As an educationist over the years, I have experienced principals’ outburst and their tendency to make a scene out of seemly minor issues that could have been addressed with little modesty. This behaviour has led to an uproar amongst parents, teachers and learners about the school principals’ insensitiveness which is attributed to lack of emotional intelligence (EI) competency. The study is underpinned by the transformational leadership theory which aims at pioneering change of attitude in school leadership so that different educational actors could be influenced to achieve the school and overall educational objectives. This qualitative study generated data from five (5) conveniently selected secondary school principals, five (5) parents and five (5) teachers using semi-structured interviews. Using thematic analysis method, the study revealed that principals with EI are able to enhance school performance and satisfy parents. Thus, the study revealed that EI is useful in establishing and maintaining good relationships with different school stakeholders. It is fundamental in managing conflicts in schools and facilitates constructive management of any stressful situations. The study further revealed that principals could acquire this skill through self-enrichment and induction initiatives by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). It is recommended that before principals are appointed, they should be subjected to multiple aptitude tests to evaluate their knowledge and competencies. Furthermore MoET through its experts should continually induct principals on EI aspects.

The study aims to determine the relationship between school administrators’ paternalistic leadership behaviours and teachers’ work alienation levels. The research sample group involves 205 teachers working in the Anatolian high schools in the central district of Siirt. Research data was collected through the “Paternalistic Leadership Behaviours Scale of School Principals” and the “Work Alienation Scale”. According to the descriptive and Pearson correlation analysis results of the research, it was determined that the paternalistic leadership behaviours of the school administrators are at a “strongly agree” level while the work alienation of the teachers is at a “somewhat agree” level, and a negative moderate significant relationship was found between the paternalistic leadership behaviours and the teachers’ work alienation levels. The path analysis revealed that benevolent leadership predicts the powerlessness and meaninglessness dimension negatively significantly; authoritarian leadership predicts the powerlessness dimension positively significantly, and moral leadership predicts meaninglessness and self-estrangement negatively significantly. Moreover, it was also established that, in general, paternalistic leadership behaviours predict the teachers’ work alienation negatively significantly as a whole. As a result of the research, school administrators were suggested to display helpful and ethical behaviours by watching over the teachers in various matters.

In this study, the relationship between the happy school variable, which determines the happiness levels of secondary school students in their schools, and academic self-efficacy, general self-efficacy and life satisfaction were examined. The relationship between variables was examined in this correlation study. The population of the study consisted of high school students studying in Anatolian high school in the city center of Kahramanmaras (Turkey). 315 students selected from these schools constituted the study sample. Data were collected with life satisfaction, academic self-efficacy, general self-efficacy, and happy school scales. Regression and path analyses were conducted for the data analysis. Study results suggest that each variable has a positive significant relationship with the other variables and that general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy and life satisfaction predicted happy schools. In the study, a linear model was created considering that a happy school is affected by general self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy and life satisfaction. High fit indices were obtained with the model. These indices suggest that the model is an acceptable model which is fit.

This article approaches secondary Vocational Education & Training (VET) in Portugal from a historical-educational perspective, namely the professional courses introduced in 2004 in public secondary schools. Its implementation aimed to obtain a qualified technical workforce and to fight against the high failure rate and school dropouts registered in technological courses. It was also proposed, to complete 12-year compulsory education, qualifying students for the exercise of a profession as level IV technicians of the national qualifications framework (NQF). As a result, the number of students enrolled in this modality has progressed from a residual value of 10% in 2004 to 39.7% in 2018. On average, its attendance in the European Union (EU) was 54.6%, with special emphasis on Finland and the Czech Republic, whose indicators were, 71.6% and 71.3%. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic came the unplanned closure of schools in the spring of 2020, imposed to protect the well-being of society, but which caused discontinuities. This research concludes by taking into account professional education in Portugal and the EU in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, also considering the opinion of educational actors (course directors, teachers, and students) on the functioning of VET in Portugal.

Teacher Leadership Teams (TLTs) are cross-functional teams, and thus knowledge integration is central to their teaming. Importantly, the existing literature maintains that cross-functional teams apply the traverse or transcend approach differently to integrate divergent knowledge, but few studies have directly focused on it within the context of TLTs. Studies on leadership teams in schools have highlighted political and/or cultural perspectives and mainly stressed team/organizational conditions that might influence the TLT process of using two knowledge integration approaches. Therefore, our research analyzed how one TLT employed two knowledge integration approaches in consideration of team/organizational conditions. More specifically, we conducted qualitative research using the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory as an analytic lens. We identified that the TLT used traverse, transcend, and mixed approaches, and that its context influenced the team’s hybrid use by determining when the team utilized each approach. We believe that our findings contribute to revealing TLTs’ actual knowledge integration process by empirically examining one TLT’s use of knowledge integration approaches. Our findings also contribute to developing a more comprehensive framework to understand TLT knowledge integration by addressing existing research from political and cultural perspectives and suggesting further areas of focus (i.e., functional conditions) for future research.

