School leadership nowadays is confronted with ever-changing and fastgrowing expectations of what schools should be able to achieve. However, school leadership is an embedded activity, i.e. much depends on the underlying structure and culture of schooling. For instance, different traditions of defining schooling play a significant role in defining the role of school leaders. Therefore, it could be worthwhile to compare different traditions and current practices of defining school leadership with the traditions of conceptualizing the schooling within which they have evolved. Taking the well-known differences between the Didaktik and the Curriculum traditions as a starting point: Should one assume that these deeply rooted traditions have an impact on the leadership "pathways" which are determined by new expectations of the outcome of schooling? This becomes a fascinating empirical question the moment both traditions meet, e.g. by implementing in a Didaktik setting control patterns that historically have been developed within the curriculum tradition. For example, how do school leaders respond to the challenge of being measured by parameters that traditionally were none of their business? This chapter addresses conceptual issues of this question and empirical findings, based on a research project in Lower Austria.
Social innovation in Austrian HEIs is discussed under the headline of their "Third Mission." The HE sector is pressured to have more and more impact on society. Internationally speaking, many countries benefit from national policies and networks in the Third Sector, but policies in Austria were initiated only recently, in 2017, on a national level. Interestingly, the service learning approach as an innovative and socially responsible teaching methodology stands out in Austrian HE. This article classifies the developments of the Third Sector in Austria in the form of a policy brief. Austria has a growing community of practice in social innovation and service learning. The article gives insight into the strategic developments in Austria and is underpinned with recommendable action to be transferred to others.
Student volunteering in the higher education context has been studied vastly over the last years. Kahu provided three valuable perspectives on student engagement including the behavioural, the psychological, and the sociocultural perspective on why and how students engage. This study adds a recognition perspective to student engagement, which has so far remained an underresearched topic. In this study, we apply a recognition-sensitive social theory and symbolic interactionist perspective on the topic of student engagement. Empirically, we explore the perspectives of engaged students and lecturers at the largest Austrian university, using semi-structured interviews with N = 18 participants in two fields of practice: student unions and peer mentoring. In the findings, the study identified six categories of student engagement recognition: (1) general expectations relating to recognition, (2) recognition through formal validation in the curriculum, (3) recognition through valorisation using awards, certificates, and confirmations, (4) recognition through bonus points, (5) recognition through institutional support, and (6) the process of recognition. The findings give a differentiated insight into an important and unsolved policy issue in higher education using interview data to show how student volunteering can be recognised in higher education. We conclude the article with recommendations for higher education policy and future research.
Over the past ten to twenty years, there has been an increased focus in policy discourses on school quality and decentralisation (Wissinger, 2000). This has led to changes in the role and responsibilities of school leaders. At least three different narratives are emerging in the policy discourses in German-speaking countries. Various discursive strands that informed a research project on the role of school leaders in the context of a comprehensive school reform
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