Rachel McNae | University of Waikato (original) (raw)
Papers by Rachel McNae
La influencia del contexto escolar en la práctica del liderazgo se está convirtiendo en un área m... more La influencia del contexto escolar en la práctica del liderazgo se está convirtiendo en un área muy documentada en el campo del liderazgo educativo. Sin embargo, gran parte de la investigación en este creciente cuerpo de literatura se centra la práctica de liderazgo de los adultos. Este artículo examina la influencia del contexto de la escuela secundaria en las creencias y concepciones de liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes. Se realizó un estudio cualitativo de investigación-acción colaborativa con 12 estudiantes de doce años de una escuela secundaria católica y femenina de Nueva Zelanda. Se utilizaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas y grupos focales para determinar las creencias y percepciones de las mujeres jóvenes sobre el liderazgo antes de su aportación en el co-diseño y participación de un programa de desarrollo de liderazgo con el investigador. Este artículo informa acerca de los hallazgos relacionados con las creencias y percepciones que los jóvenes tienen antes de participar en...
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Educational Leadership and Management, 2022
The Cultural and Social Foundations of Educational Leadership, 2021
Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of s... more Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of social inequity and injustice. Their leadership is key to revealing, disrupting and subverting institutional arrangements which marginalize individuals, reorienting educational engagement towards inclusion, transformation and equity. This chapter examines ways New Zealand educational leaders lead for social justice. It outlines social, moral, cultural and personal dimensions which support and constrain their socially just leadership overall. Exploring the situated meanings and understandings of socially just leadership, and how it manifests in these key areas across different education settings may illuminate possibilities for other leaders to address injustices within their institutions and broader education contexts overall. Keywords Educational leadership • Social justice • Sense making Educational reform has increasingly been perceived as both the problem and the solution in addressing the new work order which is required by the rapidity, complexity and constancy of social change. Educational leaders are frequently described and positioned as 'change agents' (Blackmore, 2002), tasked with the often insurmountable job of mediating and embracing numerous reforms while at the same time leading their schools in ways that prepare young people for tomorrow's world. Hargreaves (2005) contends, "education is the greatest gatekeeper of opportunity and a powerful distributor of life chances. In a socially divided and culturally diverse
Cultures of Social Justice Leadership, 2019
This chapter looks at schools in Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain where children did not speak the ... more This chapter looks at schools in Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain where children did not speak the dominant language and had little experience in the dominant culture. The school directors expressed interest in providing a socially just environment to welcome these children. Teachers in this study recognised the needs of indigenous and migrant populations, such as work, food, shelter, clothing, health, and education. They acted in a committed manner to ensure that the provisions of education and food were established as a minimum condition for learning. The directors began their work by conducting an in-depth analysis of the school and worked toward a collaborative plan.
Each case study in this book stands alone. The leaders portrayed in these narratives, and the aut... more Each case study in this book stands alone. The leaders portrayed in these narratives, and the authors who collaborated with them in the re-storying of their lived experience, bring unique worldviews and par ticular theoretical lenses to bear. le is appropriate chat readers should do the same. In this concluding chapter we seek not to prescribe meaning nor constrain interpretation but to highlight three emerging themes: complexity, agency, and ac tion. Rather than summarise each case we select examples that evoke and illustrate the points we wish co make. We consider the implications of complexity, agency, and action for practitioners, policy makers, and the education profession (pre-and in-service). Finally, we conclude with a series of provocations that we hope will ignite passionate debate, professional commitment, and the political will necessary co reach national consensus over what we mean by social justice and how we best go about achieving this. Complexity Byrnes' (1998) definition of complexity as "the domain between linearly determined order and indeterminate chaos" (p. 1) will bring more than a wry smile to leaders charged with meeting the needs of
Planning and changing, 2015
Significant leadership expectations are placed on young women in high school contexts. With few o... more Significant leadership expectations are placed on young women in high school contexts. With few opportunities to practice leadership prior to entering formal leadership roles, along with minimal attention paid to the preparation and generation of personal leadership knowledge, it can be difficult for young women to articulate the support they may need to be effective leaders. Traditional approaches to leadership development frequently draw on Eurocentric, patriarchal discourses located in frameworks aligned to adult learning that may not be culturally or contextually relevant, or fail to pay attention to the needs of young women leading within and beyond their school communities. As such the importance of involving young people in designing their learning experiences so that their needs can be better met is becoming well known (Bragg, 2007; Fielding, 2009; Taylor & Robinson, 2009). Flowing from this enhanced recognition are student-centered learning approaches fixated on the notion ...
