Leadership for Learning as Experience: Introducing the Use of Vignettes for Research on Leadership Experiences in Schools

Abstract

Research on the link between educational leadership and student learning employs a variety of quantitative and qualitative research designs. Surprisingly, there are relatively few studies on methods for researching educational leadership practices. This article addresses this gap in research and discusses how the experiences of different participants can constitute potential starting points for learning processes. This leads to the question, how and to what extent the educational leadership practices manifest in students' experiences and how "Leadership for Learning as Experience" can be empirically researched. The phenomenologically oriented vignette as research method for studying educational leadership practices will be introduced. Vignettes are narratives that are based on the experiences of participants. In vignettes, the co-experienced observations in the field are captured in form of vivid narratives. Vignettes thus open up a new, supplementary perspective, in which the traces that leadership practices have left on school participants are revealed.

A Vignette-Based Transformative Multiphase Mixed Methods Interventional Study Featuring Venn Diagram Joint Displays: Financial Education With Hong Kong Early Adolescent Ethnic Minority Students

“…Whether imagined or based on actual experiences, vignettes should be realistic, relevant, and reproducible in real life. They are ''designed to approximate, isolate, manipulate, and measure key aspects of the decision-making processes that individuals use in real world situations'' (Evans et al, 2015, p. 164) and can be used as feedback tools, development tools, or data collection tools (Ammann, 2018). Vignettes are useful for investigations of sensitive topics, as having participants respond to a story in the third person is less intrusive (Hughes & Huby, 2004;Wilks, 2004).…”

“…It was decided that a second intervention (Phase 2b) would be beneficial. A phenomenologically oriented vignette (Ammann, 2018;Schratz et al, 2013) was written (Table 3). Each sentence of this was an experience of the students elicited during Phase 1 that had been confirmed as important and relevant during Phase 2a.…”

“…However, many students reported that the imagined Story D lacked authenticity as they simply said they would not go to the theme park, and although the discussion could proceed hypothetically, it was less applicable. It was decided to revert to the students' experiences as the source and write a new phenomenologically oriented vignette (Ammann, 2018;Schratz et al, 2013). This was used for Phase 2b to explore financial decision making in a richer context (Table 3).…”

Schulleitungshandeln an ausgezeichneten Schulen

“…Das phänomenologische Grundverständnis, welches dem Beitrag zu Grunde liegt, spürt den Erfahrungen, welche die verschiedenen Akteure (Schulleitungen, Lehrkräfte und Schülerinnen und Schüler) in Schulen haben, nach. Es versteht diese als Erfahrungen des Führens und Geführtwerdens (Ammann 2018). "Phenomenology as a philosophy of experience means the attempt to understand the experiences of the world, the other and of myself, even if there is an inevitable distance between my concrete, situated experiences and my return to them while I am talking or thinking about them."…”

International Perspectives on School Settings, Education Pollicy and Digital Strategies

“…German research explicitly based on LFL is virtually non-existent. To the best of our knowledge, only a handful of studies exist (Ammann 2018;Pietsch/Leist 2018;Pietsch/Tulowitzki/Koch 2018). Studies considering effectiveness criteria, that is student learning and achievement gains of students, as outcomes measures are -with only one exception (Pietsch/ Lücken/ Thonke/Klitsche/Musekam 2016) -not available.…”