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Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate intactness scores: the remaining proportion of an intact reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the regions major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems.

Purpose: This study examines principal rotation in China to gain empirical insights from the policy analysis and succession strategies that principals employ to gain internal and external support in their new schools. Design/methodology/approach: We employed document analysis and a case study approach. Interviews were conducted with officials in 5 local educational agencies and 40 principals from 5 different regions who were undergoing rotation. Thematic analysis was used to identify common patterns and themes in the interview responses. Findings: We explored how the principal-rotation policy was implemented, including the goals, standards, targeted principals, tools and other aspects of the policy in China. The study revealed the challenges faced by the rotated principals and their succession strategies. Originality/value: Our study contributes to the field of educational leadership by shedding light on the implementation and impact of principal rotation in mainland China.

Review of the book: Porfirio Cardona-Restrepo, Manuel Alcántara Sáez y Javier Duque Daza (eds.). 30 años de la Constitución Política de Colombia. Análisis y perspectivas. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, 2022. 269 págs.

Purpose: Principals' well-being worldwide is under increasing threat due to the challenging and complex nature of their work and growing demands. This paper aimed at developing and validating a multidimensional Principal Well-being Inventory (PWI) and examining the state and consequences of principal well-being. Design/methodology/approach: This paper involves four independent samples of principals working in schools from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The research design consisted of four phases with four sequential empirical studies. Phase 1 was to establish the content validity (literature review and Study 1); Phase 2 was to test the construct validity (Study 2 and Study 3); Phase 3 was to build the criterion validity (re-use the data from Study 3) and Phase 4 was to test the cross-validity of the PWI (Study 4). Findings: Based on published literature and four successive empirical studies, a 24-item PWI was created via a theoretical-empirical approach of test construction. Validity was confirmed through construct-, content-, criterion- and cross-validity testing. The PWI covers the six important well-being dimensions -- physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual -- to present a general picture of principals' occupational well-being associated with job nature, well-being literacy, leadership and context. Research limitations/implications: The inventory will aid efforts to promote principal well-being as an essential component of schoolwide well-being, quality education and a wellness society. Practical implications: During the post-COVID-19 period, this project is deemed both critical and timely so that quality education will not be sacrificed due to factors affecting principal well-being. Originality/value: This theoretically and empirically validated inventory serves as a robust tool for comprehensively understanding principal well-being and a fuller exploration of their well-being literacy, drivers and outcomes.

Background: Middle leaders are well placed to exert a positive influence on teacher learning, due in part to their proximity to the classroom. However, to maximise that potential, more needs to be understood about the complex connections between instruction-oriented middle leadership and professional learning, particularly in non-Western contexts. Purpose: This study, undertaken in a Chinese context, investigated how middle leaders, specifically those who headed teaching-research groups (TRGs), enacted their instructional leadership to influence teacher learning and build teacher capacity. Method: A qualitative, multi-case design was employed. Participants included 6 vice-principals, 18 TRG heads and 24 classroom teachers. Data collection, in the form of semi-structured interviews, observations, and field notes, was conducted over four months in six schools in China. Data analysis involved the synthesis of participant narratives to identify how middle leaders made sense of, and promoted, teacher learning through their instructional leadership. Findings: Analysis allowed themes and sub-themes to emerge, suggesting four domains of leadership practice: (i) nurturing teacher job-embedded learning, (ii) creating a climate conducive to teacher learning, (iii) engaging teachers in school-based action research and (iv) mobilising external resources to develop teachers. From this, an early-stage conceptual model was created, describing how middle leaders used their instructional leadership as a primary pathway of influence, and how they emphasised relational bonds and organisational structure to stimulate teacher learning. Conclusion: The findings provide insights into middle leadership in the Chinese context, yielding a view into core practices of middle leadership for teacher learning, and drawing attention to teacher development practices that are relevant in other contexts internationally. Tapping into the potential of the middle leader to support teachers' professional learning can contribute to wider school improvement, ultimately benefitting all learners.

Promoting teacher professional learning by empowering established master teachers as leaders is a priority in many societies, including America, Australia, and Canada. Yet, few systems have implemented strategies that allow this to happen at scale. China is one of the few societies that engage master teachers in spreading learning. They do this through several initiatives, one of which is through Master Teacher Studios (MTSs). This article investigates how teacher leadership is enacted in an MTS and how the studio leader nurtures teacher learning across schools. Teacher leadership is widely touted as powerful means for improving teacher professional learning within and beyond schools. However, relatively few empirical studies have examined how teacher leaders promote teacher professional learning, especially in China. This paper uses one provincial- level MTS in Zhejiang province, an economically and educationally advanced region in China, to explore the leadership practices of the MTS host, a master teacher in promoting the MTS members' professional learning. The paper identifies three major leadership strategies adopted by the host of MTS: acting as a conduit between local government and studio members, "yanchuan shenjiao" ('mentoring in words and demonstrating in deeds'), and providing studio members with intellectual, social, and emotional supports.