The highlighted local and international perspectives of school-based management (SBM) offer logical findings on its efficacy at the grassroots level. Despite some hindering factors, its impact along leadership and governance, curriculum and learning, accountability and continuous improvement, and resource management are commendable. After methodical scrutiny of data, this paper concludes that the improvements in schools triggered by SBM are responsiveness to the needs and challenges of schools; contextualization of curriculum; improvement of physical facilities and linkages; and stakeholders’ awareness and involvement to school’s programs, projects and activities (PPAs). Principals likewise implemented SBM in their respective schools by holding SBM planning with its stakeholders. In fact, the different programs and projects implemented in schools include SBM crafting and planning; implementation, monitoring, and documentation of student learning activities; and clean-up drive and transparency board installation. Researchers, therefore, recommend that responsiveness of SBM to the needs and challenges of schools; contextualization of curriculum; improvement of physical facilities and linkages; and stakeholders’ awareness and involvement to school PPA be extensively maximized. Eventually, sound partnerships between schools and external stakeholders be cultivated.

This study aims to identify the dominant leadership styles of chairs from the perspective of faculty members in different college departments in higher education in the UAE. Furthermore, the study aims to identify the teachers' perceptions of leadership styles that affect their job satisfaction. The study used quantitative means with faculty members in different higher educational settings in the UAE. The survey used a five-point Likert scale. The leadership styles have values (completely agree =5, agree = 4, neutral =3, disagree=2, completely disagree=1). The job satisfaction questions have values (completely satisfied =5, satisfied = 4, fairly satisfied =3, dissatisfied =2, completely dissatisfied=1). The chosen subjects were faculty members from different colleges. Those subjects are 135 university teachers who are divided into four age groups. The data revealed no dominant leadership styles in the colleagues from faculty members' perspectives; however, the statistics lean towards the laissez-faire leadership style. It also reveals correlations between the three leadership styles and job satisfaction. The democratic leadership style has the greatest impact and most significant environment and incentives among the three independent variables.

The current case study examines secondary school principals’ social justice leadership (SJL) based on teachers’ perceptions. In the study, a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological design was used to explore the teachers’ perceptions regarding their principals’ SJL at Turkish secondary schools. The data were reached through semi-structured interviews. 11 participant teachers were determined as participants of the study with the maximum sampling method. The collected data were analyzed with content analysis, and three themes were reached: limited social justice, inclusive perspectives, and holistic leaders. Based on the results, teachers think that principals have a limited SJL and inclusion enactment. The participant teachers think that SJL should have a holistic perspective, including parents and teachers while ensuring social justice at school.

We know that school principals are critical to school success and must have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and dispositions to lead effectively. However, research shows that identifying these potentially effective leaders is difficult. Furthermore, little is known about the motivations and experiences of aspiring school leaders. This study, conducted at a university in the Southeast United States, aims to understand better the lived experiences and motivations of aspiring public and private school leaders enrolled in graduate principal preparatory programs. Through phenomenological document data analysis of 38 written narratives from 19 participants, the authors revealed several common experiences contributing to participants’ leadership identity development: early life leadership experiences, exposure to models of leadership, and leadership opportunities in their professional lives. Findings also support existing literature on the altruistic motivations of school leaders. Finally, the authors discuss implications centered primarily on growing the principal pipeline, suggesting a focus on youth/student leadership opportunities and teacher/staff leadership experiences.

This study aims to investigate the views of active primary and secondary education teachers in Greece while implementing educational administration in the modern Greek school for issues related to multiculturalism and their intention to take an active role in co-shaping internal education policy, considering the country's centralized educational system and the flexibility it leaves for the participants in everyday educational reality. 1052 Primary and Secondary education teachers from Greece took part in the research. Descriptive statistics were used, followed by a test of the effect of the sample's social profile on their perceptions, and complex statistical analyzes such as correlations and multiple regression. The findings shape an educational leader who embraces the core principles of intercultural education. According to teachers, these findings are also considered encouraging, since they delineate a teacher who no longer rests, only, in their pedagogical duties, but understands that they must be part of the educational life. Finally, the findings confirmed the influence that an educational leader can exert with their behavior on the teachers at their school. This research sets the basis for the delineation of educational administration in the modern Greek multicultural educational reality by utilizing various statistical methods.

