Emerging technologies in globalcommunication

Using appreciative inquiry to improve thepreparation of school administrators

Raymond L. CalabreseWichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, USA

B.E. RobertsScunthorpe, UK

Scott McLeodIowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

Rae NilesApple, Cupertino, California, USA

Kelly ChristophersonEston Composite School, Eston, Canada

Paviter SinghSchools Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore, Indonesia, and

Miles BerryAlton Convent Preparatory, Alton, UK

AbstractPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how practitioners from Canada, the UK,Singapore, and the USA, university educational administration faculty from the USA, and the editor ofa premier international journal of educational management engaged in a collaborative process todiscover how to improve the preparation and practice of educational administration on a global basis.

Design/methodology/approach – An appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective wasused to discover a positive core of experiences that could add to cultural proficiency as it relates toeducational administration.

Findings – In each cultural context, the central nature of the highpoint stories focused onappreciative ways to work with other people. The stories suggest that relationships and collaborationare at the heart of an educational administrator’s practice. It was discovered that twenty-first centuryeducational administrators operating in a global context believed that they could become differencemakers in education.

Originality/value – The findings from this study provide encouragement for extended globalcollaboration for practicing educational administrators as well as those who are responsible for theirpreparation. The findings also suggest that using collaborative technologies in the framework of across-cultural educator partnership can enhance the preparation and practice in educationaladministration programs.

Keywords Globalization, Cross-cultural studies, Educational administration, Narratives,Communication technologies

Paper type Research paper

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-354X.htm

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International Journal of EducationalManagementVol. 22 No. 7, 2008pp. 696-709q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0951-354XDOI 10.1108/09513540810908593

Practitioners from Canada, the UK, Singapore, and the USA, university educationaladministration faculty from the USA, and the editor of a premier international journalof educational management engaged in a collaborative process to discover how toenhance the preparation and practice of educational administration on a global basis.What can we learn about educational administration practice from researchers andpractitioners in the field of educational administration who represent these threecontinents and four countries?

Through our computer-mediated collaboration and formal conferenceconversations, we used an appreciative inquiry (AI) theoretical research perspectiveto discover a positive core of experiences that could add to our cultural proficiency as itrelates to educational administration. Our collaboration promoted a deeper sense ofsocial and cultural proficiency that was characterized by our ability to work well asa diverse group representing cross-cultural backgrounds, to respond with respect, andto value, and learn from each other (Hawley, 2006). Our collaboration segued intoa community of practice (CoP) that explored the positive core of experiences from across-cultural perspective of preparation and practice of educational administrators.The notion of CoP fits with the concept of cultural proficiency and with our AItheoretical research perspective (Bruce and Easley, 2000; Wenger, 1991).

AI is the search for the best in people, their organizations and the context in whichthey live and work (Cooperrider et al., 2003). AI is grounded in social constructionism,image theory, and grounded research (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2003). AI is a formof action research, developed as a response to the perceived problem solvingorientation trend of contemporary action research (Egan and Lancaster, 2005).

Since AI’s inception in the late 1980s decade, it has evolved as a methodology and asa theoretical research perspective. As a methodology, AI employs a collaborative 4Dcycle: discovery, dream, design, and destiny. The AI process provides for several formsof engagement depending on the number of participants ranging from small learningteams comprised of fewer than 30 people to whole groups comprised of thousands ofparticipants. Whatever form of involvement, the participants interactively participatein four distinct stages (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2003). The purpose of an AImethodology is to facilitate participant focus on positive successes in the past and toenvision positive future outcomes.

AI also serves as a theoretical research perspective. As a theoretical researchperspective, the purpose of inquiry is considered fateful since the line of inquirydetermines the outcome of the inquiry (Bruck and Weber, 2000; Frantz, 1998). In thatsense, an appreciative line of inquiry asks questions to discover, value, and cultivategenerative growth in humans and their organizations (Cooperrider and Srivastva,1987). AI focuses inquiry into the positive core of an organization, linking thepositive core of the past to positive images of the future (Thatchenkery, 1999).In effect, AI promotes a collaborative, whole group effort to identify and describewhat works through sharing of past successes, highpoint experiences, and byappreciating what it is about the organization and its participants that are worthyof replication in much the same way that Maslow asked, “What makes a humanbeing good?”

