rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practicehttps://sciendo.com/journal/JELPPhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/647215ad215d2f6c89dbb59e/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/JELPP140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-0011<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Long Bay College places a strong emphasis on effective change leadership and trust to foster a responsive and innovative teaching environment. Founded in 1975 into what was then a rural area, the College now serves approximately 1,800 students in a suburban setting. By embracing the autonomy granted by New Zealand’s 1989 Tomorrow’s Schools reform, the school has cultivated a dynamic approach to education. In 2019, the school’s Board of Trustees and staff committed to continuous professional development, leading to the creation of the “Tino Akoranga” approach to teaching and learning. This approach centres on personalised, research-informed education, cultural responsiveness, and cognitive science considerations, all within a framework that prioritises professional learning. To support exceptional teaching and learning, Long Bay College emphasises trust-based classroom observations and collaborative post observation conversations under the “Mahi Tahi” initiative. This initiative seeks to normalise peer observations and discussions, enhancing teaching practices on a foundation of trust, professional safety and collaboration.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-00112024-12-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-0012<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper relates Indigenous Peoples’ moral philosophies to modern Western ethical thinking that is evident in leading contemporary theories of educative leadership. It introduces Indigenous ethics in general and explains the philosophical research methodology used. It then reports Celtic, Māori, North American Indian and Canadian First Nations, Australian Aboriginal and Emirati ethical frameworks in greater detail and relates them to modern Western ethics prominent in contemporary theories of transformational, instructional, distributed, and ethical leadership. It finds that Indigenous philosophies emphasise the interconnectedness of humans and nature, spirituality in ethical decision-making, and collectivism, while Western frameworks often prioritise individualism and separate the spiritual from the secular. It suggests that leaders consider incorporating Indigenous perspectives on sustainability, social responsibility, and spirituality into curricula and educational practices, promoting global citizenship and ethical awareness. This will entail recognising customary laws and traditions, supporting decolonisation efforts, and ensuring accurate representation of Indigenous knowledge. By fostering mutual respect and understanding of diverse ethical traditions, educative leaders can create more inclusive, equitable educational environments that value the contributions of both Indigenous and Western moral philosophies.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-00122024-12-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-0010<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Five early childhood teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand explored a range of literature to respond to the question: What does literature tell us about Māori leadership and how are our findings relevant to leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa? The process of finding and reviewing literature sources about Māori leadership led us to think critically about how Māori values, concepts, and customs have been diminished or sustained in fields such as education and business. ECE in Aotearoa is shaped by the bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki and underpinned by obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Although education and leadership structures and processes in Aotearoa are overwhelmingly produced within Westernised perspectives, ECE curriculum and practice foregrounds Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing. Through the literature review process, we shared insights and critical discussions that enriched our perceptions of leadership by and for Māori, and of relevance to ECE leadership through shared values. The literature reviewed provided examples from education and business settings where Māori leadership grounded in values of whanaungatanga/reciprocal relationality originating in Māori traditional beliefs and societal structures has been sustained, remembered, and reclaimed through processes of navigating and negotiating present-day colonised contexts. Literature also provided examples of official programmes and policies that seek to acknowledge and enhance Māori leadership in education.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-00102024-12-08T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Leadership for social justice is a goal and a challenge for the National Pedagogical University (UPN) in Mexico City. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of UPN directors in the context of leadership for social justice. The focus of the study is on those who are responsible for preparation and continuous training of teachers (García, 2006; Jiménez, 2009). The research design was qualitative based on subjective interpretation from the meanings generated by the participants (Bisquerra, 2014). It describes and analyses the experiences of five directors of school units through in-depth interviews where both the person and the environment are of interest.</p> <p>The findings were reported in the voices of the directors. Supportive factors included teamwork through building consensus and recognition of achievements, commitment to students, and critical awareness. The obstacles to leadership included the quality of facilities, vertical management, job uncertainty, the challenging profile of the students, and inter-institutional relations. This study of leadership of directors of UPN has the potential to strengthen the management of the UPN school units and enhance institutional objectives to promote inclusion and guarantee the right to education. It also has implications for the study of social justice leadership in other educational contexts.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-00092024-12-08T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This policy-interested South Australian public education case study problematises how the Chief Executive (CE) and members of the Education Department’s Senior Executive Group (SEG) understood system and school improvement from 2018 to 2022. We applied Carol Bacchi’s, “What’s the Problem Represented to be?”(WPR) policy analysis framework to unearth the policy assumptions underlying the Department’s overarching policy ensemble called “World Class,” initiated across South Australia’s public primary and secondary schools. WPR reveals heightened centralised technologies of command and control directed at teacher and leader work to achieve McKinsey defined World Class status by 2028.