This investigation concerns school leaders' perceptions regarding the efficacy of a leadership development initiative implemented across schools in the North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Based on an Alberta school improvement process, the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement sought to achieve leadership development and…

The focus of this paper lies in our special interest in women leaders and those aspiring to leadership positions in schools and other educational contexts within Australia. Leadership is a gendered concept, and due to a myriad of factors including conscious and unconscious bias, and the challenges of balancing career with other life commitment,…

While shadowing as a method has been analysed and discussed, these discussions have often been focused on (business) management research as opposed to school leadership research. Additionally, little attention has so far been paid to the parameters of shadowing. Without knowledge of these matters, the validity, merits and difficulties of shadowing…

Purpose: This research paper explores the perspectives of Australian school principals in the state of New South Wales (NSW) regarding what they believe constitutes "merit" when selecting deputy principals, assistant principals (primary) and head teachers (secondary). Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was utilised to collect…

As COVID-19 unfurled around the world in early 2020, it triggered volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) for school leaders. This study explores the experiences of four school leaders, working in inner Melbourne, Australia, through a VUCA lens, and identifies their perceptions of such contextual disruption. Data were collected…

This article contributes to the limited body of literature pertaining to attempts by educational systems to satisfy the professional learning needs of experienced principals, defined as those with more than 10 years of experience in at least two schools. Specifically, this article illustrates the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia's…

This paper reports on Australian case study research in schools where principals completed the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program. The purpose was to gather data about the effects of PALL on principals' leadership and the impact of interventions in Reading on teaching, student learning, and achievement. Data gathering included…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gather the perspectives of educational leaders in the United States and Australia on strategies for transforming an almost exclusively Westernized curriculum into a curriculum that honors Indigenous worldviews. The research design was exploratory in nature and involved an examination of the ways in…

Effective school leadership preparation has been regarded as desirable if not mandatory in Australia and globally for decades. Schools and school systems, higher education institutions and education jurisdictions have attempted with varying degrees of success to encourage teachers aspiring to become principals to prepare well for the complex role…

This paper provides a review of school leadership preparation and development in Australia through considering the requirements for becoming a principal, how leadership preparation and development occurs, and consideration of recent developments to provide an Australian standard for school leaders. Australian educators have relied mostly on a…

The starting point for this article is the lack of a robust research base regarding details of what works and why for school leaders' professional development. The article extends work undertaken for a recent commissioned literature review of selected international reports on supporting school leaders' development strategies. The authors reveal…

In this paper will be analysed three different educational contexts for preparing school principals such as Australia, England and the United States. This study analyses the professional development of academic leadership in the countries previously mentioned in order to apply the successful aspects to the Chilean education system, a system…

In 2011 to 2012, 48 schools in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland participated in the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. Central to this project was the establishment of positive working relationships between school principals and Indigenous community leaders in order to improve…

The staffing of rural, remote and isolated schools remains a significant issue of concern in Australian education. In this paper we provide a comprehensive account of the Australian research related to the staffing of rural schools post 2004. The review identifies the overarching themes of the opportunities and challenges of staffing rural…

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small pilot study in which an heuristic was used to enable principals to reflect on the confidence they have in their existing leadership knowledge and how they might add to that knowledge in the future. The motivation for the study arose from a literature review of strategies for leadership development…