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Change agents are individuals who can successfully transform aspects of how organisations operate. In education, teachers as change agents are increasingly seen as vital to the successful operation of schools and self-improving school systems. To date, however, there has been no systematic investigation of the nature and role of teacher change agents. To address this knowledge gap, we undertook a systematic review into five key areas regarding teachers as change agents. After reviewing 70 outputs we found that current literature predominantly positions teacher change agents as the deliverers of top-down change, with the possibility of bottom-up educational reform currently neglected.

This chapter explores the role and impact of adaptive thinking and transformational leadership in developing and leading an enabling culture that aligns with a school’s vision and mission. This chapter will also probe the varying dimensions that enable or inhibit a school culture and the tools needed to shape and maintain it including the challenges posed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In this chapter, examples of adaptive challenges, data-driven instructions, and effective use of technology, will be referred to as one dimension of a culture that shows alignment or lack of it with the school’s vision and mission, the role and impact of transformative adaptive leadership on school’s overall culture, especially in the UAE, and MENA region. Finally, this chapter will examine the impact of adaptive and distributed leadership in leading a cultural change.

The current study seeks to explore the links between principal self-efficacy, openness to change, well-being, and transformational leadership. Specifically, we tested a mediated-effects model where principal self-efficacy and openness to change were treated as independent variables, well-being as mediator, and transformational leadership as dependent variable.

Survey data were collected from 351 principals employed in Turkish schools and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The results suggested the direct empirical relationship of principal self-efficacy and openness to change with transformational leadership, and indirect through professional well-being.

Our study enriched our understanding of school leadership by elucidating the potential mechanisms that underpin the implementation of transformational leadership practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its effects on education in general, has influenced the leadership landscape of school principals, which may have necessitated adaptations and transitions in their leadership orientation. To better comprehend any variations in the leadership orientation of school principals in response to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines leadership orientation in both the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

In this quantitative research, the authors collected data from 297 school principals in the Balochistan province of Pakistan using the leadership orientation survey (LOS) in a quantitative research approach.

The results indicated that principals’ leadership orientation underwent an observable transition before and after the pandemic. Principals’ preferred leadership orientation notably changed from solely political before the pandemic to a combination of highly political and symbolic after the pandemic.

Using a survey, the study investigated the transition in school principals’ leadership orientation before and after the pandemic. However, the results do not explain what caused the transition in principals’ leadership orientation, which is the key limitation of this study. Future research within a qualitative approach can study the factors associated with changes in principles’ leadership frames.

The overall findings of the study have implications for scholars, policymakers and educational leaders to reexamine and gain a deeper understanding of the leadership roles of principals in the post-pandemic age. This is because principals now operate in a distinct context characterized by new difficulties and opportunities compared to the pre-pandemic period.

This is an original study that examined the transition of school principals’ leadership orientation before and after the pandemic. The body of literature related to the transition between pre- and post-pandemic is limited both in Pakistan and the rest of the world. This study illuminates the literature in this regard.

The challenges facing 21st-century society are becoming increasingly complex, requiring the development of new citizen competencies. This study aims to validate an educational model focused on developing complex thinking in higher education students. Current educational models lack future-ready competencies, necessitating the emergence of new models to guide future generations toward the common good.

This was an adaptation of the causal-layered analysis (CLA) applied to 415 participants from higher education institutions in Mexico, Panama and Spain. Sessions were designed to present the proposed educational model and explore participants’ perceptions of its significance and contributions to future education.

Key findings include the following: participants perceived complexity as difficult and challenging; causes of problems were linked to outdated educational models requiring replacement by those that develop students’ competencies; participants envisioned changes that would develop individuals capable of understanding and transforming society; and participants recognized the model’s transformative potential, offering a novel proposal for 21st-century education.

This research sought to gather opinions from different stakeholders using the CLA methodology, providing a deep understanding of participants’ perspectives on the proposed solution.

Technological advancements and global societal changes reshapes manufacturing industry emphasizing needs for competence development of industrial professionals. The purpose of this paper is to study how organizational learning supports the development of academic structures, creating agile and sustainable formal educational models meeting novel competence needs.

The qualitative case study, part of a longitudinal research study, focuses on internal academic processes supporting a new formal educational model. Qualitative data was collected through five focus groups, incorporating 32 informants from different HEI function categories.

Changing traditional academic structures requires joint engagement between all HEI functions, emphasizing organizational learning with subprocesses of searching, creating, sustaining and exchanging knowledge in a learning loop. Results show a consensus among the different HEI functions regarding the value of the HEI’s coproduction with society; however, bureaucracy and academic structure hinder flexibility. Cross-functional teams building a “chain-of-trust” throughout the HEI coupled with full management support show opportunities to progress into a learning organization.

Organizational learning within HEIs requires trustful and open communication, multifunction knowledge exchange, holistic views of processes and system thinking, achieved through cross-functional teams and continuous improvement through learning loops.

Industry-academic collaboration on formal education for lifelong learning needs to become both agile and resilience to meet technological advancement and sustainability.

Novel technology, digitalization and sustainability gain ground and require that society and organizations, including academia, change and learn. This means that academia is meeting new challenges and needs to develop internal processes.