Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Elementary school principals

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Learning to lead student achievement : a mixed methods study on the leadership practices of New Zealand primary school principals : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Rowe, Kathryn Joy
    The study’s purpose was to contribute to the understanding of professional learning needs of primary school principals and to provide more information about effective leadership practices which raise student achievement in the context of New Zealand’s self-managing school system. This study employed a mixed methods research design to explore how a group of New Zealand primary principals used their direct and indirect influence to impact student achievement. The principals participated in a pedagogically-based leadership programme over 18 months as first-time principals in 2007. The study was situated within a pedagogical leadership discourse to explore how the principals developed their leadership practices over the decade to 2017. The research took place in two phases. In Phase One, a questionnaire was used to explore how 67 principals had developed their leadership practices during the decade 2007-2017. In Phase Two, 12 volunteer principals participated in interviews and contributed documents for analysis to investigate the influence of principals’ leadership practices on student achievement in New Zealand primary schools. Findings appeared to show that an influence of New Zealand’s self-managing schooling system was to increase principals’ work intensity and reduce principals’ focus on teaching and learning within their schools and the time for reflective practice. This work intensity was particularly noticeable for principals of small schools. Principals’ decision making was strongly linked to their theories of action. Theories of action based on pedagogical leadership better influenced student achievement. However, the findings suggested that principals also required time to influence practices within their schools. Extended time enabled principals to align pedagogical theories of action with learning and teaching activities, integrate new learning, develop relationships, promote dialogue about teaching and learning within the community of practice and embed self-improving processes for reflection and development of teaching practices. Principals’ participation in teachers’ professional development enabled principals to better act as a resource for teachers, engage more effectively in dialogue about teaching and learning, integrate new learning into school-wide practices, and enhance processes which facilitated learning within the community of practice. Establishment of structures which developed a safe and orderly environment and attended to the physical and psychological needs of students, appeared important prior to establishing structures which more directly emphasized classroom teaching and learning. Findings showed that New Zealand primary school principals’ professional learning is heuristic in response to contextual needs. Despite an emphasis on pedagogical leadership within New Zealand education policy and within the principal preparation programme attended by the principals in the study, not all the principals emphasized pedagogical leadership in their practice. Principals developed most of their pedagogical knowledge during their time as teachers. Principals, who continued to develop their pedagogical content knowledge by participating in teachers’ professional development, led high achieving schools. The New Zealand education system, while providing autonomy for principals, relies on a high level of unfunded, informal support from vicarious experts such as experienced principals, school community members or other personal contacts to apprentice the principal in a proportion of the knowledge, skills and dispositions required to fulfil the principal’s role. Local funding of principals’ professional learning leads to inequities of access to professional learning for principals of small and geographically isolated schools. The implications of the study are collaboration is required between practitioners, researchers and policy makers to advance solutions for problems of educational practice and that reduce contextual influences to principals’ workloads and better enable principals to focus on teaching and learning within their schools.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    How do principals of English-medium primary schools understand Māori students achieving educational success as Māori, and what are the factors that influence the development of this understanding : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) De Goldi, John Anthony
    This thesis investigates how the principals of English-medium primary schools understand Māori students achieving educational success as Māori. Additionally, it explores the factors that support and hinder the development of their understanding. A qualitative case-study was used to explore the understanding and experiences of the 28 principals of all English-medium, full and contributing primary schools on Te Tai Poutini West Coast of Te Wai Pounamu South Island. Twenty-seven principals were interviewed in their own schools over a period of two months, while one principal completed an on-line questionnaire. The study found that English-medium primary school principals’ understanding of Māori students achieving educational success as Māori align largely with the vision for young people who are confident, connected, actively engaged lifelong learners. Additionally, principals incorporate the acquisition of other skills and knowledge including the learning of te reo Māori that will enable students to participate in and contribute to te ao Māori. Although their descriptions approximate the broad student outcomes outlined in Ka Hikitia, few principals in this study refer specifically to them. The findings from this study also bring to light a complex lattice of interacting connections and disconnections with place, people, and the power of Pākehā/Eurocentric hegemony that frames and influences the development of principals understanding of Māori students’ educational success as Māori. Factors of physical and cultural isolation, and disconnection with Poutini Ngāi Tahu, hinder principals’ ability to develop a wider understanding of Māori students’ educational success as Māori. The thesis concludes that although principals are the leaders of learning and teaching in their schools, they need support from, whānau, hapū, iwi and perhaps most importantly, the Ministry of Education, to connect with people, place, and the power of Pākehā/Eurocentric hegemony in order to develop their understanding of Māori students achieving success as Māori.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Principal appraisal : fluxion and abatement : a grounded theory of principal appraisal in a small selection of New Zealand schools : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1998) Strong, Neville G. L
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the circumstances in and around the principal appraisal process in five New Zealand primary schools. An outcome of this investigation was to generate a theoretical explanation of what was happening in this appraisal process. Data were gathered from five principals and their appraisers through a questionnaire and an interview. Through a constant comparative analysis of the data, a basic social process was discovered that consisted of four conceptual categories labelled as metamorphosis, metamorphic reaction, adaptation and palatableness. These categories were linked into a core category labelled fluxion and abatement. Fluxion and abatement is a conceptual statement of a continually changing appraisal process that has been grappled with and abated in a meaningful way by the appraisal participants. That no school site, of principal appraisal development and implementation, closely resembles another, is testimony of the fluxion and abatement theory. That schools are still talking of adaptation to the latest metamorphosis of professional standards and that a palatableness state is some time, even years, away, strengthens the theory produced in this study. These findings have important implications for a number of areas of school operation. The first is leadership. Will the school site strengthen or move away from a collaborative model of leadership? The study argues for a supportive board of trustees to the principal, who should engender a transformational leadership style. These collaborative approaches will see schools as educative communities rather than managed organisations. The second implication is in teaching and learning. Principals, working with their staff, need to have refined the meaningful data on what is happening in teaching and learning within their schools. The third implication is the principal appraisal process. This process should be used as a purposeful tool to achieve and produce evidence of the other stated implications. The last implication, school effectiveness, is the prospective outcome of such a principal appraisal process.