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 2015
Social justice is a fluid and contested notion. In the absence of a nationally accepted definitio... more Social justice is a fluid and contested notion. In the absence of a nationally accepted definition of, and commitment to, social justice, New Zealand school leaders and their communities must interpret the nature and substance of this phenomenon. This article examines the perspectives of eight secondary principals who participated in the International School Leadership Development Network’s (ISLDN) study on leadership for social justice. Whilst not explicitly theorized as such, participant perspectives of social justice reveal distributive, cultural and associational dimensions. These notions are grounded in, and shaped by, seminal experiences of social justice and injustice, both personal and vicarious. They reflect the amorphous and tentative nature of school leaders’ social justice conceptions, and a clarion call for a wider professional conversation.
Set: Research Information for Teachers, 2013
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 2019
Effective leadership within early childhood settings is aligned with the perceived successful imp... more Effective leadership within early childhood settings is aligned with the perceived successful implementation of high quality care and education programmes (Thornton, Tamati, Clarkin-Philips, Aitken & Wansbrough, 2009). With growing attention on the role early childhood education (ECE) plays in preparing children to be successful in their lives, it is not surprising that there is increased focus on the work and impact of educational leaders in this endeavour. An expanding body of research specifically exploring leadership within ECE settings illustrates how much of the educational leadership theory corpus lacks contextual relevance and fails to recognise the complexities and realities of leading in early years contexts (Rodd, 2013). The qualitative research reported on in this article examines the leadership understandings and perceptions of five qualified, registered early childhood leaders. The findings illustrated that whilst participants were cognisant of the role effective leade...
Cultures of Educational Leadership, 2016
Social justice is fundamental to feminism. Feminist theorists place women's experiences of gender... more Social justice is fundamental to feminism. Feminist theorists place women's experiences of gender inequalities at the centre of their theorizations about leadership. Feminist critiques of leadership are set in a wider social context. In this chapter, the perspectives of women educational leaders are explored within the wider 'social justice leadership' perspective. Internationally, social justice leadership represents a major theme within policy, research and literature with a resurgence of interest into the experiences and perceptions of women in educational leadership. This chapter critically appraises women's perspectives on educational leadership, by drawing on the experiences of four women headteachers/principals in each of four international contexts, sixteen women in total. Case studies, conducted in Scotland, England, Jamaica and New Zealand, provide contrasting, cross-national contexts to compare the influences, possibilities and challenges that women school leaders experience. Each of the country researcher teams was guided by the same interview questions, adopting a common methodological approach for conducting in-depth interviews and the analysis of findings.
