Purpose: To explore the insights of adults and children at a New Zealand primary school adopting nonlinear pedagogical approaches to physical education (PE). Methods: This case study was conducted at a single primary school and utilized a qualitative methods design, including interviews or focus groups with the principal, five teachers, and four…

Literature about education in New Zealand and internationally over the past 30 years has increasingly focused on the need for effective school leadership. In New Zealand a major Best Evidence Synthesis study (BES 2009) led to an emphasis on instructional leadership aimed at raising achievement. This emphasis has tended to undervalue management,…

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 with its shift to school self-management saw more interest in understanding the size and nature of the principal role. More recently there…

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…

Effective strategic planning is an integral part of a principal's role, but this is a skill for which many principals are largely unprepared. The Springboard Trust's Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme (SLPP) is a 10-month leadership development programme for principals in New Zealand. Participants must have 2 years of experience as a…

A summary of Carol Mutch's research into the role of schools in disaster response and recovery highlights the expectations that are placed on schools following a crisis. Her research shows that school staff undertake these extra demands willingly and conscientiously, despite the toll that it takes on their own health and wellbeing. In this article…

In this literature review, the authors examined three key areas that were chosen as relevant to the challenges faced by small rural schools, and collaborative practice between schools working in virtual learning environments in New Zealand. The first area was rural education, where definitions of rurality and the demographics and characteristics…

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 teacher workforce could be better prepared to cater to the learning needs of special needs students. The low percentage of teachers reporting a positive impact from their professional development signals that there is more to be done regarding the quality of the training offered in special needs education. Also, allocating more experienced and…

The dual State-Catholic education model that secured the existence of many Catholic schools, especially after the Second Vatican Council, has made the role of principals more complex as they endeavour to balance their religious and educational leadership responsibilities. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the provisions of the Private Schools Conditional…

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…

Natural disasters can happen at any time. The impact they have on students, their families and the teachers relies on strategic and calm leadership by school principals. As schools are situated within communities, principals not only have a role leading within the school, they are also viewed as community leaders. This paper focuses on six New…

This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry's Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful…

This article draws on data from three multicultural New Zealand primary schools to reconceptualize principals' roles as leaders for learning. In doing so, the writers build on Sinnema and Robinson's (2012) article on goal setting in principal evaluation. Sinnema and Robinson found that even principals hand-picked for their experience fell short on…