serious problems faced in their careers and their greatest achievements. Participants valued individual…

Drawing on Christopher Lasch's insights, this essay acknowledges the difficulty of applying building and renovation metaphors to educational administration. However, institutions are constantly being created and recreated. They are well served by administrators who function as "builders" and "renovators," leaving behind…

Research on school restructuring provides little evidence that teacher-student-principal relationships are changing. Staffs may be confusing structural with normative thinking, which requires them to reflect critically about their schools as work places. Suggests that school-constructed theories in practice that promote critical thinking and…

Purpose: To explore the reflections of primary headteachers on a series of major policy initiatives introduced by successive Conservative and Labour governments from 1988 to 2003. Design/methodology/method: The methodology is an interview-based survey of six headteachers. The interviews were structured around the headteachers' recollections of…

Purpose: The present study attempted to explore the relationship between teacher learning and student learning under different school structural conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Some 1,330 teachers from 29 secondary schools of different community backgrounds and student academic abilities in Hong Kong were surveyed, using instruments from…