Conference Agenda

The last twenty years have seen two significant strands of education-policy reform in England: an increased emphasis on the power of market forces as a strategy for school improvement and the development of new governance structures that may not be based around local areas or communities (Author, 2020). These policy moves are both positioning schools in a competitive market and loosening the links between schools and their local communities. Various forms of area-based partnerships have emerged, where schools are encouraged and enabled to work together with neighbouring schools and community partners (Author, 2018).

In this paper, we report on the Area-Based Partnerships Project (ABPP), which investigates examples of collaborative working in eight regions in England. Our case-study research is framed by the following questions: What are the conditions that facilitate the establishment and sustainability of area-based school partnerships? What are the features and benefits of these partnerships? What barriers do they face and how are these being addressed? And, what are the implications for the creation of effective forms of local coordination within education systems?

A multiple case study design was adopted encompassing eight area partnerships located in different regions in England. Data were generated through documentary analysis followed by interviews and focus-group seminars with key actors, including governors and Trust members, Chief Executive Officers, local- (district) authority representatives and school principals.

We identify key factors underpinning the purposefulness of such partnerships, including the establishment of strong professional networks, often led by experienced school leaders; the contribution of local-authority officers; a commitment to collaborative working; and a clearly-articulated statement of principles. Our findings underline the importance of contextual factors in shaping area-based cooperation. In particular, we draw attention to the historical, political, and cultural characteristics of a locality as key to understanding how and why the partnerships evolved, and whether and the extent to which they can be seen as purposeful and sustainable. We go on to argue that these are crucial factors that need to be acknowledged, understood, and accounted for in addressing social justice within education and wider society (see also Kerr et al, 2014).

This serves to highlight the importance of localised policy enactment and decision (Braun et al, 2011). Notably, these partnerships have no formal status or mandate, instead drawing their influence from soft power and the social capital of the collective capacity of local educational leaders and professionals. While the extent to which these partnerships can be seen as ‘successful’ and/or sustainable is variable between different regions, there are lessons we can draw from this project that will inform thinking around how school systems might be structured in ways that promote excellence through equity.

This paper speaks to the broader conference theme in exploring how school systems can be supported to improve. It also speaks more specifically to the final conference sub-theme surrounding the leadership of education systems that promote equity and inclusion.

Objectives. This presentation shares insights about the design of a professional learning network (PLN) for leaders in six immigrant-serving school districts across the U.S. With the growth of global migration, educational leaders’ responsibilities to support newcomers have also grown. Addressing emerging issues related to educational leadership, policy and practice, our PLN focused on building district leaders’ capacity to serve immigrant-origin students. Here, we answer the research question: How does the design of a cross-district site visit foster professional learning among district leaders about serving immigrant-origin students?

Background & Theory. We ground our work in theories of immigrant integration that highlight the salience of nested contexts of reception in shaping immigrants’ experiences (Golash-Boza & Valdez, 2018; Portes & Rumbaut, 2014). As key points of contact, educational institutions are central influences on the experiences of immigrant-origin youth (Brezicha & Hopkins, 2016; Lowenhaupt et al., 2021). Recently, educators have sought ways to support students coping with heightened anti-immigrant policies and discourse (Costello, 2016; Ee & Gándara, 2018; Rodriguez & Crawford, 2022). In particular, educational leaders influence the experiences of immigrant-origin youth (Lowenhaupt & Hopkins, 2020; Jaffe-Walter & Villavicencio, 2021; Mavrogordato et al., 2020). We conceptualize our partnership as a PLN connecting immigrant-serving districts and providing leadership development opportunities (Poortman, Brown & Schildkamp, 2022; Azorín, Harris & Jones, 2020). We use design-based research and draw on networked improvement tools to facilitate professional learning within and between districts (Fishman et al., 2013).

Methods. In this five-year study, we partnered with six school districts around the country to identify promising practices to support immigrant-origin youth in light of anti-immigrant policies. Each district formed a team of three representatives including superintendents, multilingual program directors, and teacher leaders. In spring 2023, we organized two cross-district site visits. Our goals were to: 1) observe promising practices, 2) reflect together on context-specific considerations, and 3) explore how observed practices might be implemented in partner districts. The research team gathered several sources of data including audio recordings and artifacts from meetings, participant notes, researcher memos, and reflections.

Findings. Our findings highlight design features that facilitated cross-district learning. First, collaborating across districts allowed educators to identify shared and context-dependent practices. Second, the site visits highlighted the value of being in person, which allowed us to speak with and observe people and practices beyond our immediate district contacts, including other educators and staff, students, and families. Third, scheduling opportunities for reflection throughout the visit helped visitors identify how the showcased practices could be applied to their own contexts. Fourth, scheduling time for caring, critical feedback at the end of each visit gave a sense of purpose to the experience.

Implications & Conclusions. Engaging in PLNs is a promising and increasingly common form of professional development and learning, particularly for educational leaders. Still, we have much to learn about how PLNs support capacity building and how their design informs learning. Our participants expressed appreciation for having space to learn about supporting immigrant-origin students and an opportunity where these commitments were shared.

Introduction

From the year 2015 to 2019, there has been a 29% decrease in enrollment in teacher education programs in Chile (OFD, 2021). Given this, a teacher shortage has been predicted. A shortage that is compounded by early attrition is estimated at about 40% within the first five years (Ávalos & Valenzuela, 2016). This situation has prompted a number of policy initiatives. Decreases in enrollment have been attributed to the legal mandate to gradually increase the admissions cut-off scores in the college entrance exam. To address potential inequities associated with this increase, two alternative admission routes were stipulated. The score on the admissions test could be replaced by a student’s high school ranking or by their participation in a special pre-college preparation program available to low-income students. Additionally, to address a lack of interest among high school graduates, universities were encouraged to develop programs specifically designed to attract them to teacher education (PAP program) (Mineduc 2020). We are conducting a study on the effects of these policies by examining policy, institutional and individual factors.

