In the context of developed countries, a lot of research has been done to uncover and identify the problems school leaders face in their work but little is known about the school leadership of underdeveloped countries. In a quest to discover contextual problems in terms of role conflict and role ambiguity of school leaders, this qualitative study…

The aim of this study was to explore the role of school principals and their term of office in regard to school improvement. In particular, we investigated the convergences and divergences between the views of school principals in Greece and the findings of relevant international literature. To this end, we collected and analysed data from 66…

This research article reports on instructional leadership as a controlling function in secondary schools. All the 41 secondary schools in Rangwe Sub County were included in the study and the targeted respondents were teachers and principals. A purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents from each school. A principal self-rating…

Effective school leadership is widely acknowledged as having a positive impact on student achievement. However, there appears to be no deliberate process to sustain New Zealand principals' effectiveness throughout their careers. This article discusses the views of current and former New Zealand secondary school principals about their complex role…

Kuwait is seeking to diversify its sources of income by modernizing the education system and providing its young people with the knowledge and skills needed for life in the 21st century. To this end, it is constantly trying to improve the whole educational system by introducing developmental projects and policies. Central to this process is the…

This qualitative study aims to explore the core leadership practices of school principals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Given the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative research design methodology was employed through which an in-depth, multi-perspective study of the practices of four secondary school principals was carried out.…

The way school principals make sense of the context of their work shapes their actions. As in all adults, principals' sense-making capability is a function of the ego and can change over time. Adult ego development theory describes distinct, qualitatively different stages of sense-making ability. The research reported here assessed the adult ego…

Schools in Turkey are primarily influenced by the Ministry of National Education ("Milli Egitim Bakanligi") through laws and regulations. Compliance with regulations might be characterised as superficial in many respects and can lead to schools 'decoupling' their espoused structures from the realities of practice. In other words, they…

This study investigates the existence of various leadership types in a sample of lower secondary school principals across Italy (n = 1073). Information is obtained using a questionnaire about instructional practices and leadership perceptions administered by the National Evaluation Committee for Education (INVALSI). Employing a latent class…

In England the balance of responsibilities between national and local government for the governance of education is changing. Relationships between schools are shifting and new structures, groups and alliances are being created in response to national policy. The article is part of a project to understand how the new local education landscapes are…

The research reported in this article contributes new understanding of leadership in the context of change, by investigating how the views, values and professional practices of those in leadership roles were revealed, interplayed and changed during a period of turbulence in a school in England. The governors of the school proposed changing the…

The aim of this article is to examine how school principals perceive cultural diversity and management. To this end, qualitative research was carried out for one semester in four secondary schools in Andalusia (Spain). Through interviews and discussion groups, triangulated with other qualitative research techniques, we explored the mindset and…

Change process research often discusses barriers that impede organizational change (e.g., Banta, 1997; Cavacuiti and Locke, 2013; Mutchler, 1990; Stewart et al., 2012); however, no empirical research has addressed how behaviors established in leadership models counteract these barriers. This study explored these two interconnected constructs of…

This study presents part of a research project currently underway which aims to characterise the best practices of highly effective schools in the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country (Spain). Multilevel statistical modelling and hierarchical linear models were used to select 32 highly effective schools, with highly effective being taken to…

This study analyses the collaboration between principals within four Flemish school federations (voluntary collaborative networks between either primary or secondary schools). Interview data from principals were analysed using a micropolitical perspective. A central idea in micropolitical theory is that organization members' actions (and…