Many questions have been raised about student voice as a channel for change. School Improvement--especially regarding information and communications technology (ICT)--is often driven by adult agendas, and even in the classroom students are least likely to be involved in bringing about change. This paper reports on a case of student action research…

Policy implementation research in general and educational policy in particular is loosely connected to policy-making processes. There is a gap particularly in the field of vocational education. This often leads to conflicts and contradictions between policy-maker objectives and end-user implementation. To avoid such a disconnect, the relation…

Social partnership is an important problem in the administration of education. It involves not only the practice of jointly formulating decisions but also a level of balance in mutual responsibility. The authors, drawing on international experience in social partnership in education, demonstrate the necessity for it, the prerequisites, parameters,…

"Listening to children: environmental perspectives and the school curriculum" (L2C) was a UK research council project based in schools in a socially and economically deprived urban area in England. It focused on 10/12 year old children's experience of their local community and environment, and how they made sense of this in relation both…

It is time to situate distributed leadership as a critical conceptualisation of school leadership; its popularisation has generally preceded conceptual and empirical development. Over the last 10 years distributed leadership has often been presented as a new construct of school leadership, though critique against education policy reforms and…

Leadership is a central role of the school counselor. However, this role is often intimidating to school counselors and school counseling students when viewed as a solitary undertaking. In contrast to the view that leadership is an individual responsibility, the distributed leadership perspective offers a counterview in which school leadership is…

Despite an enabling democratic policy framework, the leadership of many South African schools remains firmly entrenched within the formal, hierarchical management structure. The potential for teacher leadership is, therefore, relatively untapped and, where it is enacted, it is often restricted. We report on a small qualitative study which explored…

By concentrating on the formal school organization, researchers can miss the informal relationships that are fundamental to leadership. Distributed Leadership Studies (DLS) provides a framework for examining school leadership and management that considers the interactions of leaders, followers, and aspects of the context. The framework involves…

There is excitement in the air at Clarke Central High School in anticipation of a $28 million renovation planned on its 27-acre, urban campus located just minutes from the University of Georgia in Athens. This extensive construction aims to fulfill a board of education mandate to provide equity among the Clarke County school facilities and will…

Based on two years of extensive data collection in four urban elementary schools, this paper examines the role of principals in the implementation of the Together Initiative (TI), a school reform model for schools labeled low-performing per state accountability standards. The reform model aims to increase school autonomy from district mandates and…

Administrators in five highly effective elementary schools were studied. These leaders, through acts of will and insight, had given up iconic and heroic leadership status, so that school leadership might be shared. Leadership has a significant effect on student learning. Principals' influence is often indirect, works through others, and happens…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to better understand how female mechanical engineering faculty members' career experiences in academia affect their satisfaction. Specifically, the research considered differences in satisfaction reported by female and male mechanical engineering faculty members in terms of: (a) departmental…

Business leaders, United States citizens, and American politicians continue to seek school reform as a means for providing the United States with a workforce consisting of employees who possess 21st century skills. The development of teacher transformational leadership and the use of distributed leadership practices are needed to create public…

This chapter examines the following central question: How do direct democratic ballot initiatives affect the public good? A second, related question is this: When voters collectively make policy decisions, what responsibilities do researchers have to contribute to informing public deliberation about the relevant issues? In an attempt to answer…

A special issue of the "British Journal of Sociology of Education" has been devoted to an examination of Disability and Inclusive Education. The authors of the papers in this issue have all made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge and understanding in these fields of study. Overall, they have provided a comprehensive, valuable…