New book focuses on student learning through capacity building

Improving student learning through capacity building - a focus of recent Government-funded research in schools across the country - is the subject of a new scholarly book produced by renowned Education academics.

Written by internationally respected scholar and researcher in educational management and leadership, USQ Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther, and a team of researchers, From School Improvement to Sustained Capacity: The Parallel Leadership Pathway is the result of a two-year-long research project by Leadership Research International (LRI).

Boston College's Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education, Andy Hargreaves, congratulated the authors for the superb examples from cases around the world, combined with exercises that 'have you diving for pearls and eating all your greens'. He said the work stood on its own as an authoritative source in the field of school improvement and thanked the authors for ‘humanising change’ in the way they have.

'It’s a life work and worthy of you and the field as well as all the educators you dignify,' he said. 

Co-author and USQ lecturer Shauna Petersen said the research focused on a group of Victorian schools that engaged with the Innovative Designs for Enhancing the Achievements of Schools (IDEAS) process for school improvement between 2004 and 2007.

Two international co-authors Senthurini Jeyaraj and Giuseppe Miccichè also contributed insights from their work with IDEAS in an international context. Senthurini has worked closely with Singapore IDEAS schools and is currently completing her PhD around the topic of her chapter, while Giuseppe, who is the Principal at Carlo Maria Carafa High School in Mazzarino, Sicily, contributed insights from the IDEAS work at his school.

'The outcome from the research was a model for capacity building called the COSMIC C-B model; the first of its kind in the world and acclaimed by leading international authors in the field of school improvement,' Mrs Petersen said.

More than 70 guests attended the official Leadership Research International (LRI) book launch held in May, including USQ academics, principals and teachers from across the Toowoomba region.

LRI Director and USQ academic, Associate Professor Dorothy Andrews, highlighted the significance of the book in bringing to fruition several years of research by the contributing authors from the research team and the new direction for Leadership Research in an international context.

The publication is one of only 50 books by Australian authors selected by American publishing giant Sage Corwin to be published in 2011. Co-authors of the chapters of the book include Associate Professor Dorothy Andrews, Dr Marian Lewis, Dr Allan Morgan, Dr Joan Conway, Lindy Abawi, Shauna Petersen, Senthurini Jeyaraj (Singapore) and Giuseppe Miccichè (Sicily).

The book is available for purchase through the Australian Council for Educational Leaders by emailing books@acel.org.au or by phoning 1800 680 559.

USQ's Faculty of Education offers a suite of courses in the Master of Education -Leadership and Management specialisation that profile current research on teacher leadership and organisational transformation.