Muslim faith schools have been existent in the UK since the 1980s and their number has been rising ever since. These schools are established specifically to provide Muslim children with a learning environment based on Islamic values. However, fulfilling such a mission would not be an easy task in a globalised context characterised by secularism…

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 aim of this study is to describe the influence that principals have on the hidden curriculum of induction (HCI). Our findings are based on a comparison of two case studies undertaken in primary schools in the Czech Republic, whose principals have different approaches to leadership and the management of induction. The data analysis leads to the…

Leaders' ethical behaviours and conducts are prerequisites for an effective change. The purpose of this qualitative comparative case study was to explore ethical leadership practices in selected transformed schools from Selangor, Malaysia. Two schools (a primary school and a secondary school) were selected as study sites. Data were collected…

This article explores newly appointed principals' descriptions of a decentralised and market adopted school system. An institutional logics perspective is applied to analyse how logics visible at the national level evoke images among principals at the local level. Empirical data consist of 66 examinations from the National Principal Training…

In 1989, New Zealand started to follow an international trend of reforming education policy according to the neoliberal principles of competition, choice and self-managing schools. Since then, the increasing availability of digital data in schools has corresponded with the development of student achievement measurement tools and benchmarking of…

This article draws on the findings of an in-depth study which sought to explore the career histories and professional aspirations of 12 women deputy head teachers in England. In view of the ongoing underrepresentation of women in secondary headship and the scarcity of literature focusing solely on deputy heads, the study aimed to gain an insight…

In this research, we examine strategies school principals have used to assist struggling teachers. In an open-ended questionnaire designed for this study, we asked 219 school principals to describe a successful intervention they held. The results show that principals prefer supportive assistance to organizational changes (such as moving the…

In this paper, we work with the philosophy of Hannah Arendt to explore ethics and leadership in further education (FE), focusing on how leaders define the ethical compromises implied by austerity. Using questionnaires, interviews and observations we developed 10 case studies. It is not our intention to elaborate upon ethical leadership as a…

Communalism, otherwise known as 'Ubuntu' in African literature, has come to signify the philosophical and ethical thought capable of transforming behaviours/lives and restoring the continent's cultural identity. This potent energy is explored in this article with a critical discussion of the conceptual, cultural and operational statuses of Ubuntu.…

This article presents the results of a qualitative study with the aim of contributing to an understanding of preschool managers' leadership in systematic quality work in a Swedish context. In line with the Education Act and the preschool curriculum, systematic quality work is compulsory in all Swedish preschools. This consists of several steps,…

This paper explores different conceptions of responsibility within and beyond neoliberal frames. Such exploration draws on the experiences and accounts of "Ashleigh," a head teacher at a primary school in outer London that is part of an academy chain. Ashleigh and her school were key participants in a study that explored matters of…

This article discusses the type of organization and leadership that underlies a competency-based management rule established in Mexico (2008) applicable to principals in public upper high schools. This rule, identified as the 449 Agreement, describes competencies and communicates expected behavior. Implementation, however, is mediated by the…

School leadership has been identified as a key function to assuring quality in education. Principals' leadership can have a direct effect on students' learning by improving teaching, or an indirect effect by creating conditions that foster learning. This exploratory study aims to understand how school principals exercise their leadership and its…

The article analyzes the results of a study in which the objective was to assess the process of school principals' training in Cuba. Data collection was done through the revision of existing documents and administering of questionnaires to subjects involved in the training process. Universities and provincial and municipal departments of education…