The aim of this paper is to describe actions designed to foster interdisciplinary research efforts at a major university in the UK. The study employed a descriptive mixed method case study approach to collecting and analysing the data used to draw its conclusions. One hundred and twenty-seven academic staff responded to the survey. The results of the survey were verified by 25 interviews with heads of colleges, heads of schools, research coordinators, research team leaders, and team members. These interviews were supported by document review to support the findings. Leadership is important at the college and university levels if interdisciplinarity is to thrive. According to the data, this seems to have not yet occurred at this particular institution. The university has done well with most of the big structures that enrich and support interdisciplinarity. However, 'small' structures such as clarity of meaning, motivation of staff, misalignment of old structures, time and workload, and loss of identify have impeded the move to university wide interdisciplinarity. A series of three recommendations are made to move the interdisciplinary project forward: stay clear on focus, extend the benefits of serendipity to more people, and remember that one size does not fit all.
The Pakistani education system, like many other countries across the world, is going through a phase of concerted change in the first decade of the 21st century and school leaders are expected to play a crucial role in the management of this change programme. This article considers the impact of educational change on a group of school leaders who were involved in a major area of this programme of reform: the curriculum and assessment system at Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) level. This article draws from a qualitative enquiry that included semi-structured interviews with Pakistani school leaders examining their experiences, views and perceptions of the change programme. In the interviews the school leaders were asked to reflect on the process of change management in their institutions, the problems they have faced and any suggestions they have for the improvement in the implementation of the change initiative. Drawing from these findings, two aspects are explored in this article: first, the responses of the school leaders to the change initiative; and second, the implications of leading a programme of externally driven change. From this analysis an emergent, grounded model of educational change management in the context of a developing country is proposed.
Despite growing interest in social justice leadership and awareness of the need to include this focus in leadership preparation and development, little is understood of practices used to support such commitment. In this article, Bacchi's (2012a) Foucaldian approach is drawn from, to provide a specific means of critically analysing what problem(s) social justice leadership preparation/development is intended to address. Through critical reflexivity, the political dimensions of policy and practice are surfaced. Through this process, key influences of regimes of power are identified, within which leadership development programmes are situated. Considerations for leadership development and school practices foreground the identification of next steps for research.
A common policy theme across education jurisdictions is the need to improve student achievement and outcomes to bring greater equality, despite evidence showing the opposite to be true (OECD 2012). The quest to bring about systemic improvement to both raise achievement and increase equality has led to a significant tension in many education systems.
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