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This paper aims to discuss the construction of two composite indices to assess children’s experiences with violence and peace in primary schools in Sierra Leone.

The authors provide a conceptual framework based on the three dimensions of the violence index (direct, structural and cultural violence) and the three dimensions of the positive peace index (inclusion, citizenship and well-being). After that, this work proposes an operationalisation of these concepts based on a survey administered with 2,000 pupils and examine the correlates of the indices.

Results indicate not only a substantial level of violence among the sampled schools but also a considerable level of positive peace. These indices are negatively correlated, suggesting that lower levels of violence are related to higher levels of positive peace. Further analysis also shows that socioeconomic variables and school characteristics such as headteacher experience and teacher qualification are associated with levels of violence and peace. Finally, based on longitudinal evidence, this study also indicates that the prevalence of violence is a significant predictor of reading development among children.

The indicator presented is the first to combine children’s experiences with violence and experiences with positive peace in schools. It is a unique contribution to the measurement of school outcomes that are usually overlooked in the literature.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the strategies schools use to build capacity in English secondary schools where they operate under strong pressures to improve continuously and failure to do so carries severe penalties.

The approach involved in-depth case studies of six schools that utilized multiple sources of evidence. These include policy documents, interviews with multiple actors and observations of key management meetings.

Findings suggest travelling strategies used by schools, but these are implemented with varying intensity, hybridity and creativity. The common travelling strategies re-contextualized in organizational fields are data workmanship, multi-level monitoring, and performance development. For participating schools, successfully replicating these three pillars through identity cloning, an attempt to establish institutional identities identical to that of the “performing schools”, helps lift schools in different contexts.

There has been ample discussion on organizational capacity building, but the evidence on the actual strategies schools use is thin. This paper contributes to knowledge generation and understanding by providing as complete a picture as possible of the strategies schools use while remaining skeptical regarding the long-term consequences of short term “gains”.

The first part of this chapter addresses the history and development of the International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) and its engagement with the global educational community. We provide an account of the context and background against which ISATT developed as well as information about the founders’ orientations and the actions that led to ISATT’s birth. The second part of the chapter uses patterns of topic focus as graphic indicators of the evolution of ISATT’s research interests expressed through publication titles.

The purpose of this paper is to review and generate themes evident in research on primary and post-primary (secondary) school leadership in the Republic of Ireland (Ireland) from 2008 to 2018.

This paper follows the steps of a systematic review and thematic synthesis.

Following the review, six themes are identified and described, summarising the most current school leadership research in Ireland.

Potential future directions of research are identified.

No review of research on school leadership in Ireland is currently available and this is timely given the policy context’s recent focus on school leadership. The steps taken to conduct the review are clearly outlined.

This brief history of the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) documents developments and trends during the decade 2013–2023. To situate recent ISATT history, we begin with an overview of the association's first 30 years (1983–2012). The dominant theme of those early years was developing ISATT as a recognized and influential professional organization connecting researchers on teaching and teacher education from a growing list of nations and regions of the world. During the most recent decade, there has been a concerted effort toward broad internationalization through biennial conferences and regional meetings, and a growing network of national representatives from across the world. Also, the ISATT journal, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, the journal, which began in 1995, has published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles written by more than 1000 authors and coauthors, contributing to a growing body of knowledge about teaching and teacher education in many cultures. In the last 20 years and especially in the past 10, the locations of ISATT meetings have become significantly more diverse, following a trend of greater internationalization compared with ISATT's European and North American beginnings. At the same time, the number of ISATT members remains stable and small thereby preserving a collegial and collaborative tone in our exchanges. In sum, ISATT's recent decade finds the association intellectually healthy, successful in managing the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, and enriched by the proliferation of multinational points of view and styles of research.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the implementation of educational reform processes by applying the concept of social innovation. The paper proposes a model of social innovation and test its applicability in the context of Estonian vocational education reform using two case studies of the school re-organization as an example.

A case study approach has been applied in the empirical study. Different data collection methods have been used including semi-structured interviews with the various change actors, observations and analysis of written documents.

The integrated model of social innovation proved to be a fruitful analytical tool. By focusing on five central aspects – the trigger of change, central change agents, social mechanisms facilitating the adoption of change, implications and social gains – it was possible to explain two school re-organization processes and the reasons behind their success or complications.

The analysis of the cases outlined some lessons that can be learned for the future planning and implementation of school reforms. School changes are more easily adopted if actors experience it as useful and rational, school staff are involved in the process as early as possible and the adoption is facilitated by building certain social mechanisms and network structures into the policy implementation process.

The paper makes a contribution to the literature on educational reform by applying the concept of social innovation. Up until now, the concept of social innovation has remained rather underused to explain the process of implementing and adopting reforms, and in particular, it is rarely used in the context of analyzing educational reforms.

THE popular image of Ireland is of a land where one can enjoy the perfect holiday. If you are a golfer, fisherman, rambler or if you just enjoy good food and of course the black nectar for which it is famous, then Ireland is the place to go, take the word of TV Chef, Keith Floyd. Ireland however, unlike many small countries, is not content to base its economy on tourism.