Objective and conceptual framework

The current study examines first-year preservice teachers' motivations to enrol in teacher education programs. Motivation and commitment to teaching are key factors for their educational trajectory, the construction of professional identity and commitment, therefore, they need to be considered in the design of public policies (Heinz, 2015; Wang and Houston, 2021). FIT-choice (Factors Influencing Teaching) developed by Watt and Richardson (2007) is the conceptual framework used in the current study.

Method

This quantitative study analyzes data from 1127 first-year pre-service undergraduate teacher education students from two public and two private universities. They were enrolled in 8 different teaching majors, including Special Education, Early Childhood and Elementary Education, and five secondary majors. Data were collected during the first semester of 2023, using a paper and pencil questionnaire that included FIT-Choice items (Watt & Richardson, 2007) and two other locally developed constructs. Confirmatory Factor Analysis established the validity and reliability of the constructs measured.

Selected Findings

Gender differences: women (66.5%) had higher scores than men in Social Utility motivations (p<0,001), Intrinsic career value (p<0,001), and Self-perceived abilities (p<0,01). Women showed higher Planned persistence in teaching (p<0,001).

Participation in a PAP program: participants (16.1%): showed higher scores in the perception of the influence of national Initiatives to attract students to the teaching profession (p<0,05; p<0,001) and reported a greater number of Work experiences with children and adolescents (p<0,001).

Secondary major: Mathematics Education students showed lower scores in Social Utility (p<0,001), but higher scores on Prior teaching experiences (p<0,001). English Education majors showed lower scores on Intrinsic career value (p<0,001), Self-perceived abilities (p<0,001), and Planned persistence in teaching (p<0,001).

Educational importance

Teachers' role in school effectiveness and improvement is well documented. Attracting candidates to initiate the process of formal professional preparation has become challenging in some jurisdictions. To address this challenge, it is important to understand what motivates prospective candidates, acknowledging differences among people interested in various teaching specializations.

Purpose – In an ever-changing and complex external environment, the importance for principals to be able to adapt and change while addressing challenges becomes critical. When these challenges arise as adaptive problems or challenges, leaders and their followers must use alternative approaches to problem-solving instead of known solutions to technical problems. The protracted nature of the COVID-19 pandemic over 2020–21 created a situation where principals in Victoria, Australia, had to rapidly engage in strengthening the internal integration of their schools while sustaining continuous strategic transformation facilitated by enhanced organisational agility. During the COVID-19 crisis in Victoria, Australia, the complexity of school leadership increased greatly for school principals. Emotionally intelligent leaders recognise, understand and respect their staff's needs, values and aspirations and build stronger, healthier, self-managed teams within their institutions. Principals with high levels of emotional intelligence create strong cooperative relationships and are effective in developing transformational change within their respective schools. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand their own emotions and that of others, enhancing their thinking processes and the effectiveness of their leadership practices. This study focused on the lived experiences of mid-career principals in the independent school sector from March to November 2020. It investigates these leaders’ transformative work in leading their schools over a protracted crisis.

Design/methodology/approach – The study builds on crisis leadership, adaptive leadership, agile leadership and emotional intelligence constructs, exploring the leadership approaches undertaken by twenty mid-career principals in Victoria, Australia. The main research question of this study is, “What kinds of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches were identified in mid-career school principals during the Covid-19 global pandemic?” Using a narrative inquiry approach, across three temporal points in 2020, storied productions drawn from the findings present four emergent types of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches undertaken by these principals. These leadership approaches are presented as the commander-leader, the conductor-leader, the gardener-leader and the engineer-leader, with each approach demonstrating both organisational leadership approaches as well as individual leadership styles used by these principals as they led their schools.

Evidence – The findings have direct implications for professional development programs focusing on continuing principals with emphasis on the importance of developing and sustaining emotionally intelligent skillsets in principals for use during periods of rapid change or high crisis in schools.

Educational Importance – These findings provide insights into the kinds of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches used by mid-career school principals with implications for making use of these findings in developing elements of emotion training in teacher and principal preparation and professional development programs. The findings present insight into the support useful for mid-career principals who have completed more than five years of principalship.

Perspectives – The invisible labour of school leadership must be recognised, and existing policies and systems strengthened to help mid-career leaders during a crisis and post-crisis as they lead their schools during adaptive and agile times because the leadership styles required across each of these periods of change are different.

Connections to conference theme – This study uses a unique emotional intelligence approach to understand school leadership during and after a crisis.

Purpose – Over the three-year period of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a severe impact on global efforts to ensure all children receive a quality education. Pakistan is no exception. School closures to limit the spread of COVID-19 have directly impacted an estimated 40 million school-going learners from pre-primary to higher-secondary levels in Pakistan, where school enrolment, completion and quality of learning are already low, especially for girls. As stated in the ASER 2021 (ASER, 2021) report, “School closures to limit the spread of COVID-19 have directly impacted an estimated 40 million school-going learners from pre-primary to higher secondary levels, in a context where school enrolment, completion and quality of learning are already low, especially for girls” (p.6). Girls experienced greater learning losses than boys during the school closures. This served to halt or even reverse an increasing trend in learning outcomes for girls who had, in some cases, outdid boys. On average, about 60 per cent of children enrolled in schools spent less than an hour a day on their studies during school closures.

Research question – What has been the impact of COVID-19 Learning Loss across the Pakistani Catholic School Sector?

Context - This study aims to collect baseline data on seven Catholic diocesean schools in Pakistan as it interrogates the extent to which the pandemic has influenced this sector in both urban and rural settings. This study will select Catholic schools in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pukthunwa in its sampling. There are currently 244 schools in Pakistan across the seven dioceses with 95304 students enrolled, of which 56,557 are male students, and 38747 are female students.

