Principal autonomy has been identified as an important ingredient in effective and healthy schools. However, little is known about the various dimensions of the phenomenon and how it takes form in different contexts. This article presents an analytical device contributing to further understand the complex nature of principal autonomy. The device…

This article presents the development and application of a model that can be utilized to compare the autonomy of principals in various historical and national contexts. Drawing on former conceptual work on autonomy in education, the model conceptualizes principal autonomy as two-dimensional. The first dimension is the decision making expected from…

The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals' autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high…

This study contributes to the field of educational careers by exploring all educational career choices, whereas existing literature has focused on only a few. Deploying the push-pull-mooring framework (PPM), several undiscovered influential factors regarding educational career choices were captured. Using qualitative research methods, more…

Introduced in England in 2011, the pupil premium policy was an ambitious reform aimed at tackling the persistent attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers. The policy provides school leaders with the professional autonomy to determine how pupil premium funding should be used. This article examines the…

A foundational goal of education is to create a citizenry capable of making well-informed decisions for themselves. Over recent decades in the United States, accountability models have been enacted that hold teachers and educational leaders responsible for student outcomes. Selected Literature seems to suggest that these accountability measures…

The current study explored the relationship between test-based accountability and teachers' involvement in school-level decision-making and classroom autonomy, examining how this varied by country, specifically in the United States, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. Additionally, the study investigated whether this relationship differs based on…

Continuous professional development is necessary for teachers to stay current with teaching and learning. However, teachers face tensions when they engage in such activities. From the sociocultural and distributed leadership perspectives, this case study investigates how a school, recognised for its excellence in staff well-being and development,…

This paper reports on the findings from a multi-site case study conducted in Australia, Finland and Jamaica which explored the conditions that enabled and constrained the autonomy of school principals. Systematic data collection was carried out in the form of interviews of school principals and the data was analysed using a qualitative approach.…

Teacher autonomy has been a popular topic of investigation over the past decades. This article contributes to the debate by casting light on Irish and Finnish teachers' perceptions of their professional autonomy, drawing from teacher interviews conducted in both countries. The intersection of newly introduced curriculum reforms, differing…

Purpose: This study builds on research scrutinizing school autonomy in policy and school governance by shifting the focus from a formal structural view of autonomy to examining how principals negotiate autonomy in their daily work. Drawing on multiple dimensions of autonomy and street-level bureaucracy, this study examined how principals, as both…

Good school governance is basically about effective principal leadership used to create appropriate processes, systems, and management for ensuring the sustainability and continuity of schools. This research aims to examine the model of good school governance and to establish the correlation between good school governance and the principal's…

Purpose: Administrator support has been identified as a key factor in deterring teacher turnover. Yet, the specific ways school principals directly or indirectly influence teacher retention remain underexamined. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: This study includes a survival analysis to examine when beginning…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the authority basis of compulsory school principals in Iceland by making a general comparison to the other participating countries in the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, as well as by using Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. The study utilizes data from principals in 48 of…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain an understanding of what school innovation looks like as well as how school and district leaders address the concept. Technology has forever changed society. We must be careful not to confuse school innovation as the implementation of technology in the classroom. Educational leaders face the…