We sought to apply an AI into educational administrator practice from a globalperspective by sharing our highpoint stories. As educational administrator practitioners

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and university faculty, we sought to discover, from a cross-cultural perspective,highpoint experiences related to practice. We then sought to extrapolate thecross-cultural lessons for global application to improve practice among educationaladministrators.

In the following sections, we present seven cross-cultural highpoint experiencestories. We first present the stories of current school administrators and follow with thestories of university faculty. We conclude with a discussion of the cross-culturallessons for improving preparation and practice among educational administrators on aglobal basis.

Bringing a community together – reflection of a school principal,Canada[1]As an in-school administrator, many of my professional events are linked to whathappens within our school. Sometimes, they embrace my school’s community. Twoyears ago, a young man committed suicide at the end of Easter break. His suicide wasdevastating and ripped the community apart. During that time, many people blamedthe school for his suicide, and as the in-school administrator, they suggested I played apart in this horrific event.

After dealing with the immediate issues surrounding the student’s suicide,I reflected on how to prevent such a thing from happening again as well as how to healthe pain between the school and the community. I believed that anything the schooldid that focused solely on the school might be misinterpreted. Instead, I wanted toinvolve the community. As a first step, I contacted the mayor to begin a dialogue toaddress this issue as well as other school and community issues. Together, we decidedthat a meeting involving all organizations in the town would be an important first step.We secured a venue, contacted organizations, and asked resource groups from outsidethe community to participate.

Over the next few months, a planning group met to discuss how to address theissues and problems within the community. During this time, the mayor resignedleaving the leadership of the planning group to me. The planning group met monthlyand began to make progress. Our greatest success was organizing a “Get a life day” forour high school Grades 11 and 12. Students from our school and surrounding schoolsattended a serious of workshops that covered the following topics:

. moving from home to living by yourself;

. resumes and interviews;

. organizing finances and balancing a budget;

. renting and rent information;

. a global perspective of the economy; and

. self-esteem on your own.

The day concluded with professionals who represented various professions discussingtheir occupation with students. The health district, school, and local organizationssponsored this event. Feedback was positive; it included a number of suggestions thatthe “Get a life day” take place each year. This school division adopted the event andmade it a division-wide event for all students in the school-division.

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The devastating event of the student’s suicide led to people believing that we coulddo something if we worked together. During our first meeting this year, we decided tohold a public informational meeting, inviting all members of the community. We planto discuss our successes from the previous years and establish plans for events that thecommunity believes are important. Moreover, we are continuing discussions toorganize a youth center that will be available for youth during the weekend. From thetragic event two years ago, we are witnessing the beginning of a school and communitypartnership. It has become something where the community and school are working aspartners. Our goal is to work with other organizations to better the life of people in thecommunity.

School reorganisation – bringing divergent groups together, UK[2]One aspect of my administrative role in the UK as a director for a local council area wasto oversee school reorganisations and to deliver the change that ensued. This was not acomfortable process for those not ready for change; yet, on many occasions, I had toassess future needs, discuss options for change, and plan accordingly with them.

In one particular area, there were two schools separated by a playing field. Theseschools served two different primary age ranges. Each school was a legally establishedseparate entity that required a specific legal course of action if changes to their statusoccurred. Neither of the original two school buildings was capable of coping with thewhole number of pupils. The larger of the two school buildings may have been ableto handle enrolment in future years; however, in the short-term, it would be necessaryto establish one school in two different buildings. The result was less parentalresistance to the change because the younger children would continue to attend thebuilding they were used to attending.

I consulted with the schools to help determine if a merger should occur. I held threeseparate meetings on two evenings in each school with parents, staff, unionrepresentatives for both teachers and other staff, and governors of each school.An independent clerk carefully maintained minutes of each meeting to ensure accuraterecords. Inevitably, there was some hostility. One school staff appeared open minded,but nervous. The other was hostile – fueled by a small number of staff. The processwas complicated because a recent inspection at the larger school resulted in someissues that needed to be resolved in the near future. The headteacher at this school wasunable to be present during this inspection due to illness (he subsequently retired)exacerbating the situation.

Having completed my consultation, I reported to the local area councils. Theydecided that the schools should merge. They appointed a board of governors forthe new school. This led to the appointment of the new headteacher – who was theheadteacher of the smaller school – and now the only substantive headteacher for bothschools. The headteacher agreed to new staffing structures and policies with theshadow governing body. Most staff continued in similar roles to those they hadfulfilled before the change occurred. Subsequently, after an extremely hard workperiod of holding staff and premises together, staff entered a more positive phase anddemonstrated a greater sense of purpose resulting with an inspection that turned out tobe more positive than before. The success of this school with a new name included a

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workable new structure and staff who had a new sense of purpose that theytransmitted to the pupils and parents.