Educational Review, 2016
The current global educational landscape is complex and multi-faceted in nature. This volume seek... more The current global educational landscape is complex and multi-faceted in nature. This volume seeks to demonstrate this complexity by presenting insights into various educational contexts (early years to tertiary) when positioned and viewed through a sociocultural perspective. In doing so, this book makes an important contribution to the dialogue on indigenous education, marginalization, minoritization, and working in socially just ways, championing the notion of partnership, along with illuminating the social and cultural discourses of teaching and learning. Amongst other fields, this book will be extremely useful to all of those working in education, cultural and indigenous studies, be they educational practitioners, policy-makers, students or academic researchers. It will no doubt support the development of sociocultural consciousness, an element argued across the book as critical for those engaging in educative processes. The title of this book signals a shift in perspective with regard to sociocultural realities and the ways in which they are encountered by various groups in society. With the subtitle of exploring new horizons, it is no surprise that each contributor in this book provides critical insight and works with provocative purpose and insight to stir a sense of activism and professional reflection amongst its readership. This book draws together 12 chapters, each located across developmentally positioned educational contexts. As a way of setting the scene, the first chapter adopts an inclusive and encompassing perspective on the historical nature of sociocultural theory. Macfarlane succinctly weaves the historical discourses and cultural nuances of relevant educational theories together, and in doing so, illustrates the shortfalls and lack of recognition of indigenous theorists within these much-revered historical storylines. Presenting a model which draws together social and cultural constructs, he illustrates how these aspects are inextricably linked and, when they converge, and sense-making processes occur, how they generate sociocultural realities founded on lived experiences and learned behaviours. Initial chapters draw marginalized contexts and diverse student groups to the centre of the book's focus. Useful metaphors are drawn upon to illustrate the possibilities for partnership through the interconnection and interaction between Western ideologies and indigenous scholarship. The presentation and critical examination of underserved populations (for example, the nature of assessment for students with special education needs by chapter authors Guerin and Morton) challenge traditional discourses and through each chapter highlight the role of sociocultural approaches in repositioning students in the teaching and learning relationship and reshaping curriculum construction, and in pedagogical approaches. This book provides opportunities to reexamine socioculturalism through combining theory and practice, informed by rich research encounters in a broad array of educational contexts. Each chapter cleverly segues into the next, shifting the horizon and focus to a new and often unique developmental context and perspective. An excellent example of this is the scholarship of Peters and Paki, which highlights the cultural diversity within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) context in Aotearoa, New Zealand and examines locations of power and knowledge,
Review(s) of: Successful educational leadership in New Zealand: Case studies of schools and an ea... more Review(s) of: Successful educational leadership in New Zealand: Case studies of schools and an early childhood centre, by Ross Notman (Ed.), (2011), Wellington, New Zealand NZCER Press, ISBN 978-1-927151-37-2 (pb), 156 pp.
La influencia del contexto escolar en la práctica del liderazgo se está convirtiendo en un área m... more La influencia del contexto escolar en la práctica del liderazgo se está convirtiendo en un área muy documentada en el campo del liderazgo educativo. Sin embargo, gran parte de la investigación en este creciente cuerpo de literatura se centra la práctica de liderazgo de los adultos. Este artículo examina la influencia del contexto de la escuela secundaria en las creencias y concepciones de liderazgo de las mujeres jóvenes. Se realizó un estudio cualitativo de investigación-acción colaborativa con 12 estudiantes de doce años de una escuela secundaria católica y femenina de Nueva Zelanda. Se utilizaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas y grupos focales para determinar las creencias y percepciones de las mujeres jóvenes sobre el liderazgo antes de su aportación en el co-diseño y participación de un programa de desarrollo de liderazgo con el investigador. Este artículo informa acerca de los hallazgos relacionados con las creencias y percepciones que los jóvenes tienen antes de participar en...
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Educational Leadership and Management, 2022
The Cultural and Social Foundations of Educational Leadership, 2021
Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of s... more Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of social inequity and injustice. Their leadership is key to revealing, disrupting and subverting institutional arrangements which marginalize individuals, reorienting educational engagement towards inclusion, transformation and equity. This chapter examines ways New Zealand educational leaders lead for social justice. It outlines social, moral, cultural and personal dimensions which support and constrain their socially just leadership overall. Exploring the situated meanings and understandings of socially just leadership, and how it manifests in these key areas across different education settings may illuminate possibilities for other leaders to address injustices within their institutions and broader education contexts overall. Keywords Educational leadership • Social justice • Sense making Educational reform has increasingly been perceived as both the problem and the solution in addressing the new work order which is required by the rapidity, complexity and constancy of social change. Educational leaders are frequently described and positioned as 'change agents' (Blackmore, 2002), tasked with the often insurmountable job of mediating and embracing numerous reforms while at the same time leading their schools in ways that prepare young people for tomorrow's world. Hargreaves (2005) contends, "education is the greatest gatekeeper of opportunity and a powerful distributor of life chances. In a socially divided and culturally diverse
Cultures of Social Justice Leadership, 2019
This chapter looks at schools in Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain where children did not speak the ... more This chapter looks at schools in Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain where children did not speak the dominant language and had little experience in the dominant culture. The school directors expressed interest in providing a socially just environment to welcome these children. Teachers in this study recognised the needs of indigenous and migrant populations, such as work, food, shelter, clothing, health, and education. They acted in a committed manner to ensure that the provisions of education and food were established as a minimum condition for learning. The directors began their work by conducting an in-depth analysis of the school and worked toward a collaborative plan.
