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…

Recent reforms in England's education system have been justified on the grounds that other countries have pursued similar approaches to education reform. Many such policies that by-pass or otherwise diminish meso-level institutions demonstrate a commitment to the idea of devolving authority to local actors. The current reforms in England and…

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…

The legal basis of free schools, provided for in the Academies Act 2010, allows the Secretary of State for Education "to enter into Academy arrangements with any person". A range of debate has ensued over who will govern free schools. This article develops an analysis of the individuals and organizations that have had free school…

Since the mid-1980s, a global resurgence of large-scale reform in the field of education has been witnessed. Implementing these reforms has created many dilemmas for change leaders. Following a three-year qualitative research project, the present study explores the dilemmas leaders faced during the implementation of the national curriculum reform…

Over the past two decades a growing body of international research suggests that instructional leadership from the principal is essential for the improvement of teaching and learning in schools. However, in many parts of the world, the practice of instructional leadership remains both poorly understood and outside the main job description of the…

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…

Since the implementation of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007, its built-in quality assurance mechanism has brought about subtle changes in the work relationship between kindergarten (KG) principals and teachers. The increasing demand for accountability and the call for improvement in the quality of pre-school education are…

A previous study examined role stress in relation to work outcomes; in this study, we added job structuring antecedents to a model of role stress and examined the moderating effects of locus of control. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the plausibility of our conceptual model, which specified hypothesized linkages among teachers'…

This article reports on a study that was conducted in 10 urban schools, situated in the city of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research explored the perceptions of school stakeholders with regard to the effects of power relations between teacher unions and school managers. It is assumed, within the context of this…

Teacher evaluation conducted by school principals is a common worldwide practice. However, there are many reservations about principals' ability to evaluate teachers reliably. Reservations appearing in the literature include inflated ratings, minimal discrimination of teacher quality, and evaluations influenced by factors irrelevant to teacher…

As education's main workforce, teachers have been the target of policies designed to shape and affirm new versions of professionalism. This paper examines this issue as it is exemplified by the Teachers of Teachers Network (TTN), a program developed by Chile's Ministry of Education. As a program designed to identify and reward high quality…

Significant changes have taken place in the governance of education systems around the world. Shifts in education policy have led to a focus towards reform through leadership development and away from school management analysis. This shift in policy from management to leadership has fostered a large number of academic studies presenting a…

This study examines teachers' and students' perceptions of the organizational culture of their universities and their views about and reactions to instructional innovations with regard to student-centred learning, collaborative learning and use of innovative educational technologies. Six Chinese universities were involved and in total 1051…

Researchers have found that transformational leadership is related to positive outcomes in educational institutions. Hence, it is important to explore constructs that may predict leadership style in order to identify potential transformational leaders in assessment and selection procedures. Several studies in non-educational settings have found…