Professor Brian Caldwell
Melbourne Graduate School of Education,
University of Melbourne,
Melbourne, Australia

Impact of school autonomy on student achievement:
cases from Australia
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0144

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report four case studies in Australia that respond to the question: “How have schools with a relatively high degree of autonomy used their increased authority and responsibility to make decisions that have led in explicit cause-and-effect fashion to higher levels of student achievement”?

Design/methodology/approach
A conventional case study methodology was adopted, framed by a review of evidence in the international literature. The studies were conducted in the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Victoria. Senior leaders in systems of public education in these jurisdictions nominated schools which have had a relatively high degree of autonomy for at least two years; have achieved high levels of student achievement, or have shown noteworthy improvement; and are able to explain how the link between autonomy and achievement had been made. The four schools chosen from these nominations represented different types as far as level and location were concerned. Triangulation of sources was a feature of the studies.

Findings
The findings reveal that the schools were able to explain the links and that it was possible to map the cause-and-effect chain. Schools used their autonomy to select staff and allocate funds in their budgets, each being capacities that came with a higher level of autonomy. Leadership was important.

Research limitations/implications
The paper cautions against generalizing the findings.

Originality/value
There is international interest in the extent to which granting public schools a higher level of autonomy than has traditionally been the case in various national settings has had an impact on student achievement. These case studies go part of the way in describing what schools do when they successfully take up a higher level of authority and responsibility as one strategy in efforts to raise levels of achievement.

Rebels against the system: Leadership agency and
curriculum innovation in the context of school autonomy and
accountability in England
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-11-2015-0148

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the development of school autonomy, school leadership and curriculum innovation in England over the past 40 years. It provides a baseline picture for the wider international study on school autonomy and curriculum innovation.

Design/methodology/approach
An initial literature review was undertaken, including policy document analysis. Interviews and observations were undertaken with participants on a pilot professional programme for school leaders seeking to develop their school curriculum.

Findings
While all schools in England have needed to adapt their curricula to reflect the new National Curriculum introduced from 2014, relatively few schools appear to have used this opportunity to design genuinely innovative curricula that respond to the changing needs of learners in the twenty-first century. This includes the academies and free schools – currently around one in four schools – which are not legally required to follow the National Curriculum. The authors posit that leadership agency by principals and their professional teams is more important than policy/legal freedoms for securing curriculum innovation. Such agency appears to depend on the capacity and confidence of leaders to shape an alternative and innovative curriculum in the face of structural constraints, in particular England’s sharp accountability system, effectively making these leaders “rebels against the system”.

Research limitations/implications
The empirical findings are preliminary and based on a small convenience sample.

Originality/value
Given England’s position as a relatively extreme example of high-autonomy-high-accountability quasi-market school reforms this paper provides valuable insights on school autonomy and curriculum innovation that can inform policy and practice more widely.

Dr. Jame Ko
Professor Cheng Yin Cheong
Dr. Theodore Lee
The Education University of Hong Kong
China

The development of school autonomy and accountability in Hong Kong:
Multiple changes in governance, work, curriculum, and learning
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0145

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of school autonomy and accountability and related multiple changes and impacts in key areas of school education in Hong Kong since implementing school-based management (SBM) from 1990s.

Design/methodology/approach
To explore the evolution and the uniqueness of autonomy and accountability in the Hong Kong school system, the paper begins with an historical account, followed by an evaluation of the effects of SBM as shown in policy documents, local research, international reviews and illustrative findings from a case study. The local and international implications of SBM for research and practice are then discussed.

Findings
This paper shows the links between school autonomy and accountability by exploring the potential effects of both of these factors on educational management and student achievement, which are increasingly emphasised in educational policies. The investigation shows that the assumed links and effects are not always consistent or empirically supported. The positive effects that school autonomy has on school governance and management, teachers’ work, school-based curriculums and student learning are all significant when there is also strong leadership, comprehensive continuous professional development and a positive, collaborative school climate. These key elements work alongside school autonomy to facilitate positive change.

Research limitations/implications
School autonomy and accountability should be viewed as necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for school improvement and development. Further characterisation of the processes happening in schools is needed to explore the different realisations of school autonomy and accountability.

Originality/value
This investigation of school autonomy and accountability in Hong Kong provides the international audience with a deeper understanding of the dynamics involved in the development of SBM.