Approach to inquiry – It is envisaged that using an online survey tool will assist the researchers in gauging the extent to which learning deficits and challenges are currently being faced within these schools in 2023, after having been three years through the pandemic. The survey tool will also identify viable school strategies that were used to address these challenges. This survey tool will be administered over August and September 2023 to a stratified sample of school leaders, teachers and administrative staff in this school sector.

Evidence – The baseline data collected through this study will contribute towards laying the groundwork towards establishing communities of practice across the seven dioceses. Initially, in 2023 focus will be on developing leadership capacity across the diocesan schools. From 2024 onwards, targeting the development of teacher pedagogy in Mathematics and English and/or Urdu will be made. These communities of practice will develop teaching and learning resources together within each diocese to assist with addressing the learning deficits of their students identified through the baseline data collected through this study.

Educational importance – Through the findings of this study, more targeted work for school improvement will be developed at the diocesan level, school level, subject level and individual student level.

Connection to the conference theme – The study will contribute to the ongoing system and school implications arising from the COVID-19 crisis in education within the Pakistani Catholic school sector.

Purpose: This proposed paper describes a prevention model for reducing school employee sexual misconduct and the evaluation data on the effectiveness of the model. The model was built from the results of study 1 and tested using the results of study 2. Sexual misconduct may be physical, verbal and/or visual behaviors (including technology assisted) directed toward a student. In the United States, two 2023 studies found between 11.7 and 17.4% of current students have experienced at least one incident of sexual misconduct by a school employee; that’s 6.4 to 9.4 Million students.

Research Questions. (1) Under what school conditions does school employee sexual misconduct occur? (2) Do these conditions offer suggestions for prevention? (3) Is the prevention model effective?

Methods: This paper is a report of two studies conducted by the author.

Study 1. The model of prevention described in this paper is based upon a set of data that allows an internal examination of cases of sexual abuse of students by employees Having served as an expert witness in nearly 200 cases of school employee sexual abuse over a twenty year period, I have had access to school policies, police reports, depositions of school administrators, parents, targets/victims, teachers, and abusers. For each case, I analyzed policies in place and how they were followed; documented hiring practices as well as firing practices; viewed and critiqued training; documented response to red flags of boundary crossing and sexual misconduct by school employees; and coded levels of supervision on a scale from none to appropriate. I was able to hear, in the voices of the offender, the victim/target, other school employees, other students, and administrators what happened and how it happened. I have permission from plaintiff attorneys and IRB approval for this completed study.

Study 2: Funded by the CDC, a study of 10 school districts including 50 schools and 2,500 employees that collected data pre-post the intervention of training, policy review, internal communications, hiring practices, and supervision. Pre-post surveys included a scale on appropriate and inappropriate behaviors as well as scales on self-efficacy, normative beliefs, and intentions to report.

Evidence/data sources. Results from study 1 informed the model of prevention which includes: school policies directing appropriate behavior between adults and students and consequences for not conforming to expected behavior; training on boundary crossing, red flags, and reporting; supervision and monitoring; preventative hiring and preventative firing; and internal communication, both vertical and horizontal.

Results from study 2 indicate that the more components of the prevention model that are in place, the fewer the reported instances of boundary crossing with students occur. In schools and districts where all staff received training, employee respondents decreased reported boundary crossing, strengthened attitudes toward prevention, indicated stronger self-efficacy to report as well as intentions to report and actual reporting.

Connection to Conference Theme: School effectiveness and improvement cannot occur in an unsafe environment. This presentation targets the obligation of schools to provide safe learning environments.

Extended education is an emerging field and being the principal of School-Age Educare Centers (SAEC) does not only mean pedagogical, operational and administrative responsibility, it includes also the responsibility for the aspect of care provided to the children during their stay at SAEC. In the educational practice of SAEC staff with heterogenous professional background act in various learning environments. The principals' knowledge and perceptions of the SAEC is decisive in order to drive organizational educational change (Meyer et al., 2022). Leadership in SAEC seems to be more complicated than in school (Boström & Haglund, 2020). Research on principals' work in SAEC is sparse in Sweden (Glaés-Coutts, 2021; Jonsson 2018, 2021) and non-existent in Switzerland. On the other hand, there is extensive research on how prevailing discourses influence successful schools: if principals and staff embrace the same rules, norms and beliefs over time and if there is mutual cooperation (Lomos et al., 2011; Scheerens et al., 2007; Seashore & Murphy, 2017). Therefore, it is both important and relevant to study this field.

The objective for this study is to analyze and compare principals' perceptions of their mission with a focus on SAEC. The aim is to generate knowledge about this unexplored area and to compare the professional practice internationally.

The theoretical perspective is based in school improvement theory (Fullan, 2010; Bredeson, 2002). Critical parameters emphasized are structure, culture and leadership (Höög, & Johansson, 2014). Internal improvement capabilities which seem to be particularly important for school improvement are communication, cooperation, skills development and leadership (Björkman, 2008; Grissom et al., 2021).

In this study a comparative content analysis (Krispendorff, 2016) is used as research method to analyze and compare the principals’ views on SAEC and their leadership. This method allows us to draw meaningful sense-making processes (Weick, 1995) and comparisons to make inferences about the similarities and differences between the two contexts. The sample consists of twelve interviews with six principals in each country.

The preliminary results show a growing awareness of the pedagogical role as principal in Sweden, emphasizing the whole school day. This blurs the boundaries between the school and SAEC which becomes problematic for maintaining the distinctiveness of SAEC. In Switzerland, principals acknowledge their lack of professional knowledge on the function of SAEC and the workforce’s skills. Principals face the dilemma to mainly serve parental needs as a professional and empirical orientation. The results also pinpoint how cultural values, norms, or ideologies are reflected in principals’ perceptions about their leadership.

The educational importance of the study is to extend the principals’ vision on SAEC and view a child’s entire school day to serve its individual needs. The connection to the conferences theme is that quality for professional education for enhanced school effectiveness and improvement begins in principals' understanding and leadership of their mission.

