To afford school middle leaders meaningful opportunities to initiate change, we must provide them with the space and flexibility to engage with agentic and creative responses to policy and practice. Whilst we argue that the tensions identified in Bennett's seminal reviews persist, there may, nonetheless, be opportunities for school middle leaders…

Addressing early career school leader attrition and turnover, education systems assign mentors to ease novice principals' socialization, but results are varied and many mechanisms of this variance are still unexplained. To fill gaps in the literature, different mentor profiles were typified. Fifty-six mentor and mentee interviews were thematically…

Deriving from the social exchange theory, this study proposes a parallel mediation model where job autonomy and trust in school principal were underlying mechanisms through which transformational leadership affects teacher work performance. I propose that the leader provides job autonomy and builds trust among the teachers, that in turn influences…

The articulation of school autonomy into practice nationally, regionally and locally is highly situated in terms of what it enables or impedes with regard to the professional autonomy of principals and teachers. Principal autonomy does not necessarily mean greater teacher professional autonomy. In this paper, we draw on a three-year qualitative…

This paper examines the effects of instructional leadership on the change in teachers' classroom practices, with the mediating role of shared practice and learning effectiveness. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design, using quantitative methods. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the…

The manner in which perceived principal distributed leadership affects teachers' professional agency remains ambiguous in Oman. The study aimed to explore the effect of distributed leadership on teacher agency through teacher reflection. In the cross-sectional study, survey data were gathered from 1095 teachers in 58 middle and secondary schools…

Introduced in England in 2011, the pupil premium policy was an ambitious reform aimed at tackling the persistent attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers. The policy provides school leaders with the professional autonomy to determine how pupil premium funding should be used. This article examines the…

The present study explores the effect of teachers' authentic leadership in second chance programmes on students' psychological need satisfaction climate (according to self-determination theory), and the manner in which teachers' gender moderates this effect. Data collected from 60 teachers and 183 students in second chance programmes in Israel…

Research has revealed that appropriate school leadership practices can positively support and promote teacher learning. This study examines the influences of Learning-Centered Leadership upon Teacher Agency, Trust and professional learning in a Kuwaiti context. Following results from recent empirical research, this study tested a model of…

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…

This study investigated the relationship between principals' leadership styles and secondary school teachers' job performance in Edo Central Senatorial District, Nigeria. A correlational design was adopted for the study. Two adapted questionnaires titled "Principals' Leadership Style Questionnaire" (PLESQUE) and "Teachers' Job…

In early childhood education, the concept of distributed leadership has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding leadership as well as a normative guide for what leadership should be. The concept originates in Peter Gronn's work, where it is positioned as overcoming the structure-agency debate, which is a foundational question in the…

Currently, the challenges deriving from the complex and dynamic socio-political context in Hong Kong influence principals' and teachers' relationships and interactions. Academic autonomy in Hong Kong secondary schools is not simply granted by the principals, it is influenced by the society, school conditions and key stakeholders. This study…

This article draws on the findings of an in-depth study which sought to explore the career histories and professional aspirations of 12 women deputy head teachers in England. In view of the ongoing underrepresentation of women in secondary headship and the scarcity of literature focusing solely on deputy heads, the study aimed to gain an insight…

Purpose: This paper presents a study on how professional learning communities (PLC) are developed in an Asian setting, and the nature of leadership that helped to cultivate and sustain PLC in this setting. Research Method: The study adopted a sequential mixed method, starting with a survey followed by qualitative case studies, involving focused…