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At role conferences, high school deputy principals are continually re‐examining their role in the schools. Increasingly, in school level co‐operative evaluation programmes they are analyzing their work and its contribution to school effectiveness. This paper attempts to develop a classification that would provide a useful framework within which, at both system level and school level, they might examine their behaviour and consider modifications. From a Queensland study, five dimensions of leader behaviour are identified. They are Consideration, Classroom Facilitation, Staff Utilization, Authoritarianism and Routinisation. Other behaviours identified from the literature are Teacher Classroom Contact and School Management Maintenance tasks. These seven behaviours can involve interaction with either of two groups of people; clients and colleagues, thus providing a 14 segment grid that deputies might use to classify their behaviour when considering what they are doing in schools and what might be done better.

The chapter aims to identify strategies used by Arab deputy-principals in Israel to manage their emotions at work. The following questions guided the research: (1) Which emotions do Arab deputy-principals tend to express and which emotions do they suppress? and (2) How do they suppress the expression of certain emotions and are the results of such suppression? In order to explore these issues, the author adopted qualitative research methodology, conducting 15 semi-structured interviews with school deputy-principals in the Arab education system in Israel. It was found that deputies described their relations with the principal and the teachers in terms of closeness, attentiveness, support, encouragement, inclusion and conflict resolution. Deputy-principals reported suppressing their emotions, because their expression might be understood as a personal weakness. They felt that an effective deputy has to conceal some or his/her unpleasant emotions (hate, anger or fear) to emphasise that the principal is the real ‘boss’ in the school. Arab cultural norms dictate that female deputy-principals cannot display their emotions in front of a male teacher and vice versa. Understanding the unique social and organisational contexts in which Arab deputies work may clarify correlations between organisational culture, professional ethics and emotion regulation. Further conclusions and implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Arab deputy-principals’ perceptions of their role in Arab schools in Israel, relating to their expectations regarding principal-deputy relations and their aspirations for promotion.

A two-stage qualitative study included an open-ended questionnaire completed by 27 Arab deputy-principals, studying in a deputy-principals’ training program for the “New Horizons” reform. The questionnaire related to their perceptions of their professional role. Data from the open questionnaires were supplemented by data from in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with eight of the deputy-principals.

The deputy-principals perceived their role as arduous and complex, indicating that this was the result of vague role definitions. They mostly dealt with administration though they longed to devote themselves to pedagogy, shaping education policy and the school vision. Most did not aspire to attain principalship.

A clearer role definition is required for the deputy-principal. Principal-deputy cooperation should be enhanced. Deputy-principals need better role-related training and supervision that considers the requirements of the school settings and culture.

This is the first study to examine the role of deputy-principals in Arab society in Israel.

The deputy principalship is one of the least understood roles in the schools of the restructured education systems of Australia. Little attention has been given by educational policy makers, academics and researchers as to how the deputy principal should contribute to the essential functions of the self‐managing school. Uses the research literature to identify the traditional role of the deputy principal and the factors which have constrained the evolution of the role. Assesses the effects of current policy initiatives for the deputy principalship in Australian education. An emergent facet of the role is proposed which gives greater emphasis to educational leadership in an administrative team. The failure of practitioners to make use of opportunities to reconceptualize the deputy principalship will marginalize the role to the central functions of the self‐managing school.

The deputy principalship remains one of the least understood roles in the schools of contemporary education systems. Research which contributes to theory building about the deputy principalship has been hampered by the lack of survey instruments with known psychometric properties. Reports an exploratory study which uses latent trait theory to construct a variable which describes and conceptualizes practitioner perspectives of the deputy principalship in the self‐managing school. The logic of constructing the variable is explained in terms of the requirements of the measurement model employed. A sample of 403 deputy principals, 179 principals and 138 teachers in government primary schools in Western Australia provided data for analysing the actual and ideal perceptions of these practitioners in terms of the variable as conceptualized. In this way, the variable provided the knowledge base for describing the “professional horizon” of school practitioners with respect to the traditional and emergent facets of the deputy principalship. Considers the outcomes of the analysis for further research about mapping the responsibilities of the deputy principal in a changing environment.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study examining the perceptions of secondary principals, deputies and teachers, of deputy principal (DP) instructional leadership (IL), as well as deputies’ professional learning (PL) needs. Framed within an interpretivist approach, the specific objectives of this study were: to explore the extent to which DPs are perceived as leaders of learning, to examine the actual responsibilities of these DPs and to explore the PL that support DP roles.

The researchers used multiple perspective case studies which included semi-structured interviews and key school document analysis. A thematic content analysis facilitated qualitative descriptions and insights from the perspectives of the principals, DPs and teachers of four high-performing secondary schools in Sydney, Australia.