Wikis for homework – reflection of a school principal in the UK[3]My use of web-based technology with students helped me to link a personal vision,educational philosophy, and practical classroom experience to my work as a schooladministrator. My story comes from my work as a teaching deputy head (viceprincipal) of an independent elementary school. Philosophically, our model aspired tonotions of social constructivism, collaborative learning, classroom as learningcommunity, and independent learning. My class of 10-11 year-old girls, had previousexperience of using the Moodle virtual learning environment on a daily basis. Eachday’s math homework was set online as an interactive Moodle quiz accompanied bylinks to online resources, an interactive copy of our textbook, and a discussion forum.My pupils would sit high-stake entrance exams in January of their final year at theschool, which meant that their final six months at the school provided an opportunityto broaden their curriculum beyond the confines of a traditional elementary schoolsyllabus. For their math lessons, our focus became the applications of mathematics inmany areas, from agriculture to cryptography, and included a unit on finance, bothpersonal and corporate.

My challenge was to find ways of extending the social learning that characterizedmy classroom further into my pupils’ home environments. I wanted to movebeyond approaches normally afforded by discussion forums and chat. The pupils’weekend homework was to take a passage I wrote that summarized our work onfinance where they had to explain the meaning of the technical terms used in thesummary. Instead of each pupil working independently, the passage became thestarting page of a class wiki inside Moodle, with each of the terms linking to his or herempty page. My expectation was that all the pupils would contribute something to thewiki over the weekend and gradually build a shared artifact embodying their collectiveunderstanding.

The students had some initial anxiety regarding the security of their homework(being potentially changed by their classmates). Their anxiety was alleviated and thehomework task was successful. The keen students, logged on straightaway onthe Friday evening, went for the low-hanging fruit of the easy definitions, but as theweekend progressed, it was interesting to see the more difficult vocabulary tackled bystudents who were doing additional research for themselves, either online or from theirparents. Still others were taking time to read their peers contributions, often addingadditional information or correcting spelling or grammatical errors. More interesting,was the number of students who logged back in later on in the weekend to see not onlywhat their peers had written, but also to see how their definitions had been adapted bytheir classmates. When the pupils and I debriefed at school on Monday, the mostinteresting observations were about the way they appreciated their friends readingwhat they had written and improving the document through their contributions.

The greater awareness of writing for an audience, and more importantly the senseof being able to trust others with one’s work, was the transformative effect on this classas a result of the weekend’s homework. Being able to bring something of the experience

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of collaborative writing and peer review into elementary education was of lastingbenefit.

After the success of using wikis as a class, further vocabulary and researchhomework were set using this technology. We extended our use of wikis beyond themath curriculum. We were particularly successful using a wiki to act as a sharedrepository of content for the school magazine. In this venue, pupils took on a number ofroles including commissioning work, writing content, and sub-editing written by theirclassmates. Furthermore, this experience of writing for a wiki encouraged the childrento adopt a discerning attitude when using Wikipedia as a source for their researchwork. We also used Moodle’s wiki in our “virtual staffroom” for school policydocuments, allowing for collaborative writing and editing before formal adoption.

The collaborative writing and editing for an audience of one’s peers should have aplace in the professional development of school leaders, and indeed in their day-to-daywork. Personal wikis make a good way of keeping a collection of linked notes aboutany aspect of school administration, and sharing these notes with other members of theschool leadership team, as well as trusted members of a wider professional network,privacy issues apart, could be an invaluable tool for collegial management.

Podcasting – building student confidence – an experience in Indonesia[4]I had a student in my secondary social studies class who, every time I called on him toanswer a question, would mumble to himself, look down, and wait until I asked himto sit down and passed the question on to someone else. This scene was a frequentreoccurrence – until we began podcasting in social studies class.

As part of our regular lessons, I began to use podcast instead of teaching the contentin a traditional manner. Students worked on podcast activities in teams of two. Theyhad to research, construct a storyboard, and record their podcast. Then they addedpictures, hyperlinks, jingles, and stingers before publishing their final product for theirclassmates to review.

