Ethical challenges in leading school development: the role of ethical reasoning

BackgroundPeople involved in co-creation act as embedded moral agents as they bear a relational responsibility. The approaches taken or decisions made by individuals when facing ethical challenges during co-creation have important ethical ramifications for the process. Literature in the field of co-creation lacks an in-depth and systematic exploration of individual responses and reasoning that shape ethical decision-making. The current scoping review aims to identify authors’ responses and related moral reasoning as reported within the academic literature, to the ethical challenges encountered during co-creation for health promotion.MethodsA scoping review was conducted to identify articles that reflected on ethical challenges encountered during co-creation. Fifteen scientific articles were included following the title, abstract and full-text screening. Subsequently, a qualitative interpretative analysis was performed to extract and link the following data items: ethical challenge, response and (moral) reasoning. The resulting coding schemes, consultation with ethicists and researcher memos contributed to the synthesis of the results.ResultsIntegrating discussions throughout co-creation in combination with adopting a flexible attitude and communicating expectations were frequently reported responses. Institutional procedures and pragmatic considerations influenced responses greatly. Moral reasoning was partly shaped by principles of co-creation, normative ethical frameworks and, personal moral codes, values and perceptions.ConclusionsAcademic authors' responses to ethical challenges in co-creation were largely influenced by their intention or willingness to adhere to the principles of research integrity within this context. Ethical frameworks like the ethics of care and public health ethics provided guidance, though some authors did not explicitly engage with these frameworks, suggesting a disconnect between theory and practice. An extensive description of authors’ moral reasoning remains absent. Future research might consider performing meta-ethnographies to account for more detailed information about moral reasoning in responding to ethically challenging situations in co-creation for health promotion.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12910-025-01345-8.

Background/Objectives: Assisted suicide and suicide prevention remain subjects of intense societal, political, and professional-ethical debate in Germany. Nurses working in residential and home-based long-term care (LTC) play a pivotal role in responding to requests for assisted suicide and in supporting suicide prevention. While international research has explored diverse ethical perspectives and challenges related to these issues, little is known about how LTC nurses in Germany experience and navigate them. This study examines German LTC nurses’ ethical perspectives on assisted suicide and suicide prevention and explores the associated ethical challenges. Methods: A qualitative design employing both in-person and online focus groups was used. Data were analyzed following Mayring’s qualitative content analysis. Results: Twelve focus groups with a total of 96 nurses working in residential and home-based LTC were conducted between February and September 2025. Findings show that nurses perceive assisted suicide and suicide prevention as ethically complex and emotionally demanding. Three overarching themes emerged: (1) Intuitive and Emotional Reactions, (2) Ethical Perception and Ethical Reflection, and (3) Ethical Challenges. Conclusions: This study offers new insights into the diverse ethical perspectives of German LTC nurses on assisted suicide and suicide prevention. It extends existing knowledge through its explicit focus on the ethical issues and implications involved, both in residential and home-based LTC. The ethical challenges identified may enhance understanding of the factors underlying the development of moral distress in Germany and other countries where assisted suicide is a legal option. To help nurses navigate these ethically demanding situations, strategies at multiple levels are required. These include continuous ethics education, an open ethical culture, role definitions and clear professional guidance, alongside societal support for equitable access to general healthcare and suicide prevention services.

Selected Abstracts From the 2013 International Neuroethics Society Annual Meeting

BackgroundFecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is a treatment modality that involves the introduction of stool from a healthy pre-screened donor into the gastrointestinal tract of a patient. It exerts its therapeutic effects by remodeling the gut microbiota and treating microbial dysbiosis-imbalance. FMT is not regulated in Jordan, and regulatory effort for FMT therapy in Jordan, an Islamic conservative country, might be faced with unique cultural, social, religious, and ethical challenges. We aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of ethical and social issues of FMT use among Jordanian healthcare professionals.MethodsAn observational, cross-sectional study design was used to assess knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of ethical and social issues of FMT among 300 Jordanian healthcare professionals.ResultsA large proportion (39 %) thought that the safety and efficacy of this technique are limited and 29.3 % thought there is no evidence to support its use. Almost all (95 %) responded that they would only perform it in certain cases, if ethically justified, and 48.3 % would use it due to treatment failure of other approaches. When reporting about reasons for not using it, 40 % reported that they would not perform it due to concerns about medical litigation, fear of infections (38 %), and lack of knowledge of long safety and efficacy (31.3 %). Interestingly, all practitioners said they would perform this procedure through the lower rather than upper gastrointestinal tract modality and the majority will protect the patient’s confidentiality via double-blinding (43.3 %). For a subset of participants (n = 100), the cultural constraints that might affect the choice of performing FMT were mainly due to donor’s religion, followed by dietary intake, and alcohol consumption.ConclusionsOur healthcare practitioners are generally reluctant to use the FMT modality due to religious and ethical reasons but would consider it if there was a failure of other treatment and after taking into consideration many legislative, social, ethical and practice-based challenges including safety, efficacy and absence of guidelines.

