The Holistic Equilibrium Theory of Organizational Development was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the influence of holistic staff capacity on conducting effective internal whole-school evaluation (IWSE) within the Gauteng Department of Education's public secondary schools. In the context of South African education, the staff of each…

Although school improvement continues to present as an unresolved educational problem, the required changes are relatively straightforward. Essentially, schools need to be retooled with students' experiences and high-quality instruction at the center of the design. In this article, we present the findings of research into the leadership of…

Over the past decade, universities in Ireland have been implementing large-scale institutional change designed to better prepare them for the multitude of pressures they face. Changes have been taking place, for example, in approaches to institutional management and leadership practices and in decision-making structures. However, despite the rapid…

Leadership is considered to be significant for creating a developing and learning school organisation. In Sweden, distributed leadership and teacher teams are an "institutionalised practice"; despite this, sustainable school improvement is difficult to achieve. This article presents findings from a case study of three schools that…

For three years from 2008 every school in England had a designated school improvement partner (SIP), portrayed as a critical friend, whose role was to support and challenge the headteacher. A mixed-methods study involving a national survey and face-to-face interviews evaluated the enactment of the national policy from the perspective of the direct…

This paper attempts to identify leadership practices and qualities of school teachers as they engaged in effecting change initiated by a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview data of teachers from nine schools, this paper shows how teacher leadership manifested itself in schools. Three approaches to teacher leadership were identified,…

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…

Principals, as one of the professional leaders in a school, are accountable for the quality of education in the school. This is a part of the normal job description and expectations for the person in such a post. In the South African context with a large number of underperforming schools, there is an intention to have an additional performance…

It is known that the work of headteachers is demanding. Observation, diaries and logs completed by headteachers show a relentless, complex and emotionally demanding workload. What can be learned about headship from how new headteachers spend their time, and perhaps as importantly, what can new headteachers themselves learn? This article draws upon…

This article reports research conducted recently into evaluation policy. The research comprises two parts: a questionnaire survey and qualitative interviews. Drawing from data collected in a survey of 65 curriculum leaders and interviews with 12 from the group, the article discusses how school evaluation policy functions to help make schools…

The use of networks as a means of communicating knowledge and ideas and in promoting innovation among schools has emerged globally over the past decade. Currently, inter-school collaboration is not only at the fore nationally in England, but also has become integral to the school improvement agenda. However, networking theory is a disparate field…

There has been limited research on how teachers, parents and students perceive effective school leadership in practice. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings derived from a study of key stakeholders' perceptions of effective school leadership. Key stakeholders were identified as teachers, students and parents. Data were…

The article analyses an innovative scheme for the re-organization of school governance that sought to enhance the voice of community members and contribute towards the improvement of educational achievement. The scheme was located in the north of England, a region characterized by high levels of social disadvantage and low participation rates in…

Governments hold principals accountable for leading and managing significant change for school improvement, primarily demonstrated through enhanced student test results. Research evidence suggests, however, that schools are slow to change, that many individuals are resistant to major change and that school reforms are often cursory or short lived.…

This article uses a cultural and political theoretical framework to examine the relationship between consultants and secondary school leaders within a large-scale consultancy-based reform, the Secondary National Strategy (SNS), in London UK. The SNS follows a cascade model of implementation, in which nationally created initiatives are introduced…