Although a growing body of theoretical work indicated that the cultural orientation of societies shapes their understanding of leadership, there is a lack of empirical research to explore how individual cultural value orientations shape teachers' expectations for school leadership. This empirical research addresses this gap by examining the…

Establishing quality education as a human right, public undertaking, and common good representative of humanity and the planet through imagining a "new social contract for education" is an ambitious endeavor and crucial to (post)humanity's myriad ways of knowing, living, and being. This article introduces postcritical educational…

University leaders are increasingly focused on management tasks and metrics, and distributed leadership has been broadly adopted as a way for leaders to navigate corporate management demands while also maintaining the collegial and communitarian character of the academy. This article discusses the findings of an indicative case study within a…

This article analyses how school leaders depict their autonomy and how they make sense of the relationship between autonomy and control. Attention is drawn to three leadership focuses: the pedagogical direction of the school, decision-making over the internal organisation, and school improvement work. The article integrates survey data on Swedish…

There is a prevailing trend of distributed leadership in the West as it balances the weaknesses and combines the capabilities of different individuals in knowledge-based societies. Conversely, there is still a lack of understanding and literature on distributed leadership in Chinese universities. We know little about how faculty members in Chinese…

Professional learning communities are essential for school success, and principal leadership is crucial for teachers' participation in them. Based on social exchange theory and ambidextrous leadership theory, this study explored the mediating role of teachers' trust in principals between moral leadership and professional learning communities and…

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview and in-depth coverage of contemporary aspects of leadership in the field of education in Finland. It brings together Finnish scholars to critically explore and discuss leadership in education in the context of the Finnish education system and in relation to international discourses around the…

Educational leaders are pushed to get students to score high on standardized tests. They are directed to implement new strategies to close the achievement gap. Instead of focusing on the output of students, our educational leaders should focus on themselves to create a more equitable educational system. Leaders must recognize the impact that their…

This article discusses the issue of inequities in educational leadership, of which we attribute largely to social capital and how educators interpret this capital. This concept is presented along with a range of leadership styles commonly accepted in education. An argument is made for using Funds of Knowledge as a lens for understanding leadership…

Existing distributed leadership (DL) theories tend to focus on distributing financial, material and human resources in order to enhance school performance. However, their impact appears controversial. Critical scholars assert that using DL to promote trust and democracy can be a self-fulfilling prophecy orchestrated by few formal leaders. When…

This article considers distributed leadership in the context of the extensive literature on post-bureaucratic organisations. It suggests that both distributed leadership and bureaucracy are ideal types. It outlines the development of bureaucracy as an organisational form, challenges the often-stereotypical criticisms that have damned the theory…

This essay argues for the utility of a sociohistorical theoretical perspective on culture and agency in the analysis of context-specific educational leadership. First, we review literature that addressed the importance of context, frameworks that richly described context, and we discuss research that purposefully documented principals'…

Previous research has contributed to the literature on what constitutes school leaders' and teachers' democratic practices in both high- and low-stakes accountability contexts, but less is known about how they interpret, legitimize, and translate the democratic purpose of education in a low-stakes, 'soft-regulation' system. The current study used…

A literature review is generally a compendium of written material on a topic presented as research background. It functions to describe what is known in academic circles and to justify research questions that step beyond the known. A more nuanced approach involves getting "beneath the skin" of the literature itself; considering the…

Independent leadership frameworks are taught to principal and superintendent candidates yearly. Heightened leadership efficacy and deeper leadership capacity are tied to the culture of a school district and have a broader impact than individual leaders (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008). Strong districtwide frameworks lead toward enhanced structures…