University of Newcastle PhD student takes out top honour in the US

Tuesday 23 May 2006

University of Newcastle PhD student Diosdado San Antonio’s quest to research better learning strategies in schools has won 1st prize for the best student paper at the international American Educational Research Association Conference in the United States.

 

The competition, sponsored by the International Journal of Leadership in Education, accepts entries from all over the world. Diosdado’s paper ‘Creating better schools through democratic school leadership’ took out first place in the Graduate Student Manuscript Competition.

 

He previously studied a Masters in Leadership and Management in Education at the University of Newcastle, and is now completing a PhD in Education.

 

“During my first course I learned that most countries are organising a more democratic way of school leadership, and it interested me to see if it would work in the Philippines,” Diosdado says.

 

His paper examines the impact of implementing democratic school leadership via Advisory School Councils in Philippine public secondary schools. This style of leadership is achieved by the formation of advisory school councils comprising representatives including teachers, students, alumni, parents and community leaders. The councils then assist the school principal to make decisions about how best to improve their school. Surveys and interviews revealed the experimental group had higher levels of commitment, empowerment and trust compared to the control group after one year of implementing democratic school leadership. 

 

“The study suggests that the Philippines should expedite the process of establishing school councils in the public schools as an approach for creating better schools. The Department of Education in the Philippines, where I am a middle-level manager, is already considering establishing a community-based democratic school management system,” he says.

 

Professor Phil Foreman, Head of the School of Education says Diosdado is a credit to the University. “It’s a significant international conference with papers submitted from all over the world. This is a great achievement for the University of Newcastle and it shows Diosdado’s working at an international standard.”

 

For media comment - Diosdado Sanantonio on 4921 7765

Professor Phil Foreman - 4921 6292