The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how faculty chairs at a large, Midwestern community college understand and engage with the assessment of student learning outcomes within academic programs. This study was informed by two conceptual paradigms of assessment: accountability and improvement. Sensemaking was used as a…

Leadership plays a key role in quality assurance efforts. Higher education institutions and faculties need to be led by leaders who can apply their leadership in quality assurance programs and activities effectively. This chapter discusses the engagement of leadership in higher education in Vietnamese quality assurance with more focus on the past…

Background/purpose: This study examines the extent to which academic department heads at Jordanian universities practice transcendental leadership and its relationship with faculty members' self-management. Transcendental leadership, a contemporary model emphasizing moral growth, collaboration, and alignment with institutional and individual…

This research article aims to (1) determine the knowledge and experience of early childhood education of Suan Dusit University, and (2) develop and study the effectiveness of learning experience provision models that synergize the knowledge of Suan Dusit University to enhance the proper development of young children according to the 75/75…

This research investigated followers' expectations of their heads of departments (HoDs) and how they felt about the fulfilment of the expectations within the context of Ghanaian higher education. It further explored the nature of the challenges the HoDs faced as they tried to meet followers' expectations. The research used a phenomenological…

Using a blend of functional, distributed, and instructional leadership theories as a theoretical lens, this article presents the perspectives of Namibian principals, heads of departments (HODs) and teachers on the various leadership competencies that are required in their role of enabling school leaders to support their teachers' professional…

The present study aims to examine the context of academic dishonesty of research students in a public university setting in Bangladesh. In this regard, the researchers conducted interviews with the concerned authorities of the university, i.e., Chairpersons of the Departments, Deans of the Faculties, Proctor of the University, and Director of…

Department heads are central in the university setting as an important buffer between university leadership and academic staff. However, taking on a middle management role can lead to significant disruptions in academic careers. To investigate the career trajectories of 31 academics in middle management roles, two waves of semi-structured…

New public management (NPM) has dominated the reforms in the higher education sector and the academic discussion on how universities should be governed since the 1980s. Besides, the introduction of accountability and efficiency measures in the form of performance measurement and pay-for-performance scheme, a key debated aspect of NPM is the…

This article explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic department chairs. Through a survey of 172 department chairs in the United States, the central findings of this research--intensified challenges, a multidirectional leadership pivot, and competing perceptions of higher education reinvention--reinforce the liminality of the…

Women are underrepresented as college and university (school) presidents and currently hold about 30% of school presidencies. In 2014, the American Council on Education (ACE) launched an initiative to achieve gender parity among U.S. school presidencies by 2030. To support this initiative, Dr. Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association…

This qualitative study examines the previous leadership experiences and professional training that helped prepare women faculty to become engineering department chairs. Colleges of engineering and institutions of higher education must better understand the professional development experiences of women who are department chairs to identify how to…

Objectives: The research examined the impact of a national crisis on the research output of academic program and department heads in Israel, investigating how these leaders functioned in the face of prolonged uncertainty and exploring whether their administrative role resulted in personal costs. Methods: Data were drawn from interviews with 27…

This study examines the role of deans, department chairs, and diversity officers within the faculty diversity and hiring discourse. Using an embedded case study approach, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 administrative and academic leaders across four academic departments to understand their theories of change to advance faculty…

This article takes Margaret Meek Spencer's 1988 pamphlet "How Texts Teach What Readers Learn" to frame a discussion about the purpose of English Literature in English secondary schools. The primary data informing this article is taken from original interviews with ten Heads of English departments in English secondary schools. Henri…