Educational Leadership and Quality of Education in Latvian Vocational Schools: a Comparison between Sportsmen and Seafarers.

Author(s):

Manuel Fernandez(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 13 A, Governance Actors of Promoting Quality of Educational Institutions

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-05

11:00-12:30

Room:

B231 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Antonio Medina

Contribution

Researchers wish to improve the quality and effectiveness of education. The objective of this study was to investigate the way quality of education and educational leadership is understood and implemented in two vocational education institutions (for sportsmen and seafarers) in Latvia.

The study is based on the reference frame proposed by S. Gento for research on educational leadership and quality of education, (Gento, 2002).

The research question was: how quality of education and educational leadership is understood and implemented by the institutions’ director, teachers, researchers, and students? What are the main similarities and differences between them?

Method

A study with a parallel mixed-method design using two questionnaires ("Questionnaire on quality of educational insitutions" and "Questionnaire on educational leadership") and interviews was conducted at the maritime training centre “Novikontas” and at the Latvian Academy of Sport Education in 2013-2014. In each institution 25 answers to the questionnaire on leadership and 25 for the questionnaire on quality were collected, and 7 interviews with different members of the institution were conducted. Data analysis was done with software SPSS and AQUAD 7. Respondents were involved in data analysis and interpretation through focus group discussions and participation in online forums.

Expected Outcomes

The results indicated that there are notable differences between these two professional fields. Whereas in the sport academy priority seems to be given to the professional and charismatic dimension of leadership, in the maritime academy the stress is put on formative and participatory dimensions. In the discussion these finding are situated in Latvian post-Soviet context, and the specificity of the findings in comparison with similar research in other European countries is underlined.

References

Antes, A. & Mumford, M. (2012) Strategies for leader cognition: Viewing the glass "half full" and "half empty". Leadership Quarterly 23 (3): 425-442. Capper, C. & Frattura, E. (2009) Meeting the needs of students of all abilities: How leaders go beyond inclusion. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Clarke, S. & Wildy, H. (2009) The Europeanization of educational leadership: much ado about nothing? European Educational Research Journal 8(3): 352-358. Gento, S. (2002) Instituciones Educativas para la Calidad Total. Madrid: La Muralla. Oord, L. van (2013) Towards transformative leadership in education. International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2013.776116.

Author Information

Manuel Fernandez (presenting / submitting)

University of Latvia

Institute of Pedagogical Sciences

Riga

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