The Particularity of Practice: Superintendents' Agency for School Development

Autor/inn/en	Hardy, Ian; Salo, Petri
Titel	The Particularity of Practice: Superintendents' Agency for School Development
Quelle	In: International Journal of Leadership in Education, 25 (2022) 2, S.211-237 (27 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1360-3124
DOI	10.1080/13603124.2019.1629696
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Superintendents; School Districts; Educational Improvement; Educational Change; Praxis; Ethics; Leadership Styles; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Schulrat; School district; Schulbezirk; Teaching improvement; Unterrichtsentwicklung; Bildungsreform; Ethik; Führungsstil; Finnland
Abstract	This article details the nature of superintendents' agency/influence over school development within their districts under current conditions of educational reform. The research draws upon interview data with five superintendents from a Swedish-speaking minority region in Finland and analyzes their understandings of their work in light of theorizing of agency and social practice and workplace learning. The research reveals superintendents' capacity to 'evidence' their agency, including through detailed accounts of how they have sought to enhance school development. However, we also reveal that such 'evidencing' was often characterized by considerable concern about the morality and ethics of their practice -- praxis -- within their districts. We refer to such morally informed concerns as an 'ethics of agency'. This work was undertaken via very particular practices, involving specific discussions ('sayings'), actions ('doings'), and interactions ('relatings'). The research reveals that even as superintendents' feel constrained by the conditions within which they work, they do so in ways that give hope for the cultivation of alternative conditions for practice. Further inquiry is needed into the nature of the specific conditions and particular practices essential for fostering enhanced agency, especially an 'ethics of agency,' on the part of superintendents and educational practitioners more broadly. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01