Purpose : The focus of this study was to understand how district-level, central office administrators lead inclusive districts. Research Methods: This study is grounded in a conceptual framework informed by the traditions and knowledge of leadership for inclusion of students with disabilities, social justice, and disability studies in education. This research project spanned three years, involving frequent research meetings, interviews, sharing of district documents, member check meetings, email debriefing of interviews and transcripts, detailed field logs, and data collection memos. This included in-depth interviewing as a data collection method, that was used for the purpose of understanding the ways in which special education administrators make sense of their leadership role. Findings : We found two main avenues for these district administrators’ enactment of inclusive leadership: 1) engaging in student-level advocacy and 2) engaging in systems-level advocacy. These leaders operated at both the student-level, addressing student-specific issues, and maintained a broader lens and focus on systems (school, district, and community). Findings reveal the leadership scope, strategy, and actions leaders took, leading to a proposed framework of inclusive, socially-just, disability-centered district leadership. Implications : Recommendations are made for district leadership, leadership preparation, and future research.

The inception of Jamaica’s education system was built based on European settler colonial ideologies and White supremacist logic. Almost two centuries after the abolition of slavery and over six decades after independence from British rule, colonial vestiges pervade Jamaican education policy and practice, resulting in the continued marginalisation of Black students from low-income backgrounds. Despite the commissioning of multiple reports on the state of the education system, these racist and classist injustices persist. In this article, we examine social justice issues at the nexus of national education policy and school leadership practice in Jamaican public schools based on our reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with two Jamaican education policymakers, five education researchers and four public school leaders, alongside Jamaica’s National Student Dress and Grooming Policy Guidelines 2018. Our findings highlight a hierarchical relationship among stakeholder groups in the creation and implementation of Jamaican education policy. Our findings also highlight four themes suggesting that this results from deeply ingrained valorisation of Eurocentric values in policy design that leads to heightened tensions between the Ministry of Education and Youth (MOEY) and school administrators at the level of policy implementation, distraction of school staff from teaching and learning, and disproportionate exclusion of Black students from low-income backgrounds. Implications from our study are the need for stronger cohesion among education policy stakeholders, the incorporation of social justice in teacher and leader preparation and the integration of critical pedagogies at all levels of the Jamaican education system.

Purpose: The present paper proposes the Gospel Voice Development Index™ (GVDI™) as a structured framework for measuring gospel vocal excellence, ministry capacity, and developmental preparedness. The gap addressed by the article includes the lack of a specific gospel-oriented assessment architecture for evaluating singers and choirs in light of their ministry expression and developmental readiness. Materials and Methods: The paper adopts an integrative conceptual review methodology in analyzing peer-reviewed literature regarding topics of singing self-efficacy, formative assessments, choir membership, and benefits of group singing. Sectoral reports on recorded music, Christian/Gospel music audiences, and church engagements were also included in the literature review and analyzed through documentary and framework analyses. Findings: The GVDI™ is proposed as an eight-variable assessment framework for gospel singing including vocal technique, range and flexibility, tone quality and identity, musical and lyrical interpretation, spiritual expression and ministry authenticity, stylistic fidelity to gospel, ensemble effectiveness in stage/worship/performance settings, and development and coachability. The synthesis demonstrates potential benefits of developing a structured assessment system for gospel voice development, choir development, worship leadership preparation, ministry accountability, and artist development. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: Integrating self-efficacy theory, formative assessments, and human capital theories, the proposed framework highlights gospel voice development as an artistic, developmental, and ministry performance practice issue. In terms of practice implications, GVDI™ offers assessment principles for placing gospel voices and developing them in choir contexts. From the perspective of policy implication, GVDI™ offers frameworks for measuring excellence and readiness in gospel music performances and ministry services.

Purpose This study examined the perspectives of graduates of a long-standing partnership between a university school leadership preparation program and a local school district. Design/methodology/approach Two main research questions guided this qualitative study: (1) What are the benefits of participating in a leadership preparation partnership? and (2) What are the challenges of participating in a leadership preparation partnership? Focus groups were conducted with 31 program graduates. Their responses were analyzed, and themes and sub-themes were identified. Findings Benefits included engaging in influential tasks and activities, altering their perspectives and practices, and sustaining cohort relationships; challenges were coping with work-life balance, course demands and changing program expectations. Originality/value This study adds to our understanding of the advantages and liabilities of forging long-lasting school-university partnerships to strengthen a school district’s leadership candidate pool.

