Sustainable leadership has become a significant focus in educational leadership. Still, concerns persist regarding the clarity of its definitions and their impact addressing critical educational needs. This study employs a systematic review to address these definitional challenges. Seven themes emerge, categorized into three meta-themes: effectiveness and impact, sustainability systems thinking, and collaborative responsibility and future orientation. These findings reveal the diversity of sustainable leadership themes and challenge the assumption that achieving a universal definition is the key to collaborative progress. This methodologically rigorous study enhances our understanding of sustainable leadership in education, offering valuable insights for further research.

While principals play critical roles in mediating inequitable teaching and learning conditions in their schools, scholars have long argued that some remain unprepared for this responsibility. However, these arguments are often supported by qualitative studies of school leaders, years after their pre-service preparation. Using survey data on two cohorts of Master of School Administration (MSA) graduates, also pre-service principals, across North Carolina, this study analyzes their perceptions about their preparedness to engage in equity-oriented leadership. The study leverages the new Principal Fellows policy in North Carolina, a competitive grant program that awards state funds to principal preparation programs demonstrating exemplary principal program features and a focus on preparing school leaders for equity, as the basis of its evaluation. Overall, MSA graduates reported being very well prepared to enact equity-oriented leadership practices, though this preparedness was significantly higher for graduates across Principal Fellows preparation programs. The main finding from this study is that principal preparation program quality is the most significant predictor of graduates’ preparedness to engage in equity-oriented leadership. The findings from this study offer implications for principal preparation programs, policy, and future research.

This research is an Arabian Gulf contribution to the International Study of Principal Preparation (ISPP). It compares the perspectives of Arabian school principals regarding their leadership preparation, drawing on three sets of data collected from Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait. Data were collected using the Arabic version of the ISPP survey. The investigation included adequacy of leadership preparation, problematic aspects of leadership, and prior leadership learning experiences. Quantitative analyses (descriptive statistics) were conducted to calculate percentages of agreement related to these aspects. Findings revealed interesting commonalities and differences between the three samples. The study concludes with suggestions for improving future leadership preparation provision.

Leadership in institutions of higher education (HEIs) is important for the academic environment, educational quality, and student success. This research explored the leadership strategies implemented by a HEI in Bogotá, Colombia. A sample of 162 participants was surveyed, made up of collaborators and teachers of the institution. The results reveal that the leaders simultaneously adopt transactional and transformational leadership behaviors. This combination of leadership styles has characteristics that are directly related to the role of managers in the university institution. Understanding these dynamics can lead to improving educational practices, optimizing operational and academic management, and facilitating the interpretation of behaviors.

As the demands on public school leaders continue to increase, their need for support increases. Mentoring is one way school leaders may experience that support. In this paper, we examine the support school leaders state they need and the extent to which mentorship may be addressing those needs. We draw on survey results matched to school and district characteristics for 422 school leaders in a midsize northeastern state. Based on regression analyses, we find that many school leaders report needing support most strongly in instructional leadership and attending to equity and diversity. We also find that while many school leaders report the mentoring they receive is sufficient and beneficial, perceived sufficiency varies based on school environment.

This study aims to explore how school leaders applied resilience in order to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 26 school leaders. Results yielded three main manners of applying resilience: (a) be proactive, pragmatic, and creative; (b) find meaning and set goals; (c) lead the emotional climate. The study can contribute to the scholarly understanding of leaders’ resilience in crisis times as well as to professional development programs for nurturing resilience among school leaders.

We describe the contours of one leadership preparation partnership between a university and urban high school district, to demonstrate the affordances that have allowed the partnership to process and weather challenges. Critically, we describe the actual work of collaboration, presenting one extended example of learning-in-action. As such, the article addresses an existing gap in the literature on research practice partnerships, namely how partners can address widespread challenges. Findings suggest that the boundary practice of co-teaching and a “boundary stance” of ontological humility have been critical affordances toward partner and partnership learning.

We examined the equity-oriented leadership experiences of 23 principal interns in one principal preparation program in Texas. Our analysis of interview and internship log data revealed that the principal interns engaged in a range of equity-related work, and they led more of that work than expected. However, their leadership work was concentrated in access and achievement, to the exclusion of power and identity. We offer a window into what principal candidates are—and are not—learning through their internships. We also identify opportunities for future research and how preparation programs and districts can facilitate more equity-oriented work among interns.

University faculty have fixated on ways to adequately prepare social justice-oriented school leaders for quite some time. This teacher action research project documents the experiences of 14 aspiring school leaders in a principal preparation course focused on a critical race pedagogy curriculum. Using interview data, this qualitative study examines how white and Latinx students experience coursework grounded in the notion of risk-taking rather than safety. Findings from this study illustrate the following: (A) participants most resistant to the curriculum entered coursework having internalized dominant ideologies regarding merit and achievement; (B) these same students had adverse views regarding their critically conscious classmates and instructor; and lastly (C) all participants in this study demonstrated growth in their thinking regarding racial justice and educational equity. The discussion and implications address the nuances and complexities of promoting a pedagogy framed as risk-taking in preparation programs, particularly in mixed-race settings.

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of postgraduate leadership courses and programs offered by Australian Higher Education Institutions for leaders and potential leaders in the Health & Human Service (H&HS) sector including structure, content, and teaching practices from the perspective of educators. Ten educators from a range of institutions were interviewed. Interview data was coded and analyzed using Inductive Content Analysis. Six global categories represent the broad range of experiences and perspectives of participants in this study. Findings demonstrate formal education has the potential to positively impact the development of leaders in the H&HS sector.