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This chapter explores the development of middle leaders in the specific context of Catholic schools. It considers the interplay between contemporary thinking on educational leadership and the insights of Catholic theology and ministry. Two key themes foundational to this interplay are examined: the connection between leading and following, and the central importance of relationships for leadership. For each of these themes, the reader is provided with related questions for middle leaders in a Catholic school context, an activity for engaging with leaders, and an exercise inviting middle school leaders to reflect on their own experience and the context within which they lead.

As responsibilities of high school principals continue to expand, their workweeks become longer, and their attention is stretched in multiple directions. How principals from various school types use their time is influenced by their organizational structures and external policies. To gain deeper insights into the workload, priorities and constraints faced by high school principals, this study examines principal time use (PTU) patterns across different school types, including traditional public schools (TPSs), charter schools, Catholic schools and non-Catholic private schools.

Drawing on the national representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 in the USA, this study examines and compares PTU in various leadership tasks across different school types, controlling for school and principal characteristics.

Among various high school types, principals in TPS had the longest workweeks. However, the extended workweek did not necessarily result in significantly more hours or a larger proportion of their time dedicated to instructional leadership. Instead, TPS principals allocated more time to administrative tasks and student affairs than principals in other school types.

By examining PTU of different school types, this study adds new evidence on the influence of contextual factors on leadership behavior. It also offers policy implications to enhance principals’ capacities, alleviate their workload and to prioritize time use in different leadership domains.

The purpose of this paper is multifold. First, it is to investigate the relationship between social network sites (SNSs) usage and youth's school absenteeism. Second, it is to identify causal relationship between SNSs usage and absenteeism. Third, it is to explore whether SNSs usage causally affects youth's study–work choice after leaving high school. In addition to SNSs usage in general, abnormal SNSs usage is further discussed.

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) data are utilised. Lagged variable analysis is used to alleviate reverse causality. Instrumental variable approach and the Lewbel method are used to identify causality. Random effects panel data approach (without and with IVs) is additionally applied to increase efficiency and account for individual-specific effects. Random effects approach allowing for within and between effects is applied, enabling us to control for fixed effects. The primary instrument is a dummy indicating whether a youth more often communicates with close friend electronically or face-to-face.

Using SNSs leads to significantly higher probability of a teenager being late for school, skipping class and having trouble not following school rules. The effect is more consistent regarding abnormal SNSs usage, compared to SNSs usage in general. Additionally, SNSs usage decreases the probability of a youth studying after 18 years old, even after controlling for absenteeism.

The findings in this paper highlight the importance of preventing youth (e.g. via enabling children-safe mode or setting up maximum daily access time) from overusing SNSs.

With the transition to hybrid (mixing remote and face-to-face) learning during and after COVID-19, online interactions are becoming inevitable in students' learning. The findings in this paper indicate that usage, especially abnormal usage, of SNSs increases the probability of absenteeism call for attention from stakeholders including teachers, parents and youth themselves.

This paper provides the first causal and longitudinal evidence linking SNSs usage to absenteeism and youth labor outcomes.

Research has documented how white teachers often fall short of their anti-racist intentions. However, much of this research is done with preservice teachers or teachers across disciplines. The authors investigate stories in which white English teachers who teach substantial proportions of black students and who self-reported anti-racist goals nevertheless fell short of those goals. The purpose of the study is to understand the tensions between racial liberalism and racial literacy in their pedagogy.

The authors snowball sampled 12 veteran white high school English teachers (3–27 years’ experience) who taught in schools with substantial proportions of black students. The authors used a two-stage interview process to narrow the sample to 7 teachers who confirmed their anti-racist intentions and who wrote narratives of moments when they tried to be anti-racist, but the lesson failed in some way. The authors used a three-stage narrative analysis to analyze how racial liberalism and racial literacy were reflected in the narratives.

The veteran English teachers, despite their anti-racist intentions, told narratives that reflected racial liberalism, portraying racism as an individual and interpersonal phenomenon. Some narratives showed teachers who had taken steps toward racial literacy, but no narratives showed a fully developed sense of racial literacy, portraying the layers of institutional and structural racism in English education.

The sample suggests that veteran white English teachers are subject to similar limited racial literacies as novice teachers. While the authors found glimmers of racial literacy, they still note the work necessary to equip veteran English teachers with the racial literacies necessary for anti-racist instruction. The authors propose directions for teacher education, systemic support and professional development.

This study aims to gain an understanding from parents and teachers about the types of food provision practices and venues, and the food-related policies and rules in primary schools in Australia; and investigate any differences in the presence of policies and rules based on the school location and school type.

Data were collected via two online surveys from August 2019 to March 2020. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyse quantitative responses. Respondents' written responses to food-related policies were categorised into groups.

The two most common food provision services were canteen and lunch order services (mentioned by 72 and 55% of respondents, respectively). Of the 425 respondents whose schools had a canteen (parents and teachers together), 62% reported their school implements a healthy school canteen policy. Significantly more parents compared to teachers, and more respondents from government schools compared to non-government schools stated that their school had implemented such a policy. Approximately half of the respondents (47%) stated their school had implemented other food-related policies and/or rules. These policies or rules belonged to four categories: avoiding certain foods, avoiding food sharing, avoiding food packages and promoting healthy eating.

This study shows the disparities exist in implementing food-related policies among primary schools in Australia. Nutrition promoters and policy planners should consider these results and find the best mechanisms to minimise the gaps in policy implementation.

Gunungkidul Public Library in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, provides not only reading materials, but also a place to develop the community to produce various products to sell. The librarians in Gunungkidul have been holding various training sessions for the community – from how to make food and beverages to online marketing and preserving and reviving tradition and culture in their community. The librarians train the community to practice making various local products in the library and then the community and the librarians make and sell the products in the library and other places, including online markets. The products they make vary from cassava crackers to herbal medicine and from batik clothes to t-shirts. They also revived traditional choirs that had never been conducted for years. The librarians sometimes also invite experts or any skillful persons to train the community. Within the last two years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the training programs were moved to some rural libraries. The librarians hold the training in rural libraries instead of the county library in order to avoid the crowd during the pandemic. Luckily the moving from the county public library to rural libraries has made more people engage in the library activities. The communities are enthusiastic to take part as they do not need to go too far away from their homes and they feel excited to learn and practice making products in the library as they can have more income.

Political, historical and socio-demographic conditions in Australia have shaped the implementation of inclusive education and backgrounded current responses to Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the Education 2030 Agenda. The analysis presented in this chapter highlights Australia's patchy endeavours to provide inclusive and equitable programmes at all levels of education and vocational training, particularly in relation to diverse learners and those with Indigenous backgrounds. Findings point to the need for Australian federal and state governments to collaborate, legislatively and financially, to better support policy enactment around the Education 2030 Agenda in partnerships with stakeholders at national, state and local levels.