This article aims to report on research that explored the role of perceptions of Directors of Religious Studies (DRSs) in Catholic secondary schools in the Hamilton Diocese, Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ). The DRS position was established to preserve the Catholic special character of these schools after integration with the state education system with…

This paper traverses changes in perceptions of the school principal's role, from sole to distributed leadership practices. A brief commentary on selected New Zealand literature is followed by a case study of a secondary co-principalship that identifies adaptive strategies and success factors in this joint role. The potentiality of the national…

Effective school leadership is widely acknowledged as having a positive impact on student achievement. However, there appears to be no deliberate process to sustain New Zealand principals' effectiveness throughout their careers. This article discusses the views of current and former New Zealand secondary school principals about their complex role…

School principals were required to engage in crisis leadership throughout New Zealand's first COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown that began in March 2020. Eighteen school principals from a range of secondary schools were interviewed about their experiences and the findings of this study are discussed in relation to the leadership capability framework…

The importance of the principal's role in improving student learning outcomes has been acknowledged, however, there is global concern about the availability of appropriate professional learning for principals. This article explores the impact on host principals of a shadowing and mentoring intervention designed to prepare New Zealand aspiring…

Purpose: The New Zealand Ministry of Education identified that teachers need to be confident they have the support of their school management team before they embrace twenty-first century teaching and learning in enterprise education (Ministry of Education, 2013b). The purpose of this paper is to outline an interpretive case study which…

The role of middle leaders in New Zealand secondary schools is a complex one, fraught with many challenges. Educational reforms that began in the 1980s have increased pressure on top-level educational leaders, resulting in the delegation of responsibilities to other levels in the school hierarchy, with a considerable intensification of management…

The Private Schools Conditional Integration Act (PSCI Act) of 1975 in New Zealand reinvigorated a Catholic education system, on the verge of financial collapse. This enacted legislation required Catholic authorities to develop and maintain the "Special Character" of the school. Financial or State aid is dependent on each school's ability…

This paper explores the interplay of control and trust in a cross-national and cross-cultural professional development course. It examines the differing expectations of the overseas high-ranked education officials who were the students and of the course teachers, particularly in terms of: approaches to control of content and of interpersonal…

Since the enactment of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act in New Zealand in 1975, leadership in Catholic schools has become increasingly complex. Under the legislation Catholic schools are required to develop and maintain their "Special Character." The Director of Religious Studies (DRS) has become the position with a key…

This report presents the main findings from the NZCER national survey of primary and intermediate schools, conducted in July and August 2013. It reports on the views of principals, teachers, boards of trustees and parents. It covers many aspects of school experience, including school resources, school interactions with government agencies, the…

This paper reports on the findings of a case study that investigated how blended teaching and learning was implemented in a New Zealand secondary school. An ecological perspective was taken to clarify the complexity of blended teaching and learning implementation by researching the roles of students, teachers, school leaders and other educational…

This is a powerful critique of two decades of educational reform in New Zealand, from an educator who was deeply involved. It is also a provocative call for action. Bali Haque has been both a secondary school principal required to implement reform and a senior public servant in the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) tasked with pushing…

This project aimed to identify a variety of literacy-teaching approaches that could be used in secondary content-area classrooms to improve the achievement of a wide range of students. Specifically, the project aimed to investigate: (1) literacy and the extent to which a focus on improved teacher knowledge and practice would lead to increases in…