Globally, a range of new schooling accountabilities have created a complex and often contradictory context in which school leaders work. For principals of low socio-economic status (SES) and disadvantaged schools, they must balance the accountability, performance and reporting requirements against the other needs of their communities. These…

In this paper I explore how a woman secondary school headteacher and her colleagues talk about her gendered headship. To facilitate and contextualise the semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to categorise a range of attributes and qualities that have been seen as "masculine" or "feminine". They attempted to plot their perceptions of…

Educational leadership discourse has for sometime been the major intellectual pillar of what was once known as the field of educational administration. An examination of the postgraduate coursework programmes available to aspiring principal leaders at every Australian university supports such a contention. While this discourse does shed light on…

As a British colony, New Zealand had early to grapple with how best to implement a state system of schooling. Inspectors of primary schools and governing boards of secondary schools were responsible for appointing school principals. This paper examines the ways in which they dealt with new situations: in the case of the primary schools where there…

This article explores governors' perceptions of the role played by school principals in the democratic governance of secondary schools in South Africa. The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 has mandated that all public schools in South Africa must have democratically elected school governing bodies, comprised of the principal (in his or her…

This article describes a small-scale research project undertaken as part of the coursework in a Doctor of Education programme. The project investigated the organisational images or identities portrayed by ten secondary schools in Auckland, New Zealand on their school websites. The recent proliferation of school websites has provided schools with a…

This paper reviews the historical development of the secondary principalship in the US and examines how the current role of the principal is a result of historical forces. The authors consider a preferred future for the principalship and present recommendations for change. (Contains 120 notes.)

The increased demand for secondary schooling, which took place in New Zealand in the years after 1924, had important consequences for the Catholic educational mission. No longer was it sufficient to provide a comprehensive elementary system of education that transmitted a "simple faith to a simple people", and a secondary schooling for the…

This paper highlights the intersections of history, gender and educational administration through a case study of an influential woman educator, Anne Whitelaw. It draws upon manuscripts, school archives, school histories, official files and periodicals from "both sides" of the world. Although known in New Zealand as the first Headmistress of…

Cites evidence supporting the inference that the secondary school careers of those boys who started in British Public Elementary Schools in the 1890's were limited by selection according to social criteria. (WM)

The most striking feature of Tynemouth's approach to the question of reorganization was the extent of teacher participation. Focus of the plan was a scheme of nonselective secondary education. (Author/WM)

Prior to the First World War, the public's attitude toward sex education was apathetic. With venereal disease posing a threat to America's "military efficiency" during the war, however, military programs in sex education were instituted that then gave rise to similar programs in secondary schools in the 1920s. (JBM)

Describes conflict between the Leeds Education Committee and the Board of Education of England over the administration of secondary schools in Leeds. (JF)

Argues that grammar and secondary schools did not suffer greatly during the period immediately after the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. The author provides figures to show that, contrary to popular opinion, few dissenting teachers were dismissed during that period. (JF)

In a large and complicated school, good teaching can only be based on good organization. A disturbingly large number of able pupils and teachers in English comprehensive schools fail to realize their full potentials. This situation is primarily the result of poor organization, especially poor departmental organization. (Author)