Lutheran schools transform students, families, congregations, and communities. While effective school leadership is crucial for this potential transformation, the difficulties of school leadership continue to increase. Leaders of Christian schools face challenges unique to the parochial context. The purpose of this study was to explore how…

Previous studies suggest that small rural schools experience a range of challenges relating to their size, financial difficulties and geographical isolation, as well as potential opportunities relating to their position within their communities. In Northern Ireland, these schools are situated within the comparatively rare context of a religiously…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of pupils and teachers within two primary school Shared Education partnerships in Northern Ireland; in particular, how intergroup contact is experienced within such contexts. A comparative, instrumental case study design was employed, which included document review, observation of Shared…

The importance of K-12 school leadership for student learning, teacher recruitment and retention, and school culture is well documented by research. Furthermore, there are compelling reasons for examining the connection between faith and educational leadership practice, a connection which should yield distinctive practices in faith-based schools.…

Background: Integrated schools were established in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s. With an explicit intention to build better relations between Catholics and Protestants, it has an intuitive appeal in a society which has long experienced sectarian division. Whilst the sector has attracted considerable research, less is understood about how…

This article explores policy and practice in relation to support for speakers of community languages in Northern Ireland primary schools against the backdrop of the broader UK context, with reference also to the Republic of Ireland and wider European and international experiences. After an initial discussion of the educational, social and…

Inclusion is increasingly understood as an educational reform that responds to the diversity of all learners, challenging the marginalisation, exclusion and underachievement which may result from all forms of "difference". Leadership for inclusion is conceptualised here as driving a constant struggle to create shared meanings of…

The problem identified in this quantitative descriptive study is that many Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Lutheran Elementary Schools (WELS LES) are not adequately prepared to teach all students with special needs. The purpose of the study was to identify principals' perceptions of, and potential barriers to, the successful implementation of…