Abstract

The present research explored the effect of different profiles of emotional feedback in principal-teacher relations on followers’ perceptions of the leader (attributed charisma and leader-member exchange (LMX)). The study is based on a field survey of 645 teachers. The findings indicate four profiles of emotional feedback from principal, as experienced by teachers: profile 1 – positive emphasis: high positive emotional manipulations (PEM) and low negative emotional manipulations (NEM); profile 2 – mixed feedback: high PEM and high NEM; profile 3 – non-manipulative: low PEM and low NEM; and profile 4 – negative emphasis: high NEM and low PEM. In general, profile 1 (positive emphasis) resulted in higher attributed charisma and higher LMX quality, followed by profile 2 (mixed), profile 3 (non-manipulative), and profile 4 (negative emphasis). The study showed that as long as there is a positive feedback, even if it is accompanied by a negative one, the followers’ perceptions of the leader are positive. Negative feedback was less associated with positive followers’ perceptions of the leader than was low emotional feedback (i.e., non-manipulative).

Abstract

Much research is concerned with the contribution of middle-level management in the education system. Yet, little research has been devoted to investigating supervisors’ considerations in outlining job definitions of middle-level managers, and how these elements shape diverse middle-level managers’ leadership models. This study draws on role theory to understand supervisors’ contribution to the design of middle-level management roles, with emphasis on leadership styles. Data included 25 interviews with preschool superintendents who appointed new middle-level managers in the role of early childhood leaders. Based on the interviews, we identified four types of middle-level leadership models: pedagogical, supportive, change, and administrative.

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the rigor strategies and ethical steps reported in qualitative research of educational administration journals in the recent decades. Using a focused search procedure, 321 relevant empirical qualitative articles were identified. Results suggest that qualitative educational administration, management, and leadership research frequently reported using some rigor strategies and greatly underreport on using ethical steps. Moreover, we found stability in the number of strategies and steps reported over a period of two decades. Thus, it is unclear whether rigor and ethics norms in the field have been crystallizing over time. The findings and their implications are discussed.

Abstract

Despite the popularity of distributed leadership theory, the investigation of the micro-political aspects of such models have scarcely been explored, and insights on the cultural variety of distributed practices in schools are limited. The present study aimed to explore what micro-political aspects emerge in participative decision‐making in collectivist and individualist cultures. To this end, a multiple case study method was adopted, focusing on four Israeli public high schools. Schools were chosen to represent an ‘extreme’ case selection rationale: two non-religious urban schools representing individualist cases, and two communal schools in religious kibbutzim representing communal schools. The analysis shed light on three micro-political points of comparison between the prototypes of participative decision making in collectivist and individualist cultures related to control, actors, and stage crafting. The findings and implications are discussed.

Abstract

This study aimed to extend the limited knowledge on the motivational and identity aspects of youth at-risk in second chance programmes. The study examined the relationships between autonomy-supportive climate, adolescents’ sense of authenticity, and their dropout risk, as well as the mediating role that authenticity plays in the relationships, within the context of a second chance programme for at-risk youth. Participants were 181 students at-risk from Israel. Results from a multilevel path model analysis support the hypotheses. The findings indicate a positive correlation between autonomy-supportive climate and authenticity of students at risk. The analyses also revealed a negative individual-level relationship between authenticity of students at risk and their dropout risk, and a negative cross-level relationship between autonomy-supportive climate and students’ dropout risk. The effect of autonomy-supportive climate on students’ dropout risk was partly mediated by students’ authenticity. The present study extends the knowledge on the influence of autonomy-supportive climate on schooling by pointing out cross-level relations between this climate and youths’ authenticity, and by shedding light on the connection of these constructs with dropout risk. As this model of relationships is often reflected in the pedagogical rationale behind the design of second chance programmes for youths at risk, the study has important practical implications for administrators, teachers, and policymakers leading these programmes.

Abstract

The present study examines how changes in higher education systems ― caused mostly by neoliberal ideologies and the knowledge revolution ― affect non-faculty professionals such as academic librarians, and how they cope with these changes. Specifically, relying on Bourdieu’s theory of distinction, we show how Israeli academic librarians adopt three types of distinctions ― cultural, aesthetic, and professional ― and construct occupational capital that bestows on them power and renewed legitimacy in the face of threats to their professional identity and to their role in academic studies. The study in based on interviews with librarians working in the leading universities in Israel, and it examines the librarians’ experiences and attempts to adjust their professional identities to the emergence of neoliberal “new public management” (NPM) culture within academia.

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between workgroup emotional climate in schools, teachers’ burnout and coping style. Data were collected from 278 teachers in 19 state elementary schools in Israel. Confirming the hypotheses, there was a positive relationship at the individual level between an other-focused negative workgroup emotional climate and burnout, and a positive cross-level relationship between an ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate and burnout. In schools with a high ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate, teachers’ active coping style impacted less on their burnout than in schools with a low ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate.

