Management in Education

The Philippines is one of very few countries in the world where schools have continuously remained closed since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2019. There is little known about how school principals face the challenges that arise from the pandemic, and the future goals for the new normal. The purpose of this article is to explore the school principals’ management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered, and future goals in response to the pandemic in the context of Philippine schools. This study employed a qualitative research approach using an open-ended online survey with 52 school principals. Findings rendered a contextualisation of their school management practices, leadership styles, challenges encountered during the pandemic, and future goals for the new normal. This study contributes to the knowledge base on school leadership during the pandemic by providing unique insights into the Philippines.

In many Western countries, the student populations are largely ethno-culturally diversified due to large inflow of migrants. Despite this, the teaching workforce in these countries tends to be predominantly white. The large disparity between students and teachers has implications for equity and inclusive education. In this paper, we argue that a more diverse teacher workforce – particularly migrant teachers – can help to strengthen inclusiveness in schools along with the increasing diversity of the students in those countries. This ensures that students from diverse backgrounds can have their needs and voices heard and understood in their schools. It also allows migrant students to find their role models in schools as well as in societies. Simultaneously, it is critical to retain highly skilled migrant teachers in the workforce through the creation of more inclusive school policies, systems and overall school culture.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of using digital and other types of innovations in the management of educational institutions in the country. The methods of content analysis of documents and scientific papers, institutional, system-structural approaches, and other means of scientific and theoretical analysis were used in the study. The investigation of the main areas of improving the management of educational organisations in Kazakhstan, various management decisions and attempts to implement state programme measures endows this study with socioeconomic and applied research character. This study shows the shortcomings of the management plan on the development of school curricula for mathematics, natural sciences, and humanities using the results of representatives (schoolchildren) of educational organisations of Kazakhstan passing the international assessment and programme verification (Programme for International Student Assessment, Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study). The issues of the importance of advanced training of teachers of higher educational institutions, the reform of the entire education system, the problems of technical and technological provision of educational institutions in rural areas of the Turkestan region, digitalisation of the entire learning process were raised. The issues of material and financial security of educational activities in the region and the development of an inclusive education system were also considered. Based on the research of foreign researchers, the peculiarities of the introduction of innovations in education and the informatisation of education were considered.

This paper shares results from a qualitative interview study about site- and district-level administrators' experiences and perceptions implementing a significant college and career readiness reform initiative. Linked Learning (LL) is one college and career readiness reform that has been growing in the U.S. and internationally in recent years. Linked Learning began in 2009 with nine school districts in CA, and currently there are 659 LL pathways across 20 states and 3 countries (Linked Learning Alliance, 2023). Twenty administrators from California schools and districts were interviewed using a protocol developed using Curry's (1992) model of reform implementation and institutionalization and the four core components of Linked Learning. Four significant themes emerged from the data related to advice that administrators shared for implementing a comprehensive school reform: know your stuff, follow your passion, plan your route, and build your team. Overall, these administrators recommended that the reform initiative within an organization should start with the hiring process to build a knowledgeable, passionate team and that personnel, including leaders, need support and training in order to effectively move a reform from the implementation to the institutionalization stage.

This study explores the intricate dynamics of leadership, professional learning communities (PLCs), and their collective impact on driving teaching innovation. We analyze an original dataset from 352 schools from five Italian regions by combining two original datasets from a principals’ questionnaire and innovative didactic project information for each school. We use structural equation modeling to analyze factors influencing innovation. Our results reveal a significant and positive influence of both supportive and instructional leadership styles on the organizational capabilities of the PLC, indirectly affecting teaching innovation. Interestingly, while organizational capabilities exhibited a strong positive relationship with teaching innovation, personal and interpersonal capabilities do not show a significant relationship. This suggests that these aspects of PLC alone may not suffice in driving pedagogical innovation. Overall, this paper underlines the importance of effective leadership and robust PLCs in fostering an environment conducive to innovative teaching practices. It offers valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and school leaders aiming to cultivate a culture of pedagogical innovation in their institutions.

The study aimed to investigate novice principals’ pre-role training in educational leadership. The research was originally intended as a mixed-methods approach; an online questionnaire was applied for data collection to answer the research question: Are public secondary school principals trained to be successful leaders when they undertake this role in Mexico? The questionnaire explored principals’ pre-role formal and informal training, their sense of readiness and the main challenges undertaking the position. It reached 29 responses (n = 29), this very small sample is not representative, but provides insights for examining larger trends in school leaders’ training/preparation in Mexico. Most participants of this study did not have formal pre-appointment training in educational leadership. This seems to be related to Mexican recruitment processes for principalship, where leadership instruction is not required. Informal pre-role training/preparation was more reported to be helpful by participants. Their leadership was limited mainly by challenges related to administrative tasks. The study suggests the need to analyse and improve the Mexican recruitment process for principals, addressing pre-role training and job induction. If larger-scale studies corroborate this scenario, more detailed recommendations would be developed.

This study aims to analyze the perception of professors about the practices of favoritism in Brazilian small private colleges. For this, qualitative exploratory research was carried out, in which 20 professors were interviewed. For data collection, a semistructured interview script was used and for data analysis, it was carried out through the technique of content analysis. Evidence of cronyism and nepotism were found in hiring processes, in the distribution of hours and disciplines, in the appointment of positions, in dismissal processes, in the distribution of resources, in access to information, and in the protection of some professors who have a closer relationship of friendship with the pedagogical coordinator. On the other hand, professors recognize that greater proximity between professors and managers is associated with a greater commitment to goals, providing evidence of legitimization of the practice of favoritism. This study allowed us to identify some situations in which favoritism occurs even if implicitly within private higher education institutions. The findings help managers to develop tools to increase transparency, equity of processes, and support to achieve organizational goals.

Failure does not indicate a bad leader; however, an inability or unwillingness to learn from a leadership failure makes an individual a bad leader. Most current literature focuses on studying good or effective leadership; however, lessons from leadership failures can be just as valuable as learning from leadership successes. Therefore, this article reviews a case study of leadership failure, provides a theory-based solution to learn from destructive leadership, and suggests recommendations for educational leaders and institutions.