Around the world there is a preoccupation with improving the performance of schools and school systems. Comparisons made between countries through PISA and PERLs have led to a preoccupation, and in some cases, an obsession, with securing a high position in the international league tables. The minds of policy-makers and politicians alike are…

This article aims to address and explain the conceptual ambiguity surrounding distributed leadership. The author argues that there are three different frames for understanding distributed leadership that are being applied simultaneously, but which need to be considered separately. These frames are the theoretical, the empirical and the normative.…

Reports results of interviews with principals, teachers, board members, parents, and students at British schools recognized as effective. Probes administrative complexities; proposes a values-led contingency leadership model that considers the realities of successful principalship in changing times and eschews polarized concepts of transactional…