In recent decades, distributed leadership has become a prominent area of research and practice in education, generating significant attention, debate, and controversy in the field of educational leadership (Harris et al., 2022). Distributed leadership continues to receive global attention in the educational context, although its implementation and effectiveness vary across different countries and local contexts and, in some cases, is influenced by official policies.

This study explores the implementation of distributed leadership in different countries, comparing government-supported models with those primarily implemented through scientific processes. Focusing on Irish and Turkish schools as case studies, the study aims to understand leaders' styles, priorities, support systems, and perceptions of distributed leadership. It investigates the impact of distributed leadership on schools, compares it to other leadership practices, and explores strategies for enhancing its effectiveness in education.

Our study utilized a qualitative research approach, employing semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection method. We conducted interviews with school administrators who hold or continue their Ph.D. degrees in educational administration science and have experience with distributed leadership in schools in both Ireland and Türkiye. In this context, this study is based on a comparative case study. As Bartlett and Vavrus (2017) noted, the comparative case study approach provides the opportunity to compare and analyse different cultures and contexts using horizontal, vertical, and transversal dimensions.

The interviews were conducted with seven participants from each country, for a total of 14. To analyze the data obtained from the interviews, we employed meta-theme analysis, a qualitative method specifically designed for cross-cultural research (Wutich et al., 2021).

Among the common leadership approaches identified in the interviews with school principals in Ireland, there is a collaborative and inclusive style, emphasis on shared responsibilities, focus on the development and cooperation of all individuals, and open communication. In Türkiye, where more autocratic tendencies are observed, the leadership of the central bureaucracy at schools has a certain degree of leadership. was confined to the frame.

Distributive leadership in Irish schools shows regular formal meetings between middle and senior leaders, as well as informal discussions in hallways and staff rooms. There is a focus on sharing information, staying connected, and involving staff members in the decision-making processes. However, there are concerns about how leadership is distributed, the recognition of teachers' contributions, and the need for clear facilitation and support to create a positive and inclusive atmosphere for distributed leadership. On the other hand, distributed leadership practices in Türkiye feed school culture and improve decision-making processes. However, it has been concluded that the fact that schools are under the influence of central policies prevents school principals from demonstrating their competencies as leaders.

The research aims to explore the conceptualization and implementation of distributed leadership in schools, aligning with the conference theme of "Leading improvement collaboratively and sustainably" by examining how distributed leadership practices contribute to collaborative and sustainable improvements in school effectiveness and educational outcomes.

Due to their location and the composition of the student body, schools in challenging cir-cumstances face more difficult conditions. As a result, quality characteristics can differ. With a high proportion of students from non-privileged family situations (usually measured by the educational attainment and financial circumstances of the parents), these poorer so-cio-economic circumstances are often associated with special compensatory services pro-vided by the school. These schools need external support. The necessary additional support from the system can be provided within the framework of professionalization and advisory services. School leadership also plays an important role not only in school development and building up school development capacities but also in accessing external resources and moderating and mediating external interventions.

This paper examines the quality and benefits of a support program designed for schools fac-ing challenging circumstances, including various interventions and their impact on school leadership, school development and school quality.

This five-year longitudinal mixed methods study is based on a sample of around 150 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Over a period of three years, half the schools experi-enced further measures to professionalize school leadership (coaching of principals, profes-sional development program) and support school development (additional financial re-sources, school development consultancy). The study assesses the quality and the change in the quality of school characteristics and examines the contribution of the interventions to these changes.

The analyses are built on two different surveys of staff and school leaders on the work situa-tion and on the interventions assessed each year. In addition to a descriptive evaluation of the quality assessments of staff and school leaders, autoregressive regression analyses are conducted to examine the impact of specific program components/interventions on selected school quality characteristics during the program period. Since the program was implement-ed at the school level, the analyses were conducted accordingly.

The results of the study show the very positive assessment of the program’s quality and ben-efits and its positive consequences on the quality of the organization. The regression anal-yses demonstrate that positively perceived outcome qualities of the interventions are associ-ated with improvements in numerous dimensions of school quality, such as cooperative leadership. For example: The school members’ positive perception of the benefits (β = .26**) and achieved goals (β = .28**) as well as their perception of an increase in compe-tence development (β = .25**), behavioral (β = .27**) and organizational (β = .15*) change through the school’s work with a process consultancy for school development is associated with an improved coordination of actions of the steering group as perceived by the employ-ees. Furthermore, when examining the effect size Cohen's d, it becomes evident that most schools involved in the program showed better development over time than the comparison schools, some of which even experienced negative development.

Overall, the findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of school development programs on school leadership and school improvement. Based on these results, the interventions will be discussed in terms of their effects and the necessary conditions for successful implemen-tation, along with their practical implications.

A significant concern in many education systems internationally, is the recruitment to and retention of sufficient numbers of suitably qualified and experienced teachers in principal roles. This is a longstanding global issue and Scotland’s system is no exception. This paper reports firstly on findings from the authors’ research with experienced principals in Scotland through a Life History Narrative (LHN) approach, that illustrates key issues around support for new and long serving principals, with strong advocacy in the co-produced LHNs for mentoring to support principalship. Crucially, there is a need for mentoring support to be structured as an opportunity and an entitlement, with value placed on mentoring through allocation of time and resources, and facilitation of a safe space for critical conversations around the role and the challenges of headship.

Secondly, the paper reports on a district and university partnership in Scotland: 'The Headteacher (Principal) Mentoring Programme' from the perspectives of the university researchers, a district lead and a school principal. Development of the programme was supported by learning from the experience of colleagues in the Republic of Ireland, and lessons from the district’s previous mentoring model where lack of a formal structure or training meant that the mentor/mentee partnerships were not deemed to be impactful or sustained. The rationale and content of the programme was underpinned by this learning and also data from the authors’ LHN research. The programme involves:

• Full training for mentors: an ongoing professional learning experience for experienced principals in the district

• Mentoring for all principals new to principalship, as an offer and an entitlement in the district

• System leadership opportunity for the mentoring design team (comprising representatives from the university, district and schools).

