Anthropogenic climate change and the necessary transformation of society to mitigate its consequences constitutes an unprecedented educational challenge. Responding to the climate emergency and to society's awakening climate activism generates a complex situation for school leadership in particular. Here, we report findings from our research with…

"Effective Leadership in Early Childhood Services and Primary School Education in Aotearoa New Zealand" offers a collection of chapters examining effective leadership within specific contexts or sectors. While primarily aimed at early childhood educators and primary school leaders, this pukapuka is also valuable for secondary educators,…

During a distinguished academic career, Professor Martin Thrupp alerted diverse audiences to the politics shaping educational practice in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. The focus of this commemorative article is on Martin's teaching legacy, in particular, the re-design and enduring impact of a compulsory postgraduate leadership paper at Te Kura…

This paper provides a review of recent empirical research investigating middle leadership practices in New Zealand secondary schools. Eight academic articles and one report are included to establish an analysis of the recent evidence of practices of curriculum middle leaders. The majority of the research utilises mixed methodology and aligns…

Leadership for learning has emerged as a framework that subsumes the core characteristics of instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and distributed leadership. It acknowledges that leadership responsibilities are shared across stakeholders, inviting wider sources of leadership. If leadership for learning conceptualizes leadership…

In this paper, a site ontological approach to practice seeks to understand how educational development can be accomplished through the practices of 'middle leaders'--educators who exercise their leading 'between' the principal and the teaching staff. Analysis of two vignettes of leading in extraordinary circumstances untangles the web of…

Leading change that promotes social justice requires courage and conviction. Drawing on identity theory, insights from a New Zealand case study show how two principals found their leadership identity challenged as they resolved issues arising from social disadvantage. The programs they developed to enhance pastoral care, behavior management, and…

Educational leadership has become a prime focus in the past few decades. Margaret Stuart's thesis is that, as the New Zealand education reforms of the 1990s were bundled with neoliberal economics, the discourse of educational leadership ascended. The country is unique in that its devolution of educational management to individual schools, and an…

Academic middle leaders play a critical role in facilitating the leadership of learning and teaching in universities. Previous research has reported the undervaluing and under-resourcing of these academic middle leadership roles. To promote a greater understanding of academic middle leaders, middle leading and middle leadership of learning and…

Assessing impact of external quality assurance is a critical component of the professional practice reflection of external quality assurance agencies. This paper analyses the responses of universities in Aotearoa New Zealand to recommendations made in the most recently completed cycle of academic audits using artefacts (universities' one-year…

Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of social inequity and injustice. Their leadership is key to revealing, disrupting and subverting institutional arrangements which marginalize individuals, reorienting educational engagement towards inclusion, transformation and equity. This chapter…

Novice principals' experiences and responses to challenges are important for understanding their sensemaking of their role, especially in view of the contextual complexity of leadership in small schools. Using interview data from 19 novice principals in small schools, we explore principals' sensemaking of their key challenges and responses.…

New Zealand secondary school principals were required to make changes to their leadership practices when schools were closed as part of a national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 situation in early 2020. Eighteen school principals from a range of secondary schools were interviewed about their experiences. The research found that principals…

Given the recent upsurge in publications investigating authentic leadership in education since 1997, this study was carried out to review scholarly publications on authentic leadership in educational research, drawing on a database of 91 studies published between 1997 and 2021. Descriptive methods were employed to identify the features of the…

As we have seen throughout these chapters, the conceptions and practices of school leadership do not correspond to disembodied standards promoted by international organizations. Their influences are highly dependent on the historical, cultural, and social context within each country and its education system. Some of them have a strong tradition of…