Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPrincipal expertise and problem-solving processes( 1997)This case study is an exploration of Principal expertise and problem-solving in a large, co-educational, independent school in the eastern metropolitan area of Melbourne. Cognitive science perspectives are adopted to develop the nature of expert administrative practice, in order to highlight Principals' internal mental processes and their direct relationship to Principals' practices. Four characteristics or dimensions of expertise are examined, including a strong commitment to shared goals, cognitive flexibility, the Principal's contribution to the long-term development of staff and his or her use of the capacity of the staff to obtain solutions. The literature review involves an analysis of both expert, as opposed to typical Principals, since they vary in the processes they adopt to solve problems in group settings. Fourteen themes related to Principal expertise and problem-solving emerged from the findings of this particular case study. These include vision, communication of the vision and goals to the staff and decision making. This Principal demonstrated creative, future thinking; knowledge and information gathering; delegation; cognitive flexibility; strong values, especially when problems were non-routine and challenging together with a concentration on the change process. Also, the affect or feelings, mood and self-confidence that the Principal experiences when involved in problem-solving was studied. Finally, the possible relationship between expert problem-solving and transformational leadership, followed by the desirable features of school leadership expertise training programs, were examined. The findings from this study recommend a combination of strong theoretical knowledge, practical experience together with training in the human resource area and personnel management to include sound decision making processes and effective delegation. Further research is recommended concerning both the nature of educational expertise and problems encountered by school Principals as well as the identification of features for school leadership training programs.
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ItemVision and the work life of nursing educational leaders( 1992)The purpose of this study was to examine the visions and work life of twelve nursing educational leaders. The notion of vision and leadership are closely associated. The concept that leaders are guided by a vision of a preferred future is widely accepted. The questions that this study addressed were: What does vision mean in the work life of nursing educators? Do all nursing leaders have a vision? If they do, how do their visions emerge? What impact, if any, does vision have on the careers of the nursing educational leaders? The qualitative method of research was used and data were gathered by interviewing twelve nursing educational leaders from the city of Melbourne and the towns of Geelong and Frankston. The group represented a variety of roles, types of school and gender. The data were analysed according to the above questions and connections were drawn between these twelve nursing educational leaders and their work lives. It was found that all nursing educational leaders had visions that were universal and organisational in nature. Although three of the leaders stated that they did not have a vision, it was obvious from their goals that they were committed to an image of a preferred future for nursing education. A vision that all these leaders aspired to was tertiary education for all nurses. With regards to the impact of vision on their careers, five of the twelve leaders believed that the position increased their ability to achieve their visions. Five believed it was other things, and two claimed that the position did not help them to achieve their visions. All of the nursing educational leaders had diverse career paths and were all committed to further education. The assumption of a formal role in education was important for seven of the twelve nursing educational leaders, whereas four of the participants were undecided and one disagreed. An interesting aspect of this study was that most saw the formal role as teaching within a classroom. Their visions did affect the working life of these twelve nursing educational leaders and although providing them with a sense of purpose, they also presented them with a struggle!
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ItemLeadership frames and principals' learning( 1995)This thesis forms part of the Review of the Schools of the Future "Leading Victoria's Schools of the Future" undertaken by the University of Melbourne - Institute of Education, in conjunction with the Directorate of School Education and Principal Associations. The Schools of the Future program was initiated by the newly elected Victorian Liberal Government in 1993. It involves the devolution of authority and responsibility to the local school level and a decrease in the central role of the DSE. The scope of change has required a staged introduction process and extensive professional development activities. The implementation process has resulted in 500 schools joining the SOTF program every six months with the process being completed by the end of 1995. This thesis was designed to provide a review of the professional development activities associated with the implementation of the SOTF program. It uses the Bolman and Deal (1991) framework of organisational theory, as adapted by Cheng (1993) to analyse the leadership orientations of principals and their past, present and future professional development needs. The framework provides five areas - structural, human resource, symbolic, political and Sergiovanni's (1984) educational frames. Both a quantitative and qualitative methodology was used. A survey was sent to eighty principals randomly selected from Intake Three of SOTF. The results to the survey provided the frame orientations of principals as well as data on the four most significant professional development activities undertaken in the last five years. An analysis of the data provided information which enabled the selection of two principals for interviewing at the Intake and Implementation stage of the SOTF program. The data are reported as survey and interview results. The qualitative work - based on Miles and Huberman (1984) relied on data reduction, data display, data collection, involving counting and noting patterns and themes, and conclusions drawing and verification methods. The findings clearly indicate that principals of SOTF have strong human resource and educational frames. However, there is need to provide professional development activities in the symbolic and political frame areas as these frames are strong indicators of leader effectiveness but are the least preferred frames by principals. The principals found that the collegiate group provided significant support during the charter writing stage and in some instances, beyond. Professional development activities need to be provided during the implementation stage of the SOTF program. The data suggests that there is an urgent need for the DSE to present a strategic plan of the direction of education and to slow down the rate of change so that schools at the local level can address their needs.
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ItemThe possibility of democratic leadership: towards a naturalistic conception( 1994)Despite its long history, the phenomenon of leadership remains a theoretical enigma. Its vague, ambiguous, perplexing, and paradoxical nature is generally believed to be the main reason for this. Consequently, along with current perceptions of crisis in our institutions, a parallel sense of crisis also infects the domain of leadership theory. In spite of this general sense of malaise, there nevertheless appears to be a new sense of conviction and confidence in some quarters of contemporary or neoteric thinking on the subject. This is due in part to the incorporation of ideas and concepts that derive from an earlier, but significant, theoretical contribution to leadership studies made by the political theorist James MacGregor Burns, whose psychological conceptualisation of transformational leadership overhauled many traditional assumptions about the phenomenon. In particular, his formulation emphasises the moral and educative nature of the relationship between leaders and followers, which Burns believes is also consistent with contemporary democratic norms. However, critical examination of Burns' account uncovers a number of philosophical and technical difficulties with some of his central claims, including those upholding the theory's democratic credentials. Many of these problems occur because Burns derives some of his key concepts from assumptions and preconceptions about the nature of human motivations and values from influential theories in Humanistic Psychology, which under the weight of critical scrutiny are also found to be wanting. Since some of the most prominent contemporary conceptualisations of leadership in education look to Burns' theory as a source of ideas - for example, Caldwell and Spinks (1992), and Hodgkinson (1991) - similar problems are manifested in these formulations too. Because the notion of leadership is itself so problematic, the argument here is that the quest for a democratic conceptualisation has to begin not with conventional assumptions about the democratic process or the human condition generally, but with a thoroughly scientific understanding of the phenomenon instead. Hence, in pursuit of this end, a naturalistic-coherentist approach to knowledge is adopted, which requires that any account of the leadership phenomenon must be consistent with established knowledge derived from our best existing natural sciences. Implicit in this argument is the belief that by drawing on such knowledge, a better theoretical explanation and understanding of the phenomenon is rendered. The conceptual understanding that arises from this approach generates a representation of the leadership phenomenon that is quite different from anything offered in neoteric formulations. Furthermore, along with developments in social choice theory, the revisions that a scientific account forces on our comprehension of the phenomenon also points to possible means for resolving the democratic question in administrative and leadership theory.