The present study addresses the question of whether school leadership matters. It employs second-order meta-analysis to synthesize results from 12 first-order meta-analyses examining school leadership effects published 2003-2019. These meta-analyses collectively examined 512 primary studies published across four decades (1978-2019). Results showed…

This article examines the leadership of school principals who, based on the narrative case of the Blueberry School, discuss how they as principals would have responded to a similar problematic situation regarding a school change process. The study is grounded in the context of the Norwegian National School Leadership Programme. Theoretically, the…

Job demands overburden school administrators' personal and professional capacity and affect their performance and well-being. However, studies on principals and vice-principals' work intensification fail to highlight how their work demands and challenges are manifested, and how work demands contribute to the changing nature of their work. This…

Research indicates that principals are critical in school reform since the implementation of policies and practices is to a large extent determined by the role that principals play in educational change. This study examines the principal selection process used in Qatar for the government schools and identifies knowledge and skills necessary for…

This article contributes to the limited body of literature pertaining to attempts by educational systems to satisfy the professional learning needs of experienced principals, defined as those with more than 10 years of experience in at least two schools. Specifically, this article illustrates the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia's…

This article reports on research into headteacher performance management in England. The English school system couples organisational autonomy with close scrutiny of educational outcomes. The management of the performance of headteachers is a central aspect of such a system. The research involved a systematic literature review and the collection…

The increase in child poverty in Spain highlights the importance of equality and inclusion of students at risk of social exclusion in the Spanish educational system. Recent research emphasises the importance of educational leadership, particularly from school principals, as a tool to improve the learning of these students. The main aim of this…

The article reports the results of a cross-country educational research project that uses quantitative methods to identify school leadership practices and contextual characteristics that contribute to explain student achievement in Chile, considering international comparisons. The results question previous evidence about a common repertoire of…

The study examined if significant dynamic and reciprocal relationships exist among the task-oriented managerial behaviours of headteachers, and how these behaviours specifically and jointly influence teachers' retention intention. Out of the multistage sampled 350 schools, suitable questionnaires from 279 schools representing 558 questionnaires…

This study examines the institutional visibility of the university governing body amongst staff, as an unexplored factor influencing the effectiveness of the body in performing stewardship and strategic responsibilities on behalf of the university. A constructionist view of governance is taken in order to examine the enactment of governing body…

The concept of distributed leadership is widely used, but the ways whereby it becomes positive when distributed from the principal through the school counselor, still call for further clarification. The present study aims to illuminate this subject by analyzing the work of the principal and the counselors in five successful Israeli schools. Using…

Principals play key roles in creating the conditions in which teachers can teach effectively and students can learn. Principals are increasingly being held accountable both for teacher quality and for student learning and development so that young people can become 'successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed…

This concept article discusses the importance of developing psychic income as an administrative strategy to enhance the context of school environments and to curb high teacher turnover. The hope is to promote further debate and research in order to establish the extent to which psychic income influences retention rates in hard-to-staff schools.…

This article presents a mixed-method study utilizing teacher ratings of principal mindfulness from 149 public schools in Texas and follow-up qualitative data analysis through semi-structured interviews conducted with the top 10 percent of princeipals identified as mindful. This research is based on the theoretical framework of mindfulness as…

School leadership, one of the most important aspects of school improvement, has not received much attention from either policymakers or researchers in Turkey despite many countries embrace creating and developing effective leaders as one of the important first steps to improve their education. This research looked at the instructional leadership…