All Australian children and their families have an equal right to access quality early years education. To achieve this, rationalisation of the Australian early childhood (EC) sector in 2007 saw the introduction of mandated governing frameworks, including the National Quality Framework (NQF), designed to regulate and assure quality practices…

Recently there has been an increasing recognition of the need to investigate how different contexts influence the nature and character of school leadership and to demonstrate how leaders in schools located within different environments shape their leadership accordingly. This has led to a growing body of work that has emerged from investigations…

This article problematizes evidence-based policies in the USA, using Dewey's (1916) education theory and findings from a school development project in 71 culturally diverse Arizona schools. The study asked three questions: (1) How do formal and informal school leaders work in teams to mediate between evidence-based policy requirements at federal,…

Work intensification has increased the workload and complexity of work performed by principals and vice-principals. This case narrative provides an account of work intensification on the secondary vice-principal role. The vice-principal role consists of administrating to various school operations and instructional leadership duties as assigned by…

This rejoinder article first examines the foundational theories and models for metaphor use in a number of related fields, as well as in educational administration and leadership, presenting a model for analysis. Secondly, it reviews the articles in this special issue against the model proposed.

Despite progress made over the past decade, women in medicine are underrepresented in advanced academic leadership positions. This qualitative case study explored the perceptions of full-time women faculty at one large urban academic medical center regarding leadership trajectories within academic medicine, comparing those who are and those who…

This qualitative study examined the development of prospective leaders (PLs) from nonuniversity-based leadership preparation programs along two core dimensions identified as critical to leaders' capacity to affect change--inclusive-facilitative and instructional leadership (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Luppescu, & Easton, 2010). Within the core…

There have been constant debates on how to improve school leadership in South Africa. This has emanated from numerous research findings locally and internationally that demonstrate that schools will be as effective as the people who are at their helm. The national Zenex/Advanced Certificate in Education research findings have also claimed that…

The author looks through Albert Bandura's self-efficacy lens onto the effects it likely has on school principals' effectiveness. Self-efficacy should be viewed as a principal's belief in his or her capabilities to structure a particular course of action in order to produce desired outcomes. Principal self-efficacy has been linked with effective…

School improvement is admittedly the main business of school leadership. However, while there is agreement on the importance of school improvement, sustaining this improvement remains a challenge. The challenge seems to lie in the disconnection between the leader and the context in which the school operates. This chapter presents contextual…

The purpose of this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study was to explore the lived-experience of faculty participating in a living-learning program (LLP). This study aimed to examine a sample of eleven tenure and non-tenure-track faculty participants' experiences regarding involvement, responsibilities, and learning in the LLP. The…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore how institutional culture impacts women's political leadership efficacy development. By utilizing a constructivist design and a methodology rooted in feminine inquiry that included an interview and document (photo) analysis, a group of traditionally aged (18--24 year old) college women…

Institution and system leaders play a critical role--perhaps the most critical--in promoting student success in higher education. At most institutions, change begins at the top, with the president and other senior leaders, as they set and implement the strategic direction for their institutions. In recent years, the role that data play in…

Literature in the field of school leadership substantiates principals' influence on student achievement. Less clarity is available concerning principals' influence on school turnaround or the competencies needed for principals to effectively engage in and sustain the turnaround of low-performing schools. This study seeks to illuminate principal…

To what extent can heads use an inclusive values-led approach to school development in the face of pressures from Ofsted and their Local Authority to focus almost exclusively on attainment outcomes? We explore leadership of school improvement in a qualitative study of 10 head teachers in the English county of "Preshire," who worked with…