Successful Educational Leadership In New Zealand

This book features case studies of 11 successful New Zealand educational leaders. It is intended as a testimony to their exemplary work and to help aspiring, new and experienced practitioners understand more about their leadership role. The case studies capture the exhilaration of being a leader in different school and early childhood centre settings and they identify key values, attributes and strategies that have enabled these leaders to achieve and maintain success. The New Zealand research that this book draws on is carried out under the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) which aims to focus research attention on factors behind principals' success. The editor and writers explore two major research questions: What practices do successful leaders use? What factors give rise to successful educational leadership? Readers will draw inspiration from this sample of successful New Zealand principals and early childhood leaders who have dedicated their professional lives to making a difference for students. Diverse reflections, questions and suggestions for further reading are woven through each case study to encourage aspiring and current educational leaders to think critically about their own workplace practices.

Successful School Leadership identifies the characteristics, behaviours and practices of successful and effective school leaders through the adoption of a systemic view of the quality of school organizations. Edited by Petros Pashiardis and Olof Johansson, chapters explore the similarities and differences between successful and effective school leaders and across various socioeconomic contexts. Capitalizing on the experiences of the international contributor team, this book will inform the preparation and further development provided to school leaders in an era where ministries of education, universities and multinational organisations (such as the OECD) are increasingly interested in the leadership of our schools. Systematic analyses of multi-perspective data provided from around the world and offers the readers a comprehensive picture of the key behaviours and practices central to successful and effective school leadership. An original contribution to the theoretical perspectives on the subject is derived through insights from empirical research, case studies, and bibliographical literature from the field.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), this book is a compilation of the work conducted by network scholars. This volume is the first comprehensive overview of the studies conducted by ISLDN members engaged in examining how social justice leaders and leaders of high-needs schools address the social conditions, learning experiences, and performance of their students. Other international school leadership research consortia have emerged in the 21st century; however, the ISLDN is the second longest operating project, after the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). Since its creation in 2010, ISLDN scholars have delivered papers at a variety of international conferences and shared findings in research publications, including books and special issues of journals. Until now, ISLDN research findings have been disseminated separately for the project’s two strands: (a) social justice leadership and (b) leadership in underperforming high-needs schools. Therefore, the purpose of the book is to document the history and evolution of the ISLDN and to provide descriptions and reflections of the project’s research findings, methodologies, and collaborative processes across the two strands. This volume captures studies of school leaders from 19 countries representing six continents - Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. The authors examine important external and internal contextual factors influencing schools in different cultural settings and provide insights about the values and practices of social justice leaders working in high-needs school settings. Numerous practical strategies are provided for school leaders working in schools with similar conditions. The concluding chapter by the co-editors synthesizes the structural factors, personal beliefs and values, and contextualized change management strategies that shape school leaders’ actions aimed at ensuring the best learning outcomes for their students. Besides capturing the range of findings emerging from various ISLDN studies conducted over the past decade, several chapters critically examine the project’s current contributions to the field. Authors suggest broadening the dissemination of our findings to increase the visibility of the project, expanding the research methods beyond qualitative interviews, incorporating studies from non-Anglophone countries, and augmenting the scope of our analyses and research focus. These researchers’ journeys also reveal the obstacles to and benefits of engaging in these types of international collaborative research ventures.

This book provides a unique map of the focus and directions of contemporary research on school leadership since 2000 in 24 countries. Each of these directions has its own particular cultural, educational and policy history. Taken together, the various chapters in the volume provide a rich and varied mosaic of what is currently known and what is yet to be discovered about the roles and practices of principals, and their contributions to the improvement of teaching and the learning and achievement of students. The particular foci and methodological emphases of the research reported illustrate the different phases in the development of educational policies and provision in each country. This collection is an important addition to existing international research that has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that the influence of school principals is second only to that of teachers in their capacity to impact students’ progress and achievement and to promote equity and social justice.

This book identifies the mindset, processes, and behaviors that contribute to successful reform efforts and provide school leaders with concrete tools enabling them to be more effective.

The Handbook of Ethical Educational Leadership brings together an array of key authors to provide comprehensive coverage of the field of ethical educational leadership. This important volume describes contemporary educational issues that necessitate the practice of ethical leadership, reviews current theory and research-informed practices, and also explores a coherent framework for how ethical educational leadership can be achieved. With chapters from leading authors and researchers from around the world, each author contributes to a discussion of current thinking and an analysis of the field of ethical educational leadership. Coverage includes professionalism, educational purpose, social justice, multiculturalism, sustainability, empathy and caring, organizational culture, moral development, motivation, integrity, values, and decision-making. Providing practical, philosophical, and experiential insights into the field, The Handbook of Ethical Educational Leadership is an essential resource for the study of ethical leadership.

Excellent leadership matters Without excellent leadership, school improvement is impossible, or at least impossible to sustain. But what are the characteristics of an excellent leader? This integrated, holistic resource explores the virtues that are integral to achieving excellence in educational leadership, while offering practical guidance on how to do the right work the right way—no matter what challenges you face or student inequities you’re trying to overcome. Features include: Practical, research-based applications of virtue theory Examples of school leaders’ thinking and actions In-depth yet accessible theoretical analysis Detailed analysis showing theoretical concepts in practice Summaries and reflection questions

This edited volume explores questions about ‘what works’, how, for whom, when, and why in education, and considers how and to what extent such knowledge can be understood and extended across countries and different educational systems. The book starts by presenting an overview of the history of educational effectiveness research and offers examples of current theories of educational effectiveness. Next, it provides exemplars of effectiveness studies that report on educational systems, policies, and practices from across six continents. These studies vary in their research methods and outcomes, illustrating a field of research that is conscious of its origins, its agenda, and its ambition to understand and improve the functioning of schools, networks, and education systems around the world. The book brings these threads together within the final chapter and uses them to signpost directions for future research. 'International Perspectives in Educational Effectiveness Research is an excellent and timely addition to the educational effectiveness literature. It offers a rigorous and insightful range of international perspectives that will be of interest to researchers, policy makers and students of the field.' - Professor Christopher Chapman, University of Glasgow, UK & President-Elect of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement 'This important new volume brings up to date the contributions of educational effectiveness research to the development of policy and practice in the field over the last 50 years. Drawing together the ideas of many of the major researchers in the field, it provides a comprehensive analysis of these earlier contributions, leading to critical commentaries that point to areas for future attention. The editors make use of expertise from a range of disciplines to strengthen the themes that are addressed. Most importantly, the book emphasises the need to pay greater attention to the challenge of equity - arguably the most significant challenge facing education systems internationally. In this respect, a particular strength of the book is the accounts provided from many different parts of the world. These underline the importance of context, a factor often previously overlooked in this field of research. Given all of this, I have no doubt that International Perspectives in Educational Effectiveness Research will become a major source for practitioners, policy-makers and researchers.' - Professor Mel Ainscow, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Manchester & Professor of Education, University of Glasgow, UK