Name: George Odhiambo[MM(C1]

Short Biography & Significant Contribution

George Odhiambo is Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management, Programme Director in Leadership and Management and Faculty Research Ethics Coordinator at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He was educated at the University of Stirling, Scotland (BEd, with Distinction), University of Oxford, England (MSc) and University of New England, Australia (Ph.D.). Odhiambo takes an active interest in the areas of leadership in organisations, organisational change and culture, school effectiveness and improvement, staff development, quality assurance for education, staff and teacher appraisal and Higher Education policy. Building on his extensive expertise in these areas, Odhiambo contributes regularly to African university policy debates on issues surrounding the assessment of research, teaching performance and leadership challenges. His passion, dedication and contribution to researching and teaching about these areas have been recognised by numerous awards and honours, including the Australian Leadership Awards Fellowship (ALAF) funding for the project on ‘Re-forming initial teacher education programmes in Ghana’ in 2012 and a nomination for the Faculty of Education & Social Work Teaching Excellence Award in 2010. Also in 2010, Odhiambo taught and held a visiting fellowship position at the School of Education at the University of Leeds, UK under the WUN scheme.

In the last five years, Odhiambo focused his work largely on improving the quality of education in Africa through his studies on areas such as the teacher appraisal systems and the implications of social perspectives, stereotypes and misperceptions on the quality and future of higher education in countries such as Kenya and Ghana. His work helps educators to rethink the situation in these countries by highlighting the challenges and providing recommendations for the way forward to achieve quality education in higher education institutions. With his expertise, Odhiambo has also worked with the Department of Education in New South Wales, Australia, to contribute to efforts to improve leadership preparation and development in the public primary schools.

Educational Background

BEd(with Distinction), The University of Stirling (1992)

MSc, Governance/Management of Education, University of Oxford (1994)

Ph.D., Educational Leadership & Management, University of New England, Australia (2003)

Affiliations (associations, organizations, institutions) [MM(C2]

Panel member of the NSW Teachers Scholarship Committee (Educational Leadership)

Member of the University of Sydney’s International Regional Expert Group (Africa)

Faculty Research Ethics Coordinator

Referee for the following Journals:
Journal of Educational Administration, Teaching and Teacher Education Journal, International Journal of Leadership in Education, School Leadership & Management and Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.

Selected Publications

Odhiambo, G. (2005). Teacher Appraisal: the experiences of Kenyan secondary school teachers. Journal of Educational Administration, 43(4), 402-416.

Odhiambo, G. (2007). Power or purpose? Some critical reflections on future school leadership. Leading and Managing, 13(2), 30-43.

Odhiambo, G. (2008). Elusive search for quality education: The case of quality assurance and teacher accountability. International Journal of Educational Management, The, 22(5), 417-431

Odhiambo, G. (2010). Appraising Teacher Performance. Themes and Issues. Saarbrucken, Germany: LAP - LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

Odhiambo, G. (2011). Higher education quality in Kenya: a critical reflection of key challenges. Quality in Higher Education, 17(3), 299-315.

Odhiambo, G. (2011). Women and higher education leadership in Kenya: a critical analysis. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(6), 667-678.

Odhiambo, G., Hii, A. (2012). Key Stakeholders' Perceptions of Effective School Leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(2), 232-247.

Odhiambo, G. (2013). Academic Brain Drain: impact and implications for public higher education quality in Kenya. Research in Comparative and International Education, 8(4), 510-523.

Odhiambo, G. (2014). Theorizing African Feminism. In Pearce Stroud (Eds.), Feminism: Perspectives, stereotypes/misperceptions and social implications, (pp. 105-119). New York, USA: Nova Science Publishers.

Odhiambo, G. (2014). Quality assurance for public higher education: context, strategies and challenges in Kenya. Higher Education Research & Development, 33(5), 978-991.

Odhiambo, G. (2014). The challenges and future of public higher education leadership in Kenya. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 36(2), 183-195.

Odhiambo, G. (2016). Higher education in Kenya: An assessment of current responses to the imperative of widening access. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 38(2), 196-211.

Contributed by: Jia Ying Neoh, University of Sydney

Date Contributed: August 16, 2016