The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the perceptions of distributed leadership held by 15 administrators of special education and 15 special education teacher leaders invited to perform a Q-sort, rank ordering 40 statements representing distributed leadership attributes. The research questions that guided this investigation included:…

MBO (Management by objectives) was firstly put forward by Peter F. Drucker (who was a well-known scholar of management in America) in 1954. MBO was applied in many organizations after a number of management scholars developed and perfected it. MBO is a comprehensive and democratic systemic management style which is work-centered and…

Many colleges and universities across the country are dealing with fiscal crises and other pressures by renewing their commitment to strategic planning and clarifying their institutional missions and visions. In times of upheaval and change, attention is inevitably drawn to how decisions are made and by whom. By focusing on those who have nurtured…

A call for change in nursing education has been issued in order to prepare the nurse of the future in a changing health care delivery system with increasing complexity. The learning environment is changing, including the faculty role. Innovative research-based pedagogies are suggested as a way to challenge traditional nursing education. The…

In 2008, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to abolish the Learning and Skills Council and transfer funding for the education and training of 16-19-year-olds in England to local authorities (LAs). The transfer of 16-19 funding complements the responsibilities that LAs have already acquired in relation to the raising of the education and…

Modes of organisation and control within educational organisations have tended to accord with those of the workplace. Bureaucracy has endured in both. Of late, it has been loosened. This has opened up a new conceptual space within educational management and leadership. Its underlying theme is collaboration. The analysis here extends the space…

This case is told from the perspective of Rebecca, a highly skilled mentor teacher, who struggles to work effectively with Ramon, the school principal. This case focuses on the supports and resources that instructional teacher leaders can provide to their school administrators. As the case suggests, the presence of well-trained mentors presents…

The purpose of this study was to determine which of two educational interventions delivered in Spanish would influence Latino elders' attitudes toward and comfort with end-of-life planning in comparison with a control group receiving only standard information routinely provided. Using a posttest-only control group design, elders receiving home…

This paper illustrates the surplus value of multilevel exploratory factor analysis in educational effectiveness research. Educational researchers often use measures for process variables at the class or school level to explain differences in student outcomes. Recently, van de Vijver and Poortinga (2002) have developed a procedure for multilevel…

Purpose: This paper aims to assess the empirical utility and conceptual significance of distributed leadership. Design/methodology/approach: Three main sources of evidence are drawn on. The paper reviews some neglected commentary of an early generation of distributed leadership theorists. It also discusses a strand of social science writings on…

Stemming from my article entitled, "Teachers and the Policy Reform Agenda: What is Policy?," this article refers to the changing landscape of educational policy analysis. Policy influences the nature of teaching and learning and if teachers are to re-centre teachers' voices and combat the neo-liberal agenda underpinning public education, they must…

This working paper describes a series of recent "student voice" projects undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). Although these projects varied in terms of their specific contexts and processes, each sought to elicit young people's perspectives (about learning, education and/or other aspects of their…

The purpose of this study was to examine the decision-making processes of superintendents. Using a democratic lens and ethic of care, this researcher used a multiple case study design to examine two superintendents' perceptions of their processes. Analysis of interview data from the two cases showed that superintendents use a deliberative…

Background/Context: Similar to the United States, government efforts to improve education in the Netherlands are focused on innovation and the development of collaborative structures to support the generation of new knowledge. However, empirical evidence of the relationship between social linkages and innovation in education is scarce. Objective:…

Science students leaving undergraduate programs are entering the biotechnology industry where they are presented with issues which require integration of science content. Students find this difficult as through-out their studies, most content is limited to a single subdiscipline (e.g., biochemistry, immunology). In addition, students need…