The concept of agency has become widely used in education, social sciences, psychology, and more. This article explores the concept of agency and provides a critical review from two main bodies of work: The social cognitive theory and the structure agency theory. The two are not the same. Structure agency theory was used to illuminate agency from…

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…

This essay argues that principals' capacity to advance equity might have been constrained by pre-COVID conditions. Drawing on the emerging literature on school leadership during the pandemic, the current article discusses how principals' capacity to advance equity was expanded as a result of the window of opportunities created by the COVID-19…

Schools around the world are diverse and there are a variety of progressivist initiatives in place that aim to promote quality and equitable pedagogy and overcome formalist paradigms. Country contexts present different challenges based on factors such as the type of governance, teachers' autonomy, and pedagogical cultures. Most critical, however,…

The quality of educational leadership, and that of the school principal in particular, is an important factor in school reform. This essay addresses concerns that the teaching profession and, as a result, the prospect of school reform is under threat from forces that seek to transform the role of school principal to that of corporate executive. It…

This article analyzes the career trajectories of eight Black and South Asian headteachers who were part of a larger study of three generations of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) headteachers (28) interviewed in 2015 (Johnson, 2017). Using a longitudinal life history approach and portraiture, it seeks to answer the question, "How do…

Purpose: This essay explores the effects of school buildings closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on Chilean teachers' and principals' professional role and values, highlighting implications for reconceptualizing educators' professionalism for the post-pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach: Competing versions of…

This article explores the experiences of both male and female principals in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as they navigate principalship through a gendered lens. Interviews with these principals reveal the presence and impact of hegemonic masculinities on the ability of both male and female principals to lead their schools. These conversations…

This paper employs critical policy historiography of South Australian public education as a contextual backdrop that speaks to a hermeneutic phenomenological study of the lived experiences of two former public-school principals, who describe how their ongoing social justice schooling agendas in public education met with considerable departmental…

French principals are exposed to paradoxes. Their ethics and values lead them to maintain a republican moral stance by affirming their attachment to public services and secularism. Their membership to a professional group within a bureaucratic organization does not predispose them to endorse managerial ideas and practices. However, as the New…

Employing Jurgen Habermas's notions of communicative and strategic action (1984), this paper draws on case studies of principals' decision making practices in three sites of Finland, Australia and Jamaica. The research examined principals' understandings of educational autonomy as a part of their practices of decision making. The paper argues that…

The Education Reform -- Joint Agreement published in June 2018 sets out the collective agreement by a commissioning group including the Scottish Government, COSLA, SOLACE, ADES, and Education Scotland. The Joint Agreement sets out agreed principles, enablers, and measures that will support and encourage the empowerment of schools in Scotland.…

International comparative data on student performance has led McKinsey&Company, among others, to suggest that education systems will inexorably converge in their developmental trajectories with principals and schools enjoying more autonomy. This article challenges these assumptions through referencing Singapore where schools and professionals…

Effective leadership and management are increasingly recognised as vital components of successful schooling. This paper examines how they are practiced in England, where there is a high degree of centralization, notably in respect of finance and staffing, but within a tightly constrained curriculum and inspection framework. The paper discusses…