Browsing by Author "Brown, Margaret Anne"
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- ItemA case study of the implementation of middle schooling in New Zealand : a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2007) Brown, Margaret AnneThis thesis considers the introduction of middle schooling to the New Zealand education system. It is a case study of a school going through the process of introducing the middle schooling concept. It seeks to identify and explain the considerable challenges that this school faced as it sought to implement this change. This research project began as a study of the factors which hinder and support the implementation of middle schooling structures and practices. It became an analysis of the features of middle schooling that make it such a challenging and problematic innovation. Middle schooling is a set of philosophical concepts, educational practices and structural arrangements for the education of students between the ages of approximately ten and fourteen years. These concepts and practices are based on the premise that students of this age have academic, social, emotional and physical needs which differ from students on either side of this age group. Middle schooling is generally understood to involve integrated curriculum which is delivered through team teaching. This approach to teaching and learning requires high levels of teacher collaboration, flexible workspaces and timetables and high levels of parental support and involvement. Ideally, middle schooling provides a separate school environment for children of this age. A number of school communities in New Zealand have gained government approval to restructure as middle schools and are at various stages in implementing this new form of schooling. The researcher began the study with the intention of developing guidelines to assist school communities to make this transition from the structures and processes of conventional schooling arrangements to those of middle schooling. To this end she initiated a programme of action research in a school that was about to introduce middle schooling arrangements for its middle years students. The innovation began to run into difficulties from an early stage and it became clear that an action research methodology was unsustainable. Instead, the researcher chose to refocus the research problem to a more analytic study of the factors that were impeding the implementation process. The research methodology evolved to that of case study. Observational data were collected in the school over two years. From these data, three factors seemed to be affecting the implementation of the middle schooling changes. These were the way in which leadership was being executed, the attitudes and responses of the teachers and the particularly complex and demanding nature of the middle schooling innovation itself. The data were then re-analysed with respect to these three factors. From this analysis, the researcher came to a number of conclusions about the relative importance and impact of these three factors. In an effort to ascertain whether the experiences of the case school were typical of the difficulties and challenges schools face when implementing middle schooling change, the case findings were cross checked against the experiences of two other schools that were five years or more into the change process. The cross checking found that the experiences of these other schools were very similar to those of the case school. All three found that implementing middle schooling change had been more difficult and demanding than any other innovation they had implemented. This study identified some aspects of leadership and teacher behaviour that may have slowed the implementation process, but these seem to have been secondary to the sheer complexity and challenges involved with this particular form of innovation. An innovation that requires such a shift in values, behaviour, structures and systems from a school community, and one that requires the sustained commitment of the entire staff over an extended period of time, will always prove to be exceptionally challenging. The case study identified five requirements that middle school implementers need to consider in order to implement the concept successfully. Failure to consider any of these requirements is likely to threaten the success of the innovation. The five requirements are: • The need to develop a shared understanding of the concept rationale and principles and how these will be operationalised within the school; • The need to develop a shared understanding of the complex, multi-faceted and integrated nature of the innovation and how this will impact on and influence the implementation process; • The need for strong, visionary, shared leadership; • The need to gain the interest and operational commitment of the entire staff and a high level of interest and commitment from the parent community and to sustain this for the life of the innovation; and • The need to develop supportive and appropriate infrastructure within the school to support the innovation.
- ItemReviewing a school's core values : one aspect of school self review : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University(Massey University, 2000) Brown, Margaret AnneIn 1993, the New Zealand Government mandated the requirement that all schools must have in place an on going programme of school self review (National Administrative Guidelines, 4, ii). This thesis takes the position that, in 1999, most schools have met the obligation to implement self review programmes, but that many of these programmes are not resulting in the aimed for and hoped for, lasting school improvement. It is the contention of this thesis that failure to achieve on going school improvement through school self review is, in part, due to the structure of many current school self review programmes. At present many schools perceive self review as review of every thing that happens in schools. This perception may mean that valuable time and energy is being wasted on reviewing a wide range of tasks and activities that have only indirect bearing on the primary purpose of the school, teaching and learning. Stewart and Prebble (1993) argue that this perception may also lead to wasting time in reviewing the very areas about which boards are already well informed This thesis takes the position that school self review should be viewed from a more holistic perspective than is currently being done by many schools. In particular, it is argued that school self review should be conceived around a small group of core activities which centre directly on the main mission of the school, that is teaching and learning. One such core activity, according to Stewart and Prebble (1993), is the management and development of a school's culture. For the purposes of this thesis, school self review is understood to mean the process of review of all school practices with the intention of improving practice. For self review to be successful in this context, it must be carried out in a collaborative school climate of open honest communication, mutual support and mutual responsibility. For self review to be effective it must also be planned, systematic, on going and it will involve collection of data through illuminative, participatory and responsive inquiry modes. This data in turn will be collectively analysed and critically reflected upon to ascertain whether school practices are realising the school's mission and vision. A literature review in the fields of educational evaluation, monitoring, school self review and school improvement examines the connections between school self review and school effectiveness and improvement. The literature review also considers the associations between school improvement, school effectiveness and school culture. Within the review of school culture, the role of the school principal in managing and developing a school's culture is considered. Using knowledge gained from the literature review, a school self review trial is carried out in a case study school. This self review trial aims to improve teaching and learning in the case study school by collaboratively developing, implementing and analysing one aspect of a school's culture, the core values of the school. The trial is made up of nine activities which involve part or all of the school community in developing and implementing methods to review their school's core values. In the course of the self review trial, concepts of school effectiveness, school improvement, school culture and educational values are examined and discussed. In brief, the trial found that: it is important for schools to review that which is valuable to them and to take responsibility for their own improvement; for school self review to be effective, the review must be for self accountability purposes and it must involve all of the school community; and if understanding the symbols and culture of a school is a prerequisite to making a school more effective, then part of school self review should involve looking at the 'larger picture', that is, the core values of the school community. The findings of the case study, self review trial are combined with conclusions from the literature and with concepts from current theoretical perspectives in an effort to identify specific self review conditions and practices that contribute to and foster improvement of a school's culture. These identified successful strategies are finally amalgamated into a model for reviewing a school's core values, which it is hoped may be able to inform and guide others interested in reviewing this particular aspect of a school's culture. In conclusion, this thesis found that the field of self review of a school's core values, is a field that has received little attention to date. Therefore, this thesis concludes with suggestions for further investigation in the domain of self review of a school's core values, beliefs and understandings. In particular, this thesis suggests that research is needed on the role that core values play in school effectiveness.