Finally, the paper will present research methods and findings to date on the impact of the partnership programme, through a formative evaluation of year one. This research amplifies the voices of long-serving principals (mentors), new principals (mentees) and the mentoring design team (experienced principals representing all sectors in education) in six impact criteria around experience of the partnership, professional growth and practice, development of new skills and knowledge, confidence and wellbeing, motivation and job-satisfaction, and impact on student learning in schools and in the wider education system. The findings have implications for principalship support and continued professional learning, in particular relation to the design of mentoring or similar programmes at a local or national level. There are also propositions for the ICSEI community around how such a partnership may change the perception and representation of the principal role, in a time when the recruitment and retention are deemed by the World Bank to be at crisis level.

This paper asks: how can school leaders facilitate school environments that help school populations to respond ethically to shared challenges?

The purpose of this paper is to explore how leaders can enact their agency to create school environments which are emotionally supportive, ethically aware and relationship focused, in ways that enable both staff and young people to lead and participate.

Learning to live together well is a present-day ethical imperative, in the global context of growing inequalities, the climate crisis and increasing polarisation of political beliefs (Booth, 2018; Samanani, 2022a; UNEP, 2021; World Health Organisation, 2021; IEA, 2022). School environments can function as important learning spaces, within which this imperative can be addressed. They can also function as invaluable sources of emotional support and relationship growth, for both staff and students. However, reports of discontent, alienation and disconnect in English state secondary schools bely the limited realisation of these functions at present, and indicate the need for an ethical recalibration.

Dewey theorises a vision for school environments as ‘miniature communities’: spaces of joint activity and shared learning, that are co-constructed and continually renegotiated (1941). This paper draws upon my first year of doctoral study, in which I critiqued and combined agency, care and community, to introduce an agential ethic of care as a promising ethical bedrock for participatory school environments. In addition to adult-led caring services, this research considered how, or why, we might encourage all members of the school population to act in care. Moreover, by exploring the relationship between care and agency, this research also problematised the material conditions of caring, paternalistic caring practices and ethical orientations within the English education system at present.

This paper will then draw upon initial findings from the first term of a participatory action research project in a school in England. This project has been designed to create a participatory opportunity to learn from lived experiences of care, agency and community within schools. By re-framing caring as a collaborative, non-hierarchical, agential practice, this project has been designed to make a unique contribution to urgent discussions of how we can learn to live together well – while making a substantial contribution to education and care theory.

The initial findings will help school leaders to understand barriers to and opportunities for co-creating community within their schools. Significantly, they will offer bottom-up rather than top-down lessons for leadership: learning from the practices, perceptions and experiences of care and agency amongst staff and students within their schools. This research responds to calls for an urgent transformation of our education system, in light of global challenges (Higham, 2021; Tannock, 2021; UNESCO, 2021; Bajaj, 2018; Jerome and Starkey, 2022). The discussions generated by this paper will help researchers, leaders and policymakers to imagine school environments that enable and empower school populations to live, care, and act together.

Schools with better leadership practices achieve better results. Yet, limited evidence exists on how to improve these practices, especially in low- and middle-income countries (Global School Leaders, 2020; Leithwood et al., 2008). To address this gap, and fitting with the ICSEI network on “Methods of Researching Educational Effectiveness and Improvement (MoREI)”, we carried out a study on a large-scale school leadership programme for head teachers in public schools in Rwanda using a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) and a Differences-in-Difference (DiD) design.

The school leadership programme aims to enhance the leadership skills and practices of school leaders, with the goal of improving the teaching environment and ultimately boosting student abilities and test scores. In this study, we analyse the programme’s impact on student test scores of primary school leavers, as well as identify which school characteristics have a greater influence on the effectiveness of the programme. Through our study, we aim to provide evidence on how school leadership professional development can positively affect student and community education outcomes.

Low and middle-income countries face challenges in terms of school leadership quality and student learning outcomes (Bloom et al., 2015; Lemos et al., 2021). To address this issue, school leadership programmes have gained attention in recent years, with a growing body of literature examining their impact on student scores. These programs aim to increase knowledge and skills of school leaders, in particular in areas such as leadership, management and communication. A recent systematic review by Anand et al. (2023) analyses 14 studies on school leadership and management programmes from emerging countries. Whilst the average effect is positive, the majority of individual studies had statistically insignificant effects, highlighting the importance of large sample sizes to be able to measure small but still economically meaningful effect sizes. Further, just three studies were conducted in a low-income country, highlighting the value of new evidence from such low resource contexts.

Our study contributes to this literature by providing evidence on a large-scale school leadership programme. The programme targeted over 2,000 headteachers and deputy headteachers, aiming at improving student outcomes in Rwanda. We compare test scores of students across 350 schools, where school leaders from about 175 were randomly assigned to receive training. We make use of three years of national test scores, including a total of 90 000 students. Our paper will also be the first to look at the impact of the school leadership programme after the COVID-19 pandemic. Did trained school leaders successfully respond to the challenges of COVID?

With the unique character of Hong Kong in a postcolonial context, where eastern philosophies and approaches meet those of the west, it could be presumed that it is an ideal system for generating innovative ideas and practices (Lu & Campbell 2021; Bautista et al. 2022). However, understanding the role, influence, and impact of teacher education as a career-long pursuit in Hong Kong remains both contested and under theorised (Bautista et al. 2022). While Hong Kong enjoys a complex and sophisticated teacher education infrastructure which includes a range of opportunities and legislated time to dedicate to the varied forms of teacher education throughout a teachers’ career, such opportunities are frequently reported on as a being too demanding, rigid, or unrelated to practice (Lu & Campbell 2021; Pang et al. 2016). Drawing upon critical policy analysis and key informant interviews, the questions driving this study are:

• How are the forms and purposes of teacher education in Hong Kong understood in the domains of research, policy and practice?

