School principals play an invaluable role in schools', teachers', and students' success; therefore, it is of particular importance that we learn, through empirical research, about the factors related to recruiting and selecting school principals. This study critically reviewed 64 empirical literature studies that were published in the United…

While extensive understanding of headship has emerged over the last half-century, the notion of executive headship remains under-explored. This article summarizes a systematic review of evidence relating to executive headship published since 2001. This review found the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed articles into executive headship are…

Principal succession is an inevitable phenomenon in school systems. Given the relevance of principal succession for leadership quality and school improvement, there has been a lack of research in recent decades that has synthesized principal succession. This study aims to review the literature from 2003 to 2019 on principal succession in schools.…

This article examines how "Educational Management, Administration and Leadership" has embodied the values, concepts and practice of the field of educational leadership over 50 years and so played a part in challenging or sustaining inequality in education. The article explores selected key concepts, equal opportunities, diversity, and…

This review has two purposes. First, we document the body of knowledge that has accumulated in "Educational Management, Administration & Leadership" over its five decades of publication. Second, we seek to identify the distinctive contributions of "Educational Management, Administration & Leadership" as a research…

This article reviews the literature and explores the institutional and systemic factors that help and/or hinder change and innovation across school systems, with a focus on evidence from England. A number of authors have argued that schools and school systems need to become more innovative and adaptive if they are to meet the needs of 21st-century…

School site leadership has commanded the attention of researchers and policymakers in Anglo-American jurisdictions for at least two decades, but little is known about how many other parts of the globe have addressed this topic. This paper reviews published research and policy documents related to school leadership in Latin America between…

The purpose of this systematic review was to further our understanding of educational leadership and management (EDLM) knowledge production in Latin America. We conducted a "topographical review" of 48 articles from Latin America published in eight "core" EDLM journals published between 1991 and 2017. Data analysis focused on…

Scholars throughout the world are working to diversify the knowledge base in educational leadership and management (EDLM). In concert with this effort, this article reports the results of a systematic review of research on EDLM in Africa. The goals of the review were to describe trends with respect to the volume of journal publications, national…

This paper reviews a selection of literature on secondary principal practice from which to propose an approach for further research. The review demonstrates that applications of Bourdieu's theory of practice have contributed to understandings about secondary principal practice, and that the distinction he made between rules and strategies has the…

This article provides a meta-analysis of research conducted on distributed leadership from 2002 to 2013. It continues the review of distributed leadership commissioned by the English National College for School Leadership (NCSL) ("Distributed Leadership: A Desk Study," Bennett et al., 2003), which identified two gaps in the research…

There is wide recognition that early childhood experiences are critical to a child's development and their subsequent life chances. However, little research has been undertaken into leadership in early years settings, which is so influential in this regard. This article summarizes research into the leadership of Sure Start Children's Centres,…

Over the past two decades scholars have called for a more concerted effort to develop an empirically grounded literature on educational leadership outside of mainstream "Western" contexts. This paper reports the results of a review of research topics and methods that comprise the literature on educational leadership and management in…

Few concepts are more noted in the leadership effects research than vision. It is a cardinal element in the school improvement equation as well. Yet, it remains one of the least well-specified components of that algorithm. Based on a comprehensive review of the research on effective leadership and school improvement from 1995 to 2012, we bring…

This article seeks to establish a new research agenda on distributed leadership by linking early childhood and school leadership research. It begins with a discussion of how distributed leadership is conceptualized, including a discussion of the main features and meanings of distributed leadership as defined by key scholars who have maintained a…