What does a school strike mean for teachers and school leaders, and what tensions arise when they must respond to such protests? To address this question, we first give an overview of theoretical insights and empirical findings. Based on a survey of Fridays for Future participants, we then examine how students perceived teachers’ and school leaders’ reactions to the strikes, and discuss the findings in the context of school development.The Fridays for Future (FfF) school strikes represent a protest movement advocating for a sustainable future while simultaneously challenging the current institutional framework of schools. The characterization of FfF as school strike needs a response from teachers and school leaders, an aspect that has received limited scholarly attention. The movement is compelling both teachers and school leaders to adopt a stance on the strike and to take a position on controversial issues. But there is a lack of professionalization among educators regarding their approach to addressing controversies in the context of climate policies. At the same time, teachers and school leaders must directly respond to the absence of students. This article aims to explore the manner in which controversial topics can be addressed in schools, with a particular focus on the example of FfF. We outline challenges that teachers and school leaders face in relation to FfF and present theoretical and empirical insights into how to deal with controversial issues. Moreover, we present initial findings pertaining to the students’ perceptions of the teachers’ and school leaders’ responses to FfF.

Education in Oceania continues to reflect the embedded implicit and explicit colonial practices and processes from the past. This paper conceptualises a cultural approach to education and leadership appropriate and relevant to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As elementary school leaders, we highlight Kanne Lobal, a traditional Marshallese navigation practice based on indigenous language, values and practices. We conceptualise and develop Kanne Lobal in this paper as a framework for understanding the usefulness of our indigenous knowledge in leadership and educational practices within formal education. Through bwebwenato, a method of talk story, our key learnings and reflexivities were captured. We argue that realising the value of Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices for school leaders requires purposeful training of the ways in which our knowledge can be made useful in our professional educational responsibilities. Drawing from our Marshallese knowledge is an intentional effort to inspire, empower and express what education and leadership partnership means for Marshallese people, as articulated by Marshallese themselves. 
 
 
 
 Introduction
 As noted in the call for papers within the Waikato Journal of Education (WJE) for this special issue, bodies of knowledge and histories in Oceania have long sustained generations across geographic boundaries to ensure cultural survival. For Marshallese people, we cannot really know ourselves “until we know how we came to be where we are today” (Walsh, Heine, Bigler & Stege, 2012). Jitdam Kapeel is a popular Marshallese concept and ideal associated with inquiring into relationships within the family and community. In a similar way, the practice of relating is about connecting the present and future to the past. Education and leadership partnerships are linked and we look back to the past, our history, to make sense and feel inspired to transform practices that will benefit our people. In this paper and in light of our next generation, we reconnect with our navigation stories to inspire and empower education and leadership. Kanne lobal is part of our navigation stories, a conceptual framework centred on cultural practices, values, and concepts that embrace collective partnerships. Our link to this talanoa vā with others in the special issue is to attempt to make sense of connections given the global COVID-19 context by providing a Marshallese approach to address the physical and relational “distance” between education and leadership partnerships in Oceania. 
 
 Like the majority of developing small island nations in Oceania, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has had its share of educational challenges through colonial legacies of the past which continues to drive education systems in the region (Heine, 2002). The historical administration and education in the RMI is one of colonisation. Successive administrations by the Spanish, German, Japanese, and now the US, has resulted in education and learning that privileges western knowledge and forms of learning. This paper foregrounds understandings of education and learning as told by the voices of elementary school leaders from the RMI. The move to re-think education and leadership from Marshallese perspectives is an act of shifting the focus of bwebwenato or conversations that centres on Marshallese language and worldviews. 
 
