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Mission
Director
Awards
Current
Projects
Research
Staff
The Leadership Research Institute in the Faculty of Education is currently involved in four significant projects which address a range of current issues in education at state, national, and international levels. They are the Innovations and Best Practice Project (IBPP), the Teachers as Leaders Project, the Education Queensland IDEAS Project, the Inglewood Area Schools Collaborative Development Project and a strategic research alliance with the Queensland School Principals' Association.
The
Leadership Research Institute is working on the DETYA
Innovation and Best Practice Project in partnership
with the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne and Edith
Cowan University. Professor Peter Cuttance of the University
of Sydney is Director of the IBP Project. The IBP Project is
a $2.1 million national project to research and evaluate the
ways in which one hundred highly effective schools, across
Australia, enhance student achievement through school based
responsibility and management. Associate Professor Frank
Crowther, Director of the Leadership Research Institute, is
the Queensland representative on the National IBP Consortium
and State Manager for the project. He is assisted by Dorothy
Bramston of the School Leadership Institute as the
Queensland Project Facilitator.
A team of Faculty of Education staff members (Mr Jon Austin, Mr Peter Albion, Dr John Green, Mr Bill Hodgkinson, Mr Leo Crameri, Dr Emory McLendon, Mr John McMaster), is representing the Leadership Research Institute in offering research and consulting services to 15 selected IBP Project schools in Queensland, from within the State, Catholic and Independent systems. Individual school projects focus on a variety of educational issues, including literacy and numeracy practices, flexible resourcing, alternative education modes for truanting students and early school leavers, middle school transition, in-school redesign, in-school flexible grouping structure, the creation of a 'learning community', and enhancement programs for gifted and talented students in multicultural school contexts.
The
Leadership Research Institute is working on a second phase
of the DETYA Innovation and Best Practice Project. An
additional $25000.00 of funding has been provided to
facilitate an investigation of research process, research
leadership and development in schools.
The
Teachers as Leaders Project is a three-year, $120,000
study designed to validate, implement and evaluate a teacher
leadership framework created through the Leadership Research
Institute in conjunction with schools in disadvantaged areas
of Queensland. Funding of $60,000 dollars has been allocated
by the Australian Research Council with matching funds
provided by Education Queensland. Faculty of Education staff
member, Peter Olsen is co-ordinating the project while
research assistance is provided by a postgraduate student,
Ms Leonne Hann, as part of her Masters' research.
The
University of Melbourne Resource Research Project which
sets out to develop a theoretical model for per capita
resource funding based on the learning needs of students in
schools operating with local resource management
responsibility.(Funding:$10,000.00)
The
Education Queensland "I.D.E.A.S."* Project is a funded
research consultancy from Education Queensland and is
designed to generate educationally valid and culturally
sensitive models for school-based management in Queensland.
In 1998, the I.D.E.A.S. project developed a
Research-based Framework for Enhancing School
Outcomes which has been accepted by Education Queensland
and made available to all State Schools in Queensland. In
1999, the Framework is being trialled in fifty Queensland
schools.
A
strategic alliance with the Queensland School Principals'
Association (QSPA) has been forged to conduct research in
schools, as directed by the QSPA Executive, and to produce a
quarterly Journal, Principia: The Journal of the
Queensland Principals' Association.
The
research interests of the Leadership Research Institute also
complement the Faculty's Professional Doctorate in Education
by providing students with valuable networks and connections
to practical educational issues and changing educational
policies.
*"I.D.E.A.S." is a synonym for Innovative Designs for Enhancing the Achievements of Schools.
