Purpose: As a result of continuous reforms, increased emphasis has been placed on participative leadership as a means to improving school and teacher outcomes. However, along with the benefits of participative leadership comes the potential for strain and burnout, which stem from work intensification. Applying the implicit leadership theory and…

Stakeholder engagement is a critical component of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Under the law, states are required to engage specific stakeholders as they develop the consolidated state plan to submit to the U.S. Department of Education. But states should not only engage with their stakeholders because it's required under the law --…

This chapter recounts the first 3 years of the Student Voice Collaborative (SVC) in New York City, a district supported student leadership initiative that engages high school aged youth in school reform work at school and district levels. Based on his experiences developing and running the SVC, the author identifies nine design and implementation…

Purpose: Knowledge of teachers' participative decision making (PDM) and job satisfaction (JS) is important, as teachers comprise most of a school's staff. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of teacher gender, nationality and school type on teachers' PDM and JS in Abu Dhabi's schools and to determine whether there any significant…

This article examines parent engagement in a Los Angeles portfolio district reform. Based on data from a 3-year study, we use the lens of democratic theory to examine the design and implementation of mechanisms seeking parent input in the selection of plans to operate low-performing and new schools. We find that despite significant efforts to move…

The aim of this study is to find out the school administrators appointed in secondary education institutions about school council implementations and to develop suggestions for the school, council to function more properly. The study was carried out with 234 administrators appointed in secondary and high schools in Bahcelievler District of…

This commentary explores the conundrum of why learners are not routinely involved in decisions about their own learning. It suggests that engaging learners in their own learning and in the development of education systems is central to the improvement of education. Given the evidence from this Special Issue that all learners have the potential to…

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team's…

This article sets out to explore how young people understand and experience the notions of democracy and participation in their secondary schools. We draw on their own words to examine their perspective on "participation" in everyday life at school to understand what kind of democratic education they are participating in. The article…

This paper presents how some Australian schools are changing their approaches to leading the teaching and learning in their diverse and multi-characteristic contexts. Experiences of these schools shows that the development of a school wide approach to pedagogy and its implementation needs to be firmly embedded in the leadership of learning.…

In 2011 to 2012, 48 schools in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland participated in the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. Central to this project was the establishment of positive working relationships between school principals and Indigenous community leaders in order to improve…

Following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand, I worked with five primary school communities on research to capture their earthquake stories. The aim was that we would co-design projects to create a permanent record of each school's experience. The projects took place over several years and led to different outcomes from an…

Theorizing on the role of teacher attitudes in change effectiveness, this study examined the predictive value of context (trust), process (social interaction, participative management and knowledge sharing) and outcome (job satisfaction and workload perception) variables for cognitive, emotional and intentional readiness of teachers for change.…

Prior research has suggested that staff-centred organisational factors such as participation, morale and shortage can have a significant effect on organisational outcomes. However, relatively little attention has been paid to cross-country examination of these relationships specifically for educational organisations such as schools, colleges, and…

Community schools have gained attention as mechanisms to bring about equitable access to high-quality educational resources, extended learning time and opportunities, integrated student supports, and collaborative engaging relationships with parents and communities. In order to effectively create conditions that provide equitable access to such…