• What is the role of the historical and contemporary socio-political context in understanding the effectiveness and future possibilities of teacher education in Hong Kong?

Drawing upon postcolonialism as an interdisciplinary political, theoretical and historical academic toolkit, this paper argues that colonial rule, and the aftermath of it, paved the way for international influence in education in Hong Kong, with significant implications for how the purposes and underpinning values of education are understood, and how this is reflected in teacher education. With this arises tensions in the extent to which this does, could, and should reflect the complex and unique character of Hong Kong (Lu & Campbell 2021; Bautista et al. 2022).

This paper illuminates the complex and wide-ranging expertise that teachers develop and draw upon in and through their practice, and how new forms of teacher education in a complex socio-political context might support this. Through the development of more varied forms of teacher education in Hong Kong, focused on making sense of the complex influences and drivers of the varied forms teacher learning and education can take, more relevant forms of teacher education may be able to emerge and be sustained through formal and informal means (Ho & Lu 2019). In the policy context, further critical analysis of how teachers are positioned in the system, how this relates to the forms and purposes of teacher education, and whether or not this relates to shifting demands placed upon teachers and schools, is needed (Lu & Campbell 2021). Consideration is also needed of the means through which various groups with a stake in teacher education in Hong Kong are able to come together in order to build a more sophisticated understanding of the varied and emerging professional learning needs of teachers, and how this can and should influence the development of teacher education in the SAR.

School leadership is a largely unknown or poorly understood among French principals and policy-makers (Normand, 2021a, b). The aim of this action research was to transfer the main findings of the international research on school leadership to practitioners by involving them in a 3-year Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme. (Huber, 2009; Moos & oth., 2011) The research was inspired by systematic reviews of the research literature showing the conditions for effective CPD (Cordingley, 2006, 2008, Timperley, 2008, 2011). Practitioners were expected to reflect collectively and change their representations and practices in their daily work in secondary schools.

Workshops were used to develop peer learning and mentoring activities (Hall, 2008). The CPD programme focused on the iterative, reflective and projective dimension of professional knowledge hybridised with scientific knowledge. The production of shared professional knowledge was fostered by exchanges and interactions between peers, while principals were expected to move away from their bureaucratic stance and culture and to expore margins of autonomy away from top-down prescriptions and rules from the Ministry of Education and State local authorities (Normand, 2021c).

At the end of the Continuous Professional Development programme on school leadership, interviews were conducted with participants. The aim was to gather their accounts of training sessions, as well as their experiences in changing their outlook and practices as principals, by testing their ability to develop (or to reflect on) leadership in their schools. 20 interviews were conducted over a period of 12 months.

Principals were then invited to share their experiences by writing a 30-page paper on French-style leadership. This action research is important in the French context because it is the first time that practitioners had access to international research on school leadership. It also led to the organisation of the first European symposium on school leadership, organised by the Advanced Institute for Education and Training (French MoE), which is responsible for all initial and in-service training for principals in France. The trained practitioners were also involved in the organisation of parallel workshops within this European conference.

The research findings show the importance of informal leadership practices of French principals, even if those are not recognised and visible by their hierarchy and State local authorities. It is proved how specific features in the French culture, the bureaucratic environment, and lack of training prevent them from appropriating and using some disseminated concepts such as instructional and transformational leadership and their related research findings.

Objectives

Research has also shown that principal resilience is crucial not only for dealing with professional challenges and uncertainties but also for enhancing desirable individual and organizational well-being and performance (Glazzard & Stones, 2021; Wells & Klocko, 2018). The current study aims at investigating the relationships between principal resilience, psychological contract with their school and work-family conflict.

Research questions

1) What are the relationships from between principal resilience, psychological contract and work-family conflict.

Theoretical Framework

The 8-item psychological contract survey developed by Liu et al. (2008) measures the mutual expectation or agreement between individuals and organizations on mutual responsibility obligations. It reflects that school principals try to keep a balance between contribution and income with schools. The 5-item work-family conflict survey was developed by Netemeyer et al. (1996). The survey examined work influence on family life. A 6-point Likert agreement scale was adopted ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Previous research identified that human resilience may positively predict to psychological contract (Hind et al., 1996; Mccoy & Elwood, 2009) and negatively connect with the work-family conflict (Billing et al., 2021).

Methods

This paper involves a sample of 698 principals working in schools from Hong Kong and Mainland China. Among these participants, 375 (53.7%) were male and 323 (46.3%) females with an average age of 44 years and 7 years of working experience. More than half (66.3%, n = 334) of these principals had less than ten years of working experience, 27.4% (n = 138) had ten to twenty years, and 6.3% (n = 32) had more than twenty years. The majority of them (66.9%, n = 467) held a bachelor degree, 32.1% (n = 224) of them held a junior college degree or below, and 1% (n = 7) held a master degree and above. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data. A multi-criteria approach for acceptable model fit was adopted (Marsh, Hau, & Wen 2004). All analyses were carried out in Mplus 8.

Results

All dimensions from principal resilience are positively related to the psychological contract scale (r ranged from .46 to .88) and negatively related to the work-family conflict scale (r ranged from -.78 to -.31). The SEM model showed that the dimensions of the PRI positively predicted the psychological contract construct and negatively predicted the work-family conflict construct.

Implications

This project is critical and timely particularly during the post-pandemic period in that the ways for enhancing the outcomes of school principals via the lens of resilience will be reinforced to help them cope with the everyday challenges and adversities that principals encounter.

Connection to the conference theme

This project fits well with the conference theme of ‘Leading improvement collaboratively and sustainably’ via the means of principal resilience.

Objectives. This paper shares insights from a cross-sector partnership to support youth well-being in Chelsea, MA, where institutional and community leaders formed a Children’s Cabinet in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective in this paper is to explore the barriers and contributors to collaboration in crisis, exploring how cross-sector partnership at the systems level works through a close analysis of qualitative interviews with Cabinet members. Specifically, we ask, “How do distinct and blended institutional logics inform engagement in a cross-sector collaboration to support youth well-being and school improvement?”

