Purpose: A crucial aspect of a school's capacity to promote and sustain change and improvement in student learning is the depth, breadth and endurance of both its formal and informal leadership. Shortages of willing leaders, however, have forced governments around the world to expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and money to fill up the…

Purpose: This article aims to discuss the conceptualisation process of developing a new one-year taught-master's programme in educational leadership at an Aotearoa/New Zealand university. Design/methodology/approach: The perspective taken is a highly personalised one from the two lead "drivers" of the programme and outlines the two-year…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review strategies to build capacity for school improvement in Australia. The focus is on public schools and strategies adopted for the system as a whole. Design/methodology/approach: This paper traces developments from a national perspective and makes a case for the key contemporary policy shift that has…

Purpose: This study attempts to describe mentors' perceptions of their ethical dilemmas, the derived mentor roles, and the ethical guidelines suggested by mentors, with reference to previous studies exploring the mentors' multifaceted roles. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 60 mentors participated in a two-phase study: the mentors were…

Purpose: Reformers, policymakers, and researchers have given considerable attention to organizational capacity in schools, especially in those schools that perpetuate or exacerbate achievement gaps among diverse student groups and reproduce social inequalities. There is an emerging consensus about key dimensions of school capacity and how they can…