The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders require that effective school leaders promote student academic success and student well-being. The National Educational Leadership Preparation Program standards go even further to require that effective school leaders also promote the well-being of the adults in the building, which includes the administrators themselves. This exploratory qualitative study was designed to examine what strategies or curricula related to well-being were in place in educational leadership programs across the country. The study’s findings indicate that principal preparation programs need an intentional approach to well-being using the structures and processes they already have in place.

ABSTRACT School principals play a critical role in shaping school culture and leading reform. This study examined the degree of autonomy experienced by public school principals in the United Arab Emirates under the Emirates School Establishment (ESE), and explored the challenges they face within a centralized governance system. A qualitative multi-case study design was employed across eight public schools, involving semi-structured interviews with eleven school leaders (ten principals and one cluster manager). Findings are organized around five themes: executive management constraints on school-level decision-making; limited authority in personnel recruitment; the need for targeted leadership preparation to exercise autonomy effectively; restricted financial discretion; and the role of collaborative decision-making processes. Although participants demonstrated strong leadership capacity and commitment to school improvement, centralized structures were perceived to limit timely, context-responsive decision-making. The study concludes that recalibrating principal autonomy at the policy level—while maintaining clear accountability frameworks and strengthening leadership development systems—may enhance school effectiveness and responsiveness within the current governance model.

We know this story and we're perpetuating it: A failure of academic leadership preparation in nursing education

There is still a gap in effectiveness between Indigenous school and other type of primary school in Peninsular Malaysia. This study examines the relationship of culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL), teachers’ cultural intelligence (CQ) and school effectiveness (SE) in Malaysian national primary schools where Indigenous pupils form the majority. A cross-sectional survey design was applied, using multistage stratified random cluster sampling to obtain responses from 450 teachers representing 85 Indigenous schools across seven states in Peninsular Malaysia. The results indicate that CRSL exerts a significant direct influence on SE (β = .457, p < .001) and on CQ (β = .548, p < .001). In addition, teachers’ CQ significantly predicts SE (β = .505, p < .001). Mediation analysis using bootstrapping provided evidence that CQ significantly mediates the CRSL–SE relationship (SIE = .277, p < .001; 95% CI [.198, .332]). The final structural model achieved acceptable fit indices (χ²/df = 2.222, RMSEA = .052, CFI = .910, TLI = .907) and accounted for 72% of the variance in school effectiveness. Overall, the findings imply that leadership preparation and ongoing teacher professional development in Indigenous community schools should give stronger emphasis to cultural responsiveness and the enhancement of CQ. The study also contributes an empirically supported model positioning CQ as an important connecting pathway between CRSL and SE within a Southeast Asian Indigenous schooling context. The contribution of the study not only fills the research gap in Indigenous school in Peninsular Malaysia but also provides input to improve CRSL, CQ, and SE, as well as input to improve policies, training and practices in Indigenous school in Peninsular Malaysia.

This article examines how adaptive leadership practices enacted by Indonesian school principals contribute to improving education quality within the implementation of Kurikulum Merdeka. Kurikulum Merdeka is a national curriculum reform that grants schools and teachers greater flexibility to design learning, emphasizes essential content, and promotes project-based learning to strengthen the Profil Pelajar Pancasila. Anchored in adaptive leadership theory, the study employs a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore principals’ lived experiences in navigating complex curricular changes, resource constraints, and heterogeneous learner needs. Data are conceptualized as in-depth narratives from principals, vice-principals, and senior teachers in basic education settings implementing Kurikulum Merdeka. Thematic analysis, informed by Miles and Huberman’s interactive model, generates an integrative model comprising four dimensions of adaptive principal leadership: diagnosing contextual and curricular challenges, orchestrating teacher learning, reconfiguring school structures and resources, and cultivating collaborative learning communities. These practices align with prior Indonesian evidence that principal leadership significantly shapes teacher quality, instructional practices, and school effectiveness. The article concludes with theoretical and practical implications for leadership preparation, district support, and policy design to strengthen adaptive capacity of school leaders under Kurikulum Merdeka.

