Educational leadership--Case studies

Despite many decades of simultaneous research on early childhood development and leadership, numerous gaps remain in the current literature regarding the characteristics of school leaders of early childhood programs in low and middle income (LAMI) countries. Past studies of school leaders in LAMI countries have only focused on primary and secondary education.
A multitude of factors impact public pre-primary education in LAMI countries, such as Guatemala, which make the study of school leadership in pre-primary education critical for understanding what is needed to provide high-quality learning environments. The identification of leadership characteristics helps to inform the field of early childhood education and establish critical directions for school leadership practice.
The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of successful school leaders of public, pre-primary programs in an area north of Guatemala City, Guatemala. The characteristics were defined as those leadership behaviors and factors that contribute to the success of leaders of public, pre-primary schools in Guatemala. Leadership behaviors were defined as those actions a leader exhibits that support the operation of a public, pre-primary school. Leadership factors were defined as the influences that support or hinder the ability of a leader to achieve and maintain the operation of a public, preprimary school. Developmental factors were defined as environmental influences that impacted on their decision to become a leader of a public, pre-primary school.

Research maintains that teacher collegiality and collaboration are important for developing professional learning communities, and promoting leadership of teaching and learning. As we enter the 21st century, subject departments in secondary schools remain a common and important entity in the professional life of a teacher, yet scarce in educational research literature. Using qualitative methodology, three exemplary, collegial, yet demographically diverse high school math departments in the state of Florida were involved in this multi-site case study. The researcher collected data from interviews, observations, and documents. Sixty-one math teachers including department chairs were individually interviewed. These interviews were transcribed and coded for commonalities. Observations were recorded during teacher planning hours, department meetings, and teacher lunch times. Also, pertinent documents such as course syllabi, department mission statements, school mission statements, and school improvement plans were collected. All data were triangulated and analyzed, and findings support that collegial relationships impact teachers' work lives, which reduce uncertainty and stress; collegial departments are tightly structured democratic systems where distributed leadership increases instructional effectiveness and creates a familial environment; collaborative cultures affect student learning by emphasizing a fair and equitable education for all students improving parental involvement; and the department chair as instructional and managerial leader plays a major role as a change agent within the professional collegial community.