Each case study in this book stands alone. The leaders portrayed in these narratives, and the aut... more Each case study in this book stands alone. The leaders portrayed in these narratives, and the authors who collaborated with them in the re-storying of their lived experience, bring unique worldviews and par ticular theoretical lenses to bear. le is appropriate chat readers should do the same. In this concluding chapter we seek not to prescribe meaning nor constrain interpretation but to highlight three emerging themes: complexity, agency, and ac tion. Rather than summarise each case we select examples that evoke and illustrate the points we wish co make. We consider the implications of complexity, agency, and action for practitioners, policy makers, and the education profession (pre-and in-service). Finally, we conclude with a series of provocations that we hope will ignite passionate debate, professional commitment, and the political will necessary co reach national consensus over what we mean by social justice and how we best go about achieving this. Complexity Byrnes' (1998) definition of complexity as "the domain between linearly determined order and indeterminate chaos" (p. 1) will bring more than a wry smile to leaders charged with meeting the needs of
Planning and changing, 2015
Significant leadership expectations are placed on young women in high school contexts. With few o... more Significant leadership expectations are placed on young women in high school contexts. With few opportunities to practice leadership prior to entering formal leadership roles, along with minimal attention paid to the preparation and generation of personal leadership knowledge, it can be difficult for young women to articulate the support they may need to be effective leaders. Traditional approaches to leadership development frequently draw on Eurocentric, patriarchal discourses located in frameworks aligned to adult learning that may not be culturally or contextually relevant, or fail to pay attention to the needs of young women leading within and beyond their school communities. As such the importance of involving young people in designing their learning experiences so that their needs can be better met is becoming well known (Bragg, 2007; Fielding, 2009; Taylor & Robinson, 2009). Flowing from this enhanced recognition are student-centered learning approaches fixated on the notion ...
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 2015
Social justice is a fluid and contested notion. In the absence of a nationally accepted definitio... more Social justice is a fluid and contested notion. In the absence of a nationally accepted definition of, and commitment to, social justice, New Zealand school leaders and their communities must interpret the nature and substance of this phenomenon. This article examines the perspectives of eight secondary principals who participated in the International School Leadership Development Network’s (ISLDN) study on leadership for social justice. Whilst not explicitly theorized as such, participant perspectives of social justice reveal distributive, cultural and associational dimensions. These notions are grounded in, and shaped by, seminal experiences of social justice and injustice, both personal and vicarious. They reflect the amorphous and tentative nature of school leaders’ social justice conceptions, and a clarion call for a wider professional conversation.
Set: Research Information for Teachers, 2013
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 2019
Effective leadership within early childhood settings is aligned with the perceived successful imp... more Effective leadership within early childhood settings is aligned with the perceived successful implementation of high quality care and education programmes (Thornton, Tamati, Clarkin-Philips, Aitken & Wansbrough, 2009). With growing attention on the role early childhood education (ECE) plays in preparing children to be successful in their lives, it is not surprising that there is increased focus on the work and impact of educational leaders in this endeavour. An expanding body of research specifically exploring leadership within ECE settings illustrates how much of the educational leadership theory corpus lacks contextual relevance and fails to recognise the complexities and realities of leading in early years contexts (Rodd, 2013). The qualitative research reported on in this article examines the leadership understandings and perceptions of five qualified, registered early childhood leaders. The findings illustrated that whilst participants were cognisant of the role effective leade...
