Translating and Transforming (a) CALL for Leadership for Learning
Author(s):
Helle Bjerg (presenting / submitting) Elvi Weinreich (presenting)
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
26. Educational Leadership
Format:
Paper

Session Information

26 SES 08 A, Feedback and Coaching

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-10
09:00-10:30
Room:
397. [Main]
Chair:
Ulf Leo

Contribution

This paper addresses the methodological issues arising in the process of translating CALL  - an online based survey- and feedback system on leadership for learning - from an American to a Danish educational context. The paper pursues the argument that the process of translation is not solely a linguistic exercise. It also implies methodological and conceptual questions related to the translation and as such transformation of general and theoretical research based models of leadership for learning into recognizable features of specific leadership practices in shifting contexts. The paper specifies thiissue by analysing empirical data material relating to the process of translating and validating the survey through the method of cognitive validity testing (Blitz et al. 2013). In the this analysis we use an analytical framework built on a conceptualisation of translation as both a textual and a organisational matter (Røvik 2007; Obed Madsen 2013) 

The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) aims at  assessing, but also informing the development of leadership practices across the school promoting student learning and equity (Kelley and Halverson 2012). CALL draws on a research based theoretical model of leadership for learning comprising five core domains: 1) focus on learning; 2) monitoring teaching and learning; 3) building nested learning communities; 4) acquiring and allocating resources; 5) maintaining a safe an effective learning environment (Halverson and Dikker 2011). Furthermore CALL is based on a concept of distributed leadership and focuses on leadership practices or tasks. The methodological argument  is that CALL is not an assessment of individual principals. Rather, it is a formative assessment of actual leadership practices as these may be distributed across the school and across formal and informal leadership positions (Blitz et al 2014; 359).

The underlying conceptualization of leadership for learning resonates with a wider the research field of leadership for learning. As such  the CALL-model is similar to the model of student-centered leadership (Robinson 2011) and it reflects a shift towards and 'integrated perspective' on leadership for learning across the field (Leithwood and Louis 2012; Robertson & Timperley 2011; Robinson et al 2008; 2009; Bjerg & Staunæs 2014).

Futhermore the educational system in Denmark is currently marked by major educational reforms. The overall aim is to increase the learning outcomes of all students. This implies an increased demand for educational leadership practices which have proven efficient in enhancing student learning. As such the actual context is very apt for translating and implementing CALL-DK as a tool for the assessment as well as the development of educational leadership practices.

We are currently in the midst of translating CALL. This translation is being carried out in close cooperation with Professor Carolyn Kelley and the research team behind CALL, based at the School of Education, University of Madison Wisconsin.

In our analysis of the process of translation our main argument is that a translation of CALL into CALL-DK needs to reflect not only the need for a linguistic translation of the survey and survey items from English to Danish, but also to look into how the leadership practices implied in the underlying leadership model may or may not be recognized within a Danish context.  Though it is not just a matter of adjusting the leadership model to reflect actual leadership practices in Denmark more accurately, because CALL is also designed to be formative. Therefore  CALL should not only reflect practices as they currently are, but also be directive as to how leadership practices should develop - according to the underlying model. As such the distance between actual practices and CALL is part and parcel of the formative ambition of developing leadership for learning. 

