Editorial

Citation

Ross Thomas, A. (2009), "Editorial", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 47 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea.2009.07447baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Educational Administration, Volume 47, Issue 2

Vale!

All in the field of educational administration and, in particular, education policy and politics, will be saddened by the death of Dr William Lowe Boyd. Dr Boyd was an esteemed professor at the Pennsylvania State University and for many years his academic and personal status decorated the School of Education in that institution.

Dr Boyd served on the Editorial Advisory Board of this journal in 2001-2002 before stepping down in order to become Editor of the American Journal of Education. Even within such a relatively brief term on the Board Dr Boyd contributed handsomely to Journal policy and paper evaluation. In particular, because of his extraordinary network of professional associates, he was a most valuable confidante assisting in identifying their expertise and nominating others as members of the Board.

Dr Boyd and his wife Emily were gifted and dedicated musicians who spent every summer in a variety of roles at the Interlochen Centre for the Arts in Michigan. My own association with “the Boyds” grew particularly close since, on four occasions, my family and I occupied their home during their summer absences and my employment at the Pennsylvania State University.

Reviewers

In the previous issue of the Journal I acknowledged the contribution made by reviewers who are not members of the Editorial Advisory board. A function of the aging process, perhaps, but I then omitted to include a listing of those who have so generously contributed time and expertise in determining whether papers were to be accepted by the Journal. I shall try again in this issue to accomplish that intention!

This issue

I frequently point to the internationality of the Journal of Educational Administration. Not only is there evidence of such in the membership of the Editorial Advisory Board together with our practice of sending submitted manuscripts to three readers, each from a different country, but also in the nationality of authors whose articles we publish. The current issue of the journal is no exception in this regard with articles contributed by authors in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Israel and Hong Kong.

In the first of these Weston and Bain provide a new theory and practice whereby school leaders and schools are assisted in engaging, improving, and evaluating their change processes. Documentary, survey, interview, and observation methods are used to gather data about four types of engagement – aspiring, reporting, understanding, and practising. The methodology was applied to four schools recognised for their technological innovation and broader representativeness of schools in the USA. This established the different engagement of schools with change and identified a stable, relative position for each school on a trajectory from aspiration to practice.

In the next article Nir reports on a dilemma that often confronts school principals: as educational leaders they may be reluctant to ask for professional assistance even when help is available and needed. Intensive interviews with a small sample of Israeli principals revealed the loneliness of the job and the need for assistance – an outcome of an ever-changing, challenging role. For some the inclination to seek help may be undermined by the fear in exposing one’s weaknesses, personal inhibitions and fears of damaging self-image and losing capacity to influence, as well as the lack of reliable sources of help. Their preference appears to ask the assistance of lay associates but even then they adopt strategies such as avoidance, buffering and differentiation in an attempt to prevent the negative consequences they perceive to be associated with help-seeking behaviours.

Secondary schools in Hong Kong provide the setting for the third article in which Kwan points out that new principals are drawn predominantly from the ranks of vice- (or deputy) principals. Implicit in such a practice is the assumption that the experience of their role prepares vice-principals for their upward promotion or appointment. Vice-principals were asked to indicate the extent of their involvement in various activities and also the adequacy of preparation for principalship. A sequential regression analysis examined the effect of several job dimensions on the vice-principals’ perceived preparedness (controlling for demographic variables). Seven dimensions of job responsibility were identified only one of which – strategic direction and policy environment – was found to have an effect on the vice-principals’ perceived preparation for the principalship.

Educational leadership in kindergartens – sadly, a neglected focus of attention in our field of study – is the theme of the fourth article. Using a three-stage action research approach, Cardno and Reynolds first identified the nature of perceived dilemmas and the typical responses to such; next constructed an intervention phase to provide head teachers with both theory and practical skills; and then evaluated the extent to which changes had occurred. Among several findings were that kindergarten leaders could identify but not clearly articulate the dilemmas of practice; the professional development intervention enabled head teachers better to articulate these dilemmas; and participants’ practices were changed but another cycle of action research will be required to ascertain the extent to which such behaviours have been consolidated.

Teacher effectiveness is the central theme of the following article contributed by Heck. Widely accepted is the belief that increasing teacher effectiveness is essential if schools are to improve student outcomes. The author advances the premise that teacher effectiveness is an individual resource that varies across classrooms within schools as well as a collective resource that varies across schools. Data were collected from approximately 9,200 students located in more than 1,000 classrooms in 156 elementary schools. Findings revealed that the effectiveness of successive teachers was related to student achievement in reading and mathematics; collective teacher effectiveness (an organisational property of schools) was associated positively with achievement; and the stability in a school’s teaching staff, as well as the quality of its academic organization and teaching processes were related positively to levels of achievement. The findings suggest practical avenues through which hiring and retaining high-quality teachers and facilitating improved academic processes can lead to increased school effectiveness.

The final article in this issue is not specific to educational administration – its focus is far more universal. Nevertheless, the article addresses matters of great concern to the process of academic publishing and, in this respect, it commands the attention of contributors to academic journals, editors and publishers alike. In the title of his article, Rodríguez-Ruiz refers to the “quantification of knowledge” – a most appropriate descriptor of the trend in recent years to gauge and/or assign journalistic “quality” through the attachment of numerical ratings. Suffice it to say that, in the case of this editor, this is an important and challenging development. Elsewhere it is my intention to pursue a relate theme, an intention that has led to a considerable exchange of ideas between Dr Rodriguez-Ruiz and me. The outcome is an article that I commend to you. At the very least it may serve to sensitise the Journal’s readers to some of practices ostensibly designed to identify “quality” and excellence within the world of academic publishing. I hope the article also sensitises readers to some of the inherent dangers of such.

Three book reviews complete this issue.

A. Ross Thomas