During the first of these activities, I saw one student light up. He was not a poorstudent; however, he was really shy, lacked confidence, and was not fluent in English.During the podcasting activities, his talents emerged.

He was excellent at research and had amazing ideas on weaving the material into awonderful, creative storyboard. His finished product was a podcast of a journalist ina war zone with his partner. He surprised everyone. His work contrasted with the restof the class. The other students created ordinary podcasts – most were dialoguesbetween two people. The two boys created the background sounds of a battle and didthe podcast in character. It was so good, that everyone in the class was silent for theentire five and six minutes of the podcast. This was a podcast by someone whose voiceI had barely heard when I used my traditional teaching pedagogy!

The class conducted a vote for the best podcast. Their choice was unanimous. Theyawarded the two boys the top podcast award (a round of applause). This student’sexperience with podcasting gave him increased confidence. From that point forward,his classmates considered him the podcast master. During our podcast activities, hewould lead by asking questions, making suggestions, and helping others who haddifficulty using the software.

In November 2006, the news of what the students were doing with podcasts reachedthe state level; the ministry officials wanted to see for themselves what was happening.

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They asked me to get two students to make a presentation to about 200 officials andsenior teachers. I selected this student and one other. The students were petrified whenI told them they had to make this presentation; however, we worked together, plannedit out for a few days (we were given a week’s notice), and then practiced thepresentation.

The highlight of our presentation occurred during the question and answer period.I was supposed to answer all the questions. I was surprised when this student took themicrophone from me and asked if he could take the questions. I stared at him. I wasshocked. This was the same student, several months ago, who could not stand in frontof a class of 40 to answer a simple social studies question. Here he was, on stage, infront of 200 teachers, smiling and answering questions as if he had been doing it allhis life.

The preparation of educational administrators who are to be instructional leadersneeds to include an understanding of the integrating of technology into the classroomand its potential for improving instruction. The educational administrators of thefuture will be co-learners with the students in understanding the applications oftechnology to an instructional setting.

Changing lives: the magic of technology – reflection of a director oftechnology, USA[5]In my role as Director of Curriculum and Technology, I have had numerousopportunities to witness how technology influences teaching and learning.Occasionally, I witness how technology can positively affect the lives of students aswell. The following is an example of how technology positively affected the lives forstudents and teachers at my school.

During the 2006 -2007 school year, my high school hosted two female foreignexchange students: Sumi from Japan and Julianna from Hungary. This was their firstvisit to the USA and their first extended time away from their homes and families.During the first few days of school, Sumi and Julianna were having a difficult timeadapting to life in the USA They struggled to speak English and to understand theirpeers and teachers. The use of traditional translation dictionaries failed and excessivepantomiming and speaking louder and slower were unsuccessful with theirhigh-school teachers and peers.

Julianna became more and more withdrawn and no amount of pantomiming couldhelp students, teachers, or her host family understand her withdrawal. It was at thispoint that several caring students approached me and asked if I had any idea of how tohelp Julianna. I suggested we contact her family in Hungary for more information.

How to contact her family was a challenge. Using the school’s telephone for aninternational call was expensive. So, I suggested we use Skype, an internet-basedapplication that allows for phone calls from a computer to a computer or from acomputer to a telephone, with minimal cost.

Julianna and two of her friends came to my office. We “called” her home from mycomputer using Skype. In an instant, the audible voice came through my computer andJulianna burst into tears. Her mother spoke in her native language and as theirdialogue continued, Julianna began purging herself of intense sadness and frustration.While none of us understood the conversation, we understood Julianna’s emotion.Julianna was homesick for her family in Hungary. We later learned Julianna was not

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only homesick, but also clinically depressed. Using technology, we were able to connectJulianna with her mother in hungry and understand the reason for Julianna’swithdrawal. She returned to Hungary prior to the end of the semester.

Although Sumi’s situation was different from Juliann’s situation, we usedtechnology to provide a successful outcome to Sumi’s experience. Sumi was happy tobe attending school in the USA. She enjoyed academics and sports. She had manyfriends and worked hard to please her teachers and volleyball coaches. Sumi’schallenge was language – what was being said, then having others understand her.Sumi’s USA friends asked me if I could help them with the language barrier. We trieddifferent ideas, including using a translation dictionary and pantomiming, as well asspeaking slower and louder. Nothing worked. At that point, I suggested we usetechnology for language translation.