Cross Sector-collaboration. A growing body of literature about educational reform has focused on how cross-sector, community partnerships support strategic responses to challenges and coordinate networks of social services (Miller et al., 2017). These initiatives have emerged as a way to bring together systems that influence youth outcomes within particular neighborhoods with a focus on aligning the multiple services youth access (Boyer et al, 2020; Impellizeri and Lee, 2021; Sharkey & Faber, 2014).

Institutional Logics. Institutional logics describe the ways in which discrete institutional orders create a system of motive, reason and justification for decisions, priorities and beliefs of an individual or group, together forming a logic of working (Friedland & Alford, 1991). While often discussed in singularity, logics can also co-exist and even compete (Reay & Hinings, 2009). More collaborative forms of institutional logic development also exist as key stakeholders of a problem establish and share common norms, culture and goals that lead to initiatives that change an existing logic or lead to blended logics (Currie & Spyridonidis, 2016).

Study Context. The city of Chelsea is a primarily Latinx community (67%), with the vast majority of youth speaking a language other than English at home (88%). A tight knit, vibrant community, Chelsea has long relied on its institutions, social service agencies and community-based organizations. Hard hit by the pandemic, school district leaders established a Children’s Cabinet in 2021 composed of administrators, social service and health agencies, city government, and non-profit organizations.

Methods. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with cabinet members in April and May of 2021. Each interview lasted approximately 40-60 minutes and was conducted over Zoom. Drawing on our theoretical frameworks, our iterative, open-coding process was conducted by two independent researchers who identified salient themes across interview transcripts and arbitrated any disagreements (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Findings & Conclusions. Our findings show how leaders across sectors voiced shared logics, blended logics across institutions, and conflicting logics hindering collaboration. First, a dominant and shared ethic of care was named as central to building cross-sector collaboration in the aftermath of the pandemic. Second, individual leaders presented their rationale for collaboration via blended logics that were not necessarily aligned with dominant logics within their respective institutions. Third, despite these overlapping logics, individual roles shaped leaders’ sense of possibility such that they felt constrained to engage in collaboration beyond their established responsibilities. Through our study, we show how collaborations with school, government and community can elevate local leadership and solutions to crisis.

Objectives

Principal well-being worldwide is under increasing threat due to the challenging and complex nature of their work and growing demands. This paper aimed at developing and validating a multidimensional Principal Well-being Inventory (PWI), and examining the state and consequences (work engagement; intention to leave) of principal well-being.

Research questions

1) What are the elements of the PWI?

2) What is the situation of principal well-being

3) How does principal well-being connect to work engagement and intention to leave?

Theoretical Framework

Recently, The World Health Organization (WHO) (2014) defined well-being as a state of being in which every person sees their potential, can handle everyday life stresses, work productively and fruitfully, and positively contribute to their local community. The OECD (2020) subsequently utilized the multidimensional well-being framework for mass testing students and teachers, but not school principals. The multiple-dimension well-being concept is adopted in this project to design the Principal Well-being Inventory (Pollock & Wang, 2020; Wells & Klocko, 2018).

Scholars have focused on identifying influential organisational and individual drivers of principal well-being, mainly using quantitative methods (Aravena & González, 2021; Beausaert et al., 2021; Collie et al., 2020). Much of their work has examined work-related drivers. For example, in a longitudinal study involving 2,084 Australian and 829 Irish principals, Beausaert et al. (2021) found a that social capital had a significant impact on principal well-being. Moreover, the consequences of principal well-being have also attracted research attention, although not a great deal. Limited evidence shows that more investigations of principal well-being have focused on the relevance of principals as individuals (Beausaert et al., 2021)

Methods

This paper involves four independent samples of principals working in schools from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The research design consisted of four phases with four sequential empirical studies. Phase 1 was to establish the content validity (literature review and Study 1); Phase 2 was to test the construct validity (Study 2 and Study 3); Phase 3 was to build the criterion validity (re-use the data from Study 3), and Phase 4 was to test the cross validity of the PWI (Study 4).

Results

A 24-item PWI was created via a theoretical-empirical approach of test construction covering physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being. The principals in this project generally reported a higher level of their occupational well-being except for physical well-being. This project released that principal well-being significantly predicted work engagement and intention to leave via eight regression paths. Particularly, physical, emotional, psychological, cognitive well-being significantly affect work engagement. Emotional, social and spiritual well-being significantly impact intention to leave.

Implications

This theoretically and empirically validated inventory serves as a robust tool for comprehensively understanding principal well-being and a fuller exploration of their well-being literacy, drivers and outcomes.

Connection to the conference theme

This project fits well with the conference theme of ‘Exploring the evolving research and evidence base for leadership education and capacity building’. Particularly, this project will contribute to the well-being capacity building.

Problem of practice, connection to conference theme, and research questions

Many schools reacted to the COVID-19 crises by creating structures to strengthen student-teacher relationships in efforts to provide students with targeted support. Having recognized the positive impact of these structures on students, schools are now struggling to concretize them as infrastructural. We address this problem through a two-phased study in partnership with a group of New York City educators, examining educator-made “micro-innovations”. Micro-innovations are adaptations and inventions new to the contexts in which they are developed (Author, 2021; Rogers, 2003). Our research questions ask:

What micro-innovations have educators developed to strengthen student-teacher relationships during the COVID-19 crisis?

How are they sustaining those micro-innovations now?

What challenges and problems have they had to address along the way?

In phase one of this project, we identified and described educator-made micro-innovations. Now, in phase two, we focus on how schools are working to sustain those innovations, and the challenges they have encountered in doing so.