</p> <p>We find school improvement policy solutions were engineered through “managerially enforced complexity reduction” techniques within the paradigm of the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM). These techniques impacted policy prescriptions, performance management technologies, school improvement plans, curriculum materials for schools, and promoted NAPLAN as the ultimate measure of the good school, the good teacher, and the good principal. NAPLAN is the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy used in Australia and takes the form of an annual standardised assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.</p> <p>Most concerningly, we find the policy logics of World Class worked to incentivise inequality across public schools through diminishing the purposes of public education and the professionalism of educators. We conclude arguing for the democratisation of existing departmental structures within iterative inquiry-based approaches to policy formation and practice to better attend to public education purposes.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00082024-08-01T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The purpose of this study is to examine the network effect of school principals as it relates to school improvement. Network practices of school principals are compared to an innovative practice for improving networking practices. Through descriptive statistics and chi-square goodness of fit, we illustrate the difference between what school principals do concerning their networking practices for school improvement compared to an innovative ideal approach for using network working for school improvement. Findings indicate there is a statistically significant difference between school principals’ networking practices in comparison to ideal networking practices for school improvement. There are also differences between who school principals seek out for ideas and who they seek out for feedback concerning their school improvements. Further discussion informs how the next generation of school principals can be equipped with innovative skills for tackling 21st-century school improvement issues.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2024-00012024-08-01T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>A network professional learning community (PLC) is characterised by a non-hierarchical approach to professional learning. Members are supported to engage and to learn when leadership is distributed across a network PLC. The mixed methods study reported here was designed to examine how a network PLC could effectively improve visual arts pedagogy in early childhood education (ECE) settings. The design and analysis were considered through a lens of distributed leadership. The research had two main stages, a nationwide survey and an embedded case study. The case study findings demonstrated the possibilities of a network PLC approach to foster distributed leadership across PLC members, the facilitator, ECE teams and leaders; participants successfully shared and applied new learning and improved pedagogy for visual arts learning. Overall, this study suggests that leadership is a critical aspect of the network PLC approach, and that attention should be paid to distributed leadership and to the role of the positional leaders in supporting the application of learning from a network PLC to education settings.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00052023-12-31T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Research into leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand is in its infancy. At this early stage, distributed leadership has been identified as the most common style of leadership used in teacher-led early childhood education and care services. However, as a parent-led early childhood education service, Playcentre uses emergent leadership. Currently, professional development opportunities on leadership in early childhood education are geared towards teacher-led services. Therefore, how can a parent who has experienced emergent leadership identify the leadership skills gained that will form part of their professional practice when they return to paid work? This enquiry uses Te Whāriki as a leadership framework for reflecting on leadership skills gained through Playcentre. An autoethnographic case study method was employed to explore this framework in the context of the leadership skills that I gained while working at Playcentre over a 16–year period. The enquiry concluded that combining Te Whāriki with the early childhood education assessment for learning framework provides a matrix for examining leadership practice, as well as a way of developing insights into personal leadership practices. The use of the matrix provides scope for Playcentre leaders and other early childhood education leaders to reflect and gain insight into their leadership and for developing their own leadership framework of practice.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00062023-12-31T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Recent data shows a continuing trend of gender disparity in leadership positions in tertiary education in New Zealand with men dominating higher levels of employment and advancing at faster rates than women. This study explored the experiences of six academic women who have advanced to leadership roles in New Zealand to examine the role that gender plays in their career progression. It found a range of gendered experiences including negative incidents of sexism and obstacles to advancing. There were also stories of positive experiences of supportive work environments and initiatives such as mentoring that have aided them to gain leadership positions. Participants recognised the complexity of gender issues acknowledging the range of factors and perceptions that influence their experiences in academia.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00042023-08-25T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This qualitative study focuses on the intersectionality of race and rurality by looking at the responses of Wyoming principals and superintendents to the issues of diversity and social justice within Wyoming. The responses are presented and analyzed through a new framework called Cowboy Epistemology, and the Cultural Competency Continuum (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jelpp-2023-0003_ref_018">Lindsey et al., 2009</xref>). It appears that despite double-digit increases in diversity between 2010 and 2018, some Wyoming school and district administrators continue to demonstrate actions and practices congruent with the demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness along with cultural worldviews that suggest a failure to: (1) value diversity, (2) engage political organizations and individuals in a manner that advocates for the needs of diverse students, (3) implement multicultural instruction beyond superficial means, and (4) engage the community in tolerance for others who are different from the traditional White Wyoming ranching, conservative, materials extraction, isolationist way of life. While outliers and standards for social justice and diversity exist in Wyoming among and for administrators, more needs to be done to prepare and train administrators to engage in culturally proficient and sustaining instructional leadership so that administrators can serve all students, engage in community leadership, and resist the negative influences of Cowboy Epistemology, demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness. Chief among the more needs to be done for Wyoming administrators is the adoption of culturally responsive school and culturally sustaining instructional leadership practices and training on the culturally proficient continuum.