Previous research has contributed to the literature on what constitutes school leaders' and teachers' democratic practices in both high- and low-stakes accountability contexts, but less is known about how they interpret, legitimize, and translate the democratic purpose of education in a low-stakes, 'soft-regulation' system. The current study used…

Researchers in special education and educational leadership have engaged in collective efforts to highlight the critical role of the principal when it comes to creating inclusive schools for students with disabilities. Primarily, research and prescriptive writings have focused on a set of school improvement practices tailored to creating systems,…

This qualitative, multicase study examined how principals perceived the role of instructional coaches and how they facilitated, influenced, and supported teachers' professional learning through the instructional coaching program. Including the researcher as a participant, 16 participants from three suburban school districts--including…

Julie Causton, Kate MacLeod, and Kristie Pretti-Frontczak work with administrators all over the world who believe in supporting students with compassion and leading schools with love. But these administrators report incredible challenges they face in ditching traditional behavior-management practices like punitive or public discipline tactics.…

Increased attention has been paid to school superintendents and their role in school reforms. Still, there are few studies on dialogue meetings between actors at different levels in the school hierarchy. The current paper investigates how a superintendent balances between trust and control while supporting school development through dialogue…

The pressure to lead schools effectively while fulfilling instructional leadership and school management tasks could impact school administrators' perceptions of their leadership capabilities. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to identify the relationship between the varied tasks of school administrators as related to…

In large school districts, principal supervisors oversee groups of principals. Principal supervisors commonly have titles such as Area or Regional Superintendents, Leadership Directors or Network Leaders. They are situated in the organizational hierarchy between top district leaders (Chief-level positions) and principals, and serve as the link…

This qualitative case study explored the development of online teaching capacity to incorporate the universal design for learning (UDL) framework in an online graduate program. The participants in the study were purposefully selected from multiple levels at a Canadian university: (1) the program level, (2) the faculty level, and (3) the…

Purpose: Perceptual inhibitors to instructional leadership are based on disagreements with the premises of instructional leadership. This study explored how the paradoxical approach, which advocates "both/and" approach to conflicting demands, may moderate the influence of the perceptual inhibitors of instructional leadership.…

Purpose: In Italy, only recently education policy makers have introduced a requirement for schools to implement the processes of self-evaluation, strategic planning and results' reporting. In this article, we aim to explore how the new leadership approach of school principals in the context of the introduction of the new accountability system is…

Researchers have shown that principals are second only to teachers in their impact on student learning. The problem studied was principals' abilities to balance their responsibilities as operational managers while placing primary focus on instructional leadership. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the processes established by…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand, from principals' points of view, how a teacher registration reform is enacted by examining the potential changes in the relationships between principals and newly qualified teachers (NQTs). The reform entailed principals performing an aptitude assessment of new teachers in their probationary…

In the United States, state education agencies (SEAs) are required to regularly identify low-performing schools. Initiating the school improvement process is one of the most important, yet most challenging steps. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has been nationally recognized for the way it initiates the school improvement process. This…

Purpose: It has been suggested that coherency between primary stakeholders involved in an educational reform is a key determinant of its success. The "Meaningful Learning Reform" is defined as an open reform, serving as a bottom-up solution to promote school autonomy. This reform allows school leaders to exercise considerable discretion…

This qualitative study compares the instructional leadership practices of rural and non-rural principals, seeking to understand contextually based differences in how principals create a focus on teaching and learning. Principals across settings report similarities in instructional leadership tasks; however, they reported significant contextual…