Perspectives

We root our inquiry in research showing that the conventional “grammar of schooling” both creates and constrains the development of new educational practices (Tyack & Cuban, 1995; Cohen & Mehta, 2017). The grammar of schooling describes institutional forces that reinforce conventional school practices. The affordances of conventional practices – or, the constraints that shape behavior with particular objects in particular contexts (Gibson, 1977) – help explain why schools change slowly and incrementally. However, we argue that, when sustained, educator-made micro-innovations can contribute to broader and long lasting educational transformation (Author, 2021).

Approach to inquiry & data sources

We interviewed 20 educators and coaches from schools taking part in a “Continuous Improvement” Network (a pseudonym). This network aims to increase the numbers of Black and Latinx students who graduate high school, and recognizes student-teacher relationships as critical to reaching that goal. We asked participants to describe their schools’ structures that support student-teacher relationships, how these structures transformed through the COVID-19 crisis, and the challenges they face and strategies they are developing toward making these structures sustainable.

Learnings

We found that educators’ efforts to sustain one micro-innovation often created a series of new problems. For example, some educators created structures for one-to-one check-ins during remote instruction. However, in order for that structure to be effective in person, educators had to engage in collaborative improvement planning, which led to challenges with scheduling, professional development, and progress monitoring. Though each challenge seemed to stall progress, each had to be addressed in order to sustain the structure and deepen its impact. Ultimately, schools’ engagement in a continuous improvement process to identify and solve a specific problem turned into a continuous problem-finding process.

Educational importance of research for practice

In order to make systemic change that reflects structures supporting student-teacher relationships, schools must recognize that continuous improvement is not linear, nor guaranteed. In understanding continuous improvement as a continuous problem, schools and educators can develop the priorities and make changes that foster real infrastructural improvements.

Linking closely to the overarching conference themes, this presentation looks at creative and innovative practices that offer an impactful alternative to how time is currently spent covering teacher absence from school and other learning loss issues emanating from Covid days residue.

Studies on learning loss in Covid pointed towards employing a multi-faceted approach which takes in contextual realities as guiding drivers for impactful practice. (Blainey, (2021), Grima, & Golding, (2021), Hanushek, & Woessmann, (2020)).

Chiswick House School and St Martin's College in Malta, a whole-through 2-18, co-educational independent learning organization worked tirelessly internally and externally to combat learning loss between March 2020 and June 2023.

From devising focus groups per subject per level, counselling sessions, individualised and intensive catch-up classes and family support groups, we were able to construct an evidenced-based picture of our state of play with regard to learning loss. Both young and adult learners' needs were and are considered.

Working closely with two newly recruited teachers, the Principal looked at the number of lessons "lost" due to the statutory provision for teachers for sick and special leave. Estimating, on average on actual data, a loss of 10% of learning time for children, a new Replacement Curriculum is being devised to combat learning time loss and to relieve teachers from an outdated administrative practice that frustrates learners, teachers, parents and leadership.

Weekly 2 hour meetings over 6 months (approx 20 weeks) with two newly recruited teachers co-constructed and changed the concept of CPD to DPC - Developing Professional Creativity Davies, C (2022).

Three Streams of Learning Plans for Cultural Cohesion, borrowing from the IDG Inner Development Goals Framework (2021) which include the 5 Dimensions that have been adapted to offer over 50 lessons per year in each Stream for 3 Replacement teachers to use and explore. The Streams include Stream 1: Being and Thinking - Wellbeing and Ways of Being. Stream 2: Relating and Collaborating - Caring for Others, the World and Cultural Cohesion ( World Canons) and Stream 3 : Acting - Agency, Change and Real Life Snapshots.

Participants will be invited to actively engage in a short, simulated task of deconstruction, construction and co-construction from the Curricular Plan and the Professional Creativity Process through Project Based Learning principles Larmer, J et al (2015).

This interactive session for practitioners - teachers, educational leaders, professional educational coaches and mentors and curriculum planners aims at offering an impactful and engaging conversation that shed new light on school improvement.

This contributon to an Innovate Presentation focus on sharing practical experience based on testing recommendations from a R&D project about Student voice, presented at ICSEI 2023. The R&D looked at student voice from two perspectives; student voice in learning processes and student voice in democratic processes, both in school. The project concluded that the role of the student council (SC) must be strengthened. This Innovate Presentation will look at practical experience from testing some of the recommendations for increasing student voice in school democracy.

Background, purpose and policy focus:

In the R&D students, teachers, school leaders and owners all describe the SC as an important arena for student voice and the most important body for democratic processes in their school. It gives students the opportunity to influence issues that are important to them and give them experience with democratic processes. However, there are great variation in how the SC is used, and in which areas the students feel that they can contribute to school development. There are also great variations in how the students are chosen for the council and at what level all students feel that they have an impact. Several interventions in the R&D project recommended to strengthen the SC role and to train students voice in democratioc processes.

We would lik to share experiences and explore together with participants at the ICSEI 2024 the following bullet points:

• Get knowledge about the topic “student voice in democratic processes in school”

- The concept student voice in democratic processes at school will be defined in every class, with the teachers and school leaders

- The head at each school will visit every class befor the selection of the SC and tell them about what is expected from each in SC and how the selection should be done

• Involve all school levels, including the political level:

- The school owner together with politicians will gather all the SC in the municipality and give them training in political processes

• Practice:

- The SC will be involved in broader topics than before, like how to increase reading competence, collaboration between kindergarden and schools etc.

Experience from the testing will be evaluated with students, teachers, school-leaders and school-owners.

Purpose

To increase student voice in democratic processes in schools, in order to create engagement, competence and motivation to be active in democatic processes aslo as adults and as a consequence preserve democratic societies.

Educational Importance

Sharing our experience and to have dialogue at ICSEI will be important for how we move on further with this project. It might also be of inspiration for other school-communities on how to increase students voice in democratic processes, and also how to train for democratic societies.

Approach for the session

We would like to explore the area of practice via use of digital sharing, like mentimeter (www.mentimeter.com) and padlet (www.padlet.com) , combined with dialogue in pairs and whole groups. We will then be able to hear every voice and to build a climate for innovation and new ideas.