Leadership in the education sector plays a pivotal role in improving the quality, equity, and effectiveness of the education systems. However, in Nepal, there is still, much to do for the expansion of educational access and to increase literacy rates, and the quality of education. The study analyses perspectives on educational leadership in Nepal. It evaluates the educational situation and performance in terms of leadership, examines the leadership theories in corporations and educational frameworks on an international scale, and explores the leadership practices in the local Nepali context, specifically the rural and decentralized contexts. A qualitative, secondary-data-based research method is employed in this study. Nepal has an administrative and compliance-based educational leadership. There is a low level of instructional and distributed leadership practices, which are inconsistently used. The systems of governance in schools are neither continuous, nor clear, nor leadership-driven. Leadership training is not well institutionalized in the education system. There is underutilization of global leadership models, even though they are relevant to the Nepal context. The development of educational leadership should be officially incorporated into the national and provincial education reforms. Clear policies to institutionalize leadership preparation and lifelong learning of head teachers and local education officials motivate and give pressure for the right output. The appointment, transfer, and evaluation of teachers’ policies must focus on leadership competence, accountability, and instructional performance. Moreover, schools’ management must establish well-structured roles and responsibilities for School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Associations to ensure transparency and continuity. The study proposes the reforms in context sensitivity and emphasizes the fact that the professionals should be constantly developed, the administrative load should be minimalized, the ethical responsibility and the system coherence must be taken into consideration, and the school leaders should enhance the quality of education.

The expansion of digital technologies has profoundly altered how organizations function, make decisions, and deliver value. As digital transformation becomes a defining characteristic of modern business environments, leaders must be equipped to guide their organizations through continuous change while maintaining stability and effectiveness. This article examines how leadership preparation and structured change management can support organizations in adapting to digital disruption. Using a qualitative synthesis of academic literature and a contextual case study from Gojek Indonesia, the study reviews theories related to digital leadership, organizational readiness, and formal change frameworks. Recent studies highlight that digital leadership and transformation are deeply interlinked, and that leadership behavior strongly shapes organizational agility and innovation capacity. The findings indicate that successful digital transformation depends on leaders’ ability to foster adaptable mindsets, encourage collaboration, and support cultures willing to experiment and learn. Beyond technology deployment, digital change requires clear communication, capacity development, and alignment across all levels of the organization. The implications emphasize the need for strategic leadership development, competency strengthening, and deliberate interventions to ensure long-term resilience in the digital era.

ABSTRACT Educational leadership has increasingly been approached as a complex and situated phenomenon, where gender and narrative perspectives provide critical insights into identity construction. This article examines the gendered construction of leadership identity through the biographical narrative of Carla, principal of a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institution in northern Chile. Drawing on a qualitative case study with a narrative approach, we conducted four semi-structured interviews to explore how her life trajectory – shaped by gender, context, and personal history – influenced her development as an educational leader. Using a reflexive thematic analysis, we reconstructed her story across five stages: childhood and adolescence, higher education, early career in education, transitions from teaching to management, and principalship. Findings show how Carla integrated traits traditionally coded as ‘masculine’ with care and empathy, challenging gender norms while building a hybrid leadership identity. Although resilience enabled her to thrive in masculinized contexts, she perceived gender as an external or ‘neutral’ factor. We conclude by underscoring the importance of embedding gender reflection in leadership preparation programs and fostering practices of care and mentorship, where solidarity among women can function as a strategy of resistance and social transformation.

Purpose This study investigates the early leadership experiences of novice school principals within Türkiye's centralized and bureaucratic education system. Using an ecological perspective, it explores how first-year principals interpret and enact their roles amid institutional complexity, relational tensions, and evolving leadership identities. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative, phenomenological research design was adopted to capture the lived experiences of 13 newly appointed public school principals serving in public schools located in the central districts of Ankara, Türkiye. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically using a six-phase thematic analysis framework. The analysis was guided by Wildy and Clarke's Place–People–System–Self framework, aligned with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Findings Four inter-related themes define novice principals’ early experiences: contextual disorientation, inter-personal authority struggles, bureaucratic overload, and emotional strain. These themes correspond respectively to school culture, social relations, systemic constraints, and self-construction, illustrating the ecological complexity of early-career leadership. Participants reported uncertainty about unspoken norms, challenges in establishing legitimacy, and emotional fatigue resulting from centralized bureaucracy. The findings highlight the need for multi-level leadership development frameworks that address not only technical competence but also the relational, emotional, and ethical dimensions of leadership. Originality/value This study contributes an ecological interpretation of novice principalship by bridging micro-level leadership experiences with macro-level systemic structures. By integrating the Place–People–System–Self framework with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, it provides a holistic and context-sensitive understanding of leadership identity formation within centralized education systems. The study offers theoretical and practical insights for leadership preparation, mentoring, and induction policies in bureaucratic and policy-driven contexts.

