2024 Winter Journal of Scholarship and Practice

In this issue, Ken Mitchell has assembled a selection of articles that examine a set of complex and common challenges related to equity, technology integration, effects of the pandemic, and the design of future-oriented instruction. As Mitchell says, “While these topics may seem disparate, all intersect around a common theme of leadership’s ability to adapt and innovate through collaboration.”

In the first article, written by Lisa Flanders-Dick, Joanne Hood, Dustin Hebert and Ric Shrubb, the evidence-based practice piece, states that “school systems consist of multiple levels, including the classroom, school, district, and state and the decisions at one level affect other levels and the stakeholders within a system.” They emphasize the importance of leadership in attending to the complexity of a school system’s multi-level structure to avoid the risk of ignoring influence within its complex layers.

The second article is a research-based piece written by Norma Martinez, Antonio Corrales and Michelle Peters. The research focuses on how effective technology integration comes from teachers and describes the importance not only of a principal’s acceptance of instructional technology but leadership support of related professional development. Readers will see how the engagement of leaders with their staff, especially in fostering learning organizations, brings success.

The third piece is a research article where Michigan State researchers Kyle Dunbar and Aman Yadav reflect on the intersection of equity, technology, and learning. The writers encourage leaders to move beyond a micro-focus on academic gaps to look at how well they are incorporating technology to achieve a “compelling instructional vision for equity,” and from there use these new tools to consider students’ lived experiences, cultures, and identities in instructional design.