Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is increasingly recognized as a critical topic in today's educational landscape. This is because contemporary education outcomes need to equip students for the demands of 21st-century jobs. In this context, the role and strategic actions of school principals emerge as critical…

In these challenging times, it is essential that principals serve as equity-oriented, antiracist, culturally competent leaders accountable for students' performance, school improvement, and policy requirements. Many studies focus on professional development (PD) for teachers but not school leaders, thus the value of the present analysis is that…

Leadership in educational settings, especially in schools, has a long history. Instructional leadership is a leadership style that is seen to increase school effectiveness. This study aims to map bibliographic data on instructional leadership over the past eight decades (1941-2022). The quantitative research approach to analyzing bibliographic…

School administrators are expected to undertake a variety of roles and responsibilities with regard to facilitating the ongoing professional development of teachers in their schools. Administering formal or informal mentoring initiatives is a typical strategy employed for supporting early career teachers [ECTs] as they adjust to school culture,…

A retired professor of educational leadership/higher education looks back to the literature review in his dissertations (1966) and moves forward over some 50 years of his personal research and his collaboration with his colleagues and doctoral students. The resulting document from the reflective process is shared in this submission. As reflected…

The literature shows that leadership is the second most important factor influencing school and learner outcomes, including levels of literacy and numeracy, school leaving examination results, and progression to secondary and higher education. This article focuses on school leadership in West Africa, drawing on a systematic review of the academic…

The title of the 2014 Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) conference was "Teacher Education, An Audit: Building a platform for future engagement." One of the conference themes was "Professional Experience: What works? Why?" I seized upon this theme and the title of the conference as it afforded me an opportunity to…

Within this article, we thematically present common challenges associated with the role of the rural principal. In this literature review, we delimit our search to work published from 2003-2013. A limitation of this study is that it represents data predominantly from American, Canadian, and Australian rural settings, restricting a global…

This study focuses on the profile of principals who seem to be able to shape the school culture to best encourage teaching and learning. Data from a representative sample of primary schools (N = 46) were collected through questionnaires for principals and for teachers (N = 700) and semi-structured interviews with the principals. Functioning,…

The purpose of this literature review is to explore the role of professional collaboration within the school context as a means of improving the quality and retention of beginning special education teachers (SETs). The assumption underlying the review is that the local school context in which new SETs work should also function as the primary…

The purpose of this article is to analyze factors that influence special educators to remain in the field of education. School administrators are perplexed by the large number of teachers who decide to leave the field of education after three years. The retention rates of special educators' require school administrators to focus on developing a…

Much research links collaborative experiences to the professional development of teachers. The author of this study designed a project, called the Buddy System, which provided opportunities for teachers to observe one another in the classroom and to interact with one another collaboratively. The goal was to determine if these activities provided…

This brief reports on a day-long workshop where eight rural teaching principals shared the joys and frustrations of their multiple roles. The multiple roles of teaching principals in the school and community result in role conflict and role ambiguity, which leads to stress and anxiety. Newly hired teaching principals are often caught between…

This paper describes a proposed five-phase model for assessing the instructional leadership of rural school administrators. In phase one, assessors conduct a structured interview to determine participants' understanding of the skills and functions required of the instructional leader. Phase two allows participants to review and evaluate video…

Isolation, overwork, and political tensions are cited as contributors to burnout. Although recent studies report that a large majority of administrators are reasonably satisfied in their current positions, many are facing greater stress and heavier workloads. Expectations, time and financial constraints, and personnel matters pressure…