In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law, replacing No Child Left Behind as the statutory education policy of the federal government of the United States (US). Building on prior shifts in accountability policy at the state level, ESSA focused attention and resources on building school leadership capacities. Five years on,…

Purpose: In the HBO comedy series, "Vice Principals," two white men vice principals respond to the hiring of a Black woman high school principal with physical, emotional, and workplace violence. The purpose of this study was to explore (1) white men educational leaders' perceptions of a Black woman educational leader, and (2) their…

Principal leadership is crucial to the success of rural schools (Canales et al., 2008; Horst & Martin, 2007; Texas Education Agency [TEA], 2017). Research has shown that principals have a great impact on student learning through multiple pathways (Sebastian & Allensworth, 2012). Principals today must be instructional leaders, share a…

Although an emerging field in the leadership literature, destructive leadership is an under-researched area in the context of education. Destructive leadership in schools is the focus of the article. To understand the phenomenon we first undertake a transdisciplinary review of the literature from across philosophy, psychology and sociology. We…

The study of context-based leadership practices has gained currency during the last decade. This study aims to complement the recent efforts of researchers in identifying the context-based leadership practices of successful school leaders, and deliberating how these practices are enacted within their own unique contexts. An in-depth case study was…

For a "Kappan" issue focusing on the job of the principal, this is an essay from a retired, longtime principal and superintendent. "I have notebooks full of advice that I've collected over the years: tips, mantras, cautions, and quotations appropriate for any occasion," the author says. "I learned to focus less on…

This study argues for a new theory in school management based on the notion of positive containment which benefited from the integration of the main two patterns of leadership, i.e., the democratic and the authoritarian. In this theory, the school principal has to deal with one external and five internal circles of positive containments. The…

New Leaders and the George W. Bush Institute's Alliance to Reform Education Leadership (AREL) released a report entitled "Great Principals at Scale: Creating District Conditions that Enable All Principals to Be Effective" in June 2014. This brief summarizes the framework presented in that report and recommends actions that states and the…

Based on qualitative analysis from 22 semistructured interviews, this article explores how Black women principals and assistant principals experience educational administration, with attention to issues of race at work in suburban school settings. Findings suggest that because they may be perceived as race tokens by White educators, Black women…

School leaders are critical in the lives of students and to the development of their teachers. Unfortunately, in too many instances, principals are effective in spite of--rather than because of--district conditions. To truly improve student achievement for all students across the country, well-prepared principals need the tools, support, and…

This article reports on the challenges facing public school leadership in southern Thailand, a region destabilized by renewal of a longstanding insurgency. Seeking to implement national educational reforms on shifting social, political and cultural terrain, educators in this region face extraordinary challenges as they reconsider and renegotiate…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that leadership preparation programmes in the new millennium should be required to train school leaders emotionally as well as cognitively. A number of scholars have stressed that leaders are increasingly working within roles that are politically sensitive, conflicted and complex,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationships between leadership styles of primary school principals and organizational health and bullying. Design/methodology/approach: Two hypotheses were formulated in relation to the research. Three instruments were used--a multi-level questionnaire for measuring leadership, an…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to conduct a critical analysis of the origins and implementation of problem-based learning in educational administration as a window into the limitations of this approach and more generally administrator preparation. Design/methodology/approach: The author reviewed the published work of the originator from…

School leaders are critical in the lives of students and to the development of their teachers. Unfortunately, in too many instances, principals are effective in spite of--rather than because of--district conditions. To truly improve student achievement for all students across the country, well-prepared principals need the tools, support, and…