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The article focuses on a study which investigated the effectiveness of head teacher leadership within TAFE NSW, the largest vocational education training (VET) institute in Australia. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to identify and measure the effective leadership attributes of the head teachers. The findings of the study suggest that head teachers in the VET institution need to substantially improve their leadership skills. The study also recommends the need to initiate leadership programs to assist in developing the leadership areas that need improvements.

This article examines the effect of implementing participatory school administration, leadership and management (PSALM) on the levels of empowerment among the educational stakeholders. A mixed method approach combined experimental design with empirical surveys, interviews and documentary analysis. Surveys included administrators, teachers, students, alumni, parents and community leaders from secondary schools in the Philippines. Findings showed that PSALM implementation led to higher levels of empowerment compared with the control group and that teachers and administrators felt more empowered than the other stakeholders. Challenges were overcome through open communication channels and support systems. Findings support the link between PSALM and empowerment levels of stakeholders.

The article focuses on a study on participatory school administration, leadership and management, and fostering of trust in school. In PSALM, the stakeholders are involved in the management of schools through their membership in the advisory school council. According to the article, studies showed evidence that this strategy is one of the important characteristics of high-performing schools. It is also noted that literature stresses the idea that building trust among the constituents of the school community leads to salutary results.

Irrespective of how the roles, tasks, and responsibilities of principals have evolved due to educational change and reform, the school principal still holds the key to achieving school effectiveness. Over the last few decades, extensive studies have been conducted on the role of the school principal. Most scholars, researchers, and school reformers have discussed the role of the school principal as the school leader, school manager, key decision maker, facilitator, problem solver, chief executive officer, chief learner, marketer, team leader, and agent of change (Edmonds 1979; Clark, Lotto, and Astuto 1984; Smith and Purkey 1983; Gamage 1990, 1996a, and 1996b; Barth 1991; Sergiovanni 1987; Thomson 1993; Caldwell 1994; and Cranston 1996). These studies, however, provided only limited information about the profiles and professional development of school leaders who are meeting the new challenges in 21st-century schools. In recent years, as a result of increased collaboration and communication among educational institutions in various nations, a series of research projects to examine and compare aspects of school leadership, including professional education and experiences of school leaders, have been conducted. This paper presents the profiles and entry perspectives of Australian and Japanese school principals, and information on preservice and in-service training programs related to professional development. Implications for changes in university-level professional development programs, and selection and training of school principals in both Australia and Japan are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based management (SBM) in Thailand began in 1997 in the course of a reform aimed at overcoming a profound crisis in the education system. The present contribution reports on the introduction and institutionalisation of decentralisation and SBM with community participation in Thailand. The data reported here are based on an empirical survey of 1,000 school-board members from Bangkok as well as provincial and rural areas which was followed by 45 interviews with all relevant stakeholders. The results of the study are promising, as they show broad support for the reform among school principals as well as board members. However, they also reveal a continuing need to train principals and board members in educational leadership and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education is critical to the social and economic futures of all nations and it is more so in the case of developed nations. The American and Australian systems of higher education originated on the basis of the 17th and 19th Century British models, respectively. Later, the Americans developed their own unique system, with the introduction of several innovative features, becoming the most diverse, dynamic and dominant system of the modem world. The Australian system, which developed itself maintaining a close relationship with the British system until the 1980s, has now transformed into a unified national system, consisting of multi-campus, larger universities with a big push for the expansion of the private sector, moving towards the American model. However, it is observed that there are more similarities than differences in the problems and issues confronted by the two systems. Both nations have made higher education a means of national development and minimisation of social inequality. This paper addresses some of the key issues, such as, higher education costs to students, technology and instructional delivery, faculty roles and rewards and current trends that are likely to dominate these systems during the first decade of the 21st Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]