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Managed Discourse: Legitimizing Principal Identity and Agency
Title
Managed Discourse: Legitimizing Principal Identity and Agency.
Creator
Arellano, Matias, Mountford, Meredith L., Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description
Given the demands of the era of accountability and standardization, the purpose of this study was to explore how educational leaders construct their identity and agency. The study utilized overlapping post-structural and critical theoretical frameworks on identity and agency to analyze how high school principals interpret and enact comprehensive school reform rhetoric and their state’s educational leadership standards. In addition to several cycles of coding, a critical discourse analysis was...
Show moreGiven the demands of the era of accountability and standardization, the purpose of this study was to explore how educational leaders construct their identity and agency. The study utilized overlapping post-structural and critical theoretical frameworks on identity and agency to analyze how high school principals interpret and enact comprehensive school reform rhetoric and their state’s educational leadership standards. In addition to several cycles of coding, a critical discourse analysis was performed with the input of the participants’ high schools in order to further analyze the form and function of discourses, socially situated meanings, and ideologies that constitute being an educational leader and doing the work of an educational leader. The findings from the study revealed that the high school principals discursively construct their professional identity and agency by engaging in discourses and social practices related to managing the personnel, numerical data, and external expectations of the organization. As a result, the participants use the comprehensive school reform rhetoric as a way to legitimize and rationalize their duty as educators. The socially situated meaning attributed to the state’s educational leadership standards is not as clear, with the participants dismissing their value for a lack of context. In interpreting and enacting the school reform policy mandates set forth by the district and the state, principals conserve a corporatized model of school leadership that borrows much of its neoliberal language from the business sphere. The principals are positioned as mid-level managers, confirming Foster’s (2004) description of the contemporary school leader who is preoccupied with controlling the numeracy, information systems, and language of the organization. Future research should focus on performing critical discourse analysis studies with the upper levels of management, including, but not limited to, the central office and the office of the superintendent, as a way of exploring a more transcendent meaning of schooling and school leadership that focuses on human development. This study has the potential to provide leadership preparation programs and policymakers significant insight into the problems, paradoxes, and possibilities of school reform rhetoric and its impact on local school leaders.
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Date Issued
2016
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004657, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004657
Subject Headings
Critical pedagogy, Discourse analysis, Education -- Research -- Methodology, Educational leadership, High school principals, Identity (Psychology)
Format
Document (PDF)
Does evaluation make a difference? The effect of evaluation on remedial education in Florida's community colleges
Title
Does evaluation make a difference? The effect of evaluation on remedial education in Florida's community colleges.
Creator
Lyes-MacLachlan, Shari., Florida Atlantic University, Leip, Leslie A., Nyhan, Ronald C., Holden, Eileen
Abstract/Description
Throughout the nation, many community college students arrive at the doors of public higher education without college-level skills. As the need for remediation over the years has grown, the controversy over who should be responsible for it---and whether it should be provided at all---has also grown. In Florida, more than 60 percent of all incoming college students must enroll in one or more remediation courses in the areas of reading, writing, or mathematics. Florida law requires students to...
Show moreThroughout the nation, many community college students arrive at the doors of public higher education without college-level skills. As the need for remediation over the years has grown, the controversy over who should be responsible for it---and whether it should be provided at all---has also grown. In Florida, more than 60 percent of all incoming college students must enroll in one or more remediation courses in the areas of reading, writing, or mathematics. Florida law requires students to take non-credit "College-Preparatory" classes if they score below mandated cut-off scores on state-approved placement tests. The central theory of this study is that ongoing, comprehensive and systematic evaluation that is effectively communicated and utilized in Florida's colleges can make a significant contribution to the College Preparatory program. While this study examines budgetary factors and student achievement rates, it focuses particularly on evaluation, the extent to which evaluation is being performed in the College Preparatory program, and how that evaluation throughout the state has changed over a five-year period. The study identifies four general areas of evaluation: (1) student-level evaluation, (2) program-level evaluation, (3) evaluation via communication in the organization and (4) utilization of evaluation in the organization. It analyzes the relationship between each area and the perceptions that faculty, administrators and staff have of remedial program success, and it distinguishes among faculty, administrator and staff perceptions of evaluation and preparatory program success. In the end, it is the synthesis of the four general areas of evaluation, along with input from its various stakeholders, which result in effects on remedial education.