To understand virtual leaders’ work at the intersection of equity and community, virtual school leadership (VSL) was examined with relevance to preparation and research. Research questions were: How is VSL described in extant literature? How is VSL applicable to leaders’ preparation and development? An integrative review approach was applied to online learning and virtual leadership linked to community and equity concepts. Document analysis was used to qualitatively code 34 (of 132) studies. Despite the demand for cyber schooling, some US preservice programs may lack training on leading equitably and collaboratively in virtual environments. Five findings address what virtual school leaders (aspire to) do in their jobs. Community and equity were leadership orientations as well as concerns discerned from perceptions of virtual schooling. Online public education is ensnared in global democratic backsliding for 82 countries, yet VSL remains underexplored in research. This literature review/conceptual work introduces Equity and Community in K–12 Online Leadership, an original conceptual framework informed by professional standards, virtual learning theories, and factors central to leadership. A critique of findings, along with recommendations for leadership preparation and practice, responds to the call for better preparing preservice leaders for the demands of K–12 online learning.

Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine how pre-service leaders enrolled in a district–university leadership preparation program expressed their understandings of culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL). Design/methodology/approach We apply developmental adult learning theory, connecting Drago-Severson's four ways of knowing for social justice to specific CRSL practices, to qualitatively analyze interviews with pre-service leaders. Findings Our findings indicate disproportionate emphasis on instrumental capacities and the infrequent discussion of self-transforming capacities. We also identify an overemphasis on being critically conscious and engaging in critical self-reflection on leadership behaviors, as well as an underemphasis on engaging students, families, and community contexts. Practical implications Based on our findings, we note key program components that were reported as supporting the pre-service leaders' developing understanding of CRSL and suggest program components to support pre-service leaders' growing edges. Social implications During an era of hostility toward programs committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, our research offers tools to sustain their work within district-university partnerships. Originality/value Currently, culturally responsive leadership frameworks exist for practicing leaders as they envision what mastery looks like. Yet, these frameworks fail to answer the question of how school leaders develop culturally responsive practices. Our research contributes to understanding how CRSL is developed and supported by district-university partnerships. We offer a developmental framework for preparing culturally responsive school leaders that can be applied in future research.

The study examines how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) functioned as a coaching partner in three education preparation courses for future teachers and educational leaders. The courses included early childhood lesson planning, research writing in teacher preparation, and school improvement planning in educational leadership. A digital autoethnographic design guided the work, relying on student reflections, AI transcripts, and faculty reflections to understand how coaching interactions shaped thinking across programs. The design enabled instructors to examine their own positionalities while interpreting the digital records of student reasoning. Students reported gains in clarity, confidence, and alignment as they revised their work with AI supports. Several students noted that reflective questioning encouraged them to explain their decisions and refine their instructional or leadership plans. Others expressed caution when AI suggestions did not match their intentions or preferred frameworks. Faculty observed that the transcripts revealed misunderstandings and areas of growth that were not visible in traditional assignments. Recommendations for educator preparation emphasize the value of introducing AI coaching after students create their own drafts, requiring documentation of prompts, modeling reflective questioning, and preserving student agency. The study offers guidance for programs seeking to integrate GenAI as a reflective partner while supporting ethical engagement and professional judgment across the licensure spectrum.

The goal of this paper is to examine how Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) can be used as a framework for promoting equity and inclusion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Given its position as a global hub attracting expatriates from around the world, it is important to address the needs of diverse students in schools across the country. By systematically examining local and global research on CRE, the paper focuses on four major themes: teacher education, leadership preparation, multilingualism, and educational resources. The paper then discusses some gaps in how CRE is implemented in the UAE with the goal of informing policy in the areas of professional training and curriculum design. The paper concludes with several recommendations for implementing the principles of CRE in the country, taking into account the UAE’s Vision 2031 and Centennial 2071. These recommendations include the introduction of a national framework that integrates CRE principles into teacher education, multilingual education, and leadership training. The study advocates the use of CRE in UAE schools as an approach that can foster cultural and national identity while also preparing globally competent citizens.

