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Perhaps one of the most scathing critiques on school leadership and management literature in Africa is its reliance on western models that do not quite fit the context, hence a lack of relevance. In this article I present a postcolonial reading of the representation of school leadership and management literature in Africa. The analysis suggests that school leadership and management literature in Africa is represented in deficient ways that do not promote indigenous ways of developing leadership and management knowledge and practice within the local education contexts. It argues that knowledge that is located in cultural and indigenous discourse might be more effective and more sustainable. A postcolonial understanding of educational leadership and management that acknowledges the cultural context as presented in this article builds on postcolonial scholarship, thereby addressing a gap in educational leadership and management. The paper ends with proposals for counter representations.

In this article, we examine the tension between external educational accountability demands and other [political] forces of interest and possible ways to ensure that schools can still succeed in performing their daily duties and achieving educational goals. We draw from interviews undertaken with school principals in South Africa. Our analysis suggests that the current education accountabilities in South Africa, as a constitutional prescript are not out of place with the rest of the world. However, the approach to these accountability reforms is questionable, riddled with political interference and has mostly led to compliancy at the schools' own peril. We conclude that education reforms must be accompanied by strong legal accountability, that is balanced with the capacity to improve and better the system that would yield desired results.

This article examines how "Educational Management, Administration and Leadership" has embodied the values, concepts and practice of the field of educational leadership over 50 years and so played a part in challenging or sustaining inequality in education. The article explores selected key concepts, equal opportunities, diversity, and social justice, the disciplinary base and prevalent research methods underpinning work on inequality, the geographic location and characteristics of relevant published authors and the two areas which attract most attention, gender and ethnicity/race. All areas embody both a push for change and structural inhibitors that limit its extent. Omissions, silences and displacements are also examined, questioning why, for example, a focus on masculinity, white privilege, learner voice and lower status sectors of education hardly surfaces in half a century. The article concludes that despite the positive achievements of the journal in forwarding equality, there is an equality double bind whereby, like a Trojan virus, parameters limiting change are embedded in the very work that seeks to promote it. A number of positive suggestions for changes in the journal and field are made to encourage researchers and practitioners to detect and resist previous strategies of evasion and limitation.

The role of circuit managers is an essential component of school district leadership, which provides a necessary bridge between schools and government. School districts play a vital role in continuously collaborating, guiding and leading, and challenging schools to raise standards. In this paper, we draw on a subset of semi-structured interviews with education leaders in the Eastern Cape province, on their perspectives on the circuit management role. From these interviews, circuit managers were labelled as the 'weakest link' in the educational leadership chain. We explore the cause, nature and the extent to which circuit managers are perceived to be the weakest link and the implications thereof. Our discussion engages various factors that lead to Circuit Managers being considered the weakest link in the education leadership chain and these include: poor circuit office structure, the high vacancy rate of Circuit Managers, and external interference. We argue for the strengthening of the Circuit Offices and suggest ways in which they could be utilised to add more value in the efforts to improve the quality of basic education in the public schools.

In the light of recent media reports of racism in South African schools, this paper examines the role of school principalship standards in addressing race in South African educational leadership. The paper draws on tenets of critical race theory to examine how issues of race are addressed in the Policy for School Principalship Standard in South Africa and the implications thereof for leadership preparation and leadership practice. The methodology involves the employment of content analysis underpinned by key tenets of critical race theory that challenge notions of colour-blindness, meritocracy and neutrality. The analysis reveals that there is no explicit mention or treatment of race and ethnicity as social constructs in the principalship standards. It also reveals that diversity and culture are used more, suggesting the emphasis on difference rather than inequality. The paper argues that, although driven by principles of social justice, the Policy for School Principalship Standard is colour-blind. Through this omission, the policy denies the existence of racism and fails to recognise the power and influence of school leaders (and principals, in particular) in shaping the race dynamic in schools. The paper ends with implications for the improvement of leadership policy and practice.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how leadership styles in the Eastern Cape school districts support school improvement. Mixed methods research was employed and data was collected through the use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with school principals in various districts. The study was guided by the following questions: (1) what are the most common leadership styles among the school district officials in the province; and (2) how do the prevailing leadership style/s appear to support or hinder change and school improvement in the district? The quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for statistical analysis, while qualitative data analysis followed the iterative approach as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings revealed prevalence of more authoritarian top-down leadership styles, which tend to have negative effects on school improvement. The paper ends with recommendations for more empirical work that would uncover district leadership approaches that influence the success of the districts and support school improvement.

