Successful school leadership for social justice in Spain

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from the investigations that have been carried out within the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) project in the Spanish for social justice.Design/methodology/approachTwelve case studies have been carried out within the three lines of research proposed by ISSPP: successful principals, underperforming principals and principal leadership identity. All but one school were in challenging contexts. The methodological approach followed is based on multiple perspective case studies using a mixture of qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups and observations).FindingsResults show that successful principals not only believe in social justice through simple empathy with the concept of social justice, but also use strategies that combine transformational and instructional leadership processes and manage to reverse the bad situation of their disadvantaged schools, seeking excellence from equity. The leadership identity of successful principals is characterized to look to the future with hope, adopting a realistic utopian attitude to interpret their surrounding reality.Originality/valueFrom the case studies carried out, valuable information is obtained, which helps to understand the possibilities of implementing the ISSPP successful school leadership model in heterogeneous and disadvantaged context for equity and social justice.

Leadership Preparation for Special Education and Inclusive Schools: Beliefs and Recommendations From Successful Principals

This qualitative study examines the preservice learning experiences of principals who created inclusive schools for students with disabilities. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How do successful principals describe their university-based principal preparation in the area of special education as well as leading inclusive schools for students with disabilities? and (2) What are the leadership practices, skills, and beliefs principals identify that are central to leading special education and inclusive reforms and how were they learned? Findings focus on principal beliefs and values, knowledge and expertise, and instructional leadership practices. The article concludes with implications for leadership preparation programs.

Principal’s Coalition Building and Personal Traits Brings Success to a Struggling School in Malaysia

This paper presents findings from a single site case study of a school in a rural part of Malaysia. Based on data collected through semi-structured interviews of the principal, teachers, students and parents, and observations, document scanning and field notes, the study attempts to identify the context under which the school operates, the core practices of the school principal and the enactment of these core practices. The data analysis was carried out through data reduction resulting in initial themes which were further refined several times until consensus was achieved. The themes were then discussed under the light of theories resulting in the final categories. The findings reveal that personal traits of the principal and her strength of building strong coalitions enabled her to successfully meet her contextual challenges. In conclusion, we argue that leadership practices are multidimensional and although successful principals draw from the similar repertoire of core practices, they enact these core practices in response to their own unique contexts to bring success. The findings would provide important insights for principals and future researchers who might be interested in conducting similar studies to enrich the successful school leadership literature from Malaysian context.

Pelaksanaan Supervisi Akademik oleh Kepala Madrasah Aliyah Swasta di Kabupaten Sukabumi Jawa Barat

<p>This study discusses the implementation of the academic supervision conducted by principal of Private Madrasah Aliyah of Cisaat Sukabumi. The results of this study concluded that the implementation of the academic supervision conducted by the principals are not systematic and not preprogrammed, so that teachers do not feel any relief from the headmaster in improving the quality of learning. This is due to the low competence of the principals in academic supervision and they tended to judge and find fault with teachers without providing advice and solu-tions. however, the principals have a plan/program of supervision, commitment and high motivation, seek to meet the performance assessment of supervisors. Based on the above, it needs guidance in the form of education and training to increase the competence of the principals of the madrasah, and giving reward to the successful principals.</p><p><strong>Abstrak</strong></p><p>Penelitian ini membahas tentang pelaksanaan supervisi akademik kepala Madra-sah di Madrasah Aliyah Swasta Kecamatan Cisaat Kabupaten Sukabumi. Hasil penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa pelaksanaan supervisi akademik yang dila-kukan oleh kepala madrasah tidak sistematis dan tidak terprogram, sehingga guru-guru tidak merasakan adanya bantuan dari kepala madrasah dalam peningkatan kualitas pembelajaran. Hal ini disebabkan oleh kompetensi supervisi akademik kepala madrasah yang rendah dan cenderung menilai dan mencari kesalahan guru tanpa memberikan saran dan solusi. Walaupun demikian, kepala madrasah memi-liki rencana/program supervisi, komitmen dan motivasinya tinggi, berupaya untuk memenuhi penilaian kinerja kepala madrasah dari pengawas madrasah. Berda-sarkan penjelasan di atas, maka perlu diadakan pembinaan berupa pendidikan dan pelatihan untuk peningkatan kompetensi kepala madrasah, dan pemberian reward terhadap Kepala Madrasah yang berprestasi.</p>

Contracts for Agents with Biased Beliefs: Some Theory and an Experiment

This paper experimentally tests the predictions of a principalagent model in which the agent has biased beliefs about his ability. Overconfident workers are found to earn lower wages than underconfident ones because they overestimate their expected payoff, and principals adjust their offers accordingly. Moreover, the profit-maximizing contract distorts effort by varying incentives according to self-confidence, although only the most successful principals use this strategy. These findings have implications for the labor market; in particular, self-confidence is often correlated with gender, implying that principals would prefer to hire men over women simply because they are more overconfident. (JEL D82, D83, D86)