This study addresses the emergence of unwarranted conflicts and raptured ties within teacher-to-principal and teacher-to-teacher interactions. It highlights the neglect of emotions in relationships, which has been a gap in this research. Unlike existing scholarly focus on cognitive and pragmatic aspects of relationships, this study explores emotional geographies. Its objective is to promote positive relationships between and among teachers and principals by examining emotionality in their political and professional geographies. Furthermore, it seeks to formulate a policy and develop a program that restores ruptured interactions. This research employed an exploratory sequential mixed method. The qualitative analysis involved thematic and reflexive analysis. Statistical methods, such as frequencies and percentages, weighted mean, and Pearson correlation coefficient, were employed for quantitative analysis. The findings identified both positive and negative behaviors in the political and professional geographies. The results of the interviews produced a four-quadrant chart. Positive behaviors were positioned in Quadrants I and IV, and negative behaviors in Quadrants II and III. Pearson correlation coefficient indicated a moderate positive correlation in the interactions of teachers with the principal and interaction with colleagues in both political and professional geographies. This study concludes that addressing emotional geographies is crucial to repairing strained relationships between teachers and principals and among teachers. The formulation of educational management policies and programs is a vital step toward achieving this goal.

The study aims to analyze the relationship between teacher leadership and the organizational happiness of secondary school teachers. The research was designed in the relational survey model. The research sample group involves 358 teachers working in the state schools in the Bakirkoy district of Istanbul province. The Teacher Leadership Scale and the Organizational Happiness Scale were used to collect the data. The social sciences statistics program was used in the analysis of the data. It was found that teachers' teacher leadership and organizational happiness levels were high. There was a low level of positive significant relationship between teacher leadership and organizational happiness. and between the positive emotions sub-dimension of organizational happiness and the total score of teacher leadership. However, there was no relationship between the negative emotions sub-dimension of organizational happiness and teacher leadership. It was concluded that teacher leadership significantly positively affects teachers' organizational happiness.

Some secondary school principals are complaining about teachers’ reluctance to participate in any activities beyond classroom teaching. To understand this phenomenon, the study attempts to explore the inhibiting factors that hinder teachers in selected secondary schools in the Maseru district from supporting and engaging in teacher leadership (TL) activities. This qualitative inquiry is underpinned by the critical theory (CT), which among others aims at revealing the core factors that contributed to teachers’ lack of enthusiasm in performing various TL related activities. Also, to suggest strategies that could pioneer a change in teachers’ attitudes towards participation in school leadership beyond teaching. The study generated data from ten (10) purposively selected secondary school teachers. Using the thematic analysis method, despite participating teachers being able to conceptualise TL, they cited that, factors including; unmanageable teaching loads, inadequate induction, and use of top-down leadership approaches inhibited TL initiatives. To mitigate the abovementioned factors, participants suggested the creation of a supportive school environment, teacher training and recognition.

There is little empirical evidence that convinces the effectiveness of distributed leadership in contemporary educational research. Thus, many distinguished scholars suggest its’ statistical examination. Considering this need, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of principals’ distributed leadership practices on students’ learning outcomes at Technical and Vocational Education Training schools in Eritrea. The study was conducted based on quantitative design and applied structural equation modelling. A sample of six hundred and three students was employed. The researcher developed the structural equation model to test a model that hypothesized the relationship between the major variables using path analysis. The study results demonstrate that the principals’ distributed leadership practice has a direct and significant (.883, p<.001) effect on students’ learning outcomes keeping other things constant. The strongest predictor of students’ learning outcomes was capacity building, given it has the largest path coefficient (β=.346). Moreover, findings show gender disparity among the respondents and in terms of turnout rate; nevertheless, it was not statistically significant (p<.001). One of the study’s contributions is that it developed and assessed the validity of the principals’ distributed leadership practice scale for Eritrea’s TVET schools through CFA model. The study offered basic evidence that distributed type of leadership is a significant predictor of learning outcomes by exploring six factors of leadership practices, which shows a promising area for practice and future studies.

Organizationally, what does not get measured is not prioritized or improved. Unlike student outcomes, the leadership environment that produces the results is rarely examined for its merit and impact. In this study, a quantitative survey gathered information to investigate the impacts of leadership capacity constructs on academic achievement. Principals from 161 public high schools and their schools provided the data (leadership capacity, demographics, and reading and math scores). Data were analyzed using descriptive, correlational, and regression statistics. Findings indicated significant high correlations among leadership capacity variables, significant relationships between school demographics (total school enrollment, percentage of low-income students, average class size, and attendance) and reading and math scores, and non-significant correlations between leadership capacity and academic achievement. The study delineated specific leadership capacity behaviors within the constructs that predicted student academic achievement in math and reading. The study suggests increased capacity and practice of these leadership behaviors to improve work setting and student achievement.