School autonomy and 21st century skills in the Israeli educational system:
Discrepancies between the declarative and operational levels
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-11-2015-0149

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze two parallel processes in the Israeli educational system: first, the idea of school autonomy, exploring its origins and its pedagogical implications and effectiveness; and second, the development of the progressive education evident mainly in the cognitive domain of twenty-first century skills (21st CS), focussing on fostering “deep knowledge” and children’s thinking skills. The manuscript explores the various “waves” of progressive pedagogies that have taken place in the Israeli school system over the years, describing and analyzing the processes that characterize them.

Design/methodology/approach
Based on a historical perspective, the paper describes chronologically the main developments related to school autonomy and 21st CS policy initiatives, based on a literature review and analysis of policy documents.

Findings
The review indicates that the Israeli educational system is still caught in the “centralization trap,” inhibiting major changes in the patterns of central control and degrees of freedom granted to school-level educators. As for school pedagogy, it is evident that most of the changes in pedagogy suggested by the numerous policy documents over the years have not resulted in sustainable, system-wide change. In both issues a large disparity is evident between declarations about innovative pedagogies and school autonomy and their actual implementation.

Originality/value
The review reflects the idiosyncratic articulation of policy plans conducted by the Ministry of Education, producing discrepancies and incongruences at the school level. Some implications of the “declarative culture” created are further discussed.

Dr. Yancy Toh
Professor Hung Wei Loong David
Mr. Chua Meng-Huat Paul
Miss He Sujin
Dr. Azilawati Jamaludin
National Institute of Education,
Singapore

Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system:
A Singapore’s perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0147

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dialectical interplay between centralisation and decentralisation forces so as to understand how schools leverage on its autonomous pedagogical space, influence the diffusion of innovations in the educational landscape of Singapore and how a centralised-decentralised system supports (or impedes) pedagogical reform for twenty-first century learning.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper first outlines the evolutionary stance of Singapore’s decentralisation from its past to present trajectories, thus providing a broader social-historical interpretation to its tight-loose-tight coupling of the education system; followed by situating the context of reform within the national narrative of Ministry of Education’s (MOE) twenty-first century competencies framework. The authors examine how school autonomy should be accompanied by systemic enabling mechanisms, through two case illustrations of whole-school reforms.

Findings
There are four carryover effects that the authors have observed: structural, socio-cultural, economic and epistemic. Middle managers from the two schools act as a pedagogical, socio-technological and financial broker outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a “middle-out” approach, complemented by centralised mechanisms for “coeval sensing mechanism”, has resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers.

Research limitations/implications
Socio-cultural context matters; and what constitutes as co-learning between policymakers and practitioners in Singapore may be construed as policing that stifles innovations in other contexts.

Originality/value
In addition to the conceptualisation of how school autonomy may lead to school-based innovations, the paper provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the mechanism of innovation diffusion. The unit of analysis is innovation ecosystem.

School autonomy, leadership and student achievement:
Reflections from Finland
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0146

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide national information on school autonomy, leadership and student achievements in Finland.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a literature review on Finnish studies focusing on school autonomy, leadership and student achievement. The studies have been reviewed on the basis of a content analysis.

Findings
There exists a shortage of studies connecting school leadership to student achievements. School leadership in Finland has been investigated in previous research, especially from the perspective of shared or pedagogical leadership, but vast majority of the studies have focused on teachers and educational staff, not directly on students. An evident reason for this is inaccessible information on school-based data and the nature of education being a “public good”, which is supposed to meet the same standards across the country.

Originality/value
This review will provide the international audience a deeper understanding in the school autonomy and leadership development in Finland.

Dr. Paul Newton
University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Canada

Professor José da Costa
University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Canada

School autonomy and 21st century learning:
The Canadian context
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-11-2015-0151

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the policy and practice contexts for school autonomy and twenty-first century learning in Canadian provinces.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on an analysis of policies in Canadian provinces (particularly the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan). The authors review policies related to school autonomy and twenty-first century learning initiatives.

Findings
In this paper, the authors argue that autonomy is a complicated and multi-levelled phenomena with a measure of autonomy devolved from the state to local school divisions, and yet other elements of autonomy devolved to the school and to individual teachers. The link between autonomy and twenty-first century learning are unclear as yet. This paper attempts to establish the policy contexts for school autonomy and twenty-first century learning without making claims about a causal relation between the two.

Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in its description of autonomy beyond the school level. Autonomy, as a construct, is rarely examined as a dynamic process among multiple layers of the educational system.