School middle leadership is a complex and increasingly important school leadership position, with research showing the significance of middle leadership to school improvement and teacher development. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse empirical peer reviewed articles on middle leadership from 2006 to 2020, to understand how…

This qualitative case study was part of a larger, multi-year National Science Foundation funded project that centered upon a networked improvement community (NIC) of nine institutions seeking to improve racial climate in STEM graduate programs. We were particularly interested in the role of STEM graduate students at two NIC institutions in…

As in many other countries around the globe, the Dominican Republic (DR) has recently implemented important educational changes. The curriculum changed from a content-based to a competence-based approach, and grade configurations changed from four-year to three-year cycles, moving seventh and eighth grades out of elementary and into high school.…

Teacher Leadership is an effective way to support positive school change (Lai and Cheung 2015; Mangin and Stoelinga in Effective teacher leadership, Teachers College Press, New York, pp 1-9, 2008). To accelerate success, professional development programs aimed at building teacher leadership have proliferated across the globe. And yet, teacher…

This case study outlines an appreciative inquiry approach to program reform using an agricultural teacher education program at a land-grant university that had begun to suffer from a large decline in student enrollment. Documents were analyzed that provided recommendations toward a master plan for reform made by 23 key agents based on their…

Urban schools often experience rapid turnover among teachers and leaders. Yet, research and practice highlight the importance of sustained leadership over time as an integral component of school improvement. Successful leadership requires principals who operate in multiple dimensions at once, moving from individual capacity to group empowerment,…

This article examines the Erasmus Mundus Special Educational Needs (EM SEN) programme experience and the ways in which it influenced the authors' perception of reflection and research involving inclusive education. The authors argue that incorporating reflective practice and research into an international Master's programme holds promise for…

Just as in the United States, political changes in the United Kingdom and other nations affect education policy. Louise Stoll, professor at the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education, University of London, offers a different view on policy in these excerpts from a conversation with Tracy Crow, Learning Forward's associate…

Engestrom and others have suggested that major barriers towards school change are rooted in the hidden, implicit aspects of daily school life that are taken for granted. These constitute the school's taken-for-granted routines, which mold teachers' affordances and constraints within the school, without their awareness. The present paper provides…

Inclusive education (IE) is at an early stage of development in Bangladesh. In response to international policies and declarations over the past two decades (UNESCO, 1990; UNSCO, 1994, UNESCO, 2000) IE reform in Bangladesh has enacted a number of national policies and developed several professional development initiatives. This paper reports on…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the current school-based management (SBM) policy reform in Indonesia, with an emphasis on the impacts of shifting authority and responsibility to school level, as well as challenges confronted by the school council members, followed by remedial measures to minimize the problems.…

This article explores teachers' assessment knowledge and practice through a narrative inquiry of a college EFL teacher, Betty (pseudonym), in the People's Republic of China. Drawing on Crites' (1971) notions of "sacred stories" and "secret stories" in teachers' professional knowledge landscapes (Connelly & Clandinin, 1995),…

This article examines the practical adequacy of the recent defining of a normative framework for the South African National Curriculum Statement that focuses on the relationship between human rights, social justice and a healthy environment. This politically framed and socially critical normative framework has developed in response to…

Leadership expectations for school principals have dramatically changed since the 1983 report to Congress, "A Nation at Risk", inspired a renewed focus on the persistent educational underachievement of minority students in the United States. Today, school leaders must get out from behind the desk and actively empower an increasingly…

Decentralization occupies a prominent place on the policy agenda at international level and, within many countries, at national level. It regularly forms part of an overall package of reform of the public service, which has been summarized under the concept of "new public management" (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2000). This package also…