The study investigated the potential role of human resources exemplified by leaders' psychological capital (PsyCap) as a resource that may cross over to team-member exchange (TMX), and bring about desired organizational outcomes. We suggest a model where TMX of senior management teams serves as a team resource mediating the relationship between leaders’ PsyCap and organizational outcomes, as represented by team innovation, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and employees’ job satisfaction. The study, carried out among 86 elementary and junior high schools, indicated a positive relationship between leaders’ PsyCap and TMX. In addition, we found a significant relationship between TMX and the three measures of organizational outcomes. Furthermore, TMX partially mediated the relationship between leaders’ PsyCap and the desired outcomes, excepting innovation. The findings provide support for the importance of the leaders’ personal resource of psychological capital as a complementary perspective that may enhance our understanding of leadership’s impact on organizational success. In addition, the study provides significant support for the expanded model, broadening the definition of the crossover model by examining the translation of positive resources from leaders' PsyCap to organizational outcomes via teams' positive resources. From a practical perspective, the findings bring to the forefront the importance of psychological capital as a state-like construct that can be developed through leader preparation and professional development programs.

Research has shown that school leaders’ engagement in teacher induction is vital for establishing supportive school structures and conditions that are conducive to successful socialization and long-term sustenance of newly qualified teachers (NQTs). In Malta, the problem of teacher recruitment and a growing attrition rate is becoming very acute. This article describes findings from an exploratory qualitative study that examined the perceptions of five heads of schools regarding their engagement in the induction and mentoring programs that have been designed to support NQTs in Malta. The findings describe the ways through which the heads of school support NQTs and their advice for new heads of schools working with NQTs. The article offers a discussion of research results in relation to the extant literature and concludes with implications for practice and further research.

Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) directors are crucial for sustainable quality ECCD centre management, leading to a focus on efficient 21st-century practices. Planning principles are essential for managing the complexity of early childhood education services. This paper aimed to explore how ECCD directors plan management activities in their centres in Ghana. The study was conducted in sixteen ECCD centres located in five metropolitan and municipal districts within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The study involved 20 participants, including directors/head teachers and board members, selected using a purposive sampling strategy. Data were collected through interviews and document reviews. Although evidence from the study showed that ECCD directors put much effort into managing their centres, the study found that ECCD directors experience various challenges concerning applying the basic management principle of planning at their centres. In this article, the authors contend that planning is a crucial management function that sets achievable goals in line with the ECCD centre's vision and provides direction for actions to achieve ECCD goals. In addressing the identified challenges, the researchers developed a systems-based planning framework to guide directors in their planning roles at the ECCD centres.

This study, designed as a basic qualitative research, aims to evaluate the perspectives of Turkish teachers regarding the nationally implemented large-scale assessments in specific subjects. By employing purposive sampling methods, particularly maximum variation sampling, 14 teachers with different seniorities and branches from various high schools were included in the research. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher. Through the application of descriptive analysis, it was found that teachers viewed these assessments more as a preparation for changes in the higher education transition system and as a tool for achieving standardization across the country rather than as an accountability policy instrument. Despite the low-stakes nature of this assessment, it was observed that teachers exhibited responses like those documented in the literature for high-stakes accountability. Additionally, it was found that teachers prepared students for the exams primarily through practice exercises and experienced anxiety before the exams due to the limitation of their autonomy and the comparison of their students and themselves. Furthermore, most participants believed that the assessment results were not effective in determining students' learning, primarily held the students accountable for the results, and considered such assessments as a source of stress. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for practitioners and researchers.

Turnover in middle management can be very expensive for a school, not just financially, but also in terms of providing continuity of leadership, sustainability of management practices, and quality student experiences. Therefore, a rigorous understanding of why middle managers in schools are thinking of leaving post can provide senior leaders an opportunity to develop strategies to reduce this turnover cost. Using the case of Lady Agatha’s Boarding School in England, this paper uses a novel approach to investigate the complexities of school middle management from a social perspective, arguing that by using a Bordieuan lens, researchers can investigate the complex matrix nature of working in middle management. By using the Bordieuan tools of field, habitus, doxa, capital, and symbolic violence, researchers can observe the struggles that the middle managers engage in to acquire capital or resources compared to other actors in the field, as tournaments of socio-political dominance. By using this original ontological turn in analysing turnover antecedents, researchers as well as practitioners could make significant impacts in the way turnover can be understood and its costs mitigated.