Leadership in the post-incorporation English further education system has not been distributed in nature, but transactional, driven by the external demands of funding and inspection regimes. However, in the light of the current rhetoric of localism in further education policy there is a view that distributed leadership would be an appropriate…

Responding to Thrupp's [2003. "The School Leadership Literature in Managerialist Times: Exploring the Problem of Textual Apologism." "School Leadership & Management: Formerly School Organisation" 23 (2): 169] call for writers on school leadership to offer "analyses which provide more critical messages about social…

The growth in the importance of school leadership has been accompanied by theory development, with new models emerging and established approaches being redefined and further developed. The purpose of this paper is to review current and recent writing on leadership models. The paper examines theoretical literature, to see how leadership is…

Inclusive education challenges all schools to cater for a wider range of students. This implies that schools and teachers have to change. This literature study analyses how, if at all, policymakers can bring about changes in schools. Specific steering concepts of policymakers, whose interventions seem to address schools as "machine" bureaucracies,…

Twelve recent books by business-oriented authors are reviewed and translated directly into the educational context. Productive environments and leadership are discussed. Recommendations for education are made. (MT)

Critically examines participative decision making (PDM) in education, reviewing literature of the past 15 years and evaluating the current status of research on the subject; suggests how to appropriately use PDM in schools; and surveys gaps in knowledge. (MCG)

The processes of educational leadership are educative when they both educate constituents and are informed by feedback from constituents; when they are conducted as an ongoing exercise of participatory problem solving. In short, educational leadership is educational when both its ends and its means are educative. John Dewey provided a theoretical…

This report is comprised of brief summaries of various research-based and theoretical concepts and techniques--taken mostly from business management--that might improve educational administration. The topics discussed include (1) a list of successful business practices identified by the book, "In Search of Excellence"; (2) Theories X, Y,…

Numerous attempts have been made to improve the effectiveness of decision-making in organizational settings. Some of the historical and contemporary organizational trends regarding these efforts, both in business and in school settings, are presented in this paper. The focus is on the related expectations and outcomes that are evident in diverse…

This article examines the concept of distributed leadership, drawing from a systematic review of relevant literature commissioned by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and jointly funded by NCSL and the Open University's Centre for Educational Policy, Leadership and Lifelong Learning (CEPoLL). The concept attracts a range of…

Describes organizational factors that influence most instructional development projects, relates them to the features of the project-oriented matrix, and lists and explains specific matrix management strategies that instructional developers can use to solve common management problems. (MBR)

Education reform has wrongly focused on teacher motivation and rewards, when the organizational system itself is at fault. Research shows that effective school management hinges on increased individual discretion and decision-making opportunities for teachers and less controlling behavior by administrators. Ten characteristics of effective…

Democratic participation in education suggests that communities will be served best when decision-making is decentralized and when people--teachers, parents, and students alike--are encouraged to participate directly in making decisions that affect them. In contrast, the notion of administrative leadership implies hierarchical elevation of chief…

Describes alternatives to bureaucratic centralism in the administration of national education systems. Discusses forms of decentralization based on political rationales (liberalism, federalism, populist localism, participatory democracy) and those concerned with quality or efficiency (pedagogic professionalism, management by objectives,…

Describes the objectives of teacher leadership, discussing related initiatives and literature. Suggests that leadership is an organizational phenomenon that can be understood only in the context of the structural, social, political, and cultural dimensions of school organizations. Presents an overview of this special issue, describing the authors…