The purpose of this study was to research the specifics of the role of community college English as a Second Language (ESL) academic department chair (ADC) through the perceptions of the deans, the ADCs, and the departmental faculty in two large suburban community colleges in the northeastern United States. A mixed methodology was used and…

This book examines tensions and challenges in the professional lives and identities of contemporary academics. Drawing on extensive interviews conducted over seven years with academics in the United States and the United Kingdom, the authors analyze the experiences of four types of academics as they respond and adjust to the demands of…

Purpose: Department heads play a pivotal role in the functioning of departments in secondary schools. However, quantitative research about the role of departmental leadership for the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) in subject departments in secondary schools remains scarce. As PLCs are seen as promising contexts for…

Effective role adjustment is crucial for the successful transition of chairs from faculty to academic leaders. Drawing on the data from semi-structured interviews with a select group of Filipino department chairs, this qualitative grounded theory inquiry applies Weick's framework of sensemaking to the analysis of their role adjustment process. The…

Research on management in higher education predominantly investigates senior staff such as Deans or Pro-Vice-Chancellors. Relatively little attention is focused on the department level, middle management roles, such as Associate Heads of Schools (AHoS). This case study, based on anecdotal scoping data, utilized a mixed-methods approach through an…

Purpose: Alongside the inequities surfaced by COVID-19, a confluence of demographic and policy-related shifts over the last few decades has elevated the education of multilingual learners (MLs) in state education agency (SEA) leaders' work. This study employs an ecological perspective to examine how SEA leaders promote social justice policy…

Academics in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), similar to their counterparts in other disciplines, receive little formal preparation when they take on academic leadership positions. Yet such career changes require different skill sets and expose academics to complex challenges of leadership. We (three academics) initiated this study to…

This manuscript reports on the role of the instructional leadership practices of secondary school principals on learner academic achievement. A phenomenological research design under the qualitative research methodology was utilised to explore this phenomenon. The study was conducted in the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province in South Africa.…

The purpose of this report is to describe findings from analyses conducted on data collected from the IDEA "Feedback System for Chairs" (FSC) from 2013 to 2016. The report begins with an explanation of the purpose of the system and the current structure of the "Chair Self-Assessment" (CSA) and "Faculty Perceptions of…

This paper reports the results of a study that examined the ways a group of department heads in Ontario, Canada, describe their role. Despite their ubiquity and importance, department heads have been seldom investigated in the educational leadership literature. The study uses the metaphor as an analytic tool to examine the ways participants talked…

This paper offers a new perspective on exploring peer observation (PO) as an event or system, and contributes to the discussion on what happens "after" the PO cycle in terms of opportunities for dissemination. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews with members of academic staff in a UK higher education institution about…

The 21st Century has brought a lot of challenges in developing the professional leadership characteristics of school leaders. Their roles are no longer limited in implementing educational policies and objectives but have become responsible for raising the generations and qualifying them in a rapidly changing era. However, in Thailand, it was…

The chair position is essential for implementing progressive changes in higher education institutions. However, the position has been unattractive to many faculties due to its ambiguity and the limited training chairs receive prior to assuming the office. Chairs must balance the dual responsibilities of managing faculty and student affairs who…

This chapter explores the work-life experiences of administrators as well as whether and how the ideal worker model affects those experiences. Departmental and supervisory differences and technology complicate administrators' work-life experiences.

Historically, empirical research exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of department chairs has been limited and narrow in scope. In addition, these studies have not kept pace with the rapidly changing nature of higher education. The current study consists of data collected from a survey of current and former chairs at a small,…