Using intersectionality theory, the article presents constructions of successful leadership by three Black women school principals in three different contexts: England, South Africa and the United States. The article is premised on the overall shortage of literature on Black women in educational leadership, which leaves Black women's experiences on the periphery even in contexts where they are in the majority. Through a life-history approach, we interviewed three Black women leaders on their experiences of gender and race in constructing success in leadership, and used intersectionality theory to analyse their accounts. Our analysis suggests that Black women leaders' constructions of success are shaped by overcoming barriers of their own racialized and gendered histories to being in a position where they can lead in providing an education for their Black communities, where they are able to inspire a younger generation of women and to practice leadership that is inclusive, fair and socially just. We conclude with a range of implications for the scholarship of intersectionality and educational leadership practice.

There is increasing recognition that effective leadership and management are vital if schools are to be successful in providing good learning opportunities for students, and emerging evidence that high quality leadership makes a significant difference to school improvement and learning outcomes. However, in many countries, including South Africa, a teaching qualification and teaching experience are the only requirements for school principals. In the 21st century, there is a growing realisation that headship is a specialist occupation that requires specific preparation. In 2007, the former South African Department of Education introduced a new threshold qualification for aspiring school principals as part of its wider strategy to improve educational standards. The course, badged as an Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership (ACE), was piloted in six provinces from 2007-2009. This paper reports the main findings from the evaluation of the pilot ACE programme and links them to the South African and international literature on leadership development.

In England, school leadership preparation has shifted from the National College and local authorities to teaching schools, their alliances and multi-academy trusts. Against this changing educational landscape, we investigate opportunities presented to men and women in secondary school leadership teams (SLTs). Drawing on interview data from a British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society funded investigation, we report on leadership preparation and development opportunities, aspiration to headship, headteachers' support of 'in house', regional and national preparation programmes, coaching and mentoring involvement as well as access to formal and informal networks. Our analysis of SLTs as sites of potential for headship demonstrated some variability in women's and men's reported experiences. Accredited courses, higher degrees and workplace-based preparation provided access to leadership preparation and development opportunities; access was not transferrable from school to school. We identified a fragmented system and suggest policy and cultural changes to allow SLTs to offer inclusive and sustainable opportunities for succession planning.

The role of education districts is central to the success of schools as they are mandated to work collaboratively with school principals, giving guidance and professional support. In this paper, we investigate school principals' perspectives regarding the nature of support provided by their districts to effectively conduct their work and how that support can be enhanced. Using semi-structured interviews, 18 principals from five districts were interviewed. Findings show school principals' dissatisfaction with their districts' low levels of support caused by the lack of district support on provision of resources, lack of consultation in key decisions involving their schools; district officials' lack of visibility in schools and responsiveness to change. We conclude that the success of principals and their schools partly depends on the nature of support received from their districts, and argue for improved collaboration between schools and the districts.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the socialisation and leader identity development of school leaders in Southern African countries. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilised a survey of qualitative data where data collection primarily involved in-depth interviews with school principals and deputy principals of both primary and secondary schools. Findings: Findings revealed that early socialisation to leadership transpired during childhood and early schooling at which points in time the characteristics and values of leadership integral to the participants' leadership practice were acquired. Initial teacher training was found to be significant in introducing principalship role conception. Leader identity was also found to develop outside the context of school through pre-socialising agents long before the teaching and leading roles are assumed. Originality/value: The study presents an overview of the findings from four countries in Southern Africa, providing a complex process with overlapping stages of career socialisation. Existing research puts emphasis on formal leadership preparation as a significant part of socialisation -- this study suggests alternatives for poorly resourced countries. Significantly, the paper improves our understanding that school leader identity is both internal and external to the school environment.