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Date Issued
2004
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT12105
Subject Headings
Curriculum evaluation, Community colleges--Evaluation, Education--Research--Methodology, Remedial teaching--Evaluation
Format
Document (PDF)
Language and leadership: Exploring the relationship between critical theories and the hegemonic construction of student achievement
Title
Language and leadership: Exploring the relationship between critical theories and the hegemonic construction of student achievement.
Creator
McClean, Marva., Florida Atlantic University, Bogotch, Ira
Abstract/Description
This study explored the relationship between critical theories and student achievement. The study applied the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Pedagogy in studying the impact of artistic and hegemonic communication on student achievement. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the language discourse of educational leaders and to determine the extent to which the language discourse contributes to the persistence of the achievement gap and the continuing...
Show moreThis study explored the relationship between critical theories and student achievement. The study applied the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Pedagogy in studying the impact of artistic and hegemonic communication on student achievement. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the language discourse of educational leaders and to determine the extent to which the language discourse contributes to the persistence of the achievement gap and the continuing marginalization of diverse groups of children. This research study offers a practical set of recommendations on how to use the process of critical discourse analysis to arrive at more adequate solutions to the problems that contribute to the achievement gap. It demonstrates how an uncritical acceptance of textual communication from powerful sources such as state departments of education makes educational leaders responsible for the academic failure of children. This study was therefore concerned with finding a process to interrupt hegemonic communication and allow for more democratic use of language that accommodates the multiple realities of the school system. The Research Design used in this research process incorporated data analysis at the state, district and school site levels. The processes of critical discourse analyses were used to scrutinize the language of verbal and written texts and observation data for socio-political relations and ideology embedded in the language. The study found that at the federal, state and district levels hegemonic language was used to assert the worldview of educational accountability and standardization. In contrast to the federal, state and district data, the school site data revealed the use of critical discourse to counteract hegemonic communication and give voice to the multiple realities that exist. This study highlights the fact that educational leaders, including the crafters of educational policies and related documents, skillfully use language to advance their particular perspective. The study demonstrates how educational leaders can implement artistic leadership to open up the spaces in the discourse to interrupt hegemonic communication and eventually close the achievement gap.
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Date Issued
2004
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT12099
Subject Headings
Academic achievement, Multicultural education, Curriculum planning--Cross-cultural studies, Education--Research--Methodology
Format
Document (PDF)
Principal Leader Actions and Their Influence on School Culture and School Performance
Title
Principal Leader Actions and Their Influence on School Culture and School Performance.
Creator
Featherstone, Ginger L., Pisapia, John, Florida Atlantic University, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Abstract/Description
This quantitative, non-experimental study was conducted to determine whether there is a link between the principal’s behavioral agility, the organization’s culture, and school performance as defined by the state’s Value Added Measure (VAM). Additionally, this study examined if there was a moderator influence of contextual factors to behavioral agility and school culture and school culture and school performance. Data collection was obtained through the use of two validated scales, the...
Show moreThis quantitative, non-experimental study was conducted to determine whether there is a link between the principal’s behavioral agility, the organization’s culture, and school performance as defined by the state’s Value Added Measure (VAM). Additionally, this study examined if there was a moderator influence of contextual factors to behavioral agility and school culture and school culture and school performance. Data collection was obtained through the use of two validated scales, the Strategic Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI). Multiple regression was conducted to determine the extent each independent variable predicts school performance. Hayes’s (2012) PROCESS macro for SPSS was completed to determine if school culture mediated the relationship between behavioral agility and school performance and school culture and school performance. Significant correlations were found between and within the two instruments measured unidimensionally and multidimensionally. The OCAI findings included significant, high effect correlations with the four culture types, although market was not correlated with clan or adhocracy. All subscales of the SLQ had positive significant correlations within the instrument. School size was significantly negatively correlated with clan and adhocracy culture types. School performance was found to be significantly correlated with hierarchy culture type and school level. The contribution this study makes is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, this study offers insights into school level and its moderation of culture and school performances as well as the influence culture types have on school performance. Practically, the study could identify a new culture type valuable to principals for improving school performance.
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Date Issued
2017
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004885, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004885
Subject Headings
School principals., Educational leadership., Education--Research--Methodology., School management and organization., School improvement programs., Action research in education.
Format
Document (PDF)