 The concept of jelalokjen was conceptualised as traditional education framed mainly within the community context. In the past, jelalokjen was practiced and transmitted to the younger generation for cultural continuity. During the arrival of colonial administrations into the RMI, jelalokjen was likened to the western notions of education and schooling (Kupferman, 2004). Today, the primary function of jelalokjen, as traditional and formal education, it is for “survival in a hostile [and challenging] environment” (Kupferman, 2004, p. 43).
 
 Because western approaches to learning in the RMI have not always resulted in positive outcomes for those engaged within the education system, as school leaders who value our cultural knowledge and practices, and aspire to maintain our language with the next generation, we turn to Kanne Lobal, a practice embedded in our navigation stories, collective aspirations, and leadership. The significance in the development of Kanne Lobal, as an appropriate framework for education and leadership, resulted in us coming together and working together. Not only were we able to share our leadership concerns, however, the engagement strengthened our connections with each other as school leaders, our communities, and the Public Schooling System (PSS). Prior to that, many of us were in competition for resources.
 
 Educational Leadership: IQBE and GCSL
 Leadership is a valued practice in the RMI. Before the IQBE programme started in 2018, the majority of the school leaders on the main island of Majuro had not engaged in collaborative partnerships with each other before. Our main educational purpose was to achieve accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), an accreditation commission for schools in the United States. The WASC accreditation dictated our work and relationships and many school leaders on Majuro felt the pressure of competition against each other. We, the authors in this paper, share our collective bwebwenato, highlighting our school leadership experiences and how we gained strength from our own ancestral knowledge to empower “us”, to collaborate with each other, our teachers, communities, as well as with PSS; a collaborative partnership we had not realised in the past. The paucity of literature that captures Kajin Majol (Marshallese language) and education in general in the RMI is what we intend to fill by sharing our reflections and experiences. To move our educational practices forward we highlight Kanne Lobal, a cultural approach that focuses on our strengths, collective social responsibilities and wellbeing.
 
 For a long time, there was no formal training in place for elementary school leaders. School principals and vice principals were appointed primarily on their academic merit through having an undergraduate qualification. As part of the first cohort of fifteen school leaders, we engaged in the professional training programme, the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL), refitted to our context after its initial development in the Solomon Islands. GCSL was coordinated by the Institute of Education (IOE) at the University of the South Pacific (USP). GCSL was seen as a relevant and appropriate training programme for school leaders in the RMI as part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded programme which aimed at “Improving Quality Basic Education” (IQBE) in parts of the northern Pacific. GCSL was managed on Majuro, RMI’s main island, by the director at the time Dr Irene Taafaki, coordinator Yolanda McKay, and administrators at the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) RMI campus.
 
 Through the provision of GCSL, as school leaders we were encouraged to re-think and draw-from our own cultural repository and connect to our ancestral knowledge that have always provided strength for us. This kind of thinking and practice was encouraged by our educational leaders (Heine, 2002). We argue that a culturally-affirming and culturally-contextual framework that reflects the lived experiences of Marshallese people is much needed and enables the disruption of inherent colonial processes left behind by Western and Eastern administrations which have influenced our education system in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Kanne Lobal, an approach utilising a traditional navigation has warranted its need to provide solutions for today’s educational challenges for us in the RMI.
 Education in the Pacific
 Education in the Pacific cannot be understood without contextualising it in its history and culture. It is the same for us in the RMI (Heine, 2002; Walsh et al., 2012). The RMI is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of Micronesia. It was named after a British captain, John Marshall in the 1700s. The atolls in the RMI were explored by the Spanish in the 16th century. Germany unsuccessfully attempted to colonize the islands in 1885. Japan took control in 1914, but after several battles during World War II, the US seized the RMI from them. In 1947, the United Nations made the island group, along with the Mariana and Caroline archipelagos, a U.S. trust territory (Walsh et al, 2012). Education in the RMI reflects the colonial administrations of Germany, Japan, and now the US. 
 
