This study examines professional standards policy documents for teachers and school leaders in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America to ascertain where and how the concepts of wellbeing and resilience are addressed and enacted within each nation's policy. Eight policy documents comprising four professional…

Despite daily interactions by principals with a variety of adults, there is scant research on the experiences which are so disrespectful that they become instances of workplace mistreatment. This study reveals, in a first of its kind, that workplace mistreatment does exist for principals and there are challenges to preventing it. Therefore, the…

Emotion is central to principals' daily operation of schools. As principals' work is intensifying, principals are increasingly encountering emotionally charged situations on a daily basis. This article uses data from a large provincial survey to explore what time demand factors contribute to these emotionally draining situations that principals…

Work intensification has heightened and accelerated the need for Canadian school principals to manage their emotions. This case explores the emotional aspects of a contemporary principal's work in a large urban school and highlights effective coping strategies and approaches used to regulate her emotions. The teaching notes describe several…

This article examines elements of democratic leadership emerging from a broader study of professional leadership culture in a school setting. The qualitative case study examined the perceptions of school-level professionals in one elementary school with a reputation for strong results in student learning, regarding the nature of the professional…

Job demands overburden school administrators' personal and professional capacity and affect their performance and well-being. However, studies on principals and vice-principals' work intensification fail to highlight how their work demands and challenges are manifested, and how work demands contribute to the changing nature of their work. This…

The very nature of contemporary principals' work depends on the effective management and regulation of emotions. This study uses data derived from 13 interviews to provide insight into how secondary school principals manage their emotions. Findings indicate that principals use several strategies to manage their emotions, including those associated…

This case explores themes of equity, leadership, wellbeing, and work intensification. The case follows Jennifer "Jen" Barns, the new principal at Westfield Public School, a JK-8 school in Ontario. Jen is overwhelmed by all the responsibilities of the job. She does not have a productive working relationship with her staff and is unable to…

Purpose: The purpose of this multiyear research study is to examine leadership in K-12 schools using a positive organizational perspective to understand how to foster, support and encourage flourishing in schools. In this article, the authors describe the lived experiences of a small group of principals and vice-principals in K-12 schools…

This case describes the experience of a principal named Jade working in a diverse school in South Central Ontario. A teacher in Jade's school had been confronted by parents and a school board trustee for reading a book to their class about a family with two moms. The teacher, no longer feeling safe or welcome, eventually decided to switch schools.…

This article reports on the experiences of teachers at a small rural school located in the North Coast region of New South Wales in Australia who participated in a school improvement project based on an approach developed over many years by David Townsend and Pam Adams in Alberta, Canada. The project involved monthly meetings between the teachers…

This case examines a rural teaching principal in a small K-12 school in a prairie province. The case examines the work intensification of Mrs. Hayes, whose school has been affected by reductions in student enrolment, staffing, and administrative time. Overwhelmed by myriad responsibilities, the principal feels inadequate as both a teacher and a…

A growing body of research evidence has suggested Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices represent a powerful intervention strategy that enhances learning for all students. Yet, grades 7-12 teachers in particular, generally continue to rely almost entirely on traditional summative assessment practices. However, some school principals in the…

This qualitative study explored the transition from teaching to administration through the voices of four novice vice-principals. An integrative approach was used to capture the interaction between new vice-principals, their external contexts, and the resulting leadership outcomes. The data revealed that in spite of these new administrators'…

This paper reports on an interpretive study that examined the role of the teaching principal, particularly as it relates to principals' moral and legal requirement to work as instructional leaders for student learning. A teaching principal is defined as a principal who has a "double load" or dual roles in teaching and administration…