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School leaders can significantly influence the conditions that affect teacher retention. Yet, leaders in rural and high-poverty schools often face limited opportunities to develop their abilities to enhance these conditions. In this case study, we examine how participating in a professional community supported school leaders' efforts to increase teacher retention and student learning outcomes.

We used case study methodology to study 14 leaders from rural, high-poverty or underperforming schools with greater-than-average levels of teacher turnover. The leaders were participating in a three-year research-practice partnership intended to assist them in using improvement science to address problems of practice related to teacher retention and student learning outcomes in their schools. We collected and analyzed data from interviews, exit surveys, artifacts and participant observations over a one-year period.

Participating in this professional community helped the leaders create the conditions for increased teacher retention and student learning outcomes by providing them with opportunities to collaborate with their peers, receive leadership coaching, exchange ideas and learn in a safe space.

These findings confirm and extend extant school leadership development research. A particularly interesting finding was the role of the professional community in reducing the leaders' feelings of isolation while providing them a safe space to learn. The findings also illustrate how universities and school districts can partner to provide professional learning opportunities that enhance school leaders' professional knowledge, leadership practices and well-being.

In view of the expanding global interest in leadership learning and development programmes for centre leaders, this study aims to investigate how an early childhood education leadership programme can enhance Norwegian centre leaders’ learning and development as a network professional learning community (PLC) by way of Schön’s reflective model, the hall of mirrors.

In this qualitative case study, we interviewed four centre leaders, the owner of the centres and a facilitator and/or coach from the local work and competence centre for inclusive work who was leading the leadership programme.

The findings demonstrate three aspects of the hall of mirrors that enhanced the centre leaders as a network PLC: engaging in collective inquiry towards shared visions and values, enhancing professionalism through distributed leadership and cultivating a trusting learning climate.

Data were collected in a single smaller municipality in Norway and therefore may not be generalisable to other areas.

The findings can be used to further discuss how early childhood education and care (ECEC) leadership development programmes can be employed to establish and sustain professional leadership teams and professional learning communities.

As there are parallels between the leadership programme and the workplace and the programme promoted a network PLC, this study contributes to existing knowledge by offering a transformative reflective model for leadership learning and change through the reconceptualisation of the hall of mirrors.

The purpose of this study was to explore the current transformative leadership values and beliefs of Cooperative Extension leaders. Specific research objectives included, (1) characterize Extension leaders’ beliefs regarding transformative leadership, and (2) determine differences in transformative leadership beliefs based on selected characteristics.

This exploratory study applied transformative leadership theory to examine the values and beliefs regarding equity, justice, and leading change held by leaders in the Cooperative Extension System. A sample of 138 administrators across the U.S. completed the Transformative Leadership Scale (TLS), which presents 32 contrasting statements representing dimensions of transformative leadership.

Results found the mean TLS score was 70.61 out of 100, indicating nascent awareness of equity concerns but substantial room for growth in fully embracing transformative leadership principles like social activism and egalitarian distribution of power. The score distribution skewed slightly left, with 16% possessing a highly transformative belief system, 71% demonstrating moderate awareness of equity issues, and 13% focused more on organizational efficiency over justice. Differences emerged based on diversity leadership roles and years of experience.

The findings establish an important baseline for aligning leadership development with Extension's mandate to champion inclusion and confront systemic barriers as social change agents. This research kicks off a vital dialogue regarding transformative leadership's implications for guiding community-engaged institutions like Extension pursuing democratic engagement.

This represents the first study to apply transformative leadership to a national assessment of values and beliefs among Extension education leadership.

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the concept of crisis leadership based on perceptions of 48 Australian leaders drawn from various sectors including Australian politics, higher education, not-for-profit and corporate sectors.

This qualitative study employed semi-structured virtual interviews of 48 leaders from Australian politics, higher education, not-for-profit and corporate sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Leximancer text analytics program was used for data analysis.

Participants perceived effective leadership during a crisis as encompassing four macro themes: leadership as power, leadership as emanating from people, leadership as management and leadership as specific to the organization. While these findings reinforced extant literature on facets of effective leadership, leaders from different sectors differed on the relative importance of some leadership themes and their relevance to specific sectors.

While the data were collected from a convenient sample, our findings from multiple sectors in Australia extend our knowledge on crisis leadership by revealing differences in sectorial perspectives of crisis leadership. Further, these findings help refine the extant traditional explanations of leadership and especially offer an enhanced understanding of leadership during a crisis. Consequently, our findings support future research that could help identify specific attributes of leaders navigating organizational crises. Such future research could subsequently help develop a theory on crisis leadership based on a valid and reliable measurement for assessing crisis leadership effectiveness in diverse organizational settings.

Our study is based on multi-sector data and consequently lays a solid foundation for extending the conceptualization of leadership during crisis, and the need to reconceptualize effective leader attributes useful in crisis contexts. Theoretically, the current study extended recent research on crisis leadership, by examining the conceptualizations of crisis leadership within specific Australian sectors.

In the Global South where humanitarian responses to disasters are often hampered by systemic gaps, community-based humanitarian actors play a crucial but underexplored role in mediating aid to vulnerable populations. This study explores the everydayness of humanitarian action through the lived experiences of urban community leaders during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines. Specifically, it sheds light on their engagement with national-level responders, the typologies of humanitarian activities they undertook and the contextual factors influencing their decision-making.

