Superintendents as Boundary Spanners - Facilitating Improvement of Teaching and Learning

Autor/inn/en	Ståhlkrantz, Katarina; Rapp, Stephan
Titel	Superintendents as Boundary Spanners - Facilitating Improvement of Teaching and Learning
Quelle	In: Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 5 (2020) 2, S.376-415 (40 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2564-7261
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Superintendents; Instructional Leadership; Educational Improvement; Boards of Education; Administrator Role; Board Administrator Relationship; Middle Management; Communities of Practice; Facilitators (Individuals); Expectation; Sweden + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Schulrat; Instruction; Leadership; Bildung; Erziehung; Führung; Teaching improvement; Unterrichtsentwicklung; Ausschuss; Mittlere Führungskraft; Community; Expectancy; Erwartung; Schweden
Abstract	Superintendents, functioning as the local school boards' chief executive officers, play a fundamental role in improving schools. While teachers and principals have been given a prominence in students´ learning outcomes, the perspective of superintendents as instructional leaders is often forgotten. Based on a nationwide survey of Swedish school boards the study investigates the boards' expectations of their superintendents to influence student learning outcomes. The basic research question is: How may superintendents as boundary spanners facilitate school improvement? Boundary spanning is used as a theoretical and methodological framework to explore how superintendents may facilitate the local school system to become a more tightly-coupled system and strengthen the organization´s capacity of school improvement. The study's findings indicate that superintendents have significant opportunities to influence political decisions and school improvement. Superintendents may exert an indirect instructional leadership and thereby tighten the couplings between different hierarchical levels in the school system. In their boundary-spanning roles, superintendents are expected to prioritize managerial assignments, which is a time-consuming task. Because the superintendent is not likely to be criticized or dismissed because of poor student results, windows of opportunities opens up in their entrepreneurial role, and thus a higher likelihood of working more effectively as instructional leaders. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	EARDA Turkish Educational Administration Research & Development Association. Dokuz Eylul University, Buca Faculty of Education, Izmir, Turkey 35150. e-mail: eyedderinfo@gmail.com; Web site: http://dergipark.gov.tr/real
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01