Small schools have always been valued for keeping close community links, for providing a family ethos and for minimizing pupil travel time--especially for the youngest children. At the same time, critics have raised concerns about the limited opportunities for large peer group socialization and about the limited range of teacher expertise and…

The Networked Learning Community (NLC) programme has been a major research and development activity of the National College of School Leadership (NCSL). One hundred and four voluntary, funded school networks were set up following a process of bidding and selection operated by a core NCSL team, the Networked Learning Group (NLG). A second tranche…

This article outlines a re-conceptualization of school culture that moves beyond the limited models used hitherto and illustrates its use in an analysis of the Sixth Form culture in a West Midlands school. The approach adopted here is based on a model of school culture that incorporates five distinctive pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that combine to…

Emotional intelligence (E.I.) is the pursuit and expression of personal excellence, an excellence that, according to the author, all educators encounter at some time in their lives although they use rarely, as though fearful that they might wear it out. By developing their emotional intelligence, stumbling blocks that inhibit learning can be…

Recent attendance at two events hosted at the Channel 4 Television Centre by "Policy Unplugged" (a group styling themselves as policy entrepreneurs) has converted the author to a style of working called the Open Space Conference. Created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen, Open Space conferences allow participants to…

Education is a global enterprise. It is increasingly assumed that an "international perspective" is required to comprehend and relate this world scale enterprise to national, regional and local practice. The phrase is used frequently and generally without an exact definition of meaning. This article explores how the concept of an "international…

The research documented in this article investigates the impact of faculty appraisal at two higher education (HE) institutions, located about 15 kms apart, in the same Middle Eastern country. Specifically, the research investigates the systems of faculty appraisal at "Rihab", a newly-established university, and at "Al Fanar",…

In the USA, the attrition rates of teachers in the first 3-5 years of teaching are around 30%, and in Texas, 73% of teachers who did not experience a formal induction programme left the profession within 2 years. These statistics are a cause for concern and suggest that the first few years in teaching are crucial in teachers deciding whether to…

As part of the Department for Education and Skill's remodeling of the workforce agenda of 2003, the then Teacher Training Agency created a new "super teaching assistant" role that headteachers could integrate into their school organizations. This mirrored other government public service professional reforms, where there has been a…

The field of educational leadership in England is seriously ill and it could be terminal. Peter Ribbins recent paper, "Seven Precepts for Research in Leadership in Education" makes an important contribution to helping the field to examine research purposes and practice. The author has taken up the invitation to examine Ribbins' list…

One has to feel sorry for Barry Sheerman. The latest White Paper buried him and his Education Select Committee under a veritable avalanche of paperwork. Evidence was submitted from all quarters and a large proportion was focused on that vexed question--selection. But it is not a return to selection that the author fears most from this White Paper.…

This two part article discusses the actions that senior administrators can take to orchestrate system change. It focuses on data collected from one Ontario, Canada school district, Thames Valley District School Board (Thames Valley). The article builds upon previous research on large-scale reform, including such key issues as student-centered…

This article reports early findings from research commissioned by Staffordshire Local Authority that examines workforce remodelling in schools. As Collarbone (2004) states, workforce remodelling is at the heart of the government's change agenda in maintained schools. It is presented as a tool that will enable schools to think both creatively and…

Internationally, large scale reform is big business and yet relatively little is known about the senior administrators who manage and lead local educational reform implementation. In this first of a two-part article, the authors focus on the role of senior administrators in facilitating large-scale reform in one Ontario, Canada school district…

In this article, the authors focus on what is called "middle leadership" in schools in England and "middle management" in New Zealand. Their concern is that despite almost two decades since the introduction of site based management in both countries that devolved significant responsibility for the leadership of learning to…