Using a qualitative approach, this study presents interviews with 35 community-based humanitarian leaders in urban poor areas of Metro Manila, Philippines. Analytical themes were developed inductively from the transcripts.

Due to mobility restrictions from quarantine protocols, the typologies of humanitarian action shifted to accommodate arising challenges from pandemic management. Engagement with formal humanitarian actors were premised on pre-existing relationships. The study further reveals that, despite lacking formal training, community leaders utilized preexisting networks of care while subscribing to Filipino communal values of bayanihan (working together), malasakit (care) and pagkakaisa (unity). The findings underscore the need for discourse on the realities faced by community leaders and highlight the importance of holistic and gendered capacity building for effective disaster response in vulnerable communities.

This study contributes to understanding the intricate dynamics of humanitarian coordination, particularly in areas where community leaders act as critical intermediaries between their constituents and external support providers and concludes with critical take on localization as a form of community resilience to disaster events.

This study explores a program to transform rural schools in Kwara State, Western Nigeria, into community knowledge hubs by leveraging local networks and community-based workshops. It aims to demonstrate how local resources are utilized to enhance educational outcomes and community engagement in rural settings.

Employing a qualitative research methodology, the study analyzes the implementation of this program through interviews with 13 teachers and in-field participation, examining the perspective of local teachers.

The findings reveal that this program has significantly enriched community engagement with practical skills both for students and the adult population, fostering collaboration between community and schools. Local teachers, leveraging their rural networks and knowledge, have been central to mobilizing networks and integrating practical education that addresses community-specific issues.

The critical role of participatory educational strategies is highlighted, designing interventions for the distinct needs of communities. It notes the variability in potential outcomes due to the self-designed networks by local teachers, suggesting a need for exploration into how these networks’ configurations are developed in different places.

This study advocates for the creation of comprehensive programs including all local stakeholders in developing a dedicated support community network. It emphasizes non-formal education to offer a variety of learning experiences, which may be more effective in fostering community-wide educational engagement.

This study contributes to the academic literature by highlighting the critical role of local networks in African rural education settings. It provides a novel perspective on how rural schools can serve as hubs for community development and lifelong learning for the whole community, extending beyond traditional educational outcomes only for students.

Understanding community resilience and collective efficacy is essential in terrorist-ridden areas. This study aims to investigate the role of communities in fostering collective resilience in response to violent acts of terrorism. It utilizes social capital and collective efficacy theories to explore the complicated relationship between community resilience and self-efficacy in terrorist-ridden areas.

This study employed an interpretive methodology and conducted thematic data analysis. It documented insights and lessons learned from the diverse perspectives of community stakeholders through semi-structured interviews with 21 participants residing in Quetta, Pakistan. Interviews took place in March and April 2023.

The study demonstrates that community resilience contributes significantly to violent acts of terrorism. After carefully going through data exploration, four intriguing themes appear. The first theme pertained to participants experiencing stress due to terrorism incidents, highlighting the frequency of such stressful events. The second theme examined the escalating backdrop of terrorism, which perpetually looms, prompting communities to fortify their resilience against this persistent threat. The third theme, community resilience during terrorist violence and active participation, revealing active participation in activities aimed at enhancing community quality of life. The fourth theme emphasized the challenges associated with community engagement in resilience-building efforts.

This study advances the understanding of community resilience in terrorist-ridden areas. In addition, it furthers discourse and provides ways for the implementation of strategies aimed at strengthening community resilience following terrorist incidents.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the suitability of Botschen et al.’s (2017) Brand-driven Identity Development of Places (BIDP) framework to support places in developing their brand-driven identity and offering sustainable tourism models.

This paper applies design science research (DSR) to evaluate the BIDP-framework. A qualitative methodology is used, bringing together findings from four different case studies and from existing academic literature to make relevant suggestions for the improvement of the framework.

The findings indicate that the BIDP-model represents a valid artifact for the development of a brand-driven place identity, but that there is room for improvement.

This paper adopts a DSR approach in a managerial context and shows its validity for evaluating a place branding framework. Moreover, it provides implications not only for managers directly involved in place branding, who can benefit from the model assessment and its suggestions for improvement, but also for tourists and local communities, who will take advantage of more sustainable branding models that better integrate the needs of local actors.

The importance of socially just leadership has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years as integral for tackling issues of disadvantage and inequality across education and schooling systems. However, there are still remaining questions about what these leadership practices look like in the everyday work of school leaders. This chapter draws on a research project to embed Indigenous perspectives in schools as an example of socially just leadership. The links between Indigenous communities and schools are a key focus area for improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students. This project sought to bring Indigenous community members into classrooms in six schools in New South Wales, Australia. Community members were recruited to work with teachers as co-constructors of learning activities that explicitly value and work with Indigenous perspectives. This chapter outlines the positive outcomes from this project as well as challenges faced by schools, teachers, principals, and community members as part of this culturally responsive work. The practices of community members, teachers, and principals are theorized using the notion of culturally responsive leadership. The chapter argues for an approach to leadership that is grounded in culturally responsive understandings to improve the educational outcomes and opportunities for Indigenous students and the cultural understanding and awareness of non-Indigenous students, to better promote reconciliation. This chapter provides a concrete example of powerful leadership practices that are working towards equity and social justice for their schools and communities. While the cases are specifically from the Australian context, they are relevant for a variety of schooling contexts and leadership practices.