This article reviews the comparative merits of distributed leadership and democratic leadership as understandings of, and preferred alternatives to, the leadership of and in organizations. It is particularly concerned that, while distributed leadership may provide a welcome and worthwhile respite from and alternative to the kind of heroic…

Since the 1980s many educational systems have undergone decentralisation. This trend has expanded the role of school principals and redesigned their relationship with teachers. To improve schools, educational reformists expect principals to empower teachers and increase their participation in school governance. Yet the implementation of such a…

The role and contribution of students to the governance of university departments is a relatively neglected area of inquiry. This study investigated the factors which student representatives perceived to help or hinder their effectiveness as student members of departmental committees. Twenty students from a range of disciplines were interviewed…

Currently, the decline in teacher numbers has become an important topic for discussion in the field of teachers' work in Australia. The purpose of this article is to discuss current initiatives being implemented by both the Australian federal government and the South Australian state government to retain and attract prospective teachers and some…

This dissertation presents a framework for investigating how school level phenomena may influence African-American teacher retention, attrition, and mobility in K-12 contexts. I argue that prevalent assumptions and inadequate data concerning the state of black educators have inhibited thorough investigation of minority employment trends in K-12…

Purpose: Based in the discipline of applied consultancy-research, this paper seeks to present a synthesis-review of the social dynamics underlying the stalled negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its aim is to enhance understanding of the processes involved, to offer a working agenda to the organizational…

The development and practice of a well-defined process in which decisions are fully contemplated is needed in education today. The complexity of societal issues requires new depths of understanding, appreciation, and communication. Framing refers to the way a situation is described or viewed; reframing is the process of expanding and enriching the…

I apply as theoretical framework the Habermassian principles of "communicative action" and "consensus" through deliberation and reasoning. In particular, I focus on "rational" and "argumentative" communication through which school governance stakeholders could advance arguments and counter-arguments. I…

Over the course of the last several decades, K-12 educational systems have begun to adopt digital technologies to support teaching and learning. These tools have enabled the rise of online schools as well as fundamentally changing practices of school leadership. However little attention has been given to how instructional leadership is changed…

The purpose of this paper was to test the relationship between principal leadership and teacher collaboration around instructional improvement to determine whether these measures were statistically related and whether, together, they were associated with academic achievement in elementary schools. Data were obtained from 1,600 teachers in 96…

A school that ensures that all students--regardless of race, creed, color, socioeconomic status, gender, or disabilities--have access to and receive the highest-quality education has achieved a key measure of social justice. Since the most significant factor in whether students learn well is quality teaching, and teaching is enhanced through…

This article investigates the importance of parent and community engagement in curriculum development, along with curriculum leadership, engaging stakeholders, and the importance of curriculum. Parent and community member engagement is examined in light of curriculum committee participation as reported by Missouri superintendents. Survey responses…

The data for this paper were generated during a three-year, Participatory Action Research project, with 41 15-19-year-old female co-researchers and activists, within and beyond the walls of a secondary school. The purpose of the larger study was to work with these students to understand and transform their self-identified barriers to physical…

Interest in the concept of distributed leadership has increased as evidenced in the recent literature. While there has been much discussion, there has been scant empirical evidence of distributed leadership in practice. This research study examines one middle school where educators practiced distributed leadership daily. Approached from an…

Within the field of children's mental health, there is increasing emphasis on the idea that young people who experience mental health difficulties should be encouraged to take an active role in shaping not only their own treatment but also mental health services and systems. The terms "empowerment" and, to a lesser extent, "self-efficacy" have…