Conceptualising headteachers' leadership of technology in schools across the United Kingdom during early coronavirus disease 2019

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic brought seismic changes to schooling which few could have anticipated. Across the four countries of the UK, (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) urgent changes to the locus and focus of education were required. This paper conceptualises how headteachers led their schools in the use of digital technology as they adjusted to teaching and learning in the early stages of a UK wide school ‘lockdown'. The study uses data from extensive interviews with the headteachers of 12 schools across all phases of learning in schools in all four countries in the UK. The analysis uses elements of Cashman's et al.'s (2014) ‘leadership by convening' lenses to conduct a threefold analysis of the transcripts: the direction of communications (internal/external);the timeframes (synchronous/asynchronous);and headteachers' perceptions of how their digital technology helped them navigate challenges. These challenges are classified as: (a) technical – The solution required technology or technical expertise;(b) adaptive – The solution required a change in behaviour by at least one party in the communication process (internal or external);(c) organisational – solutions to these challenges contained both a technological and a behavioural component. A new model of leadership with technology is suggested. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Management in Education (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Collaboration in Times of Crisis: Leading UK Schools in the Early Stages of a Pandemic

This paper examines the political and relational dimensions of leading and managing schools in the early stages of pandemic-induced school closure in the four nations of the United Kingdom. It draws on in-depth interviews with 12 headteachers from primary, secondary and special schools. Headteachers used adaptive leadership strategies, including bridging, brokering and buffering, to recalibrate provision at pace. School closures demanded enhanced levels of coordination and communication around what mattered most. However, despite exercising creative agency, headteachers spoke of "clipped wings”, with some feeling "vulnerable” or "alone” in attempting to mitigate often unknown risks amid constantly shifting guidance.

Enhancing Nature Connection and Positive Affect in Children through Mindful Engagement with Natural Environments.

Nature connection, which describes a positive relationship between humans and the rest of nature, has been recognised as a worthwhile goal of all education. Given its association with wellbeing, as well as the fact that it can predict ecological behaviours in children, there have been several calls for it to become central to environmental education, and an important tool in tackling climate change. Previous research has reported the success of short-term interventions in increasing nature connection in children, but to date no empirical studies have looked at how mindful engagement with nature can promote both nature connection and positive affect. This study took place in a nature reserve in Wales and included n = 74 children, aged 9-10, who took part in three mindful activities. Pre- and post- measures included nature connection and positive/negative affect. Analysis showed a significant small to medium effect of the activity on nature connection. Moreover, positive affect significantly increased post-activity, while negative affect showed a small decrease.

‘People miss people’: A study of school leadership and management in the four nations of the United Kingdom in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted school leaders across the four devolved nations of the United Kingdom (UK) with a period of exceptional crisis. This responsive, small-scale, but UK-wide study focuses on headteacher perspectives on leadership and management in the initial stages of this pandemic, contributing to our understanding of this crucial period. The headteacher respondents met the multiple predicaments and situational ambiguities of the pandemic with a resilience which drew heavily upon the strengths of pre-existing structures and teams. They were required to provide effective emotional and moral leadership in uncharted and rapidly shifting territory. They spoke most eloquently of how they developed pragmatic, versatile and personally reassuring approaches to communication with parents, staff, pupils, and a range of external agencies, all of which were also facing extraordinary circumstances with varying degrees of resilience. The paper concludes by conceptualising the key elements of headteachers? leadership and management, both inside and outside of school, at in the early stages of societal crisis.

NIH Workshop Report: sensory nutrition and disease.

In November 2019, the NIH held the "Sensory Nutrition and Disease" workshop to challenge multidisciplinary researchers working at the interface of sensory science, food science, psychology, neuroscience, nutrition, and health sciences to explore how chemosensation influences dietary choice and health. This report summarizes deliberations of the workshop, as well as follow-up discussion in the wake of the current pandemic. Three topics were addressed: A) the need to optimize human chemosensory testing and assessment, B) the plasticity of chemosensory systems, and C) the interplay of chemosensory signals, cognitive signals, dietary intake, and metabolism. Several ways to advance sensory nutrition research emerged from the workshop: 1) refining methods to measure chemosensation in large cohort studies and validating measures that reflect perception of complex chemosensations relevant to dietary choice; 2) characterizing interindividual differences in chemosensory function and how they affect ingestive behaviors, health, and disease risk; 3) defining circuit-level organization and function that link and interact with gustatory, olfactory, homeostatic, visceral, and cognitive systems; and 4) discovering new ligands for chemosensory receptors (e.g., those produced by the microbiome) and cataloging cell types expressing these receptors. Several of these priorities were made more urgent by the current pandemic because infection with sudden acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the ensuing coronavirus disease of 2019 has direct short- and perhaps long-term effects on flavor perception. There is increasing evidence of functional interactions between the chemosensory and nutritional sciences. Better characterization of this interface is expected to yield insights to promote health, mitigate disease risk, and guide nutrition policy.