Method

In the development of CALL-DK, we have been using the same systematic methodological approach as used when developing the initial CALL, although in a less extensive form (Blitz et al 2013). Cognitive validity testing aims at a qualitative test of whether crucial concepts and survey items are understood and found relevant by representatives of the different groups of possible respondents. More specifically the method of cognitive validity testing implies that respondents - in this case teachers, pedagogues and school leaders - have been interviewed after they have taken the survey, in order for them to express whether they found the questions both understandable and relevant in relation to their actual practices. Furthermore this process in itself produces valuable empirical insights of how leadership for learning may be understood or one might say translated in relation to current leadership practices. (Blitz et al 2014). In the paper we shall analyze both the actual survey data; observations of respondents while taking the survey as well as the follow up interviews. We shall develop an analytical framework drawing on a conceptualization of translation relating both to the translation of texts, but also to translation as an organizational endeavour (Røvik 2007; Obed Madsen 2013). Looking at the actual textual translation we shall focusing on the translation as finding the balance between the original intention and meaning of crucial concepts and principles of the original survey as well as the underlying leadership model on the one side, and how these concepts and practices may be both understood and recognized by respondents in the form of practitioners within a Danish school context, on the other. The organisational approach is taken into consideration in order to be able to analyze how members of the school leadership teams translate not only the survey items, but even more so the feedback data, they receive from the CALL-system in the form of both aggregated scores of the school within different leadership domains and other forms of data generated through the survey. Here we aim at understanding not only how the survey is translated in the form of text, but also the processes of translation between the underlying theoretical model of leadership for learning and the understandings and practices of a particular group of Danish school leaders.

Expected Outcomes

The findings of this analysis will firstly be aimed at further adjustments of the actual survey and survey items of CALL-DK in order to strengthen both the relevance and the validity of the survey it self. Here the analysis of the different steps and outcomes of the textual translation within the survey will provide us with new insights as to how the respondents understand and respond to particular survey items. As a preliminary finding we may already point to the fact that recently pedagogues have received a more integrated and prominent role within the Danish school system. Pedagogues have traditionally been assigned with the task of taking care of the children after the official school hours but now they are supposed to also be integrated into the school day and school organisation, but without teaching particular subjects. In terms of CALL-DK this has raised a range of challenges in integrating this new group of professionals as the vocabulary of CALL is only directed at teachers and teaching. And here the initial cognitive validity testing with different groups of respondents have proven that we have not yet found the right categories for addressing the practices of the pedagogues within the school. Furthermore we hope that the organisational perspective on the process of translation will provide us with empirical findings on how theoretical and general models of leadership for learning may be translated and as such transformed into the development of actual leadership practices in a local, Danish context.

References

Bjerg, H. & Staunæs, D. (2014): Læringscentreret skoleledelse. Tænketeknologier til forskningsinformeret skoleledelse. Frederikshavn: Dafolo Blitz, M. H.; Salisbury, J.; Kelley, C. (2014): The role of cognitive validity testing in the development of CALL, the comprehensive assessment of leadership for learning. In: Journal of Educational Administration. Vol. 52/3, 358-378 Halverson, R. & Dikker, S. (2011) Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL): Development and Design of an Online, Formative Assessment and Feedback System for Middle and High School Leadership. Annual Conference of the American Education Research Association. New Orleans, LA. April 2011. Kelly, C. & Halverson, R. (2012): "The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning: A Next Generation Formative Evaluation and Feedback System". I Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 3 (2), 1- 14 Leithwood, K. & Louis, L.S. (2012): Linking Leadership to Student Learning. Jossey Bass. Madsen, S. Obed. (2013): Lederen som oversætter. Et oversættelsesteoretisk perspektiv på strategisk arbejde [The Leader as Translator]. PhD-dissertation. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Robinson, V. (2011): Student-Centered Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Robinson, V.; Hohepa, M. & Lloyd, C. (2009): School leadership and student outcomes: Identifying what works and why. Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration [BES] Wellington: Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand. Robinson, V.; Lloyd, C. & Rowve, K.J. (2008): "The impact of leadership on student outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership type". In: Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635 - 674 Robertson, J. & Timperley, H. (Eds.) (2011): Leadership and Learning. SAGE Røvik, K. A. (2007): Trender og translasjoner. Ideer som former det 21. århundrets organisasjon. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget

Author Information

Helle Bjerg (presenting / submitting)
University College Capital (UCC)
Research and Development
Copenhagen N
Elvi Weinreich (presenting)
UCC
Research and Development
København N

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