Deciding how to spend the nation's education dollars is a tremendous responsibility. It's easy to forget that this responsibility falls primarily to district leaders (sometimes with input from principals). Sometimes those decisions go well and schools beat the odds on student outcomes. Other times, they do not, and student outcomes lag. Sometimes…

Principals' management of curriculum change is critical in successfully implementing transformation in schools. This is particularly crucial in South Africa where the curriculum has been in a constant state of flux since 1994. In this article, we explore principals' experiences on the support they receive in the management of the implementation of…

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to explore the lived experiences of urban secondary principals' understanding of culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) and their perceptions of what was needed to prepare and support culturally responsive leaders in their schools. The problem addressed…

Principal preparation programs face the unique challenge of preparing social justice leaders who are equipped to dismantle the many inequities in K-12 schools. In 2017 California's credential requirements for school administrators (e.g., principals) changed significantly with the adoption of new state standards for administrators and the addition…

With frequent curriculum changes in South Africa since 1994, educational standards and learner performance has been progressing at a slow pace. The role of the principal's instructional leadership come to the fore and we question whether principals are sufficiently equipped with the necessary leadership skills and expertise to lead and manage…

This paper seeks a deeper understanding of how principals strive for instructional leadership with organisational management strategies in China today. Drawing from 116 interviews of district supervisors and school principals from two regions, we first conduct qualitative analysis to map the dimensions and sub-dimensions of Chinese principal…

This article focuses on the prevailing discourse in the enactment of governmental curriculum policy via the leadership practices of school management teams (SMTs). Based on qualitative research in three selected working class schools, the article explores how the working class context positions schools in distinct ways to enact curriculum policy.…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the authority basis of compulsory school principals in Iceland by making a general comparison to the other participating countries in the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, as well as by using Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. The study utilizes data from principals in 48 of…

During as near as three decades after the political changes in Slovakia its system of education has undergone many reforms. As an integral part of them have been changes regarding school autonomy as it influences quality of education. To achieve an optimal model of autonomy offered to schools is very difficult, as appropriate level of autonomy is…

This article reports on a larger mixed-methods study that examined the perspectives of regional teacher supervisors on their emerging roles and practices in a stage of educational reform in Oman. The study was carried out in the Educational Supervision Directorate in Muscat. Two research methods were employed: a survey distributed to 125…

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate school principals' instructional leadership behaviours based on teachers' views. The instructional leadership model developed by Hallinger and Murphy (1985) was used, and the phenomenological design of qualitative research was employed. The participants were 16 teachers working at public schools in…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gather the perspectives of educational leaders in the United States and Australia on strategies for transforming an almost exclusively Westernized curriculum into a curriculum that honors Indigenous worldviews. The research design was exploratory in nature and involved an examination of the ways in…

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools' capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy…

The authors aim to present a case study of a three-year professional development program for school leaders with a specific focus on cultivating curriculum leadership. This program is funded by the Ministry of Education Taiwan and its goal is to empower school leaders' curriculum leadership under the second wave of curriculum reform in Taiwan.…

This paper explores the perceptions and lived experiences of Nepalese educators and stakeholders in relation to the school curriculum and its influence upon student learning in a culturally and ethnically diverse classroom context. The study adopted a qualitative research design using face-to-face semi-structured interviews and focus group…