This essay critically reviews the application of Invitational Education (IE) beyond classrooms and schools by examining the activities of an educational volunteer program (The Atherton Gardens Homework Support Program). The authors advocate that in order to have a meaningful effect, IE needs to be implemented along with principles of other…

The purpose of this inquiry was to examine the effectiveness of male and female educational leaders who made use of the invitational leadership style of leadership in their k-12 school settings. Study participants consisted of 14 principals (7 female and 7 male) and 164 teachers. While quantitative findings revealed a statistically significant…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of self-reported job satisfaction and motivation among teachers in the Bahamas and Jamaica. A total of 168 Bahamian (n = 75) and Jamaican (n = 93) teachers completed the Teacher Motivation and Job Satisfaction Survey. Overall results indicate that teachers in the Bahamas reported higher levels…

This article is a follow-up on a previous quantitative study (Steyn, 2007) which explored key aspects that influenced the effective implementation of Invitational Education (IE) in schools in the United States of America (US) and Hong Kong (HK). This is a qualitative study in which an appreciative inquiry (AI) is used to explain staff's positive…

Over 15,000 military dependent students attend Hawaii public schools, about 8% of the total student population. The transition to Hawaii schools has been identified by many military families as a challenge and one more difficult than other transitions their families have made. A generally acknowledged negative perception of Hawaii public schools…

It is acknowledged, nationally and internationally, that Invitational Education is actively practised in many schools. However, there is a paucity of articles describing the relationship between Invitational Education and specific disciplines at the elementary and high school levels. As such, this article attempts to address this shortcoming by…

Professional development (PD) for the improvement of educational practice has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. Although experts acknowledge the importance of PD, many PD programmes have little effect on educational practice. This article identifies influences on the effective implementation of Invitational Education (IE) within…

This article presents and compares the similar views of William Glasser, M.D., founder and president of the William Glasser Institute in Los Angeles, and author of scores of best selling books; and William Watson Purkey, Ed.D, co-founder of the International Association for Invitational Education (IAIE), Professor Emeritus at the University of…