Our study focused on the leadership strategies of Estonian and Finnish principals aimed at encouraging teachers to participate in school development. We also looked at context-bound factors that form the framework within which principals discuss their work regarding (1) creating a shared vision, (2) implementing shared leadership practices, (3)…

Organizational tasks and processes are preconditions for organizing professional learning teams but are often neglected in research. In nine schools, we examined which organizational tasks and processes were set up for lesson study, a form of a professional learning team, and in what way. Schools set up three organizational tasks and processes:…

Universities in most countries have become more managerial as a consequence of a deliberated concept of collegiality. As one of the most vital assets of the institution, academics play an important role in developing and nurturing collegiality within faculties. This qualitative study explores collegiality expectations of 12 full-time academics.…

The number of international schools has increased significantly this century, with new schools predominately situated in Asia and the Middle East. This growth has also seen a shift from not-for-profit to for-profit education, and from such schools being primarily for children of expatriates to being mainly for host nation children. New actors,…

In educational organizations, the teaching staff has traditionally had a lot of influence on the content of their work and the pedagogy. Within the last two decades, changes in educational organizations can be defined as the shift from this administrative loose coupling toward tight, more managerial coupling. This study utilizes a qualitatively…

The study explored vice-principals' interpretations of their loneliness experiences in the workplace. The following questions guided the research: (1) How do vice-principals perceive the consequences of their loneliness in regard to their personal and professional lives? (2) In what ways do vice-principals perceive that their loneliness…

A significant paradox of school autonomy is that it tends to constrain the autonomy of teachers, instead subjecting them to the increased controlling of their work, heightened monitoring, and greater accountability. This paper draws on interview data to show how teachers in accountability-driven and business-like schools face three different but…

This paper reports on the findings from a quantitative study regarding the correlation between teachers' beliefs about their practices as leaders and the available leadership opportunities in six dimensions: developmental focused, recognition, collegiality, communication, autonomy and positive environment. The data were collected by administering…

This study examines practices relating to four dimensions of leadership development (recruitment and selection, professional learning, autonomy, and evaluation) in Japan. Initial information was drawn from prior literature and websites of the national government (e.g., national legislation, policy documents, and national statistics) and BOEs at…

Shared leadership among school principals and teachers has been touted as a means to enhance student achievement. Using grounded theory, we interviewed six principals and 20 urban elementary school teachers, in Pennsylvania, to examine their perceptions about federal and state mandates on shared leadership. Results indicate that although teachers…

Nowadays, in this rapidly changing environment, organizational learning constitutes a critical component toward school effectiveness. In a transitional period, the Greek nation is going through, as a consequence of a multifaceted and multi-layered crisis, the future of Greece's well-being depends on improving educational performance to boost…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind teachers' negative attitudes about classroom observation. This multiple-case study interviewed five teachers from different private language schools in Iran. The themes emerging from in-depth interviews suggest that the negative attitudes could be related to the observer effect, teacher's…

Department heads are increasingly responsible for instructional leadership. Therefore, it is important to understand the antecedents of self-efficacy in their work, which can motivate them to increase their leadership efforts. Our theoretical model depends on principals' feedback for department heads, department heads' trust in their principals,…

Research has shown that when principals provide teachers with opportunities to participate in meaningful decision-making opportunities, it leads to teachers' feeling a greater sense of ownership and commitment to their profession and school. These positive feelings may in turn improve teachers' job satisfaction. This paper investigates this theory…

In Saudi Arabia, there is an urgent need for good quality professional development for special education teachers, many of whom find this work extremely challenging. Definitions of professionalism often involve quality of practice and the setting of standards, but it is clear that there are wide variations in the implementation of standards in…