Jingping Sun, Ph.D.
Dr. Jingping Sun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPTS) at the University of Alabama (UA), and the Coordinator for the Educational Leadership doctoral program. In collaboration with others, she has successfully developed the incipient construct of data-informed school leadership and the construct of academic culture (Sun, Johnson, & Przybylski, 2016; 2017; Leithwood & Sun, 2018). The latter was awarded, with Kenneth Leithwood, the Emerald Literati Award for Excellence in 2019. She also calculated and revealed the indirect impact of district leadership on student learning through 98 paths in collaboration with Dr. Leithwood, the largest study on indirect district effects involving the most mediating variables to date (Leithwood & Sun, 2019). Her school leaders’ ethical decision-making framework won her the first prize in the Emerging Scholar Manuscript Competition from the International Journal of Leadership in Education (IJLE). In collaboration with Leithwood, she has conducted several systematic reviews including a meta-analysis of transformational school leadership research, the most comprehensive research synthesis on transformational school leadership to date. Part of this research was published in Educational Administration Quarterly, the premier journal in educational leadership. Three of the meta-analyses (Sun & Leithwood, 2015b; Leithwood & Sun, 2012; Sun & Leithwood, 2012) have been among the most cited, most downloaded, or most read in their respective journals (all tier one journals) in the past few years. Her co-edited book (Leithwood, Sun, & Pollock, 2017) is the 23rd volume of a series on Studies in Educational Leadership, a library reference. Her work has been cited in 16 countries. She was honored with the UA President Research Award in 2017. Dr. Sun has successfully completed 6 UA or local grants as PI and one federal grant as a Co-PI.
A Recent Book: How school leadership influences student learning: The four paths.
|
the INAbout the book--
While considerable evidence indicates that school leaders are able to make important contributions to the success of their students, much less is known about how such contributions are made. This book provides a comprehensive account of research aimed at filling this gap in our knowledge, along with guidelines about how school leaders might use this knowledge for their own school improvement work. Leadership practices known to be effective for improving student success are outlined in the first section of the book while the remaining sections identify four “paths” along which the influence of those practices “flow” to exercise an influence on student success. Each of the Rational, Emotional, Organizational and Family paths are populated by conditions or variables known to have relatively direct effects on student success and also open to influence by effective leadership practices. While the Four Path framework narrows the attention of school leaders to a still-considerable number conditions known to contribute to student success, it leaves school leaders the autonomy to select, for improvement efforts, the sub-set of conditions that make the most sense in their own local circumstances. The approach to leadership described in this book provides evidence-based guidance on what to lead and flexibility on how to lead for purposes of improving student learning. Interested in knowing more? Below is the link to the book on the Springer website: How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success | SpringerLink |
