Purpose: The article asserts that systems thinking and its concurrent organizational processes are central organizing structures in schools, yet "hide in plain sight" and are therefore underexplored and underutilized in leadership theorizing. Design/methodology/approach: By exploring the theoretical literature concerning school…

Purpose: The role of leadership through senior management teams (SMT) has received increasing attention over the past several decades. Such leadership requires principals to play a key role in promoting SMT effectiveness. Therefore, according to the input-mediator-outcome model (Ilgen et al., 2005), this study's purpose is to investigate the…

Purpose: While educational infrastructure is consistently identified as a key lever for educational change, it is often overlooked in research and practice and specifically in relation to technology in schools. By using educational infrastructure as a lens to examine a group of districts' implementation of 1:1 programs, this work provides…

Purpose: Today's educational complexities require principals to adopt a more systemic perspective toward school management. Although research has emphasized the benefits associated with the holistic perspective of systems thinking, research in the educational field has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of…

Purpose: Research on principal supervisors (PSs) is an emerging field, and principal supervision for racial equity has not yet been studied or theorized. Conducted in partnership with practicing district leaders, the purpose of this paper is to examine current PS leadership in three districts at various points of engagement in equitable leadership…

Purpose: Relying on information processing and attribution theories, which relate to the formation of leadership perceptions and attributes, the current study seeks to examine the relationship between demographic variables and principals' systems thinking (PST) in an integrated model. The present study purpose was threefold: first, the study seeks…

Purpose: Most education systems were not initially designed to include students with disabilities. However, over the past 25 years, great strives have been taken to ensure students with disabilities have access to the general education classroom and to important social, emotional and academic opportunities. Within the USA, researchers have begun…

Purpose: Through description and consideration of 12 models developed as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), a new model of successful school leadership is developed. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is necessarily descriptive in nature. For the first time, 12 ISSPP models are described together, and…

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to honor, position and reflect on key themes related to high school reform within the careerlong scholarship of Karen Seashore Louis. It is presented in relation to my own and others' key studies and book-length arguments regarding educational change, knowledge utilization, professional communities and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how leaders within a school district system understand their own and others' leadership positions from the perspectives of systems thinking and systems thinking skills. Design/methodology/approach: The findings are based on interviews with superintendents, area managers (deputy superintendents),…

Purpose: Education is a key institution of modern society, long recognized for its central role in the reproduction of inequities and with the potential to challenge them. Schools behave as their systems are designed. Achieving equity and excellence is not possible through attempts to fix "the school" or educators. Principles of systemic…

Purpose: Through discussion of research about the leadership of two schools, this paper explores the complexity of school leadership and how various contextual elements interact with the work of principals in schools that are attempting to create inclusive, rich, worthwhile and unique schools. A systems thinking leadership and context model is…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics and practices of principals in four successful Singapore primary schools. Design/Methodology/Approach: Multiple perspective case studies were used which included semi-structured interviews with the principal, teaching and non-teaching staff, students, parents and school board…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical reflection on ideas that have been published in the "Journal of Educational Administration" over the last 50 years that present perspectives on the nature of educational administration and its various aspects, that are alternatives to the mainstream systems-scientific view of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how effective school principals use systems thinking, aiming to present the systems school leadership (SSL) approach -- an approach where principals lead schools through the systems thinking concept and procedures. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 28 Israeli school principals, selected…