Purpose: Diocesan systems of Catholic schools in the USA have been trying to make urban elementary schools more sustainable in an era of declining enrollment. This paper sought to better understand how system and school leaders conceptualize what it takes to "sustain the legacy" of these schools. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted…

Purpose: School principals are increasingly responsible for acting as instructional leaders, but research on data teams typically considers principals as secondary players responsible for ensuring that meetings occur but not necessarily for their quality. We investigated how elementary school principals in one district committed to data use…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the relationship between leadership self-efficacy and the decision to be a school principal and the mediating effects of motivation-to-lead and worries-about-leadership in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 375 teachers working in public high schools in Ankara, Türkiye participated in…

Purpose: The importance of teacher leadership in enhancing school outcomes is recognized, but there remains a scarcity of research addressing the conditions for principals to nurture such leadership. This study examined how school contextual factors, i.e. faculty trust and academic emphasis, moderate the impact of principals' distributed…

Purpose: This paper presents a case study of successful rural school leadership in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices were adapted to secure rural school success. Design/methodology/approach: The author used the International Successful School Principalship Project research protocols to…

Purpose: Research shows data-informed leadership matters for school improvement and student achievement, but less is known about what motivates leaders' data use toward such outcomes, particularly in the Catholic school context. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative interview study uses interview (n = 23) data from a sample of Catholic…

Purpose: This study explored the relationships between principals' distributed leadership, school organisational culture and the effectiveness of school innovation management. A questionnaire was administered to gather data from public junior high school teachers in Taiwan. Design/methodology/approach: Using the stratified random sampling method,…

Purpose: Principal instructional leadership and teacher participation in decision-making are conceptualized as shared instructional leadership (SIL) -- a management philosophy that positively impacts student academic performance. However, the statistically meaningful relationship between SIL and student performance remains controversial as SIL…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore successful school principalship in Cyprus based on a ten-year research project, and in particular, by analysing leadership knowledge based on concrete actions of successful school principals derived from multiple case studies from the primary and secondary education sectors in Cyprus.…

Purpose: School improvement planning and implementation is one organizational process by which principals may positively impact school and student outcomes. Limited research, however, has explored how principal preparation programs prepare aspiring leaders for this common school leadership activity. This study examined aspiring principals engaged…

Purpose: Studies have shown that teachers' perceptions and expectations of their working environment shape their perceived stress. The present study draws upon implicit leadership theory and builds on the job demands-control (JD-C) model to investigate whether there are differences in the implications of participative decision-making and…

Purpose: Public interests and concerns often create dilemmas for school principals. As such moral dilemmas are the case for schools as places marked by social, economic, cultural and political diversity. The purpose of this paper is to look at how Appalachian school leaders use moral literacy to make decisions when facing ethical issues?…

Purpose: Chile has developed the school improvement networks (SINs) strategy to support the work of school leaders. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the functioning and effect of the SINs strategy as perceived by principals and curriculum coordinators across the country. Design/methodology/approach: An adapted version of the Educational…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how school leaders use high-stakes teacher evaluation to improve and, if necessary, remove low-performing teachers in their schools. It explores how cognitive, relational and organizational factors play a role in shaping the way school leaders implement teacher evaluation.…