Emine Babaoglan
Trust is a critical component of successful schools, especially trust between the principals and the teachers. Trust does not happen automatically. It has to be a part of overall planning for the professional development of both principals and teachers. The aim of this study is to identify the level of teachers’ perception of school principals’ leadership behaviors; and the level of teachers’ trust in colleagues, in students and parents, and in principals. The study also aims to detect the predictive power of teachers’ perception of school principals’ leadership over teachers’ organizational trust perception. The participants of this research are the teachers working in the primary and secondary schools located in the districts and villages of Burdur City of Turkey which provided education during 2009-2010 school years. For the research, the entire population of2230 teachers in the Burdur City was invited. Of the 2230 teachers, 1891 responded to the questionnaire. They worked in 196 schools throughout Burdur, 154 of which are primary and 42 are secondary. Omnibus T Scale (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 2003) and Leadership Behavior Questionnaire (Ekvall & Arvonen, 1991) were used in the research. In the study it is found that, with respect to teachers’ perception, the level of principals’ leadership was high; the perception level of teachers’ trust in colleagues and principals was high, whereas their perception of trust in students and parents was at medium level. It is also found that the relationship between teachers’ leadership perception and their perception of trust in their principals was positive and significant at a high level while the relationship between teachers’ perception of trust in colleagues and in students and parents was positive and significant at low level.
Planning to Help New Teachers in China: Perspectives of School Principals
Binbin Jiang, Zhiding Shu, and Tak Cheung Chan
Reports have indicated a high percentage of beginning teachers leaving the teaching profession in their first few years of work. This is causing huge amount of wasteful resources invested in teacher education. Planning to retain beginning teachers in the teaching profession has become an urgent challenge for educational leaders. To investigate the significance of this issue, the authors interviewed over thirty elementary school principals from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanxi provinces in China to solicit their strategies of working with beginning teachers. The result of this study discloses many principals’ valuable right-on-target strategies deserving public attention. Chinese principals took teaching specialization as the prioritized criterion for hiring new teachers. They mentored and supervised beginning teachers. They advised them for successful practices in effective teaching strategies, interacting with parents and guardians, handling disciplinary issues, ethics and behaviors, collaboration with colleagues, and professional development. Principals’ perspectives have contributed much to guiding the directions of planning strategies to help new teachers in China.
Arvin D. Johnson
This study was designed to examine relationships between student perceptions of school effectiveness and student achievement in mathematics and reading. Data were collected from over 350 middle school students in a large southeastern school district in the United States. The results revealed statistically significant correlations among the different student perceived aspects of school effectiveness. In addition, a statistically significant correlation between mathematics and reading achievement scores on standardized test was revealed. Data did not yield any statistically significant correlation between the student perceptions of school effectiveness and student achievement. These findings are contradictory to empirical research on school effectiveness and student achievement. Notwithstanding these contradictions, the results of the study provided a foundation for discussion of educational planning issues and implications for educational planning practices.
Peter R. Litchka, Orly Shapira- Lishchinsky
Nations throughout the world continue to examine how to improve their system of education in terms of improving student achievement, so that each student has the opportunity to be a productive and successful member of the global society. For this to occur, each school must be successful in the development of high quality teaching and learning. School leadership is a critical component, since the principal has tremendous influence in transforming the culture by influencing, inspiring, challenging, and motivating teachers to continuously grow and improve. The goal of this study was to examine the teacher perceptions of the transformational leadership skills of school principals, according to the teachers’ school level and setting, in both Israel and the United States. The study includes 615 Israeli teachers and 514 American teachers (n= 1,129). Results indicate that Israel teachers perceive transformational leadership of their principals significantly higher than teachers in the United States, particularly with the relationship between the level of the school and the transformational abilities of the principal. The findings may be explained by different culture perceptions of power distance, individualism, and masculinity. The results may help to plan policy in support of transformational leadership in terms comparative studies need to take into consideration the differences in culture as well as current policy regarding the degree of standardized testing, and its impact on how a principal leads the school.
Applied Entrepreneurship Policy: Ontario’s Colleges in the Age of Globalization
Menna Agostino, Holly Catalfamo, & Cosimo Girolamo
In the age of globalization, postsecondary institutions in Canada have been called upon to be more innovative to support the development of a workforce that is better able to respond to the rapidly changing environment. This exploratory study proposes a framework to examine applied entrepreneurship as a conceptual framework by exploring the differences between colleges that use innovation (research and development) and entrepreneurship/small business (SMEs and start-ups). A purposive sampling procedure was used for this study with 10 Ontario colleges randomly selected. By examining the strategic mandate agreements of Ontario colleges, the researchers analyzed the data by carefully reviewing the excerpts, quotations, or entire passages in which innovation policy was related to course-based research and entrepreneurship policy related to self-employment (SME). The data revealed that the innovation approach delivered by colleges reflects research directed to an applied approach and is primarily directed to practical or commercial objectives, serving the needs of local employers and supporting economic development. In terms of entrepreneurship policy, the data suggest that there is limited alignment with an applied entrepreneurship approach. Inclusion of applied entrepreneurship in the strategic planning processes of colleges is an important step toward the attainment of innovation and entrepreneurship outcomes.