Although the knowledge base on instructional leadership is quite well developed in Western societies empirical studies have only recently begun to emerge in the developing societies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The current study was undertaken to fill a gap in leadership research in Iran, where there have been no prior studies of principal…

This study explores how six school leadership teams in a rural district in California responded to professional development (PD) designed to strengthen leadership practices and organizational conditions in schools for improving teaching and learning. Specifically, the PD was intended to address the problem of practice identified by the schools:…

Effective education reform depends on its successful realization by the school leadership carrying out the reform. School principals and middle leaders in the 21st century re-examine their traditional role so as to understand complexities and ambiguities characterizing their various responsibilities within the context of school reform. As critical…

This study examines two female principals in upper secondary schools and the development of their professional identities, focusing on schools in Sweden and Texas, USA. The study is part of a larger international research project with global conversations about what successful leadership means, and asks: in what ways do female secondary school…

A positive teacher learning culture is important to effect meaningful changes in schools. Literature has established that successful school leaders can build and nurture learning cultures among teachers. However, less is known about how school leaders can shape the culture and make learning conditions happen at the schools in the Chinese education…

This study examines the relationship between school autonomy gap, principal leadership, school climate, teacher psychological factors, teachers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment under the context of school autonomy reform. A path model has been developed to define the relationships between principal leadership and teachers' outcomes…

This paper examines the preparation of school principals in Malaysia, and the aspiration of the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school. It reports on the principal preparatory programme, the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders, which is mandatory to those who aspire…

The importance of leadership for improving educational outcomes in schools has been widely promoted. However, the nature of leadership practices, in context, has received less attention in the educational leadership literature. In this article, we present a case study of the specific leadership practices that developed in one school site serving…

The purposes of this study were to report on a systematic approach to validating a Spanish version of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale and then to apply the scale in a cross-national comparison of principal instructional leadership. The study yielded a validated Spanish language version of the PIMRS Teacher Form and offers a…

This paper aims to provide an account of how school leaders in Kazakhstan learn about leadership and management, and what strategies are in place to support leadership development. The paper draws on empirical data collected over three years, derived mainly from interviews and focus groups with school leaders and teachers. The findings suggest…

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the access to structures of empowerment by teachers in primary and secondary education impacts on their trust of the headmaster of the school management board. Using the theoretical framework of empowerment and trust in the context of companies, one adapted the constructs of these scales to the reality…

Despite the deeply entrenched belief in and practice of corporal punishment to maintain learner control in schools, a secondary school in Namibia has for a number of years proven to be an exception to this practice. This is an interpretive account of the teachers' and learners' experiences and perceptions of the influence of their school…

The article reports the findings of a qualitative case study in one elementary school in Iceland. The aim was to investigate the level of leadership capacity within the school, and how this had evolved through the school's improvement. Information was gathered over one school year about planned improvements that had taken place in the school over…

This study attempted to identify effects of trust between principal leadership and teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools. To verify the potential mediating effects of trust as a component of school capacity, survey data with a sample of 970 teachers from 32 local primary schools was used. Two questionnaires were combined to…

This article is based on a qualitative multi-case study carried out in southwestern Kenya along the border areas of Nyanza and Rift Valley province. The purpose of the research was to examine the challenges public secondary school principals faced in their leadership roles and suggest efforts they might adopt to minimize the effects of these…