TMA 01 ASSIGNMENT

TMA 01 Assignment

TMA 01 Assignment

The key leadership and management issues addressed in each article

Smyth's article explores how school leaders and teachers of a disadvantages school undergo continuous reassessment of their roles and responsibilities in light of changing patterns of autonomy, control, marketization and parental control (Smyth 2002 463). Specifically, the article throws light on the issues of identity and work in a primary school. The study also explores the changes in the attitude of educational leaders with the policy changes. Smyth's research is guided by a tentative exposure to assess the efficacies and implications of local school management at the primary school level. The researcher has sought to explain how this kind of management approach produces conflicts and tensions between a teacher's struggle for self identity and the prescribed, forced and preferred identity within the school environment.

Smyth believes that ELM practice takes place at varying levels of leadership within educational organizations: individual, organizational and group, district and local authority level, and ministry and national level (Smyth 2002 468). To compress, these could be represented at national, local authority, and institutional levels. Furthermore, there is a minor role of the international bodies like the European Union (EU) and UNESCO. The conceptual frameworks at each of these levels target policy implementation. A 'best practice' framework should therefore encompass implications for all these stakeholders, making up a multi-level practice framework.

Glatter and Kydd explore the usefulness of 'best practices' in the spheres of educational management and leadership (Glatter & Kydd 2003 231). In doing so, the authors reinvestigate the underlying notions and issues of best practices in terms of their validity across educational institutions in United Kingdom and elsewhere. The authors review earlier works related to the subject of educational leadership. For instance, they quote the developments taken in the area after the 2002 international conference conducted by National College for School Leadership (NCSL). The work on educational leadership and best practices, according to the authors, started as early as 1967 when proposal were initiated for developing staff colleges for school leaders in UK (Glatter & Kydd 2003 231). However, there these proposals were subject to being called as 'orthodox' in their nature. Other issues, like pluralism and inclusiveness, have also been seen from sceptic eyes by many researchers. Glatter and Kydd add to the significance of these issues by exploring various aspects of educational leadership and management (ELM). They also try to draw the scope for learning the concepts of 'best practices' in education (Glatter & Kydd 2003 233). The researchers maintain that there is a big room for professional research and development in these areas. To explain the aspects of practice, Glatter and Kydd highlight four important areas:

The impact of context on practice

The 'multi-level' nature of practice

Practice as either individual or corporate;

Complexity and ambiguity.

Conceptual Frameworks and Their Analyses

Smyth drew from a comprehensive case study of an Australian Primary School, researching the tensions, experiences and controversial aspects of teaching practices and leadership. The interviewed population, therefore, comprised principals, coordinators, teachers, ...