Session Information
32 SES 04, Facets of Leadership in Educational Organizations
Symposium
Contribution
The link between educational leadership and student learning employed a variety of quantitative and qualitative research designs in the past years. Empirical findings show (e.g., Robinson, 2007) that certain educational leadership practices can improve student learning (e.g., improve conditions for teaching and learning, introducing and enhancing new instructional methods, and articulating a vision for the school; Day & Sammons, 2013). The main problem with these findings is that they are not detailed, systematic and nuanced to enable system-wide improvements (Leithwood et al., 2004). Therefore a number of different educational leadership studies call for new methodological approaches for researching educational leadership practices and their (potential) effects on student learning (e.g. Hallinger, 2011; Muijs, 2011). This contribution addresses this research gap. From the perspective of this paper, the experiences of different participants in schools can constitute potential starting points for learning processes. Therefore, the experiences of these participants are in the center of this contribution. The main question will be, how and to what extent the educational leadership practices manifest in students’ experiences and how “Leadership for Learning as Experience” can be empirically researched. In this contribution the phenomenologically oriented vignette as research method for studying educational leadership practices will be introduced (Ammann 2018). Vignettes are narratives that are based on the experiences of participants. In vignettes, the co-experienced observations in the field are captured in form of vivid narratives. Vignettes open possible new perspective, in which the traces that leadership practices have left on school participants are revealed.
References
Ammann, M. (2018). Leadership for learning as experience – Introducing the use of vignettes for research on leadership experiences in schools. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17, pp. 1-13. Day, C., Sammons, P. (2013). Successful leadership: A review of the international literature. Reading, England: CfBT Education Trust. Retrieved August 27, 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED546806.pdf Hallinger, P., Heck, R. H. (2011). Conceptual and methodological issues in studying school leadership effects as a reciprocal process. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 22, 149–173. doi:10.1080/09243453.2011.565777 Leithwood, K., Louis, K. S., Anderson, S., Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How eldership influences student learning: A review of research for the learning from leadership project. New York, NY: The Wallace Foundation. Robinson, V. (2007). School leadership and student outcomes: Identifying what works and why. ACEL Monograph Series, Monograph, 41. Retrieved August 27, 2018, from http://www.peersupport.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Student-leadership.pdf
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