Leadership and Learning: Conceptualizing Relations between School Administrative Practice and Instructional Practice

Abstract

Abstract:In this paper I argue that one problem we face in understanding relations between school leadership and student learning is that core constructs in our work are often variably and weakly defined. Loose constructs pose problems because they contribute to fuzzy research, especially if constructs such as school leadership, management, or even instruction are weakly (or never explicitly) defined and operationalized. Fuzzy conceptualization makes comparing across studies, essential to the development of a robust empirical knowledge base, difficult if not impossible. Arguing that a critical but often overlooked challenge in studying relations between school administration and student learning is conceptual in nature, I begin by conceptualizing school administration and instruction from what I refer to as a distributed perspective, using theoretical work in distributed and situated cognition, activity theory, and micro sociology. I show how conceptualizing phenomena under study in particular ways shapes how we might frame and hypothesize relations among these phenomena. I contrast a distributed conceptualization with more conventional, individually focused conceptualizations of both phenomena. I then consider the entailments of my conceptualization of the two core phenomena for framing relations between them.

Organizational Learning and Organization Innovation in the Tourist Hotels - An Empirical Study

“…Spillane (2015) regarded organizational learning as various adjustments for the fundamental belief, attitude & behavior, and structural arrangement in the process to cope with environmental changes in order to enhance the operating effectiveness and the permanent survival and development of enterprises or institutions. Such adjustments were realized through formal and informal interpersonal interaction (Kaiser et al, 2013).…”

“…Taylor (2013) revealed that an enterprise would seek for required intelligence and information from external organizations, such as suppliers, customers, distributors, or government departments, and even search for new clues or concepts from competitors to create new knowledge. Spillane (2015) proposed that an organization, in highly competitive environments, would acquire necessary intelligence and information through customers and competitors to create knowledge. When external environments were stable, old knowledge and experiences in the organizational memory were utilized for creating the knowledge required for the organization (Lubik et al, 2013).…”

Principals' perceptions on the practice of distributed leadership: a quantitative study

“…Evidence from different types of educational institutions confirms the idea that some leadership practices are valuable, in almost all contexts (Leithwood, 2011). For Spillane (2017) there is a perspective of DL, which recognizes the existence of several leaders, and as explained by Harris (2012), the activities are widely shared within and between the organization. Primarily, The characteristics of the distribution model focus on interactions, rather than actions, supervisors, and on informal leadership roles.…”

“…For Elmore (2005 the important thing is instruction, improvement and school performance. To a large extent, Spillane (2017) based the study on distributed cognition to generate the theory of DL. The DL of the school center is one of the most vibrant elements with which schools have in order to be effective and to achieve quality results; school leaders are able to influence and shape the conditions in which they occur (Leithwood et al, 2006).…”

“…The importance of the school management, as the performance of the management teams has evolved over time and is currently aiming, is to balance among all the members of the school's community and the constant improvement in the academic results (Leithwood and Seashore-Louis, (2011); Knapp et al, 2014;Spillane, 2017). The attitude of the person who assumes the functions of management in the school is a key element that determines the success of processes of change in the institution, as well as for the development of the institutions (Firestone and Riehl, 2005).…”