As secondary school environments become increasingly complex, shifts are occurring in the way leadership is being practised. New leadership practices emphasize shared or distributed leadership. A senior executive leadership team with responsibility for school leadership is likely to be one of the many, varied forms of new leadership practices…

The "moral imperative" of school leadership has been identified as seeking to bring about social justice in ensuring all children are given the opportunity to succeed in education. Empirical research among 18 headteachers in a single local education authority in the English Midlands shows that some headteachers simultaneously work within…

Drawing upon empirical data, this article explores the concept of trust as a context for the establishment of teacher leadership. This article is part of a larger study that was carried out over a 2-year period and involved 21 teachers, 21 subject leaders and 9 principals belonging to three private K-12 schools in Beirut, Lebanon. Data was…

Among western governments large-scale leadership development initiatives represent an increasingly deployed means of promoting the acculturation of school leaders to support educational reforms and ongoing improvement. England's sophisticated initiative centres on the National College for Leadership in Schools and Children's Services, a…

This article reports on some of the findings of a wider, life history study of the factors affecting the career decisions of 40 female secondary school teachers, including 10 female headteachers. As a part of this, insights were sought into why women continue to be proportionally under-represented in secondary headship posts in UK secondary…

The purpose of this article is twofold as it aims to compliment the effort of identifying the personal qualities and professional competencies generic to effective school leaders and to contribute to the comparison of effective leadership in diverse cultural contexts. Five examples of successful school principals in rural primary schools in Cyprus…

Drawing from a three-year qualitative multi-case study that examined three urban elementary schools as these schools instituted grade-level data-based collaboration as a school-wide literacy reform strategy, this article investigates how knowledge of student learning and instructional considerations evolved over time across this collection of…

The study of women's management and leadership in education has become a central research topic and the copious work published in many countries encompasses various issues relating to gender and educational leadership. The study of female school principals from the Arab minority in Israel has only recently begun. This is a minority that lives…

Few studies of school leadership succession document the processes of continuity and change, especially within situations where there has been a strong tradition of tenure of principal, within a "quality" school. This article examines how a new principal with a commitment towards notions of Learning Community Schools, "quality" teaching and…

The notion that emotional intelligence can be correlated with work success is well documented, particularly with regard to leadership in the business world. However, there are few empirical studies which detail the interplay of intelligent use of emotions in school leadership. This article explores the relationship between emotional intelligence…

The English education system has been radically transformed over the last two decades. Throughout this period, the New Right and New Labour government policies have embraced the rhetoric of empowering schools to become self-managing institutions. In the course of this transformation, school leadership and management have become exceptionally…

The literature on leadership in the compulsory education sector shows that there are multiple pathways through different stages and phases to becoming a headteacher. However although research exists on leadership in higher education, little has been written about those in "middle leadership" positions such as heads of faculties and…

This article reviews recent literature in educational administration that supports the argument that leadership matters. School principals exert influence on teachers, who in turn affect student achievement. There is a need for an international approach both to replicate large studies and to use a narrative approach to study leaders in their…

This article argues that the work of school principals in South Africa is shaped by two major sets of constructs or "landscapes": the literature on leadership and management which provides particular constructions of the field and its changes; and the terrain of new policy frameworks adopted after apartheid to transform the education…

This article is written from the perspective of a practicing headteacher as a contribution to the theory and practice of spiritual leadership in education. By using a conceptual map derived from personality type theory it seeks to articulate several distinct facets of spirited leadership, intended to denote what engages, enlivens and enlightens…