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00032023-08-25T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Storying family experiences provides a means to explore and support leader identity development. The idea of recalling and reflecting on stories about and from families can surface how orientations to lead are learned early on in life. We report on students’ narratives generated during a postgraduate early childhood education leadership course to understand the significance of family storytelling in leader identity development and the awakenings this process encouraged for those involved. Using <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jelpp-2023-0002_ref_019">McCain and Matkin’s (2019)</xref> concept of retrospective storytelling, narrative inquiry underpinned our analysis of students’ family-oriented stories and the identification of two themes regarding their orientation to leadership: the influence of families’ hardships, work ethic and selfless actions; and the expectations associated with being the first-born in the family and the assumed responsibilities. Our findings affirm the transformative potential of selecting, telling, and reflecting on family stories to both understand the roots of leadership motivations and develop leader identities. Implications include promoting a narrative-based pedagogy for leadership development that centres on postgraduate students’ retrospective storying of family experiences.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00022023-05-04T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Informed by an adaption of the tri-level reform framework, we collaborated with a First Nation district student assessment committee, school principals, and district personnel to develop a student assessment policy. Through a series of workshops and meetings with school administrators and classroom teachers from Tsuut’ina Nation, located in southern Alberta, Canada, we created an assessment, evaluation, and reporting policy aligned to Tsuut’ina fundamental values, provincial priorities, and best practices in student assessment. Teaching practices that are aligned to the three educational pillars of learner outcomes, instruction, and assessment, as well as the Tsuut’ina fundamental values, have the potential to impact the Nation’s student educational success. We discuss implications of this work in relation to collaboration, Indigenous world view, and outcome-based reporting.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2023-00012023-05-04T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper employs critical policy historiography of South Australian public education as a contextual backdrop that speaks to a hermeneutic phenomenological study of the lived experiences of two former public-school principals, who describe how their ongoing social justice schooling agendas in public education met with considerable departmental resistance. Both resigned at the peak of their public education careers to pursue their schooling vision in the federally funded independent school system which traditionally catered for the wealthy, elite schools and forms the third tier of the complex funding arrangements of education in Australia that has festered for years under the label “the funding wars” (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_jelpp-2021-0005_ref_001">Ashenden, 2016</xref>). Changes to funding arrangements opened up the system and gave the opportunity for our two principals to pursue a public vision in the independent schooling sector, free from what they described as the “shackles” of bureaucratic command and control. The phenomenological essence of their journeyed leadership narratives reveals the <bold>courage to care</bold>, driving their narrative reflections. They perceived that increasing demands of departmental compliance took them away from being able to pursue a socially just vision with autonomy and freedom. Stepping into the uncertainty of their new independent schooling aspirations, the principals <bold>felt</bold> professional relief and <bold>found</bold> real autonomy. We conclude with an exploration of the phenomenological notion of “the courage to care.”</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-00052022-04-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Schools in the 21^st century have grown increasingly complex and government mandates have compounded this complexity as principals have looked beyond their school to embrace stakeholders and authorities who view education from myriad perspectives. This qualitative case study examined the personal perspectives of leaders, reflecting upon their transition from organisational governance change through the formation of a multi-academy trust. Findings revealed that while the creation of a new school system offered school leaders opportunities for interorganisational transfers and promotions, the internal transition experienced was unexpected and often unaddressed. Leaders expressed their difficulty in reconciling their desire to address the needs of the schools and community through consolidation while maintaining their own health as an individual leader. Findings from this study offer lessons in the importance of examining change both within the organisation through a personal lens as well as an external lens.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-00032022-04-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In Tanzania, many qualified and capable women teachers are not involved in decision making despite the fact that the Tanzania government has affirmed the promotion of women's participation in the decision-making process. Even those few who are in leadership still face obstacles and challenges especially in a rural context. This paper examines the challenges women leaders face and identifies the coping strategies they use to overcome the challenges in Community Secondary Schools (CSSs) in rural Tanzania. The study involved heads of schools, teachers, the Regional Educational Officer (REO) and the District Education Officer (DEO). Data were obtained through interviews and focus group discussions. The findings reveal that women face multi-level challenges with respect to family, society and the education system, most of which arise from early socialisation. Women leaders work in a patriarchal society that does not accept them due to their sex/femininity and there is a lack of trust from their spouses when they execute leadership roles. It was also observed that women leaders face challenges posed by witchcraft and superstition issues in the rural context. In confronting these challenges, women leaders identified cooperation with staff and the community, sharing challenges with experienced leaders, and being creative as useful coping strategies. The study recommends a number of measures for overcoming such challenges at society, organisational and government levels.