Editorial

Citation

Ross Thomas, A. (2011), "Editorial", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 49 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea.2011.07449caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Educational Administration, Volume 49, Issue 3

Editorial Advisory Board

I am delighted to announce that Professor Jacqueline Stefkovich has joined the Editorial Advisory Board. Welcome Jackie’s membership strengthens the expertise of the Board in several realms especially those of ethics, leadership and law. Her presence also serves to maintain and extend the journal’s long and proud association with the Pennsylvania State University from where she follows in the footsteps of former board members and world-renowned scholars Don Willower, Bill Boyd and Paul Begley.

W.G. Walker Outstanding Paper Award Vol. 48, 2010

Named in honour of the founding editor of the journal, this award is made each year to the author or authors of what the members of the journal’s Editorial Advisory Board decide is the most outstanding article published in the six issues of the volume. A short list of eight articles selected by the editor is presented to board members who record their preferences for the best three publications. I am pleased to announce the following recommendations.

Outstanding Paper Award

“The influence of school leadership styles and culture on students’ achievements in Cyprus primary schools” (Vol. 48 No. 2), Andreas Kythreotis, Petros Pashiardis and Leonidas Kyriakides.

Highly commended

“Relationships in reform: the role of teachers’ social networks” (Vol. 48 No. 3), Alan J. Daly, Nienke M. Moolenaar, Jose M. Bolivar and Peggy Burke.

“Leadership style and organizational learning: the mediate effect of school vision” (Vol. 48 No. 1), Hanna Kurland, Hilla Peretz and Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz.

I congratulate these recipients of the journal’s annual award. The authors have contributed outstanding articles to this journal and to the literature in our field.

Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award

Emerald Group Publishing Limited and the European Foundation for Management Development seek to celebrate excellence in research by sponsoring the 2010 Outstanding Doctoral Award in 12 associated fields. The Journal of Educational Administration is sponsor of the leadership and strategy category. Submissions were made from doctoral graduates in several countries. All were of exciting standard and the authors of such deserve congratulations on their accomplishments.

The winner of the award receives a cash prize of €1,500, a certificate, a winner’s logo to attach to correspondence and the prospects of an offer of publication in this journal – either as a full paper or an executive summary at the discretion of the editor.

I congratulate the winner of this year’s award.

Nienke M. Moolenaar, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

“Ties with potential: nature, antecedents, and consequences of social networks in school teams”, supervisors Peter Sleegers and Sjoerd Katsten.

The reader will notice that Dr Moolenaar has been mentioned previously in this editorial – she is co-author of a highly commended paper considered for the W.G. Walker Outstanding Paper Award.

This issue

Authors in Australia, Greece, Israel, New Zealand and the USA have contributed the five articles in this issue of the journal.

In the first article, Viviane M.J. Robinson and Deidre M. Le Fevre report their study of the skills and capabilities of a sample of newly appointed New Zealand principals in dealing with complaints from parents. The authors have employed an exciting and relatively novel approach: a complaint scenario was written and presented by a professional actor in one-on-one conversations with the principals. Subsequent detailed coding and analysis of transcripts indicated that, on average, principals were more adept at advocating their own positions than in deeply inquiring into and confirming their understandings of the views of the parent. Many had difficulty in respectfully challenging the parent’s assumptions about the situation and achieving a shared understanding of what to do next.

Aspects of principals’ leadership also form the basis for the following article by Ori Eyal and Guy Roth. Using a theoretical framework modelled on Bass’s full range model of leadership and Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory, the authors explored hypotheses linking transformational and transactional leadership with Israeli teachers’ motivation – autonomous and controlled – and burnout. Structure equation modelling revealed support for the researchers’ hypotheses – principals’ leadership styles play significant roles in teachers’ motivation and their well-being.

Western Australia is the setting for the third article in which Helen Wildy, Coral Pepper and Luo Guanzhong report how they sought to establish psychometrically robust measures that would sufficiently and appropriately differentiate performance to support judgements about whether or not to appoint candidates to the principalship in secondary schools. The authors describe the development of performance-based tasks over a three-year period and the use of Rasch Analysis in the examination of their data. The significant findings of this research relate to their applied nature and to the potential offered by performance-based tasks to make sound predictions about school leaders’ abilities to perform at high standards in situations that are likely to confront them in large secondary schools.

Leadership development is also the key theme of the following article contributed by Karen Leigh Sanzo, Steve Myran and Jennifer K. Clayton. Specifically, the authors describe the first year of a partnership between an American university and a rural school district and show how such has helped bridge the theory-practice “divide” as well as strengthen university-school district ties. Among the findings is the importance of authentic experiences in providing school leaders with realistic views and understandings of the requirements, challenges and rewards of positions in educational leadership.

The final article, Sophia Anastasiou and Georgios Papakonstantinou examine extant data associated with an annual (2007) process to select advisors to consult in Greek secondary schools. In particular, the authors investigate the discrepancy in appointment of women to this position. Data for men and women included postgraduate qualifications, work experience and scores in an interview, Women, for example, achieved significantly better scores in knowledge of foreign languages and scientific criteria; men scored better in publication of educational books. Prior to the interview women scored better overall than men. Following the interview assessment, however, there were no gender-related differences and men were appointed to an undue proportion of the available positions! The findings add some credence to the belief that interviewing is a dubious procedure that can be used to manipulate the final outcome of the selection processes used within the public sector.

Five book reviews complete this issue of the journal.

A. Ross Thomas