Martin, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-1460-4441, Nuttall, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-2571-7839, Wood, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-1027-1520 et al. (1 more author) (2025) Positioning theory as a framework for understanding the facilitation of professional development for educational leaders. The Australian Educational Researcher, 52 (1). pp. 45-74. ISSN 0311-6999
Abstract
The article addresses the problem of providing in-service education within government-led reform initiatives yet enhancing professionalism in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector. The study was conducted during policy-mandated reform in Australia to investigate effective ways to support educational leaders in centres rated as not meeting the national quality standard. Data were derived from a larger project designed as a formative intervention and funded by the Australian Research Council. In this article, we focus on the positioning of the educational leaders over the course of the intervention as they endeavoured to develop workplace practices. We found that the participants’ status as leaders of low-rated centres was featured in the way they positioned themselves initially. How the researchers responded has been highlighted in our analysis and, we argue, repositioning these participants as professionally capable and responsible was essential to the success of the intervention for them. This article contributes an original methodological approach to researching individual learning within the collective processes of workplace practice development and provides an understanding of the reform process from the perspective of ‘working-towards’ educational leaders.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Educational leaders; Change laboratories; Positioning theory; Professional development |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Australian Research Council DP180100281 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Apr 2024 10:39 |
Last Modified: | 10 Feb 2025 13:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s13384-024-00700-9 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211441 |