Principals and school management teams are expected to provide unwavering leadership and professional and sustainable support to create opportunities for teachers and themselves to develop professionally. Currently, the lack of teacher content knowledge, low rates of motivation and accountability are key challenges resulting in the low-quality…

This qualitative study explored the views of six Lesotho primary school principals regarding the in-service training they received to implement the integrated curriculum. Purposive sampling was used to select participants who met the inclusion criteria in Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho. A document analysis of the integrated curriculum was…

This paper examines how superintendents and school principals enact national policy reform expectations and what characterises their local organisational arrangements. Furthermore, the paper investigates how superintendents and school principals deal with tensions as entrepreneurs. The study builds on qualitative interview data from two…

This article takes a practice perspective on professional learning to contribute through an empirical example of how professional learning can be arranged to enable change in and for professional practice, as well as for nurturing praxis. The theory of practice architectures is used to analyse the process of an action research (AR) in which…

In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

Principals have an important function in schools' ability to create high-quality learning and teaching. As the expectations placed on principals are high, large resources are invested in school leadership training, thus necessitating research on the impact of such initiatives. In this article, we report on a longitudinal research study on the…

The requisite knowledge and skills of principals are in a constant state of flux. Principal preparation programs need to proactively create systems and structures for continuous improvement and create pathways for information-sharing in order to remain responsive to the needs of local districts. James Coviello, Joan I. Birringer-Haig, and…

Principals' transitions have often given rise to problems, challenges, and upset for teachers and principals alike. Studies on principal succession and educational change question the effectiveness of regular, rapid, and predictable transitions of principals, a strategy used at the district level, especially during turbulent times. This revolving…

Coach and ASCD author Cathy Toll knows that principals can face resistance and competing priorities when trying to make changes in schools. "Whole-staff coaching" is one tool to get all educators on the same page by putting teachers in control of planning, implementing, and evaluating change--and principals in charge of facilitating it.

School leadership has been described as a key target for leveraging the quality of education in relation to sustainable development goal (SDG4) that seeks to 'ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning' as per UNESCO 2030 agenda. This study provides a policy review of school leadership in the State of Qatar, as a…

Purpose: Many efforts for educational transformation involve fundamentally new visions of the principal's role. This article examines the potential of an analytic framework for understanding principal learning in such contexts. An adaptation of an analytic approach to studying teacher learning, the framework examines learning as individual…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine middle and high school principal roles prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic to gain a better understanding about how leadership responsibilities adapted or changed. Data collection strategies included one-on-one interviews with nine middle and high school principals in East Tennessee. To…

This article aims to deepen our knowledge about the work and competences of local education authority (LEA) officials when implementing new policy directives for documentation in the decentralized Swedish school system. The results show that the LEA officials used strategies and actions that improved relevance for principals and schools through…

Educational policy in the United States in the past decade has focused on eliminating the achievement gap by establishing legislation orienting educators toward research-based evidence and increased accountability at all levels of the system (Daly, Liou et al., 2014). Educational leaders play an important role in initiating and maintaining change,…

The sudden shift to remote learning at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic carved out new responsibilities for students and educators alike. Almost overnight, educators reconfigured lesson plans and students adjusted to new expectations and study habits. As time passed and some schools returned to in-person learning, students and teachers…