 Before the turn of the century, formal education in the Pacific reflected western values, practices, and standards. Prior to that, education was informal and not binded to formal learning institutions (Thaman, 1997) and oral traditions was used as the medium for transmitting learning about customs and practices living with parents, grandparents, great grandparents. As alluded to by Jiba B. Kabua (2004), any “discussion about education is necessarily a discussion of culture, and any policy on education is also a policy of culture” (p. 181). It is impossible to promote one without the other, and it is not logical to understand one without the other. Re-thinking how education should look like, the pedagogical strategies that are relevant in our classrooms, the ways to engage with our parents and communities - such re-thinking sits within our cultural approaches and frameworks. Our collective attempts to provide a cultural framework that is relevant and appropriate for education in our context, sits within the political endeavour to decolonize. This means that what we are providing will not only be useful, but it can be used as a tool to question and identify whether things in place restrict and prevent our culture or whether

Ethics for School Leaders: The Human Condition and Organizational Dynamics is about the complex role of formal and informal leaders in schools. It presents multiple perspectives to enhance comprehension of the organizational and psychological dynamics that come into play when school leaders—those with authority and those without authority—are faced with ethically challenging situations. In addition to a tour of leadership theories, organizational dynamics, psychological dynamics, and ethical perspectives, the case studies in this book weave together aspects of people’s emotional make-up, cognitive framework, and past experiences to illustrate how school leaders use reason and emotion to make complex connections between their inner lives and the demands of their profession. This book identifies specific examples of ways school leaders can enhance ethical practice at the organizational level as well as how to focus on the things they can do personally and interpersonally to improve their work as school leaders in order to make lives better for all of the people they serve. By integrating various approaches to the study of the leadership process, this book makes an important contribution to fields of leadership studies and professional ethics.

Ethics for School Leaders: The Human Condition and Organizational Dynamics is about the complex role of formal and informal leaders in schools. It presents multiple perspectives to enhance comprehension of the organizational and psychological dynamics that come into play when school leaders—those with authority and those without authority—are faced with ethically challenging situations. In addition to a tour of leadership theories, organizational dynamics, psychological dynamics, and ethical perspectives, the case studies in this book weave together aspects of people’s emotional make-up, cognitive framework, and past experiences to illustrate how school leaders use reason and emotion to make complex connections between their inner lives and the demands of their profession. This book identifies specific examples of ways school leaders can enhance ethical practice at the organizational level as well as how to focus on the things they can do personally and interpersonally to improve their work as school leaders in order to make lives better for all of the people they serve. By integrating various approaches to the study of the leadership process, this book makes an important contribution to fields of leadership studies and professional ethics.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide national information on school autonomy, leadership and student achievements in Finland. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a literature review on Finnish studies focusing on school autonomy, leadership and student achievement. The studies have been reviewed on the basis of a content analysis. Findings There exists a shortage of studies connecting school leadership to student achievements. School leadership in Finland has been investigated in previous research, especially from the perspective of shared or pedagogical leadership, but vast majority of the studies have focused on teachers and educational staff, not directly on students. An evident reason for this is inaccessible information on school-based data and the nature of education being a “public good”, which is supposed to meet the same standards across the country. Originality/value This review will provide the international audience a deeper understanding in the school autonomy and leadership development in Finland.

School heads and assistant headteachers in Cyprus attend in‐service training programmes as part of their professional development, after they are promoted to their new leadership post. A review of the literature highlights the significance of a needs analysis when designing and/or reforming in‐service training programmes. Nevertheless, there seems to be a lack of studies focusing on the leaders’ views regarding their own professional development and needs. The present study investigates school leaders’ views regarding the in‐service training programmes they formally attend in Cyprus (both with regards to content as well as organizational aspects of the courses), and whether specific personal characteristics of school leaders are associated with their views. The research was based on both interviews with school leaders (assistant heads and school heads) and also a semi‐structured questionnaire. Content and statistical analysis of the participants’ views revealed that they prefer specific training, especially designed for their needs and according to their specific leadership post. The study contributes to the fields of educational leadership and professional development, since it provides insights into the perceptions of school leaders about the continuing professional development they receive and offers useful information for the organization of professional development programmes for school leaders. Finally, some specific suggestions for improvement in the field of training for school leaders are provided.