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jelpp-2021-00042022-04-13T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2021-001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Whilst extensive research has been undertaken concerning educational leadership and management, there is a paucity of scholarship regarding the merit-selection of school leaders other than principals. This is especially true of principal-led merit selection panels convened to recruit middle-level school leaders, namely deputy principals, assistant principals and head teachers. Meritocratic discourse holds that merit-based selection should, ostensibly be an objective, fair and equitable process enabling applicants to compete on a level playing field via a comparative assessment of their capabilities, talents and attitudes. This paper explores the extent to which government school principals in the state of New South Wales Australia, consider the school-based merit selection process they lead is objective and bias-free. Hence, the findings reported here reveal that despite the New South Wales Department of Education (NSWDE) promulgating the primacy of merit in its school-based selection paradigm, non-merit variables (factors having little to do with merit) exert considerable influence over the appointment decisions made by NSWDE principals when assembling their respective school leadership teams.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2021-0012021-04-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2021-002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>New Zealand secondary school principals were required to make changes to their leadership practices when schools were closed as part of a national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 situation in early 2020. Eighteen school principals from a range of secondary schools were interviewed about their experiences. The research found that principals engaged in leadership that was relational, distributed and collaborative. They prioritised the wellbeing of teachers and students, responded flexibly to the challenges faced, drew on expertise from both within and outside of the school, and took opportunities to refocus and try new ways of working.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2021-0022021-04-23T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-007<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>In this article I reflect on research relating to school leadership and the use of research to support school leadership over the last 30 years in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms in 1989 wth its shift to school self-management saw more interest in understanding the size and nature of the principal role. More recently there has been interest among policymakers in using research to support effective school leadership, and revived attention to the place of school leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system.</p><p>This article is also intended to provide future Aotearoa New Zealand researchers into school leadership with some references they can use to chart how things change if new policy settings and supports for school leadership are introduced as a result of the Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce’s recommendations.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-0072020-11-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>The contexts in which Aotearoa New Zealand leaders learn and work have improved in some respects from 30 years ago and deteriorated in others. The improvements include a significant shift away from heroic, often dictatorial, models of leadership towards a greater focus on the many layers and types of leadership required for secondary schools to be successful. The deterioration in leaders being able to learn together across our state school system is created by high levels of competition among state secondary schools and by the inability of the Ministry of Education to have as much influence as might be hoped for in a state education system on the learning – by adults as well as children – in schools. In many parts of the country non- Māori school leaders now have the ability to know much more about hapu and iwi history relevant to their setting than was the case 30 years ago, including through the work of the Waitangi Tribunal.</p><p>The “balkanisation” of our school system has become more pronounced over the last 30 years, as have the challenges resulting from the growing socio-economic divide between our poorest state schools and our most affluent. The “hands-off” approach from the Ministry of Education and successive governments regarding school zones has damaged the integrity and efficiency of our state school system. Several bitter pay disputes between governments of the day and the secondary teachers’ union, the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) especially, have meant that shared commitments by teachers’ representatives and the Ministry of Education to plan well for teacher supply for our state secondary schools have been difficult to achieve. Teacher supply challenges have added to the pressures on senior and middle leaders of the state schools serving our lowest socio-economic communities especially.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-0042020-11-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-008<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title><p>Leadership is now promoted as the sine qua non (essential ingredient) for maintaining and developing effective education in New Zealand. It was not this way in the latter years of the 1980s and through the 1990s, when educational management was the preferred nomenclature. Since the turn of the millennium, management has subsided into the shadows of leadership in New Zealand education as part of a global shift in the education policy lexicon and the Educational Management, Administration and Leadership (EMAL) field. Rather than argue whether leadership should be preferred over management, or vice versa, this article focuses on the rise of leadership in New Zealand education over the last 30 years.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/jelpp-2020-0082020-11-19T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1