Session Information
26 SES 03 A, Policy, Politics and Educational Leadership
Paper Session
Contribution
The emerging literature on educational change is extensive and covers many dimensions and levels of change. In this relation, many scholars focus on the dynamics of educational change (Fullan, 2011; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012; Malone, 2013; Smith, 2007; Thornton, Ocasio, & Lounsbury, 2012). The term is closely linked to processes of change and refers to complex social relations and interactions among the actors across system boundaries (Kauko, Simola, Varjo, & Kalalahti, 2012). Here, we assume these boundaries are between the macro-, meso- and micro levels (Thornton et al., 2012), where the government is the major actor at the macro level.
In the paper, we shed light on how school leaders on the one hand and teachers on the other at the upper secondary school level in Iceland see themselves, and other educational actors in their schools, responding to the ministerial demand to change the school curricular through decentralised ideas amended in the Upper Secondary Education Act No. 92/2008. We use Coburn (2004) five types of coupling mechanisms to classify both the school leaders and teachers’ responses to the pressure from the macro level to change teaching practices. These coupling mechanisms are:
1) Rejection, which occurs when new ideas are dismissed within schools.
2) Decoupling, refers to symbolic change with no internal influences.
3) Parallel structure where concurrent approaches are used to meet different forces and priorities within the schools.
4) Assimilation, which refers to situations where messages from the macro level are interoperated and transformed to fit with the existing understanding of educators.
5) Accommodation, is deconstruction of existing understanding to charter new information leading to major change in teaching practices.
In parallel, we draw on Washington, Boal, and Davis (2008) when analysing the leadership style described by the school leaders when working with teachers and teachers groups responding differently to the macro demand for change. They distinguish between institutional and organisational leadership, which becomes a crucial feature of our analysis. Institutional leadership is based on “embedded or constrained agency, influence or negotiated power” (p 720), and usually the vision to promote and protect the core values of the school. While organisational leadership is when leaders act inside of organisations. Such leadership is based on the ideas “of instrumental agency, hierarchical and charismatic power” (p. 720).
Based on our research interest and theoretical underpinning our research question is (concentrating also on the differences and similarities between school leaders and teachers): How do school leaders and teachers perceive themselves and other teachers, in nine selected upper secondary schools in Iceland, when responding to macro demand for change?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(4), 77–101. Coburn, C. E. (2004). Beyond decoupling: Rethinking the relationship between the institutional environment and the classroom. Sociology of Education, 77, 211–244. Fullan, M. (2011). Change Leader: Learning to do what matters most. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2012). The global fourth way: The quest for educational excellence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Kauko, J., Simola, H., Varjo, J., & Kalalahti, M. (2012). What could a dynamics perspective contribute to comparative research? In J. Kivirauma, A. Jauhianen, S. P., & K. T. (Eds.), Koulutuksen yhteiskunnallinen ymmärrys. Social Perspectives on Education. Research in Educational Sciences (pp. 219–233). Turku: Finnish Educational Research Association. Malone, H. J. (2013). Leading educational change: global issues, challenges, and lessons on whole-system reform. New York: Teacher Collage Press. Óskarsdóttir, G. G. (2016). Upper secondary school practices in Iceland. Aims and methods. Research project 2012–2018. Reykjavík. Scott, W. R. (2014). Institutions and Organizations. Ideas, interests and identities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Smith, L. (2007). Describing change. In L. Smith (Ed.), Schools that change: Evidence-based improvement and effective change leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Crown Press. Thornton, P. H., Ocasio, W., & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective. A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Upper Secondary Education Act No. 92/2008. Washington, M., Boal, K. B., & Davis, J. N. (2008). Institutional leadership: Past, present, and future. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, & K. Sahlin (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organization institutionalism. London: Sage.
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