Background In higher education programmes, group discussions are commonly used as a form of active learning to support students in their learning and knowledge development beyond what is provided by traditional lectures. However, such student-centred learning approaches and methods have received scant attention in empirical research. Purpose This study, which used an action research design, investigated how group discussions, as an extension of lectures, can contribute to students’ learning. The findings are intended to support comprehensive insights into, and further development of, the authors’ and others’ higher-education teaching practices. Method The study context was a National Kindergarten and School Leadership Programme offered by one Norwegian university, where the co-author of this article was located. Our research question was: How do students perceive group discussions about a lecture as contributing to their learning; and what can we learn from this about our own teaching practices? The core data were students’ reflection notes, with observational data used as background material. Data were analysed thematically. Findings The analysis indicated that group discussions as extensions of lectures can provide learning opportunities that promote the students’ learning, both collectively and individually. Through group discussions, learning opportunities emerge in the interaction between theoretical knowledge addressed in the lecture and practical, experience-based knowledge based on the students’ ideas from their organisational contexts. In this interaction, learning experiences are produced that provide the students with increased understanding and new perspectives about how they can drive development in their practice contexts and how they, as school leaders, can act in new ways. Conclusion The findings offer insight into how students’ experiences of group discussions, based on lectures, contribute to their learning. However, they also reveal that organisational and structural conditions related to poor quality task design and some elements of the discussions themselves can inhibit learning potential.

The purpose of this study was to test the relationship between moral reasoning, as demonstrated on the Defining Issues Test (DIT), and clinical performance of physical therapist students. Moral reasoning was also tested against eight admission variables as predictors of clinical performance. Subjects were 58 physical therapist students (II male, 47 female) enrolled in three programs. The DIT was administered to all subjects during their first week in the programs. Clinical performance ratings were collected at the conclusion of the students' first clinical affiliation. Participating programs agreed to use the Clinical Competence Scale as the clinical performance instrument. Data quality analysis was conducted to assess consistent application of the evaluation instrument by clinical instructors. Statistical procedures were conducted in three clusters of analysis: (1) Pearson product moment correlation coefficients computed for interval variables and clinical performance ratings, (2) multiple regression of clinical performance with moral reasoning (DIT), including an indicator variable for a qualitative factor clinical setting type, and (3) chi-square test with moral reasoning and clinical performance each distributed into three levels (high, medium, low). An alpha level of. 05 was used to test for significance. Moral reasoning (DIT) was the only variable to demonstrate a significant relationship with clinical performance (r=.28). Multiple regression of clinical per/ormance with moral reasoning, with facility type as a covariant, was significant (r=.44), accounting for 19.4% of the variance. Chi-square analysis resulted in a significant difference from expected frequency for the defined levels of moral reasoning and clinical performance. These find ings are consistent with previous research in medicine and nursing supporting moral reasoning as a predictor of clinical performance. As professional health care providers, physical therapists must possess the necessary moral reasoning skills and perspectives to recognize and resolve ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. In addition, the literature supports a link between the ability to resolve ethical conflicts and the ability to effectively manage complex practice issues. Understanding the relationship between moral reasoning and effective clinical practice is important in designing physical therapy curricula and supporting the development of students. INTRODUCTION The evolution of physical therapy toward professional autonomy requires that physical therapists expertly and efficiently evaluate patients and manage their care within an increasingly complex health care environment. 1-3 The successful physical therapist possesses the knowledge and clinical skills prescribed in professional competencies4 as well as the ability to synthesize, evaluate, and prioritize complex elements of patient management.2 Professional practice also includes the expectation that physical therapists will be morally accountable for this expertise and responsive to the ethical issues frequently occurring in physical therapy practices-8 The expansion of managed care, with increased oversight by financing agencies and incentives for controlling costs, virtually ensures the presence of ethical problems for providers as they attempt to balance patient need, professional obligations, and organizational expectations.9,10 Thus, competence in physical therapy includes the moral reasoning skills and perspectives necessary to recognize and address these ethical issues. The challenge for physical therapy educators is to understand and develop strategies for selecting and preparing students to function at this professional level. A variety of admission criteria are used by physical therapy programs to select those candidates who can be expected to succeed in the academic curriculum and ultimately in professional practice. While these admission criteria are useful in predicting student performance in the academic components of the curriculum, studies have demonstrated little or no correlation between conventional admission criteria and measures of performance in the clinical setting. …

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into primary and secondary education presents both pedagogical opportunities and ethical challenges. This study examines how ethical leadership can guide the use of AI in compulsory schooling. Drawing on international legal instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Council of Europe’s Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE), within the spirit of the EU’s AI Act, the first binding worldwide horizontal regulation on AI, this study adopts a normative human rights framework. It analyzes critical issues such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, equity, and democratic accountability. The study develops a six-pillar model of ethical leadership that integrates legal obligations, ethical reasoning, and pedagogical priorities. This model offers school leaders a principled and contextually responsive approach to AI governance in education, ensuring that digital innovation supports the justice, inclusion, and rights of all the learners.