Abstract

This article aims to integrate over two decades of empirical research findings on teachers’ organizational commitment (OC) to explore its antecedents and outcomes. Via a criteria-based approach, 68 peer reviewed quantitative empirical articles published between 1994 and 2018 were identified and included for analysis. A systematic review revealed three core themes: demographic, within-person and role related predictors of teachers’ OC; interpersonal and contextual predictors of teachers’ OC; and outcomes of teachers’ OC. Our review detected major “blind spots” related to antecedents, mediators and moderators, and outcomes. Recommendations are provided to help advance knowledge on teachers’ OC in upcoming decades.

Abstract

Purpose

Schools are complex and imperfect organizations; thus, it is not possible for school leaders to completely avoid failures. The capacity to learn from failure is essential to the effectiveness of teachers as individuals and for teams and schools. However, it is hardly practiced in most schools. The present theoretical article seeks to offer an integrative conceptual framework in which intelligent failure is conceptualized as an organizational learning process. The purpose is twofold: first, to address the question of why school faculty fails to learn from failure; second, to show how learning from intelligent failure in the school context can be framed as a resource for school improvement.

Design/methodology/approach

The present theoretical article seeks to offer an integrative conceptual framework in which intelligent failure is conceptualized as an organizational learning process.

Findings

The present study draws upon the social capital theory as an overarching framework to develop a conceptual model that incorporates the learning settings and a leadership tolerant of “intelligent failure” that might enable us to identify the root causes of failure and the kinds of lessons that can be drawn from failure analysis. In the proposed conceptual model, school organizational features combine with a leadership tolerant of intelligent failures to enhance opportunities to analyze, manage and learn from intelligent failures in school settings.

Originality/value

An important lacuna in educational scholarship is that although detecting and correcting school failures is normal, investigating the root causes of these failures or pinpointing the behaviors necessary to avoid their reoccurrence is often neglected in both theory and practice. By integrating research from both non-educational and educational literature, this study may provide a new perspective for school management, since it emphasizes the reframing of intelligent failure as an organizational asset for school improvement. The present study broadens the literature on educational management and organizational learning and provides a new approach for school failures and failure management.

Abstract

The present study explores the effect of teachers’ authentic leadership in second chance programmes on students’ psychological need satisfaction climate (according to self-determination theory), and the manner in which teachers’ gender moderates this effect. Data collected from 60 teachers and 183 students in second chance programmes in Israel wеrе analysed at the group level. The study found that for male teachers, authentic leadership negatively predicted psychological need satisfaction climate in the classroom. The implications of findings for authentic leadership in general and for teaching in second chance programmes are discussed.

Abstract

Ethical considerations have been examined in American and European school management research, indigenous and comparative aspects have largely been understudied. To better understand the ethical decision-making of indigenous school leaders, the present research aims to examine the ethical considerations of one such minority group—Bedouin Arab educators in Israel—and to compare their ethical decision-making with that of their counterparts in Israel’s Jewish majority. The research utilised the pre-designed multiple Ethical Perspectives Instrument, which requires participants to resolve school dilemmas by choosing one of two given ethical perspectives taken from the following six: fairness, utilitarianism, care, critique, profession, and community. Two exploratory studies were carried out: Study 1 examined the ethical judgements of Bedouin BEd students (n=28), and their perceptions of the ethical judgments of hypothesized Bedouin school leaders. Study 2 compared the ethical judgements of Bedouin (n=30) and Jewish (n=39) MA Ed-Admin students. Bedouin undergraduates reported care and critique as their own dominant ethical preferences, but viewed utilitarian considerations as being dominant among hypothesized Bedouin school leaders. Among the graduate students, utilitarian considerations were more dominant among the Bedouin group than the Jewish group. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Abstract

This paper explores the link between the OECD TALIS 2013 survey’s framework for defining the ideal teacher and national educational goals by focusing on the teacher self-efficacy items, using cross-country comparisons. Surprisingly, cross-country analysis of the TALIS 2013 data combined with World Value Survey data about Desired Child Qualities demonstrate that the OECD TALIS teacher self-efficacy items are aligned with traditional collectivist educational goals. Thus, the findings indicate that the ideal teacher characteristics embodied in the OECD TALIS 2013 teacher self-efficacy items favour countries that prioritize socialization and culturalization. The implications for theory and practice are discussed herein.

Abstract

The myth of “tough love” leadership emerges in cultural narratives as a superior approach to improving students’ educational opportunities in urban schools facing challenging circumstances. This model, however, has not been conceptualized, and consequently, empirical research about it is lacking. We formulated a typology of tough love leadership as a mix of four behaviors that combine “tough” and “loving” approaches, with a focus on crisis management and a positive school vision. The study used the tough love leadership conceptualization to explore different mixes of tough love leadership, manifesting in four urban schools facing challenging circumstances. The study’s implications are discussed.