Amidst ongoing calls for teaching improvement, there has been growing interest in the work of middle leaders in leading school-based curriculum and professional development. Research and policy initiatives have acknowledged that these leaders in schools are well placed to successfully drive educational change that leads to improved educational…

This article reports the findings from a review of the scholarly literature concerning women leaders in education. The PRISMA approach was used to review the contemporary evidence (2014-2024) and 30 articles were identified that fully met the inclusion and exclusion criteria set for the review. A thematic analysis of the selected articles was…

This paper presents the findings of a self-study exploring the experiences of women leaders, and the intersections of leadership work with roles as mothers. Drawing on narratives of women from across experiences of leading to support women in the workplace, to women who juggle leadership work and mothering, and women whose mothering involves…

This study explores school district leaders' strategies for managing the intersecting challenges of ambiguity, befuddlement, and contestation produced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on interview data from district leaders in the United States, the analysis is framed in existing research regarding how public administrators navigate competing…

Purpose: Replicating and extending earlier research, this mixed-methods study inquired about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual and collective leaders' professional capacities. Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by…

Effective leadership is recognised as the second most impactful variable influencing student achievement and promoting teaching quality (Bush 2021; Leithwood et al. 2020). The paper reports on the perceptions of educational leaders in the Western Australian public education system about: their leadership capability, support mechanisms and…

This case study research found that the relational leadership and organisational culture at a public primary school situated in a high poverty location in South Australia was built upon the strength of the inter-relationships between the teachers, teachers and leadership, and between teachers and students. Supported by what we called "dynamic…

This paper sets out to explore the nature of leadership within networks of schools. The research is based on a large-scale funded initiative in the UK of over a 100 school networks. The empirical data are drawn from a series of programme-wide research and enquiry activities that took place over the first two years of the initiative. Drawing on…

This paper argues that studies of middle leaders have focused too much on their functions and characteristics, taking insufficient account of the influence of social and political contexts on leaders' choices of actions. Use of the analytical framework of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998) can address this oversight, but it pays insufficient…

Professional identities in further education (FE) colleges and schools in England have been substantially affected by recent educational reform; additionally, recent reform of provision for the 14-19 age group requires close collaboration between the two sectors. Drawing on case-study data from four English FE colleges, this paper takes as its…