This paper aims to present two potential instruments that will address the lack of knowledge in regard to the context of students' reality from teaching professionals in a specific school, these being: a local historiography (record of "yesterday"), based on oral history; and a reality inventory (record of "today"), elaborated…

This report focuses on how four high-performing systems of education designed and deliver high-quality leadership development programs for aspiring principals. While these systems have a strategic, system-wide approach that positions programs within the broader continuum of leadership development, this report focuses on programs that prepare…

Students are often required to create work in a vacuum, handing in papers to an inauthentic audience for the purpose of receiving a grade. As a result, students often neglect to consider the effects that their work can have on others. In this article, the author highlights an art project from her middle school in Kings Park, New York, that…

Inspired by true events, this case presents how the Northwestern Elementary leadership team confronts the challenges of deficit thinking on their campus. An action research study uncovers a glaring lack of cultural responsiveness in practice, concerning Black and Hispanic students. Motivated by these findings, Anne, a White principal and Myra, a…

This article provides an introductory frame for this special issue dedicated to New Public Management and the New Professional Educator. We will introduce the five articles and how they analyze the characteristics of NPM and this emerging new professional as well as forms of educator resistance and advocacy.

At the heart of the effort to enact and scale up successful school reforms is the need for more robust links between research and practice. One promising approach is design development, a methodology widely used in other fields and only recently adapted to education, which offers a disciplined process for identifying practical problems, assessing…

The contemporary challenges facing Catholic schools and Catholic school leaders are widely known. Effective and systemic solutions to these mounting challenges are less widely known or discussed. This article highlights the skills, knowledge, and dispositions associated with mission driven and data informed leadership--an orientation to school…

Australian schools are now under constant pressure to improve student results, particularly those of Indigenous students. To this end, successful school-community interrelationships are considered especially significant. This paper reports on a microcosm of one such relationship, that between Indigenous Education Workers (IEWs)/Community Education…

This study proposes participatory action research as a signature pedagogy for principal preparation programs. Signature pedagogies bring professional knowledge and core values together in distinctive teaching and learning arrangements. A rationale and learning results are presented that describe key components of action research intended to help…

Within the context of a pilot leadership seminar, this participatory action research project explores how to effectively lead in turbulent learning environments regulated by federal policy that mandates high levels of student achievement coupled with a rigorous standards-based reform movement. Our analysis indicates: (a) adult development is a…

Headteachers working under conditions of severe hardship in Africa face tremendous challenges, often exacerbated by a sense of hopelessness and lack of agency to effect improvements within their school. This paper focuses on notions of leadership agency and "social justice" within an African educational context, with a specific focus on…

This article describes how the Danforth Leadership Program at the University of Washington used Data-in-a-Day, a collaborative, action-research approach, at an urban elementary school to create a reciprocal learning experience focused on motivated learning for diverse students.

A principal describes how she introduced the concept of action research in her school by encouraging teachers to analyze how their teaching practices impacted students' success and to look for ways to improve. During the course of a year, teams of teachers introduced and monitored innovative projects designed to meet students' specific needs in…

Action research is a form of enquiry that enables practitioners everywhere to investigate and evaluate their work. This type of research allows the practitioner--whether classroom teacher, principal, or counselor--to take the lead in improving and better understanding the inner-workings of your classroom, school, or students. Conducting action…

Many teachers and administrators would acknowledge there are areas of concern in their classrooms and schools. Whether termed "problems," "issues," "challenges," or, as Nunan (1994) put it "puzzles," they provide committed professionals with an opportunity to improve the status quo. Action research is one…