Each of the high-school students at my school has a wireless laptop computer.The computers are equipped with several applications. One little-used application onthe students’ computers was software that translated languages.

At the time, I did not know how to use the translation widget. I started by typingsomething similar to “Hello, Sumi. We are glad you are at our school. This computerprogram will help us talk to you and you talk to us,” then I hit the “translate” button.

Immediately, Sumi’s expression turned from uncertainty to understanding. Shequickly grabbed my computer and typed back using Japanese characters, “This isamazing! I can understand everything you say now!”

There were few dry eyes in my office that morning. Since, Sumi had a studentcomputer, we could talk to Sumi and she could talk to us. We could communicate withno language barriers. The excitement was contagious. I witnessed how technologychanged the relationships Sumi had with her friends and teachers.

These two experiences affirmed the importance of “thinking outside of the box.”For Julianna and Sumi, the technology closed the gap between feeling isolated tofeeling included, accepted, and understood. I witnessed how administrators can usetechnology to benefit students.

Using technology to make data driven decisions – reflection of a universityfaculty member, USA[6]One of the most significant professional experiences I have had in my eight-year careeras an educational leadership professor was my ongoing work with my children’selementary school in Minnesota. It started innocuously with a simple letter to theprincipal. I explained that my oldest daughter was starting kindergarten and thatI would like to be involved as a volunteer. I wanted to do something beyond helpingwith field trips and the school carnival. Little did I understand how that relationshipwould grow over the next four years.

The elementary school was a rapidly growing school in a neighborhood of newhomes and new families. In a little over four years, the school grew from 400 to morethan 900 students. The school was one of the district’s most ethnically diverseelementary schools. It included racial minorities, students from poverty backgrounds,English language learner, and special education populations. The principal andI decided to focus on data-driven educational practices with the teaching staff.

Unlike most traditional professional development approaches that involve a highprofile, daylong workshop or kickoff event, the principal and I decided to circle in from

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the side. We held a short meeting with the staff. We asked each grade-level team to usetheir year-end assessment scores to identify one key area of weakness for theirstudents. We then asked how they might do a quick check-in during the year to see ifstudents were making satisfactory progress on that skill to be where they needed to beby the end of the year. At that moment, powerful learning began.

Teachers immediately realized they could not agree on what a high-quality commonassessment would be for their students, even on one single key skill (which each grouphad identified readily). They were not only frustrated, but also somewhat embarrassed,and the conversations that occurred over the next few months were phenomenal. Theybegan to reexamine core assumptions that had gone unchallenged for years. Once eachteam reached agreement on how they would assess their students, I made datacollection and analysis templates for them in Microsoft Excel. The templates were setup so they could easily drop in formative assessment numbers and then immediatelyget to dynamic pivot charts that allowed them to “slice and dice” their data any waythey wanted.

Once teams entered a couple rounds of data, the building technology integrationistand I showed them how to use the charts. It only took about ten minutes, mostteams were eager to dive into their data and talk about what they were seeing. A fewteams were hesitant at first, but with some assistance and prodding from the principal,they were running smoothly within a couple of months. Then it got interesting.

Some teams immediately saw the power of the technology. They began asking formore templates, or tweaks to existing templates, as they identified additional itemsthey wanted to track. Other teachers, who were initially hesitant, took a little longer;but they too began seeing that the regular collection of data that they identified asimportant, along with an easy way to store and analyze those data, had great power forthem. They were off to the races.

My relationship with the teachers became more synergistic as time passed.The teachers’ data-driven orientation and practice exploded. The teachers continued toask me for more and more sophisticated spreadsheet templates. Their conversationsbecame richer, and their instructional interventions became more data-centered. Theybegan making significant changes in student grouping practices, early identificationprocedures, and assessment practices. They completely rethought parts of theircurricula and began identifying “target” students by name that required ongoingattention, discussion, and care at the beginning of each school year. They began askingfor specialized training in formative assessment, setting measurable goals, orinstructional techniques. I began showing them some useful Excel skills to decreasetheir dependency on me for progress monitoring tools.

Results on standardized tests showed their progress quite clearly. The school wentfrom middle-of-the-district in terms of student performance to one of the district’s topfive elementary schools. The school became the model for the district regardingeffective data-driven practices. The staff and principal received a great deal ofwell-deserved acclaim. One of the best moments of our work occurred when theprincipal said:

We’ve been redoing our schools’ mission statement and values. The staff insisted, withoutany prompting on my part that we include a statement that we are a building that regularlycollects data and uses it to improve student learning because they want to ensure that newstaff know what we’re all about.

