The article argues for the participation and involvement of students in developing learning spaces within higher education. In early childhood education there is a strong emphasis upon rights, democracy and planning learning through listening to young children. Taking inspiration from this, the study explores the use of participatory approaches in…

Students on the Early Childhood Studies degree programme at the University of East London were asked to reflect on their childhood memories and how these have shaped their understandings of early childhood and practices with young children. Students' rich and varied accounts reflect the diversity of largely non-traditional students from…

"The commander of our ship knows that the eyes and ears of the shipmates will provide valuable information; that when combined with the experience and knowledge of leadership will navigate the ship to clear waters and bountiful lands" (Intertech, 2011). This analogy is reflective of the critical issue of meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly…

This article reviews some leadership and management literature dealing with emotional demands in professional contexts. An image of the "real self", requiring emotional privacy, is highly valued by individuals subjected to intense emotional demands. It is argued that the "real self" and emotional privacy ought to be defended…

In educational leadership there appears to be a disproportionately low number of female head teachers in comparison to the number in teaching. This article explores whether embedded links between leadership and masculinity still exist, and reports on the reasons given by a sample of three male leaders as to why they pursued careers in educational…

The trend towards gender equality in principalship appointments continues to interest researchers, especially when it appears in traditional societies that maintain patriarchal, anti-feminist attitudes and values. Arab society in Israel is undergoing transition from traditionalism to modernism. Arab women hold the majority of Arab school teaching…

In many jurisdictions school leaders are being placed under increased accountability and stress, which then affects their ability to address the real issue of education--improving students' learning. Flow Theory, developed by the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, has a high degree of relevance to the issue of the way modern…

The February 2011 Canterbury earthquake was a dramatic reminder of the need for schools to have emergency management plans in place. A number of other disaster and hazard events have historically caused New Zealand schools to close temporarily, and often within a short time frame. At such times principals must act decisively and communicate…

This article investigates why there appears to be an under-representation of males in comparison to their female colleagues in the Early Years (EY) sector, and the perception of male teachers progressing more quickly to leadership positions when they do enter this context. Using case studies of final year male students on an Initial Teacher…

When higher education institutions seek to align their research goals with nationally driven imperatives, various members of the institutional community need to work in concert to achieve them. The identification of effective strategies and the development of a contextually appropriate research culture are fundamental elements to progressing…

This article presents a review of current leadership practices of principals in further education colleges and suggests that principalship is more than a two-dimensional functional model comprising internal or externally focused activities. During the past 20 years further education leadership has become more demanding, with greater accountability…

This article reports on a seminar by the Critical Educational Policy and Leadership Research Interest Group in June 2012. The article reports on the papers and our engagement with the need to use theory to develop descriptions and understandings.

How do you change a teacher’s mentality from seeing children as "just vases to be filled", to seeing them as "fires to be lit"? It seemed to the author that more consideration was being given to the learning process than to the learning emotions, that the feelings of the learner were being largely ignored. This seemed to be a serious omission, so…

In October 2005, the Maltese Government embarked on a new phase of its national educational reform, which focuses on state compulsory primary and secondary schooling. A central part of this reform was the creation of state-maintained colleges. By February 2008 all state primary and secondary schools on the Maltese Islands were clustered into ten…

Superintendents from eight southeastern United States school districts self-described their leadership styles across the choices of autocratic, laissez-faire, democratic, situational, servant, or transformational. When faced with this array of choices, the superintendents chose with arguable equitableness, indicating that successful leaders can…