What is successful leadership and how can leadership concepts be applied to schools? Hundreds of books and articles and a plethora of executive seminars describe what leadership is and propose strategies for what effective leaders do. Most of these writings and presentations, however, focus on business, with much less information available about…

Given the importance of moving diversity agendas forward nationally and the lack of understanding about how to address the politics that almost always emerge when institutionalizing a diversity initiative, the author examined the method by which college presidents handled the politics related to moving a diversity agenda forward. She focused on…

Purpose: As they operate in complex schools principals must allocate their attention to numerous responsibilities. This paper seeks to ask three questions: how do principals allocate their attention across major realms of responsibility; to what extent do principals in different contexts emphasize different realms of responsibility; and to what…

This article is concerned with the sustained peace education initiative of integrated schooling and in particular with leadership responses to cultural diversity. Using a case study group of principals of integrated (mixed Catholic, Protestant and other) schools in Northern Ireland, the author explores how principals perceive and lead their…

There is growing evidence that, of all school resources, teachers have the largest impact on student achievement. Principals arguably play the most important role in ensuring that excellent teaching occurs in their school. How principals hire teachers, assign them to specific positions, evaluate them, and provide growth opportunities for them…

Teachers' perceptions of their school leaders influence student achievement in their schools. The extent of this influence is examined in this study. This quantitative study examined teachers' perceptions of the leadership style of their principals as transformational, transactional or passive-avoidant in improving and non-improving schools in…

Holding closed sessions in school board meetings to reach major policy decisions is generally discouraged; but, school boards occasionally use this tactic if conflict and tension arise. Therefore, the questions of "how often does a Board of Education encounter conflict and tension" and "how is the decision made to schedule a closed session to…

Discourses within the UK Labour government's welfare policy agenda have consistently featured a reformulation of programmatic governance away from both centralised hierarchies and neo-liberal markets to a social policy strategy that highlights a commitment to inclusive partnership working. Significantly, this process of meaningful social…

The problem that compelled this study is one faced by districts across the nation, which is the alignment of district curriculum with state standards and assessments. The Jacobs model of "curriculum mapping" was developed to address these alignment issues. The "Jacobs model" represents a large scale change initiative, and large scale reforms may…

This empirical study examined changes in beginning teachers' pupil control ideologies (PCI). Quantitative analyses were conducted with regard to shifts in PCI that may be associated with internal beliefs about education and with external factors such as mentorship, induction programs, and school leadership style. Follow-up interviews facilitated a…

This paper addresses the challenges associated with defining and conceptualizing leadership amidst the plethora of theoretical constructs and definitions of leadership and proposes a model for developing transcendent servant-leaders. Based on a review of the literature, three categorical levels of leadership are outlined and discussed that…

This paper examines how a classroom designed process of constructing narratives about oneself, a group, and others helps students develop an authentic leadership voice. We begin by describing the theoretical framework behind our paper, which includes an overview of the notion of authenticity and the linkage between narrative and authentic…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of self disclosure within Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) sessions at Bournemouth University. We consider the role of self disclosure in education contexts in order to inform our understanding of this skill in PAL. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this research to investigate…

The purpose of this study was to investigate forgiveness as a leadership trait. The methodology for this quantitative and qualitative study consisted of electronic surveys and in-depth interviews with elementary and middle school principals. This research explored the effects of revenge and avoidance on school leadership and the possible positive…

The purpose of this study was to broadly examine and analyze gender differences in the leadership styles of Texas public school superintendents by analyzing their subordinates' responses on Bolman and Deal's (1991) Leadership Orientations (Other) survey. Approximately 25% (n = 484) of the high-ranking administrators within the 198 selected school…