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Recalling my highlight experience reminded me that principals are called to beproductive data-driven workers. They are visionary leaders who know how to gently,but firmly, encourage teachers. I also learned about the importance of the technology asone of the driving forces for data-related reform efforts. What is holding many teachersback is not reluctance to change their ways or fear of what the data will show, butthe fact that they do not have a simple way to collect and manage their data.The spreadsheet templates made all the difference when it came to helping the staffrealize that data-driven decision-making was possible.

A barrio school – reflection of a university faculty member, USA[7]When I was a faculty member at a university in Texas, USA, a former student of mine,Maria Martinez, was appointed to her first principal’s position. Maria’s elementaryschool was located in the center of the city’s barrios. This urban school was the lowestacademically performing elementary school in the district. Moreover, the areasurrounding the school was a breeding ground for drugs, violence, and other forms ofcrime. In effect, the situation for students, faculty, and parents, seemed hopeless.

The school’s faculty was rife with dissention. They saw parents from a deficit-basedperspective: according to faculty, the parents were poor, uneducated, unable to speakEnglish, and did not care about their children. Faculty did not attempt to foster apartnership with parents in this Spanish-speaking community in order to create anoutstanding education for the children in a safe and nurturing environment.

Maria was full of confidence when she assumed the principalship. After two days asprincipal, the honeymoon was over, a faculty grievance shattered her confidence;darkness enveloped the school. Maria called me on the evening of the third day andsaid, “You have to work with my teachers. I do not know where to begin, or, what todo.” She wanted help in changing a school culture where teachers were pitted againstthe administration, parents, and each other. She wanted students to come to schoolbecause they enjoyed learning instead of complying with the state attendance laws.

The next day, I traveled from my middle class neighborhood to the west side of thecity. I exited the highway and turned onto the streets leading me to Maria’s school.I pulled into the parking lot. The school building was uninviting. The school yard wassurrounded with high fences. As I walked into the building, I wondered how anyonecould tolerate this situation. The school was old, out of date, and smelled of wax and oil.

After a lengthy conversation with Maria, I agreed to work with her on one condition;she and her teachers would meet with me each week during the fall semester for45 minutes each session. Maria responded, “Can you begin next week?”

The teachers and Maria sat in a circle. I began by asking them to recall a story of ateacher who made a difference in their lives. They looked at each other and weresomewhat reluctant. Then, one by one, their stories unfolded. Some teachers cried asthey told their stories. Their personal stories began to break down barriers thatseparated them. Instead of demonizing each other and the administration, they beganto see others much like themselves. That was the beginning.

Over the next 12 weeks, I introduced relaxation techniques and scriptedvisualizations to begin each session. During each session, teachers recalled successfulevents of the previous week. By week 10, Maria and her faculty were working welltogether. They collaborated without my assistance; they designed a strategic

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plan, formed working partnerships with parents, and visited families in the barrio.The teachers openly encouraged parents to come to school and meet with them.

Teachers were excited to use their new knowledge. They taught their students torelax and to visualize success before taking the state assessments. I do not make acausality claim; yet, when the assessment scores were published, the school was nolonger considered a low-performing school. It moved off the low-performing school list.The school became a model elementary school for the school district.

Effective educational administration preparation programs integrate the knowledgeof how people work well together into the preparation of educational administrators.Educational administrators are provided a technical knowledge base and taught toraise aspirations and provide hope, and to become the catalyst to ignite the fire to makethe dreams of students, faculty, and parents become a reality.

DiscussionEducational administration practitioners, university faculty in educationaladministration, and the editor of an International Journal of EducationalManagement representing three continents and four countries, participated in thisAI into educational administration preparation and practice. We shared highpointstories from our practice. We also discussed our stories at the 2007 annual conventionof the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) that focused oneducational administration preparation and practice. Our educational experiences wereseparated by distance and cultural context; yet, two common themes emerged from ourshared narratives.

Theme one: relationships and collaborationIn each cultural context, the central nature of our highpoint stories focused onappreciative ways to work with other people. Our stories suggest that relationshipsand collaboration are at the heart of an educational administrator’s practice.

