In this article, different inspection models are compared in terms of their impact on school improvement and the mechanisms each of these models generates to have such an impact. Our theoretical ...framework was drawn from the programme theories of six countries' school inspection systems (i.e. the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Ireland, the province of Styria in Austria and the Czech Republic). We describe how inspection models differ in the scheduling and frequency of visits (using a differentiated or cyclical approach), the evaluation of process and/or output standards, and the consequences of visits, and how these models lead to school improvement through the setting of expectations, the use of performance feedback and actions of the school's stakeholders. These assumptions were tested by means of a survey of principals in primary and secondary schools in these countries (n = 2239). The data analysis followed a three-step approach: (1) confirmatory factor analyses, (2) path modelling and (3) fitting of multiple-indicator multiple-cause models. The results indicate that Inspectorates of Education that use a differentiated model (in addition to regular visits), in which they evaluate both educational practices and outcomes of schools and publicly report inspection findings of individual schools, are the most effective. These changes seem to be mediated by improvements in the schools' self-evaluations and the schools' stakeholders' awareness of the findings in the public inspection reports. However, differentiated inspections also lead to unintended consequences as principals report on narrowing the curriculum and on discouraging teachers from experimenting with new teaching methods.
Background
School leaders are credited with an important role when it comes to school health promotion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, much health-related information was available and had to be ...interpreted and acted upon by school leaders. Therefore, it is crucial that they have sufficient health literacy as the ability to gain access to, understand and use health-related information. A study in Germany showed that limited health literacy among school principals was associated with low levels of health promotion activities. This paper explores the association between school leaders' health literacy and school health promotion in Switzerland, addressing the following questions: 1. What is the relationship between health literacy of school leaders and the implementation of school health promotion? 2. Does health literacy explain variance above and beyond other antecedents, such as principals individual mental health and attitudes?
Methods
The quantitative analysis is based on an online survey conducted among school leaders in the German- and French speaking parts of Switzerland in June 2021 as part of the project "COVID-19 health literacy school principals survey". The final sample comprised N = 339 school leaders. The data were analyzed using stepwise regression with health literacy, stress, wellbeing and attitudes toward school health promotion as antecedents and COVID-19 related school health promotion as the outcome.
Results
The results show that health literacy of school principals has played an important role in the implementation of school health promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explains additional variance beyond other antecedents.
Conclusions
One way to promote implementation of school health promotion is to strengthen the health literacy of school leaders.
Abstract
Background
The Ottawa Charter emphasized schools as a central location for health promotion. In particular, a holistic approach involving all members of a school and the school community is ...considered desirable for school health promotion (SHP). School principals are seen key players in SHP implementation, but little is known about how contextual factors such as the governance of health and education affect their roles. The project aims to study the governance mechanisms and contextual factors affecting SHP implementation in schools in two national contexts: in Malaysia and Switzerland.
Methods
18 principals were interviewed in expert interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with MAXQDA using qualitative content analysis with deductive and inductive categories.
Results
Results indicate that there are significant differences in how Malaysia and Switzerland govern SHP. In Malaysia, there are clear structures and responsibilities for SHP. The health and education sectors work closely together, with top-down decision-making on a national level. In contrast, Switzerland has no governmental policy regarding SHP for schools with SHP organized mainly by NGOs. It appears that in Switzerland, decisions regarding SHP are made more bottom-up and at the local level, typically by municipalities. Malaysia has a very distributed leadership model, with a school leader specifically responsible for student affairs and SHP at each school. Enablers of SHP include clear structures and well-defined responsibilities, while a lack of time and staff are among the primary barriers to successful implementation.
Conclusions
The governance and policies of SHP are very different in Malaysia and Switzerland. Clear structures and high centralization in Malaysia are contrasted by very high autonomy and a federal structure in Switzerland. Advantages and disadvantages of these differences in educational governance will be discussed within the presentation.
Abstract
Background
While student and teacher health enjoy a high level of interest in health research, research on the health of school leaders has hardly been studied so far, especially in the ...German-speaking countries. How school leaders cope with work-related stress and the extent to which work-related coping behaviors are associated with mental health has not been studied to date. This paper focuses on the relationship between work-related stress and exhaustion of school leaders in Germany and Switzerland during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the job demands-resources model.
Methods
Data from the COVID-HL school leadership study are used, which was conducted in 2021 with N = 2186 school leaders from Germany and N = 293 school leaders from Switzerland. Structural equation modeling in R (R Team, 2020) is used to model the relation of stress, coping strategies, and exhaustion. Coping behavior, measured as different strategies for dealing with stress, is examined as potential explanation for the relationship between stress and exhaustion.
Results
The study shows systematic country differences to the disadvantage of German school leaders for all factors: German school leaders report to be more stressed, and they engage more in self-endangering coping strategies such as intensification of work, extensification of worktime or quality reduction in their work. In addition, German school leaders are more exhausted than Swiss school leaders. Stress is associated with exhaustion and is partly mediated through the strategy of intensifying work (working in a pace that is burdensome). Stress also causes school leaders to work longer hours and reduce the quality of work, but this has no further influence on exhaustion.
Conclusions
School leaders should become a target of school health promotion. There is a need for a holistic stress prevention, which promotes not only healthy work conditions but also adaptive coping strategies.
It has been widely documented that accountability systems, including school inspections, bring with them unintended side effects. These unintended effects are often negative and have the potential to ...undo the intended positive effects. However the empirical evidence is limited. Through a European comparative study we have had the rare opportunity to collect empirical evidence and study the effects (both intended and unintended) of school inspections (a key system of accountability) in a systematic way, across seven countries. We present the findings of the unintended effects in this paper. Survey self-report responses from school principals in each country, with differing school inspection systems, are analysed to measure the prevalence of these unintended effects and to investigate the part played by pressure to do well in inspections. A key finding is that increasing pressure in school inspection systems is associated with the undesired effect of the narrowing and refocusing of the curriculum and instructional strategies. We also show that a proportion of school principals admit to misrepresenting the school in data sent to the inspectorate and show evidence for formalisation/proceduralisation (excessive focus on records) and ossification (fear of experimentation in teaching), although these factors are less related to changes in pressure.
•Alaskan Malamute dogs with NDRG1 mutation develop a demyelinating neuropathy.•Ultrastructural changes are characterized by inclusion material and myelin folds.•Distinct changes in peripheral nerve ...lipid composition are present.•NDRG1 is necessary to maintain myelin homeostasis.
Mutations in the N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) cause degenerative polyneuropathy in ways that are poorly understood. We have investigated Alaskan Malamute dogs with neuropathy caused by a missense mutation in NDRG1. In affected animals, nerve levels of NDRG1 protein were reduced by more than 70% (p< 0.03). Nerve fibers were thinly myelinated, loss of large myelinated fibers was pronounced and teased fiber preparations showed both demyelination and remyelination. Inclusions of filamentous material containing actin were present in adaxonal Schwann cell cytoplasm and Schmidt-Lanterman clefts. This condition strongly resembles the human Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4D. However, the focally folded myelin with adaxonal infoldings segregating the axon found in this study are ultrastructural changes not described in the human disease. Furthermore, lipidomic analysis revealed a profound loss of peripheral nerve lipids. Our data suggest that the low levels of mutant NDRG1 is insufficient to support Schwann cells in maintaining myelin homeostasis.
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