The data revealed that deputies performed a huge range of tasks; all the principals were distributing leadership to their deputies to build leadership capacity and supported their PL in a variety of ways. Across three of the case study schools, most deputies were frequently performing as instructional leaders, improving their school’s performance through distributing leadership, team building and goal setting. Deputy PL was largely dependent on principal mentoring and self-initiated but was often ad hoc. Findings add more validity to the importance of principals building the educational leadership of their deputies.

This study relied upon responses from four case study schools. Further insight into the key issues discussed may require a longitudinal data that describe perceptions from a substantial number of schools in Australia over time. However, studying only four schools allowed for an in-depth investigation.

The findings from this study have practical implications for system leaders with responsibilities of framing the deputies’ role as emergent educational leaders rather than as administrators and the need for coherent, integrated, consequential and systematic approaches to DP professional development. Further research is required on the effect of deputy IL on school performance.

There is a dearth of research-based evidence exploring the range of responsibilities of deputies and perceptions of staff about deputies’ IL role and their PL needs. This is the first published New South Wales, Australian DP study and adds to the growing evidence around perceptions of DPs as instructional leaders by providing an Australian perspective on the phenomenon. The paper raises important concerns about the complexity of the DP’s role on the one hand, and on the other hand, the PL that is perceived to be most appropriate for dealing with this complexity.

With the objective of identifying the combinations of principal—deputy principal leadership styles perceived to be most effective in Victoria's State high schools, style was defined in terms of task and relationship orientation. Fieldler's semantic differential scales for measuring orientation and atmosphere were adopted. The expectations of a groups of Education Department inspectors and administrators were utilised in the development of an effectiveness scale. Principal—deputy principal partnerships in which at least one of the two leaders was oriented towards tasks were perceived to be more effective than combinations in which neither was oriented towards tasks. Obversely, combinations in which relationship orientation was absent were seen as more effective than combinations in which relationship orientation was present. In the breakdown of schools by their atmosphere scores, the general finding linking task orientation with perceived effectiveness was replicated in the group of schools having the least‐favourable atmosphere.

In recent years a noticeable policy trend in South Australia has been towards according to state high schools a greater measure of autonomy in the conduct of their affairs, a phenomenon which has prompted a study of the power structure of high schools in that State. Much of the research into this subject focussed on the question of professional leadership within individual institutions. While many investigations in the past have concentrated on the role of the principal as a professional leader, this examination sought in addition to include, for the purposes of comparison, teachers' perceptions of the professional leadership roles of deputy principals and senior subject teachers. The results indicated that while the influence of the principal in professional matters tended to be greater than that of the deputies, it was less than that of the subject seniors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how principals, deputy principals, heads of departments (HoDs) and teachers as leaders exercise their agency within and through the organisational structure of their schools to improve academic quality.

A case study was conducted in the wider context of school-based leadership. Principals, deputy principals, HoDs and teachers selected by means of purposive sampling from six primary and secondary schools in Harare Province of Zimbabwe participated in the study.

Leaders in schools in Harare Province were found to have the capacity to use their agency within and through the organisational structure to improve pass rates. They were able to use their agency to work within the supposed rigid bureaucratic organisational structures to enable bureaucratic organisational structures, or, in participants’ views, democratic structures.

Some limitations of the research ought to be considered. The research scope and site had its limitations. The research site was limited to a few primary and secondary schools in Harare Province (one out of ten provinces) of Zimbabwe. Although the sampling procedures were implemented to ensure good representation of participants’ views, the sampling was limited to a few schools. Owing to time and financial constraints, a larger sample could not be selected to conduct the interviews. These limitations are acknowledged, but they do not undervalue the significance of the study, as they can provide potential avenues for further research. For example, the study may be replicated in rural provinces of Zimbabwe. Such further research could help improve school leadership in Zimbabwe.

Principals, deputy principals, HoDs and teachers as leaders can exercise their agency in the structure of their schools to improve academic quality, expressed as and measured by pass rates. School leaders who have a positive attitude and requisite experience are able to change the rigid bureaucratic structures of their schools to enable bureaucratic structures, which are similar to democratic structures.

This paper provides a critical perspective on how leaders exercise their agency in the context of the organisational structure of their schools to improve academic quality.

There is increasing support for the importance of the principal′s instructional leadership in school effectiveness. However, there is uncertainty over the extent to which principals actually engage in instructional leadership tasks. Investigates the perceptions held by principals and teachers of principals′ instructional leadership in a sample of Western Australian government primary and secondary schools using the Instructional Leadership Questionnaire. Instructional leadership was found to be a shared responsibility. Principals were perceived to be least involved in “managing the curriculum” and “evaluating and providing feedback”. Primary school principals were perceived to be more responsible for instructional leadership than their secondary counterparts. Principals of very small primary schools (less than 100 students) were most involved in tasks and those of middlesized primary schools (300 to 500 students) were least involved. “Providing rewards and recognition for high quality teaching” was the only instructional leadership task perceived not to be performed by either principals or teachers in both primary and secondary schools. Principals perceived themselves to be more involved in instructional leadership tasks than their staff perceived them to be.