In trying to understand some of the gendered discourses that shape the management of schools as organisations in South Africa, I analyse woman principals' experiences as they try to navigate a balance between their home and work responsibilities. After their appointment as principals, some South African women face difficulties in striking the balance between work and family. Available literature suggests that balancing private and public life for working women with families can be taxing, especially for married women. Reasons for this include the cultural expectation, which suggests that women, regardless of whether they are in employment or not, or whether they employ a domestic helper or not, should still perform family chores in the home. The traditional stereotypes also associate school principalship with masculinity, a view that hampers women's career progression in education management. I identify some of the gendered social practices that disadvantage women and suggest that these need to be challenged in order to achieve gender equity in education management. I further suggest an urgent need for research informed by feminist theories and examine gender inequity issues in schools in South Africa within the current political, social, and cultural frameworks.

The paper aims to demonstrate the value of cognitive interviewing (CI) as a survey pretesting method in comparative education research. Although rarely used by education researchers, CI has been successfully applied in different disciplines to evaluate and improve question performance. The method assumes that observing people's thought processes when they answer survey questions can detect response problems and point to possible solutions. To illustrate the merits of CI, we present the findings from eight cognitive interviews, which informed the development of a bilingual English/Georgian online questionnaire. The main objectives of our CI study were to (a) examine cognitive validity of survey questions, (b) determine semantic equivalence of the source (English) and translated (Georgian) versions of the questionnaire and (c) establish conceptual equivalence of survey measures across two cultures. We conducted two rounds of cognitive interviews, one in each language, using a combination of think-aloud and verbal probing techniques. Our analysis suggests that CI can help to identify causes of response difficulties and develop more accurate and comparable survey measures for cross-cultural education research.

This paper presents findings from a study examining the career development experiences of female head-teachers in the south of England. Adapting a three-stage career model, the study examined different stages of the women's lives and careers in order to understand what encouraged and influenced them to become educational leaders and how their experiences shaped their perceptions of headship. The study used semi-structured life story interviews to generate rich accounts of women's lives from childhood. Findings suggest that parents exerted significant influence on the participants' values and ambitions, while teachers influenced their career choices. Their perceptions of headship developed and changed over time, transforming from feelings of shock at the reality and the complexity of headship to control and confidence that increased over first, second and third headships.

In England, despite making up 60% of the secondary school teaching workforce, women continue to be underrepresented in secondary school headship. In this paper, we focus on the experiences of women working in the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as a site for headship preparation. This paper draws on survey findings from a study of women's and men's work in the SLT, and their leadership preparation and development in schools in three pairs of geographically adjacent local authorities (South-West Birmingham and Sandwell; Stockport and Tameside; Wokingham and Reading). Two cases were created each containing one half of the paired authorities. Case 1 consists of local authorities and schools where women have achieved headship (South-West Birmingham, Stockport and Wokingham); Case 2 of local authorities and schools where fewer women were headteachers (Sandwell, Tameside and Reading). Findings suggest there were differences between Cases 1 and 2 with respect to the gendered composition of SLTs, the length of time senior leaders had been in post, their experience of discrimination, opportunities for flexible working practices, and the way they described senior leadership as it was done in the school. There were also differences with respect to sustained aspiration to headship, access to expanded leadership repertoires, availability of mentoring and coaching programmes, and access to networks. The article argues that as an important site for leadership development and preparation for headship, the working practices of the SLT might impact on women's achievement of headship.

This article explores the notion of leadership identity construction as it happens through a leadership development programme. Influenced by a conception that leadership development is essentially about facilitating an identity transition, it uses an intersectional approach to explore school leaders' identity construction as it was shaped and influenced by experiences on the leadership development programme. The article draws data from a mixed-methods study that evaluated the impact of the leadership training programme offered to practising school leaders in South Africa. In order to examine the process of leadership identity construction, the article draws from data where identity work was visible. It argues that categories of identity--gender, race and social class--interacted simultaneously with the contexts and backgrounds of participants to shape and influence the outcome of the leadership development programme. This complex intersection enabled unexpected outcomes where women appeared to benefit more from the programme despite their less privileged entry status. The article calls for more work that asks direct questions on leaders' construction of identity in order to inform leadership development programmes more meaningfully.

