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‘System leadership’, as applied to the running of schools, refers to a form of leadership that extends beyond a single institution, where headteachers work with establishments other than their own. This approach is predicated on certain beliefs about the role and purpose of collaborative school leadership and management in a marketised system of state schooling and the benefits of a distributed and networked approach to school improvement. But what are the potential benefits and limitations of school system leadership? What normative interpretations of the system are best suited for purpose? This paper explores these issues with reference to the English school system, where system leadership is actively promoted by government through education policy and school reform. In order to do this, use is made of Gunter, H., D. Hall, and J. Bragg (2013. “Distributed Leadership: A Study in Knowledge Production.”Education Management, Administration and Leadership41 (4): 555–580.) framework of distributed leadership in schools. The framework identifies functionally normative, functionally descriptive, critical and socially critical positions in the school leadership literature. The paper concludes by putting forward potential alternatives to the largely functional policy narratives and solutions of recent decades, which are based on a broader understanding of ‘the system’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

School leader training has become a critical strategy in educational reform. However, in China, there still exists a big gap in terms of how to transfer leadership knowledge into practice. Thus, tools that can integrate formal knowledge into practice are called for urgently in school leader training. This paper presents the results of a research and development (R&D) approach to adapt an existing online computer simulation, Making Change Happen™, for use in Mainland China. The paper describes the process used to inform and assess our cultural adaptation of the simulation, as well as the response of Chinese principals to learning through this innovative method. Results affirmed the necessity for cultural adaptation of ‘Western’ curricula and tools for use in the Chinese context. The positive response of the Chinese school principals to learning via an online computer simulation suggested future potential for employing technology-facilitated, active learning modes in China. Implications are outlined for theory, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a ‘grass-roots’ change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive ‘approach' underlying this change, the ‘method' that guided the implementation of a bilingual school, it's evaluation and then its dissemination to other schools, we used a qualitative case study method to understand whether John Dewey’s theory of education for peace was able to effect change in Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school education in Israel. The case findings describes the use of the progressive approach of education for peace in the ‘Bridge over the Valley’ bilingual school, as it is expressed in the school’s pedagogy, the implementation of the progressive method and in the accompanying discourse. Reciprocal teacher–child relations are considered an important factor to create fertile conditions for learning. The case findings contribute to our introduction of democratic education in a spatial reality. Underlying this approach stood a pedagogical method and conceptualization for conflict resolution and the opening of a space for empowering dialog for co-existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author explores the development of school staff who are employed to support pupils in the classroom, specifically the teaching assistant/higher level teaching assistant role. These roles have undergone considerable change following the introduction of Workforce Reform and Remodelling in English schools and the National Agreement. In practice, the introduction of this agreement into schools appears to have a powerful gendered aspect which limits choice and agency for individuals and prevents the development of a coherent workforce. I argue that the discourse of maternality within which the school support role has evolved supposes a level of self-sacrifice and conscientiousness which is gendered and conceals the exploitative nature of the role in terms of poor pay and career prospects. Furthermore, the growth of support staff in English schools to undertake roles previously assigned to teachers has had the effect of disaggregating and de-professionalising the teacher role and weakening the traditional job boundaries which defined the work of support staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on the dramatic increase of leadership development programs in Great Britain. The authors cited the opportunities which have included the exciting possibilities of creating new programs that may help to increase leadership and transform schools. It has acknowledged the positive effects of recent educational policy in framing a more holistic and coherent approach to school leadership development. They also investigated a tool that provides principal and his or her mentor with the information they need to determine priority learning needs.

This article reports on research for The Literacy Policy project. The focus is the micro-politics of policy enactment, sited in the literacy policy of a multi-academy trust (MAT). A semi-structured interview was conducted with the CEO of a MAT to ascertain what literacy policy means to them. The contribution is to add to existing literature on the practice of MAT CEOs, using theories of micro-politics and the thinking tools of Bourdieu. Findings suggest that MAT CEOs may enact policies and structure their organisation in a way that reduces the opportunity for, but also monitors and utilises, micro-political activity by teachers and headteachers. This is driven by the pressures on MATs to expand in a highly performative environment and deliver curricular in a cost-effective way. This is important because it suggests that the UK government's academies policy for schools in England does not necessarily deliver the promised levels of autonomy; and may lead to homogenised curricular for schools in disadvantaged areas where greater criticality is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading meaningful school improvement and reform has proven to be a difficult process. This article looks at some of the interactive, contextual variables that lend to the complexity of this challenge. These include complexities inherent in schools, in change processes and in the leadership role itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]