A school principal's workload is recognised as being heavy, with an imbalance between demands and resources. This paper contributes to the development of collective leadership. The principalship constellations of six schools in Sweden were studied with the aim of strengthening the current knowledge about structures and experiences of shared…

A substantial body of research emphasises school leadership as a major influence on quality improvement in schools. Although numerous studies have identified the importance of the principal, fewer studies have examined the middle management level within schools, the deputy heads and assistant principals. Influenced by international trends, local…

This article explores the perceptions of deputy principals of formerly segregated township schools in South Africa on the concept of distributed leadership. In the apartheid dispensation, school leadership style was hierarchical and centralised on the principal, but now distributed leadership has gained global attention because it allows different…

The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya's Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on…

In the context of high-stakes accountability, education-related policy efforts have aimed to address the improvement of persistently low-achieving (PLA) schools via turnaround reform strategies. Such strategies provide opportunities for educational leaders to influence the process; however, limited research examining the role of the assistant…

This article explores an international week in a Norwegian primary school from the perspective of the different participants. Such international weeks are typically organized in connection with the United Nations Day, to contribute towards the school's aims of inclusion and social justice. Whereas research literature has been critical towards such…

Retention of quality high school assistant principals is a problem in a suburban Georgia school district, where 35% of administrators left their schools in a 3-year period. Researchers indicated that high turnover rates in school leadership influence student achievement and school climate. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore…

While the role of leadership in improving schools is attracting more worldwide attention, there is a need for more research investigating leaders' experiences in different national contexts. Using focus-group and semi-structured interview data, this paper explores the background, identities and experiences of a small group of Jamaican school…

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…

The performance of schools is highly dependent on the leadership of school heads, and, flexible leaders accelerate school performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine leadership behavior in selected boys' secondary schools that are performing well. Based on multiple-case study design, four high-performing schools from Quetta…

Purpose: This article proposes the utility of using activity theory as an analytical lens to examine the theoretical construct of distributed leadership, specifically to illuminate tensions encountered by leaders and how they resolved these tensions. Research Method: The study adopted the naturalistic inquiry approach of a case study of an…

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) has initiated educational change and school improvements. As part of the school reform agenda, ADEC has introduced school self-evaluation-Irtiqaa (SSE-Irtiqaa). This research probes the effectiveness of school administrators (SAs), including principals, vice principals, academic principals, and heads of…

We drew upon sense making and leadership content knowledge to explore how high school administrators' understanding of content areas informed their leadership. We used math and science to illustrate our interpretations, noting that other content areas may pose different challenges. We found that principals' limited understanding of these content…

This study explores the challenges and opportunities in relation to developing distributed leadership practice in Irish post-primary schools. It considers school leadership within the context of contemporary distributed leadership theory. Associated concepts such as distributed cognition and activity theory are used to frame the study. The study…

Much of the current guidance on managed moves focuses on the benefits of the "fresh start" provided. This paper describes an appreciative inquiry to explore how schools in one local authority create a sense of belonging to facilitate a fresh start for pupils involved in a managed move to a new school. Six deputy head teachers with…