This article presents the findings from the evaluation of the pilot of a new entry qualification for school principals in South Africa. The programme, Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) School Leadership, had networking as a distinctive feature, and this article examines candidates' perceptions and experiences of networking as a leadership development process. The methodology combined the survey, interviews and observations. The findings revealed that the practice, development and sustainability of networks were complex; networking advanced shared learning and facilitated candidates' programme completion while addressing school-based problems through site-based assessment. However, networks were noted to be patchy, with a few operating successfully, but most still requiring development. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

In South Africa, until recently, mentoring has not been formalized as part of school leadership induction programmes or of leadership professional development. However, the South African government identified mentoring as a distinctive aspect of its pilot leadership development programme for school principals. This programme signalled a shift from "ad hoc" and informal mentoring to building mentorship into school leadership development programmes. However, there is still no clear understanding about what constitutes effective mentoring models and the significance of similarity and diversity in a mentoring relationship. In this paper I draw from two dissimilar datasets to explore mentoring from an identity (gender and race) perspective. Using similarity-attraction theory, the paper highlights the complexity of mentoring models and suggests that higher levels of dissimilarity in a mentoring relationship may lead to disadvantage. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

This article reports on data from a larger scale study exploring female principals' experiences of their career route to the principalship of secondary schools in South Africa. To understand these experiences, the study used an analytical framework that identifies three phases principals go through on their career route, namely: anticipation, acquisition and performance. The framework suggests that women experience more obstacles than men on their career route and their experiences are influenced by personal, organizational and social factors. These factors manifest in social practices within and outside schools and affect women across the three phases of the career route. Central to these experiences, is the underlying male norm of who is more appropriate for secondary school principalship. (Contains 2 notes.)

In the light of recent media reports of racism in South African schools, this paper examines the role of school principalship standards in addressing race in South African educational leadership. The paper draws on tenets of critical race theory to examine how issues of race are addressed in the Policy for School Principalship Standard in South Africa and the implications thereof for leadership preparation and leadership practice. The methodology involves the employment of content analysis underpinned by key tenets of critical race theory that challenge notions of colour-blindness, meritocracy and neutrality. The analysis reveals that there is no explicit mention or treatment of race and ethnicity as social constructs in the principalship standards. It also reveals that diversity and culture are used more, suggesting the emphasis on difference rather than inequality. The paper argues that, although driven by principles of social justice, the Policy for School Principalship Standard is colour-blind. Through this omission, the policy denies the existence of racism and fails to recognise the power and influence of school leaders (and principals, in particular) in shaping the race dynamic in schools. The paper ends with implications for the improvement of leadership policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the notion of feminine leadership among women in middle leadership positions in Kuwait’s private universities. Using semi-structured interviews as the main source of data, 12 female leaders who currently occupy middle leadership positions and those who have held similar positions in the past were interviewed. The findings showed that women leaders’ understanding of feminine leadership was associated with transformational attributes of empathy, people orientation and collaboration. While these women leaders identified these attributes and recognised them as authentic to their own leadership approach, they did not associate them with the notion of feminine leadership because they perceived it as weakness. We argue that wider socio-cultural impact influences these perceptions through the masculine organisational structures and cultures that shape women’s experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of education districts is central to the success of schools as they are mandated to work collaboratively with school principals, giving guidance and professional support. In this paper, we investigate school principals' perspectives regarding the nature of support provided by their districts to effectively conduct their work and how that support can be enhanced. Using semi-structured interviews, 18 principals from five districts were interviewed. Findings show school principals' dissatisfaction with their districts' low levels of support caused by the lack of district support on provision of resources, lack of consultation in key decisions involving their schools; district officials' lack of visibility in schools and responsiveness to change. We conclude that the success of principals and their schools partly depends on the nature of support received from their districts, and argue for improved collaboration between schools and the districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of education districts is central to the success of schools as they are mandated to work collaboratively with school principals, giving guidance and professional support. In this paper, we investigate school principals' perspectives regarding the nature of support provided by their districts to effectively conduct their work and how that support can be enhanced. Using semi-structured interviews, 18 principals from five districts were interviewed. Findings show school principals' dissatisfaction with their districts' low levels of support caused by the lack of district support on provision of resources, lack of consultation in key decisions involving their schools; district officials' lack of visibility in schools and responsiveness to change. We conclude that the success of principals and their schools partly depends on the nature of support received from their districts, and argue for improved collaboration between schools and the districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]