Cultures of Educational Leadership, 2016
Social justice is fundamental to feminism. Feminist theorists place women's experiences of gender... more Social justice is fundamental to feminism. Feminist theorists place women's experiences of gender inequalities at the centre of their theorizations about leadership. Feminist critiques of leadership are set in a wider social context. In this chapter, the perspectives of women educational leaders are explored within the wider 'social justice leadership' perspective. Internationally, social justice leadership represents a major theme within policy, research and literature with a resurgence of interest into the experiences and perceptions of women in educational leadership. This chapter critically appraises women's perspectives on educational leadership, by drawing on the experiences of four women headteachers/principals in each of four international contexts, sixteen women in total. Case studies, conducted in Scotland, England, Jamaica and New Zealand, provide contrasting, cross-national contexts to compare the influences, possibilities and challenges that women school leaders experience. Each of the country researcher teams was guided by the same interview questions, adopting a common methodological approach for conducting in-depth interviews and the analysis of findings.
Educational Review, 2016
The current global educational landscape is complex and multi-faceted in nature. This volume seek... more The current global educational landscape is complex and multi-faceted in nature. This volume seeks to demonstrate this complexity by presenting insights into various educational contexts (early years to tertiary) when positioned and viewed through a sociocultural perspective. In doing so, this book makes an important contribution to the dialogue on indigenous education, marginalization, minoritization, and working in socially just ways, championing the notion of partnership, along with illuminating the social and cultural discourses of teaching and learning. Amongst other fields, this book will be extremely useful to all of those working in education, cultural and indigenous studies, be they educational practitioners, policy-makers, students or academic researchers. It will no doubt support the development of sociocultural consciousness, an element argued across the book as critical for those engaging in educative processes. The title of this book signals a shift in perspective with regard to sociocultural realities and the ways in which they are encountered by various groups in society. With the subtitle of exploring new horizons, it is no surprise that each contributor in this book provides critical insight and works with provocative purpose and insight to stir a sense of activism and professional reflection amongst its readership. This book draws together 12 chapters, each located across developmentally positioned educational contexts. As a way of setting the scene, the first chapter adopts an inclusive and encompassing perspective on the historical nature of sociocultural theory. Macfarlane succinctly weaves the historical discourses and cultural nuances of relevant educational theories together, and in doing so, illustrates the shortfalls and lack of recognition of indigenous theorists within these much-revered historical storylines. Presenting a model which draws together social and cultural constructs, he illustrates how these aspects are inextricably linked and, when they converge, and sense-making processes occur, how they generate sociocultural realities founded on lived experiences and learned behaviours. Initial chapters draw marginalized contexts and diverse student groups to the centre of the book's focus. Useful metaphors are drawn upon to illustrate the possibilities for partnership through the interconnection and interaction between Western ideologies and indigenous scholarship. The presentation and critical examination of underserved populations (for example, the nature of assessment for students with special education needs by chapter authors Guerin and Morton) challenge traditional discourses and through each chapter highlight the role of sociocultural approaches in repositioning students in the teaching and learning relationship and reshaping curriculum construction, and in pedagogical approaches. This book provides opportunities to reexamine socioculturalism through combining theory and practice, informed by rich research encounters in a broad array of educational contexts. Each chapter cleverly segues into the next, shifting the horizon and focus to a new and often unique developmental context and perspective. An excellent example of this is the scholarship of Peters and Paki, which highlights the cultural diversity within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) context in Aotearoa, New Zealand and examines locations of power and knowledge,
Review(s) of: Successful educational leadership in New Zealand: Case studies of schools and an ea... more Review(s) of: Successful educational leadership in New Zealand: Case studies of schools and an early childhood centre, by Ross Notman (Ed.), (2011), Wellington, New Zealand NZCER Press, ISBN 978-1-927151-37-2 (pb), 156 pp.