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.

Teachers are expected to influence the development of certain attributes, including courtesy, discipline, accountability, and diligence among learners. These attributes echo the basic premise of the child-friendly school framework (CFS) and the ideology of sustainable learning environments. In order for teachers to contribute towards efficacy in schools and in instructional activities, studies indicate that they should be satisfied. However, it has been revealed that in some Lesotho secondary schools, teachers are not happy with their jobs. The reported teachers’ discontent adversely affects their commitment and enthusiasm. In order to reveal the causes of teacher job dissatisfaction in some Lesotho secondary schools, this study adopted a narrative qualitative approach design. This approach was ideal as it enabled 10 purposively identified teachers in Leribe and Maseru to freely narrate their lived experiences. The Herzberg duality theory (HDT) and the Transformational leadership theory (TLT) were adopted as the philosophical underpinning for this study. The inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data generated for this study. The findings suggest that teacher job dissatisfaction in some Lesotho secondary schools is caused by factors such as the use of resources for personal gain, lack of maintenance, intolerance, and habitual absenteeism among principals. The findings further suggest that strategies including teacher involvement, impartiality, and external school auditing could reduce teacher job dissatisfaction and instead create the opposite effect.

This study examines the characteristics, challenges, and strategies of school leadership in Cambodian high schools, with a focus on leadership in resource-constrained settings. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research investigates how principals in six northwestern provinces implement leadership practices to improve educational outcomes. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with 21 principals and analyzed via thematic analysis. Key findings reveal that visionary approaches, collaborative cultures, data-driven decision-making, and resilience characterize effective leadership. Challenges such as limited resources, variable teacher quality, and insufficient professional development hinder progress. The study contributes to educational leadership theory by highlighting the critical role of tailored leadership development programs and resource management in transforming underperforming schools. Practical implications include recommendations for policymakers to expand leadership training, enhance community engagement, and prioritize funding for underperforming schools. This research offers valuable insights for improving leadership in post conflict and resource-limited educational contexts.

The transitioning of Teacher Training Colleges into Colleges of Education as tertiary institutions by Act 847 is significant for ensuring strategic management change. This research investigated the strategic management of Dambai College of Education in the transitional change. The study adapted the methodological framework of the “Theory of Organisational Change” to ascertain leadership strategies that worked well in contributing to rapid positive transformation and their impact and those potential strategies to further improve the College. The study was qualitative with an interpretive paradigm and nominalist ontological and epistemological stance with participatory inquiry design. Homogeneous purposive sampling was used to select 15 participants for data collection. Data was collected through an open-ended questionnaire. Thematic analyses were done. Findings under strategies that worked include effective governance, recruitment, continuous professional development, Internally Generated Funds (IGF), merit-based remuneration of staff, and enhancement of physical infrastructure. The impact made includes boosting the morale of staff, students, traditional authorities, and other stakeholders; ownership of responsibility; improved learning outcomes; more spaces and equipment for effective work; and the College's improved outlook. Strategies to adopt include more stakeholder engagement and integration of technology. The research concluded that the college has transformed positively and needs to further improve its developmental agenda by adopting hybrid change models.

This study comparatively examines state policies of university autonomy in the Eastern Neighborhood countries of the European Union, with a particular focus on Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova. Guided by the principles outlined in the 2007 Lisbon Declaration, the research investigates how university autonomy is shaped by state policies in these three countries. The study is grounded in the qualitative research design, drawing on document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis of legislative frameworks and higher education experts’ perspectives- including those of professors and administrative personnel. Five core features of university autonomy policies were identified: Legislative control over university autonomy, Political appointments to administrative positions, gaps between policymaking and implementation, the impact of funding on financial autonomy, and the existence of formal rather than substantive academic autonomy in relation to quality assurance standards. Two primary explanatory factors emerged: the scarcity of university resources and the persistence of centralized management practices. The study is framed through systems theory, drawing on the work of Alex Clark, Michael Hogg, and Ron Stewart in University Autonomy and Public Policy: A Systems Theory Perspective. From this perspective, universities, government bodies, and policymakers are understood as interdependent components of the broader systemic network, where actions taken by one entity influence the functioning of others. This research contributes to the limited academic literature on university autonomy in the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood by offering a cross-country comparison aligned with European higher education standards.