Effective leadership communication is widely recognised as a critical capability in public sector leadership, particularly for the preparation and empowerment of future leaders. Although leadership development initiatives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have expanded substantially, empirical evidence remains limited on how leadership communication functions as a practical mechanism for managerial empowerment, especially within sector-specific contexts such as sports administration. This study examines the role of leadership communication skills in empowering future leaders in the UAE Ministry of Sports. A qualitative interpretive research design was employed to explore the perceptions and experiences of emerging leaders. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 future leaders who currently hold or are being prepared for supervisory and leadership roles. The data were analysed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. The findings indicate that leadership communication among future leaders is predominantly practised at the operational level, focusing on task clarification and routine coordination. Nevertheless, effective communication was found to enhance trust, autonomy, psychological readiness, and participation in decision-making, thereby supporting managerial empowerment. In contrast, weak or inconsistent communication limited empowerment, rendering it symbolic rather than substantive. Organisational factors, including supportive culture, workload pressure, time constraints, and recognition mechanisms, emerged as key enablers and constraints. Overall, the study demonstrates that leadership communication functions as a central mechanism through which managerial empowerment is enacted and underscores the need to reposition communication as a strategic leadership capability within the UAE public sector.

In the context of a leadership preparation program in K-12 education, this article explores aligned theories and practices of leadership that reflect the professional experiences and aspirations of black females who serve as school principals, with a focus on organizational results and equity-oriented improvement in schools. Analyzing a qualitative synthesis of practitioner stories and theory, the study integrates transformational, transactional, culturally responsive leadership analysis, and intersectionality of role expectations. The results suggest that the transformational model of leadership, combined with culturally responsive and evidence-based decision-making routines and distributed approaches, promote instructional coherence, staff capacity-building, and sustained trust among stakeholders. The discussion explores persistent challenges such as stereotype threat, inequitable emotional labor, and policy limitations, and traces repeatable practices that these leaders employ to mitigate stressors through transparent communications, data-informed coaching, and focus on time-bound collaboration. Implications include the need for leadership preparation programs to incorporate race- and gender-conscious practices into the development of aligned theories; the need to evolve district policy to underwrite initiatives that address specific school contexts; and the need to design professional development that enacts embedded networks of mentorship and cycles of reflection, with recommendations that include staged implementation templates and rubrics for evaluation and adjustment.

The leadership of educational institutions in Nigeria is a strategic factor in answering geographical challenges. Leadership can focus more on technology integration and curriculum innovation. Meanwhile, school principals are required to overcome the limitations of facilities by building collaboration networks, finding creative solutions to transportation constraints, and motivating teachers to be willing to work in remote areas. Leadership that is adaptive to local needs is the key to success. This review synthesises recent scholarship on how principals manage communication with teachers and how such management influences academic outcomes, mainly through indirect pathways. The paper positions communication management as a set of deliberate Principal–teacher communication is a central leadership process through which public secondary schools coordinate instruction, sustain teacher motivation, and create conditions that support students’ academic performance. In Nigeria, where public secondary schools frequently operate under resource constraints, heavy administrative demands, and complex accountability expectations, communication management becomes a practical mechanism for translating leadership intentions into classroom practice. leadership practices that include clarifying instructional goals, establishing reliable feedback loops, supporting teacher professional learning, facilitating collaboration, and building relational trust. Through these practices, principals can shape teacher effectiveness, strengthen collegial coordination, and promote a positive school climate—factors that jointly influence learning opportunities and performance. The review further highlights contextual conditions in Nigerian public secondary schools that can either strengthen or weaken communication effects, including role overload, hierarchical organisational norms, uneven leadership preparation, teacher workload, and infrastructural limitations that impede information flow. By integrating leadership-for-learning perspectives with Nigeria-relevant considerations, the article offers an explanatory framework for understanding communication as both an organisational routine and a relational practice that can enable instructional improvement. The review concludes by identifying implications for principal development, school-level management routines, and future research that can more precisely measure communication quality and test causal pathways linking communication management to student achievement in Nigeria.