Leadership is considered to be significant for creating a developing and learning school organisation. In Sweden, distributed leadership and teacher teams are an "institutionalised practice"; despite this, sustainable school improvement is difficult to achieve. This article presents findings from a case study of three schools that…

This multi-case study sought to construct meaning using a cultural capital lens in relation to educational leadership preparation programs building the capacities of social justice leaders in demographically changing schools. Data revealed principals' perceptions about preparation, expectations and general beliefs and assumptions related to…

Although there is growing research evidence to support the view that the leadership practice of the school principal is the second-most important influence on student learning behind classroom teaching, there is no clarity about what, exactly, the principal is meant to do to ensure this outcome. Hence, Leithwood et al. (2010) propose that one of…

Educational change can call up a range of feelings that can pose a number of problems for those experiencing and/or organizing it. This article analyses the processes of educational change from a psychodynamic standpoint. In particular it explores affective containment, which enables feelings to be fully experienced and to be used productively. an…

As accountability systems have increased demands for evidence of student learning, the use of data in education has become more prevalent in many countries. Although school and administrative leaders are recognizing the need to provide support to teachers on how to interpret and respond to data, there is little theoretically sound research on…

Although the number and size of academy chains in England is still increasing, the implications of these arrangements at a local level remain under-researched. This article reports findings from a comparative case study focusing on governance arrangements and sponsor involvement in two chains of academies. The findings suggest that the policy and…

Drawing on data from a series of semi-structured interviews this article reports on findings from a research project focusing on the responses of two local authorities and their secondary schools to the Academies Act 2010. The article considers the background and the development of the education system in both localities. It goes on to focus on…

Coalition government policies have put into question the role of local authorities in a "self-improving school system". In a number of local authorities new authority-wide partnership bodies are being set up involving all local schools, including academies, and controlled by headteachers. This article begins with an analysis of the new…

This article emerged as a case study from a fact-finding mission of a joint programme between the Centre for Commonwealth Education (CCE) in Cambridge University and the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) in University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to embed innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the basic schools of…

In this paper I report on leadership for sustainability in regional schools in Western Australia (WA) in the context of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI-WA). Case studies are developed to examine leading cultural change in eight WA regional schools with data presented in three representative narrative accounts. Consistency is…

This article discusses key findings from my doctoral research involving a qualitative case study inquiring into the lived experiences of spirituality in principal leadership and its influence on teachers and their teaching within three public primary school contexts in New Zealand. Spirituality is understood in this article as a complex and…

This article contributes to an emergent literature of empirical studies on how emotion impacts leadership. The purpose of the study was to examine how secondary school administrators derived meaning from critical incidents of significant emotional events retrospectively, and how the understanding impacted leadership. A conceptual framework of…

The concept and practice of strategic planning, while entrenched in educational institutions in the West, is just catching on in Kenya. While literature emphasizes the importance of collaborative strategic planning, it does not indicate the challenges presented by collaboratively engaging in strategic planning. This article reports on findings of…

Acting in the best interests of students is central to the moral and ethical work of schools. Yet tensions can arise between principals and school counsellors as they work from at times opposing professional paradigms. In this article we report on principals' and counsellors' responses to scenarios covering confidentiality and the law,…

Teacher evaluation policy is implemented in many countries to improve the teaching quality in schools. This paper explores the implementation of teacher evaluation policy in secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). The case study method is used to explore the implementation process in six schools, which are selected based upon teachers'…