Supporting change in Polish higher education
Academic middle leaders’ perspectives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7152308 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiangyun Du (0000-0001-9527-6795, corresponding author), Aida Guerra (0000-0003-0800-4164), Juebei Chen (0000-0003-1056-2157), Euan Lindsay (0000-0003-3266-164X), Bente Nørgaard (0009-0002-7331-0854) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 929-954 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Educational Management Administration & Leadership (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1741-1432 • E-ISSN: 1741-1440 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17411432231206247 |
| OpenAlex | W4387664356 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 41 |
This article reports a mixed-methods study examining 29 academic middle leaders’ viewpoints on supporting educational change in higher educational institutions in Poland. Following a three-dimensional conceptual framework emphasizing support at the individual, collegial, and environmental levels, Q methodology was adopted to collect and analyze data qualitatively and quantitatively. Four significantly different viewpoints were identified, respectively prioritizing (1) creating an institutional culture, (2) connecting people to form a support system, (3) supporting educators’ change readiness, and (4) supporting trust building. The follow-up focus groups, in addition to verifying the Q outcomes, identified a shared conceptualization of middle leaders as complex dynamic adaptive systems, despite their general lack of professional training for their positions. The identified consensus emphasized their shared concerns about a lack of institutional support, which echoes the prevailing research findings on university educators. The results also reveal a particular need for attention to pedagogical advancement, which has been historically neglected due to socioeconomic constraints. This study suggests broadening the scope of change, including higher education institutions’ policymaking, practice, and research, to provide systemic and systematic support to actors
Conceptual framework · Conceptualization · Focus group · Higher education · Knowledge management · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Viewpoints · Computer Science · Q Methodology Applications
Q Methodology
Doing Q Methodological Research
Kade
Using Q methodology
Change Readiness
Readiness for Organizational Change
Is leadership a myth? A ‘new wave’ critical leadership-focused research agenda for recontouring the landscape of educational leadership
Reflections on professional learning
Higher education teachers’ professional learning
Academic middle leaders, middle leading and middle leadership of university learning and teaching
Using Faculty Professional Development to Foster Organizational Change
Professional agency in the stream of change
Promoting more integrative strategies for leadership theory-building
Learning to lead
Thank goodness it isn't just me - building a learning community for middle leaders
Sandwiched' or 'filtering
A critical exploration of collaborative and distributed leadership in higher education
Reframing the university as an emergent organisation
Economization of discourse on education and pedagogization of economic problems
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |