Purpose: In empirical research and practitioner guides, turnaround processes tend to be described in terms of discrete stages and strategies. Though necessary, this characterization belies the twists and turns of turnaround leadership. The purpose of this paper is to expand the assumptions of how turnaround proceeds in linear "chronos"…

Purpose: Parents' collective involvement in their children's education takes the form of holding leadership positions in schools. Employing the concept of liminality, which is used in anthropological and sociological approaches, the purpose of this paper is to explore the features of parent leadership in schools (PLS). Design/methodology/approach:…

Purpose: Although organizational visions can guide everyday work, little is known about how visions relating to non-academic goals, such as social justice, might be integrated into educators' technology practices. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze one school's 1:1 iPad initiative, including the potential role played by the…

Purpose: Emotions of school leaders influence school culture and structure. Understanding emotions is under-researched and under-theorized in non-western contexts, especially during educational change. The purpose of this paper is to understand the nature of the leadership team's (LT's) emotional responses to change, their coping strategies and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine data use practices within a cross-sector initiative involving high school career academies. It discerns how partners used data to assess the public value of academies and address equity concerns. Design/methodology/approach: A case study methodology was applied to examine cross-sector activities…

Purpose: Shared understandings of curriculum reform within and between the levels of the educational system are suggested to be crucial for the reform to take root. The purpose of this paper is to explore variation in perceived curriculum coherence and school impact among state- and district-level stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership is normatively preferred in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the country's major policy reform document. The research was conducted in two dissimilar…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of educational leadership, administration and management (EdLAM) research by identifying thematic strands that hallmark key publications and synthesise major research findings and limitations. Design/methodology/approach: This study combines bibliometric and content analysis methods…

Purpose: Empirical research on leadership for social justice is in progress in many parts of the world. The purpose of this paper is to explore principals' school-leadership journeys in response to social-justice issues caused by specific contextual changes at times of uncertainty. It seeks to answer the following key questions: What…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the best practices of school leaders, teachers, pupils, parents and the community in selected transformed schools in Selangor, Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative multiple-case study explores the best practices in two selected transformed schools through in-depth interviews,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of student voice in secondary school reform. Design/methodology/approach: Through a literature review, it defines the concept of student voice within bodies of research on youth participation internationally. Findings: It notes the ways the USA is distinct and lagging behind. It then looks…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the governance of educational reform, as an interpretive process -- "interpretive governance" -- through a case study of five superintendents living in a predominantly Swedish-speaking region in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: To foreground superintendents' perspectives on reforms as…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of how minoritized families and communities contribute to equity-focused school change, not as individual consumers or beneficiaries, but as educational and community leaders working collectively to transform their schools. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative case study…

Purpose: Increased school autonomy and accountability have been a common denominator of national reforms in otherwise heterogeneous governance systems in Europe and the USA. The paper argues that because schools serving disadvantaged communities (SSDCs) often have lower average performance, they are more often sanctioned or under closer scrutiny,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how two urban principals, in high schools that feature comprehensive college-and-career readiness practices, utilize distributed leadership to facilitate their implementation. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed qualitative methods. Drawing upon semi-structured interview data,…