School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change
Social, political and technological developments bring about change in the global society. However, it is often argued that education does not develop as rapidly and in line with these changes. This study explores how school leaders perceive their roles, power, and agency when leading change at the...
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University of Iceland, School of Education
2018
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2530 |
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ftopinvisindi:oai:opinvisindi.is:20.500.11815/2530 2023-05-15T16:47:13+02:00 School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change Upplifun og reynsla skólastjórnenda af breytingum í íslenskum framhaldsskólum samtímans: gagnvirk áhrif einstaklinga, hópa og félagskerfa Ragnarsdóttir, Guðrún Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson Jón Torfi Jónasson School of education (UI) Menntavísindasvið (HÍ) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland 2018-04 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2530 en eng University of Iceland, School of Education Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir. (2018). School leaders’ perceptions of contemporary change at the upper secondary school level in Iceland: interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change (Doctoral thesis). University of Iceland, School of education, Reykjavík https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2530 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Doktorsritgerðir Skólastjórnendur Framhaldsskólar Menntabreytingar Vinnustaðamenning Eigindlegar rannsóknir info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis 2018 ftopinvisindi https://doi.org/20.500.11815/2530 2022-11-18T06:52:08Z Social, political and technological developments bring about change in the global society. However, it is often argued that education does not develop as rapidly and in line with these changes. This study explores how school leaders perceive their roles, power, and agency when leading change at the upper secondary school level in Iceland. School leaders’ perceptions of the interactions between actors and social structures that may facilitate or constrain change are elucidated. The study also identifies what school leaders consider to be the most significant challenges regarding educational change. Twenty-one school leaders in nine upper secondary schools in Iceland were interviewed. Two or three school leaders were selected to be interviewed in each school in relation to the management structure the school. Schools had been selected through stratified sampling based on the school types. The data is discussed in the light of theories on institutions and organisations, institutional and organisational leadership, different response categories for macro-level demands for change, and policy enactment. The findings show complex patterns of interactions between various actors and social structures that impact change across system boundaries of the upper secondary school level in Iceland. The predominant governing culture of upper secondary schooling fell within the institutional characteristics of education. Most of the actors were seen to protect the traditions, values, and norms in the field of education although some of them were seen to support change. The institutional governance plays a significant role in constraining change. Nevertheless, some macro-level and meso-level actors trickled the processes of deinstitutionalisation after external or internal crisis or because of other innovative ideas generated within or between the selected upper secondary schools. In this way, new ideas often travelled horizontally throughout the organisational field of the upper secondary education. The most significant challenge ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Iceland Opin vísindi (Iceland) |
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Open Polar |
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Opin vísindi (Iceland) |
op_collection_id |
ftopinvisindi |
language |
English |
topic |
Doktorsritgerðir Skólastjórnendur Framhaldsskólar Menntabreytingar Vinnustaðamenning Eigindlegar rannsóknir |
spellingShingle |
Doktorsritgerðir Skólastjórnendur Framhaldsskólar Menntabreytingar Vinnustaðamenning Eigindlegar rannsóknir Ragnarsdóttir, Guðrún School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
topic_facet |
Doktorsritgerðir Skólastjórnendur Framhaldsskólar Menntabreytingar Vinnustaðamenning Eigindlegar rannsóknir |
description |
Social, political and technological developments bring about change in the global society. However, it is often argued that education does not develop as rapidly and in line with these changes. This study explores how school leaders perceive their roles, power, and agency when leading change at the upper secondary school level in Iceland. School leaders’ perceptions of the interactions between actors and social structures that may facilitate or constrain change are elucidated. The study also identifies what school leaders consider to be the most significant challenges regarding educational change. Twenty-one school leaders in nine upper secondary schools in Iceland were interviewed. Two or three school leaders were selected to be interviewed in each school in relation to the management structure the school. Schools had been selected through stratified sampling based on the school types. The data is discussed in the light of theories on institutions and organisations, institutional and organisational leadership, different response categories for macro-level demands for change, and policy enactment. The findings show complex patterns of interactions between various actors and social structures that impact change across system boundaries of the upper secondary school level in Iceland. The predominant governing culture of upper secondary schooling fell within the institutional characteristics of education. Most of the actors were seen to protect the traditions, values, and norms in the field of education although some of them were seen to support change. The institutional governance plays a significant role in constraining change. Nevertheless, some macro-level and meso-level actors trickled the processes of deinstitutionalisation after external or internal crisis or because of other innovative ideas generated within or between the selected upper secondary schools. In this way, new ideas often travelled horizontally throughout the organisational field of the upper secondary education. The most significant challenge ... |
author2 |
Ingólfur Ásgeir Jóhannesson Jón Torfi Jónasson School of education (UI) Menntavísindasvið (HÍ) Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Ragnarsdóttir, Guðrún |
author_facet |
Ragnarsdóttir, Guðrún |
author_sort |
Ragnarsdóttir, Guðrún |
title |
School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
title_short |
School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
title_full |
School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
title_fullStr |
School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
title_full_unstemmed |
School Leaders’ Perceptions of Contemporary Change at the Upper Secondary School Level in Iceland: Interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
title_sort |
school leaders’ perceptions of contemporary change at the upper secondary school level in iceland: interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change |
publisher |
University of Iceland, School of Education |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2530 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir. (2018). School leaders’ perceptions of contemporary change at the upper secondary school level in Iceland: interaction of actors and social structures facilitating or constraining change (Doctoral thesis). University of Iceland, School of education, Reykjavík https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2530 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11815/2530 |
_version_ |
1766037296492052480 |