An Exploration of Distributed Leadership in Constructivist Teaching

Building effective leadership in a constructivist classroom requires emotional intelligence capabilities,namely,vision,flexibility,motivation and empathy.Distributed leadership,constituted by relating,visioning,inventing,sense-making,plays an important role in the different phases of constructivist teaching.Combination of distributed leadership and constructivist teaching is of considerable value to a constructivist teacher.

Shanghai Teachers’Perceptions of Distributed Leadership:Resources and Agency

Purpose:Drawing on distributed leadership and motivation theories,this study investigates teachers’perceptions of resource and agency distributions and identifies the key factors motivating leadership among teachers.Design/Approach/Methods:This quantitative study collected data from 327 teachers in nine schools in Shanghai.Chi-square tests of independence were conducted to examine the associations between leadership structures and power distance,while Spearman’s correlation tests were used to identify changes in leadership resource impact.A nonparametric Friedman’s test was applied to detect discrepancies between the agency of principals,team leaders,and teachers.Finally,Chi-square tests were conducted to discern the associations between teachers’workload and motivation to lead.Findings:Most teachers identified the pyramid and spider’s web structures—which feature one power center and a high power distance—in their schools.The leadership resources and agency distributions corresponded to the school hierarchy:the higher position held by a teacher or a leader,the more resources they received,and the greater the agency they exercised.Results indicate that support from the principal is the most important factor in teachers’participation in distributed leadership,while extra pay and leadership title are the least effective motivators.Originality/Value:This study has theoretical and practical value.First,it demonstrates the value of the resource-agency duality model for analyzing distributed leadership.Second,this study shows that promoting distributed leadership in Shanghai schools requires re-designing organizational resources and individual agency.

Network Connection and Energy Radiation through Grassroots Master Teacher Studios--A Case Study Based on Distributed Perspective

Distributed leadership is a collective leadership mode in which multiple members of the organization dynamically share leadership roles according to changes in capability and environment,so as to achieve leadership sharing and leadership energy radiation.Facing the distributed leadership practice of Master Teacher Studio that really occur in education management can make our understanding and description of its original ecological and endogenous construction process more objectively,meticulously and deeply.Through the generation and expansion of the case studio with the characteristics of"grassroots",the empowerment and differentiation of leaders,the stimulation and radiation of members leadership,the generation process of"grassroots"Master Teacher Studio from the initial construction of"uniline"mode to"network"distribution connection,and the radiation process of Master Teacher Studio members'energy from"uninuclear transmission"to"multinuclear connection".Thus,it will realize the organic integration of Western distributed leadership theory and localized grassroots master teachers'studio practice.

Intension, Current Implementation and Improvement Path of Instructional Leadership: A school Case of Hong Kong

This paper aims to analyze the implementation status of instructional leadership of a HK primary school that benefits in mid-ranking and mainly uses instructional leadership to develop their curriculums.Instructional leadership is the result of introducing leadership concepts into the teaching field,and it reflects the changing trend of school management to a certain extent.At present,the research on instructional leadership is limited to the principal's leadership,which limits the overall function of instructional leadership.By investigating the actuality of school and the implementation of school policies and programs,the paper deeply analyzes the existed problems in a Hong Kong school and offers optimization suggestions:strengthen the school distributive leadership construction,promote the professional development of teachers and curriculums,establish a diversified evaluation system,develop an organizational culture of democratic cooperation and improve the curriculum leadership of principals.

An Analysis of the Development of Middle Leaders in Chinese Secondary Schools:The Role of the Principal

Numerous studies conducted on educational leadership have generally emphasized the role of principal,whereas,research on middle leadership remains limited[1].The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the development of middle leadership and seeks to fill in the gap by providing the analysis from a Chinese context.The author found that middle leaders are positioning at a challenging role,in which they are required to take charge of responsibilities of both a leader and a teacher,and in the meantime,they also need to negotiate between the senior leader,the colleagues.and subordinates.Furthermore,personal factors such as self-awareness and resilience are discovered to be pivotal for middle-leadership development.Apart from that,the principal plays a critical role in establishing collaborative school culture that facilitates the development of middle leaders based on the influences from the school’s history,culture,and policies.