Logo image
Leading pedagogical reform: Australian principals tell their stories
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Leading pedagogical reform: Australian principals tell their stories

Susan E Simon, Deborah Heck, Michael Christie and Yvonne Farragher
International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, Vol.24(2), pp.266-289
2021
url
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2019.1613566View
Published Version

Abstract

The tsunami of global educational reform in the past decade has led to national, regional and school-based policy redevelopment to elevate teaching standards, enrich student learning and improve results. Consequently, principals are frequently charged with leading mandated pedagogical reform in their schools. Building on earlier research concerning school improvement, principal leadership and pedagogical reform, a case study aimed to discover the benefits and challenges of implementing such change in one region of Queensland's Department of Education and Training, through listening to regional administrators', principals' and teachers' stories. The 'common language' for student learning and the move towards authentic pedagogical improvement were applauded by all. Principals reflected on their leadership of the reform and advocated additional regional support, training and leadership skills development to maximize sustainability. Regional administrators' stories revealed assumptions about staff understanding the big picture of pedagogical reform and how to implement strategies in the classroom, whilst teachers' stories emphasized that capacity-building must occur more from the ground up and not be characterized by the top-down nature of systemic mandated reform. The alignments and disconnects between the principals' and others' stories, reflect the real challenges faced by principals in today's global climate of ongoing educational reform.

Details

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Web Of Science research areas
Education & Educational Research

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#4 Quality Education

Source: InCites

Logo image