Leadership development programmes come in plenty internationally and a number of resources, time and money are being spent to this end. The benefits for schools, staff and pupils arising from professional development activities have been well researched into and elaborated on extensively internationally. Currently in Cyprus, leadership development programmes are limited to on‐post in‐service training programmes that are offered to novice school leaders (headteachers and deputy headteachers). As there is a dialogue underway for updating leadership training in Cyprus, this study aimed to capture leadership training participants’ views regarding the current in‐service tradition with a view to supporting localized attempts to improve and develop relevant policies and training programmes. The sample consisted of 257 trainees attending the mandatory in‐service training programmes for novice school leaders. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. Findings suggest that the content of leadership development programmes needs to correspond to school leaders’ expected roles and responsibilities, as well as their learning needs. Furthermore, it is generally acknowledged that further professional development opportunities should be offered alongside school leaders’ career progression either on‐post or pre‐post. This study’s findings support the necessity to revise existing policies (or address the lack of guiding training programmes). Data indicate that such policies and training programmes need to be based on solid foundations, such as a coherent leadership development framework and philosophy. The implications of the findings for the design and development of leadership training programmes are also discussed.

Vocational Education and Training in Schools (VETiS) is recognised in all Australian states’ and territories’ education systems in the senior secondary certificates of education. The federal government has researched the benefits of VETiS and promoted it as a subject area of worth through both policy and funding. System leadership in schools have also included VETiS in their strategic direction by establishing and resourcing Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to manage the compliance issues associated with the national Vocational Education and Training (VET) system. VETiS is offered in the majority of schools in New South Wales (NSW), including Catholic Schools; however, there are varying levels of implementation within schools along with wide differences in student participation across schools. With government and school leadership placing emphasis on the importance of VETiS as part of the curriculum, it is important to find out why some schools offer less VETiS than others, and why some schools have greater student take-up of VETiS than is found at other schools. Is this a result of limitations imposed by systems and situations which are difficult for schools to change, or is it caused by misunderstanding, misconceptions, or even ignorance, which—if left unchallenged— could have a detrimental impact on students’ academic choices, achievements, and ultimately, their career options? The reasons behind the variation between schools in implementation and participation in VETiS were the focus of this research. The research, situated in rural New South Wales, reports the experiences of four systemic Catholic schools and their students when making decisions in relation to Higher School Certificate (HSC) subjects. The perspectives of the students, parents, teachers and leadership were sought in order to unpack potential reasons for variation among schools and to identify any contributing issues that may impact on VETiS as a subject area of choice. The research utilised case study methodology, employing the epistemological approach of constructionism which is premised on the understanding that meaning is constructed rather than discovered. Constructionism focuses on the assumption that knowledge and meaning as constructed by the participants forms the basis for making judgements and decisions. The issues of subject implementation and subject choice provided the framework for the suite of data collection instruments, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches in a multisite case study. The research identified a number of major characteristics and factors that were found to affect the rate of participation and implementation of VETiS in specific schools. It was found that the combination of specific factors—including the characteristics of students, subject advice, school staff, subject decision processes, school leadership, school vision, school reputation and school culture—impacted on the number of courses implemented in schools and the participation rates of students. The most significant overriding contribution to decision-making both by school leadership and students about VETiS was found to be the school culture, which is established and maintained by school leadership with the principal at the top. Most other issues—curriculum choice, information dissemination, staff attitudes and commitment, and parity of subjects—were found to be a consequence of the school culture and leadership beliefs. In schools where the leadership was responsive to policy and equity issues, the school processes were found to enhance the quality of information provided to students about these subjects—and foster real choice. While the study focused on Catholic schools, the results give valuable insight into the VETiS experience which can be applied to the Australian educational sector more generally.