Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCompassionate leadership in schools( 1997)This thesis explores two concepts - compassion and leadership - and their relationship to success in suburban schools of an Australian city. Compassion is a concept - an over-arching value - that is, for most people, not immediately associated with leadership. Compassion involves more than sentimental pity for another. It also involves passionate action directed towards the relief of suffering by another. Increasingly, leadership of many organisations is being seen in far more complex terms than personality or a particular situation. The important role that the values an individual brings to their organisation, and the connection of those values to success, is emerging. Compassion is a key value that is thought to be underpinning much successful leadership. The literature underpinning both compassion and leadership are reviewed. The purpose of this study is to find out what it is that principals do in exercising compassion in schools, how that compassion affects success in the school and what life influences may have caused a principal to develop compassion. Compassionate leadership by principals is studied through the development of a model which connects eleven elements of compassion - celebrative, passionately active, justice-making, benevolently loving, creative, non-elitist, networking, transpersonal, pain relieving, transcendent and fun-filled - with the four leadership frames of Bolman and Deal (1991) - the structural, human resource, political and symbolic. A questionnaire developed from this framework provides a quantitative method to find out about compassionate leadership, in particular, how those compassion elements are influenced by the four leadership frames. This quantitative approach augments a qualitative approach which involved eighteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews concerning compassion on the part of the principal during a critical incident in the life of the school. The qualitative approach of Miles and Huberman (1994) is used to better understand the interview transcripts. The quantitative and qualitative data are then synthesised. The compassionate leadership model suggested has strong statistical support that shows the relative contribution of each leadership frame to each compassion element. For example, it is shown that the celebrative element of compassion is contributed to most by the symbolic and political leadership frames and that two of the principals in the study showed clear evidence of acting in both political and symbolic ways when celebrating the lives of dead students. This may be helpful in guiding leaders to improve their compassionate stance. The relative contribution of each element in the model to compassion is suggested, with the four most important compassion elements identified as: transpersonal, pain relieving, passionately active and benevolently loving. Success in each of the schools studied is shown to have been influenced by compassionate action on the part of the principal and a number of compassion-developing influences in the lives of the principals studied are identified, such as key adults, early personal struggle and service to others at an early age. It is recommended that the compassionate leadership model be used by leaders, in conjunction with context-rich qualitative data for specific individuals, to reflect upon, and self-appraise, their own behaviour. The model can also be used as part of course work preparation of potential leaders. Recommendations for future studies include seeking student views on compassionate leadership, investigating gender differences more closely, and finding out about compassionate leadership in other cultural contexts.
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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!