Focus is shifting from individualized to collective learning for teachers, but many schools struggle to structure and enhance collective professional learning. This interview study aims to explore possibilities for and barriers to leading collective professional learning in school by studying teachers' and principals' perspectives on how school…

The mobilization of teacher leadership, simultaneous decentralization of power, and centralization of support for teacher-led initiatives is seen as important to educational improvement in post-Soviet Kazakhstan where hierarchical cultures and structures still prevail. The current study reports on results from the Teacher Leadership in Kazakhstan…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school principals' instructional leadership and collaborative culture in schools. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 382 teachers. The data were collected through the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) and the School Culture…

In this article, I present the construct of scared leadership as a theoretical explanation for the gradual decrease in courageous behavior as educators move from the classroom to campus and district level leadership. Scared leadership is a construct that can be used in future work to better understand and articulate the relationship between fear…

Institutional progress, stability, and viability require a firmly established culture, through which the distinguishing features of enduring school traditions, customs and practices remain congruent with existing educational demands. This phenomenological inquiry attempts to explore the individual and collective lived experiences of thirteen (13)…

Teacher leaders, despite their significant contributions to schools, are often undervalued and underutilized. Even with increased interest in the literature over the past few decades, there remains a lack of empirical studies, especially on informal teacher leaders who remain full-time classroom teachers while taking on extra duties. In light of…

This article deepens the knowledge of practices within school cultures and their dynamics in relation to improvement work. It investigates: Which practices can be identified in school improvement among principals at upper secondary school level? How are these practices shaped? How do they promote or prevent the improvement work of the principals?…

In this study, the relationships between school principals' social-emotional education leadership, and teachers' organizational trust and job performance are examined according to the teachers' perceptions. For this purpose the study was designed in correlational survey model. The sampling group was 215 teachers working in 14 different secondary…

This qualitative study explores school principals' perceptions and enactments of shared sense-making processes during a generally-outlined pedagogical reform, i.e. "a broad-policy reform allowing educators to exercise their discretion in meeting its pedagogical goals," aiming to inquire what makes such processes critical to schools'…

This essay argues for the utility of a sociohistorical theoretical perspective on culture and agency in the analysis of context-specific educational leadership. First, we review literature that addressed the importance of context, frameworks that richly described context, and we discuss research that purposefully documented principals'…

Despite the breadth of literature on destructive leadership styles and its impact on organizational culture, mission, and people, there has been sparse research specifically looking at toxic leadership, a more complex and comprehensive destructive leadership style in college/university settings. With the introduction of the term 'toxic leadership'…

This study sought to examine the role of organizational legitimacy and ethical leadership in organizational hypocrisy, as well as to better understand its potential consequences in the school environment. The causal relations of organizational legitimacy, ethical leadership, organizational hypocrisy, and perceived work-related outcomes…

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the solitude as an inherent feeling in the management practice; a sentiment that has not been paid enough attention in studies of school leadership. To perform this analysis, it is necessary to understand the school management as an "action" and not just as a function. From this initial…

This article aims to report on the barriers experienced by HODs in executing their curriculum leadership roles within the theoretical framework of human capital theory (HCT). The research followed a qualitative, phenomenological approach underpinned by an interpretative paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to select n = 12 HOD participants due to…

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…