The guest-dependent flexibility of the pillared-layered metal-organic framework (MOF), Zn2bdc2dabco·X(guest), where guest = EtOH, DMF or benzene, has been examined by high-pressure single crystal X-ray diffraction. A pressure-induced structural phase transition is found for the EtOH- and DMF-included frameworks during compression in a hydrostatic medium of the guest species, which is dependent upon the nature and quantity of the guest in the channels. The EtOH-included material undergoes a phase transition from P4/mmm to C2/m at 0.69 GPa, which is accompanied by a change in the pore shape from square to rhombus via super-filling of the pores. The DMF-included material undergoes a guest-mediated phase transition from I4/mcm to P4/mmm at 0.33 GPa via disordering of the DMF guest. In contrast, the benzene-included framework features a structure with rhombus-shaped channels at ambient pressure and shows direct compression under hydrostatic pressure. These results demonstrate the large influence of guest molecules on the high-pressure phase behavior of flexible MOFs. Guest-mediated framework flexibility is useful for engineering MOFs with bespoke pore shapes and compressibility.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore developments over the past 25 years in the knowledge base on instruction-oriented middle leadership in schools. The authors document the trends in the literature since middle leadership began to attract scholarly interest in the late 1990s and explore the shifting structural and content patterns in the knowledge base. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a topographic methodology to analyse both structural elements and major results drawing from 147 peer-reviewed journal articles. Findings: The authors draw on the review's outcomes to propose a model that frames a core set of middle leaders' instructional leadership practices. They also identify the personal, departmental, organizational and external influences shaping middle leadership practices and identify a lack of research conducted outside Anglo-American societies. This gap in the literature suggests the need for the increased study of middle leadership in different national settings and systems and how these influence the practice and enactment of middle leaders around instruction. There is also a need to employ a greater range of methodologies to understand middle leaders' instructional roles. Research limitations/implications The paper lays a foundation for the future development of middle leadership for instruction and highlights signposts to guide future inquiry. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the middle leader knowledge base by focussing on their enactment of instructional leadership.

Limited but increasing research has noted that middle leaders (MLs) play a crucial role in structuring a supportive working environment to help entrepreneurial teachers transform educational innovation into practice. This study aims to increase understanding of the extent to which MLs with different levels of experience influence teacher entrepreneurial behaviour (TEB). The study employs the three dimensions of the 'person-environment fit model,' namely, person-organisation fit, person-group fit, and person-job fit, as a theoretical lens to examine the relationships among MLs, working environment, and TEB. Findings revealed that the more years of experience MLs have in post, the more influence they have in promoting TEB; however, they have limited influence over shaping the working environment, especially the person-organisation environment. Furthermore, the mediating effect of the person-environment fit model was complex because teacher entrepreneurial behaviour was perceived to be a result of the synergy between the person-group and person-job environment. The findings advance knowledge about middle-leadership and teacher-entrepreneurial behaviour across the three dimensions of the person-environment fit model. They also highlight the importance of MLs' leading experience for TEB and further enrich the understanding of how MLs struggle to support TEB in a hierarchical working environment.

Purpose: Despite the continuous growth of empirical studies exploring professional learning communities (PLCs) across different education systems, little is known about PLC instruments developed and used in existing research. This article aims to capture a full picture of existing PLC instruments developed since 1990. In so doing, the authors also pay attention to the seminal work of Karen Seashore Louis in alignment with the theme of the special issue. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the authors' searching databases, the authors identified eleven PLC instruments and 26 applied studies using the PLC instruments since 1990. Following this, the authors closely reviewed the identified studies and their relationships (i.e. which one influences which). Findings: The authors' review illuminates the measurement domains, conceptual origins and methodological soundness of the existing instruments and captures the impact of Louis's work on the applied studies using PLC instruments. Originality/value: Given that PLCs are seen as a policy measure to sustain and scale up school improvement internationally, the authors' review provides a better understanding of what and how researchers have measured the effect of PLCs on school improvement. As the first of its kind, the authors believe that their findings can give researchers valuable ideas about how to develop and use a PLC instrument.

This paper explores the use of Lesson Study in primary schools in England as a powerful tool for developing teachers' pedagogical knowledge, and for shaping teaching practices that encourage children's engagement. Through Lesson Study, a critical space for dialogic engagement is generated, wherein children contribute to, and shape, teaching and teacher learning. Teachers' perspectives of using Lesson Study were captured using 26 semi-structured interviews and Bourdieu's notion of capital was used to conceptualise and analyse the impact on children. It is proposed that Lesson Study generates opportunities for teachers to explore relations of power through dialogue between teacher and child.

Purpose: This study aims to describe and analyze an innovative mechanism of teacher-led, system-wide professional learning that has been widely adopted since the beginning of the twenty-first century in China--the Master Teacher Studio (MTS). Design/methodology/approach: This paper drew from policy documents, published Chinese literature relating to MTSs and personal fieldwork experience in Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang province. Findings: The article first outlines the context framing the system change, including its policy background and evolution, and then the MTS's purpose, formative process and structure. It finally examines major teacher learning activities and the leadership roles of the MTS hosts (leaders). Research limitations/implications: This study contributed to the knowledge base of system teacher leaders and how they lead cross-school leading. Practical implications: The MTS initiative described in this article shows the power of central system leadership to spread and embed effective teacher learning practices at schools. Originality/value: This article provides implications for understanding and practicing teacher system leadership to support teacher professional learning in different societies.