The educational administrator enters into a common space with other people and isopen to a shared journey. In this shared journey, the educational administrator mayintervene to provide relief as in the case of the foreign exchange students. It may be inthe form of liberation where the educational administrator’s relational work facilitatesor encourages a student or teacher to achieve a new level of competence as in the caseof the shy student embracing podcasting or assisting teachers to make data drivendecisions. Our stories suggested that the work of the educational administrator doesnot direct or tell the student or teacher what to do, instead the educationaladministrator and student or teacher form a relationship and work together in abeneficial way.

In some cases, the educational administrator was the leader of the collaboration, inother cases the educational administrator was the facilitator of the collaboration, and inall cases, the collaboration produced a greater good that affected the Gestalt of theorganization. When educational administrators collaborate with those within andwithout their domain, they collectively solve problems, invent new ways of addressingchallenges, create paradigms, build models, and achieve desired outcomes.Collaboration is a normal activity for adults. It is an important aspect of adultlearning theory (Garmston, 1997).

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In our highpoint stories, an educational administrator collaborated with two,seemingly divided, school communities. This administrator collected informationrelated to the school communities and helped them reach a fair decision to form a singleschool unit. An educational administrator collaborated with a principal and a dividedand divisive faculty in an urban barrio school. This administrator listened to theprincipal and faculty and helped them to understand the importance of workingtogether and with parents in their poor neighborhood to improve the education of theirchildren. And, a principal collaborated with his school and community. Throughcollaboration, this principal assumed responsibility, valued others’ viewpoints, andused a tragedy that affected his school and community to bring a community togetherto better meet the needs of high-school students.

Theme two: applications of technologyTechnology is an important aspect for preparation of educational administrators aswell as providing ongoing professional development of current educationaladministrator practitioners. Our highpoint stories provided multiple examples of thevirtual collaboration nature of our work. Virtual collaboration allows us to engage inlearning through technology.

Virtual collaborations occur when people, working as a team, functioninterdependently. They share responsibility for what the team achieves. Althoughseparated by time, space, and location, they rely on computer-mediated collaboration towork toward achieving common goals (Haythornthwaite, 2005). We used computer-mediated collaboration to share our highpoint stories. Moreover, we usedcomputer-mediated collaboration as part of our presentation at the UCEAconvention. Participants from Singapore and Canada attended vis-a-vis theapplication of web-based cameras and joined those who traveled to the conventionsite. In our highpoint stories, an educational administrator used technology to uniteforeign exchange students with their parents. This administrator collaborated online toraise awareness of a student’s critical health issue and for facilitating communication.

ConclusionThe participants obtained several important lessons from our shared highpoint stories.We discovered that knowledge gained in educational administration programs had to beinformed by compassion and passion. We recognized when faculty and administratorscollaborate and share stories of success, barriers are broken. And, we understood that aprimary function of educational administration programs is to form difference makers.In essence, we saw twenty-first century educational administrators operating in globalcontext who believed that they could become difference makers in education.

We illustrate the importance of remembering the fundamental core of the work ofeducators:humandevelopmentandgrowth (MonroeandObidah,2004).Thehumannatureof educational administration indicates that we begin with the relational aspects ofeducationassuggestedbyNoddings (1992).Thepreparationofeducationaladministratorsbegins, centers, and concludes with the centrality of the educational administrator’srelationships. To form collaborative relationships based in respect and trust that evolveinto increased social capital is at the heart of the enterprise. Computer-mediatedcollaboration is an important way to enhance the application of knowledge, performanceskills, and construction of caring relationships for educational administrators.

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Notes

1. Contributed by Mr Kelly Christopherson, Principal, Eston Composite School, Eston,Saskatchewan, Canada.

2. Contributed by Dr B.E. Roberts, Editor/Professor, International Journal of EducationalManagement, UK. Dr Roberts’ story occurred when he was Deputy Chief Education Officer.

3. Contributed by Miles Berry, Head, Alton Convent Preparatory, UK.

4. Paviter Singh, Special Assistant, Schools Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore,Indonesia.

5. Contributed by Dr Rae Niles, National Professional Development Assistant Manager forApple, USA.

6. Contributed by Scott McLeod, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadershipand Policy Studies at Iowa State University, USA.

7. Contributed by Dr Raymond Calabrese, Professor, Department of Educational Leadership,Wichita State University, Wichita, KS, USA.

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Corresponding authorRaymond L. Calabrese can be contacted at: raymond.calabrese@wichita.edu

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