Despite the growing academic interests in educational leadership recently, hardly any of it has focused on post-conflict situations. This paper seeks to generate an understanding of the perspectives of primary school leaders in post-conflict Cambodia on the issues they face in the process of educational reconstruction and development and the…

The study sought to explore rural and urban primary school heads' perspectives on staff appraisal systems in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe and utilised a qualitative approach based on a phenomenological design. Five rural primary school heads and five urban primary school heads with at least 14 years of experience were purposely selected. In-depth,…

Many studies claim the importance of goal-setting for school improvement but few outline specific practices. This study highlights specific goal-setting practices associated with successful school improvement efforts. It reports on a 2-year collaborative research project, which closely examined three principals' goal-setting practices in the…

Recent academic research highlights the role of leadership identity when thinking about the improvement of the educational field. Based on this research, this article aims to identify and analyze the elements that affect the development of leadership identity in female school principals within the Chilean context. This is achieved by working from…

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…

The study is an explanatory qualitative research that seeks to investigate the processes of Ethiopian primary school principals' selection and training for professionalising principals. The participants are seven faculty members, 11 school principals and five education officials. Data are collected through semi-structured interview, focus group…

The purpose of this study is to understand and describe patterns of principal instructional leadership practice in Iranian primary schools and to then assess whether there are differences between the high- and low-rated principals. A mixed methods design was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from principals and teachers within…

Unquestionably, studies focusing on school leaders' stress while managing schools have received extensive attention. However, there is still a lack of research focusing on deputies' stress, even though deputies play an essential role in a school's improvement process. Despite deputies' dual roles, it is an accepted fact that deputies do experience…

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…

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.…

Latin American educational policy has relied on the assumption that better preparation can help school leaders improve their professional performance, thus improving quality of schools. Training programs for present or future school leaders have proliferated in the region, often publicly financed, but without enough evidence of their impact. Using…

In a context characterised by triple sources of accountability demands, principals in Chile are required to mobilise change to raise performance indicators. School improvement is a complex endeavour--a complexity that is intensified for newly appointed principals, particularly when placed in a high-poverty, ineffective school. This article…

Among the multitude of studies that have examined an array of variables related to school leadership, only a small percentage have rigorously examined how school leaders spend their time. The complex role of school leaders poses challenges to common methods of collecting data about school leader time use, which subsequently threaten the validity…

In an effort to enhance the quality of teachers and teaching, and to lead internal curriculum development in primary schools, the Hong Kong Education Bureau created a new curriculum leader post entitled primary school master/mistress (curriculum development) or PSMCD for short. The main purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of these…