The authors of this paper are academic developers in an Australian university. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of a small pilot study about value tensions; completed to inform a larger research project about the possibilities of making collaborative collegiality an explicit aim of a curriculum review. After interviewing four course leaders,…

In this article we discuss the experiences of academics who occupy middle-level leadership roles in higher education. We use the term middle management to describe personnel occupying positions below the level of dean and often referred to as associate deans or heads of school. Practitioners rarely turn their attention to their own organizations,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study examining the perceptions of secondary principals, deputies and teachers, of deputy principal (DP) instructional leadership (IL), as well as deputies' professional learning (PL) needs. Framed within an interpretivist approach, the specific objectives of this study were: to explore the…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the factors that employees perceived were important in creating a supportive learning environment in a recently merged organisation. The study provides rich qualitative data from the employees' perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This case study used a qualitative phenomenological constructivist…

Leadership has long been acknowledged as a significant dimension in effective school functioning and, indeed, school leaders can play a substantial role in professional development of staff. Here we have centred on the "practices of leading" as opposed to the qualities or characteristics of leaders, and this is emphasised by our use of…

In this paper I report on leadership for sustainability in regional schools in Western Australia (WA) in the context of the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI-WA). Case studies are developed to examine leading cultural change in eight WA regional schools with data presented in three representative narrative accounts. Consistency is…

The leadership of learning and teaching (L&T) in higher education has evolved over recent years. Part of the evolutionary process has seen the rise of the appointment of Associate Deans L&T (Academic, Education, "inter alia"). Implicit in this role is the assumption by many that associate deans are responsible for leading…

There has been limited research on how teachers, parents and students perceive effective school leadership in practice. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings derived from a study of key stakeholders' perceptions of effective school leadership. Key stakeholders were identified as teachers, students and parents. Data were…