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The focus of this chapter is to analyze the impacts of the Boko Haram insurgency on education in the northeast of Nigeria. It also aims to examine the effectiveness of the educational interventions in the devastated communities in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Gombe. It begins with an introduction, in which the origin of the conflict is traced and linked to the group’s campaign of violence that targets schools, teachers, education workers, and students. The chapter discusses and chronologically lists out specific attacks on education and how the attacks have significantly affected access to education and increased the number of out-of-school children. It concludes by looking at the education emergencies that have arisen in the region, how the interventions have tried to address them, and the outcomes of the interventions.

Currently, leadership is a recurring theme in the field of education. There is also a number of research that examined school leadership from different perspectives. Some of these studies pay greater attention on school leadership policies while others focused on the key role of school leadership. Leadership is, as will be shown in this chapter, key to developing school practices that support schools to become effective organizations. Although, researchers usually defined leadership according to their individual perspectives and the aspects of the phenomenon which is of interest to them, some perspectives have been more influential than others. In this sense, these authors see leadership as a process which encourages staff at variety of levels take on leadership role. This approach of leadership not only synthesizes distributed model but also provides an opportunity to capture how leaders encourage and manage school improvement in practice. With this mind, this chapter examines the nature of leadership in one school in the UK to see whether it facilitates distribution of leadership. The data was collected using semi-structured qualitative interview with the headteacher of the school. The data collected was analyzed by reading the interview transcript many times, highlighting what was considered important. From the headteacher’s responses, recurring school practices – collaboration, shared leadership, learning culture, school connection with communities, and school response to SEN children – emerged. However, these findings should be considered with caution because the study was carried out in one school. A reasonable number of schools would have possibly provided more corroborated evidence. However, the findings can possibly further thinking in other schools with similar situations.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 aimed at ensuring an inclusive, equitable, quality education, and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. However, this may not be effectively realized, as this chapter demonstrates, through formal learning or education alone. Rather, an adoption of non-formal and informal learning alongside formal learning is more likely to empower the general population to contribute toward the development of a sustainable society. This chapter therefore critically examines the concepts of lifelong learning and the learning society and suggests that community learning, or study circles, can be a promising institutional medium for the promotion of adult and lifelong learning. The rationale for establishing a study circle as a medium for lifelong learning is demonstrated through case studies from Zimbabwe and Sweden. This follows by comparing and contrasting the ways in which Sweden and Zimbabwe promote lifelong learning for all.

Academic institutions are undergoing drastic changes in recent years due to dwindling funds, low enrollment numbers, and fierce domestic and international competition, along with a two-year closure of university premises due to the pandemic. Quality assurance of academic institution has also come under scrutiny with mounting criticism for its failure to adapt to current social and economic requirements. Incoherent and ad hoc reform system and hurried strategic vision have been blamed on the role of the leaders and their lack of engagement with the stakeholders. Students have been repeatedly asking for the necessity to focus on academic teaching along with learning activities, active participative strategies with a focus toward increasing acquired competence and capabilities that will enable their marketability, post-completion of their education. This book volume stresses the role of leaders in educational institutions. The collection of work by various authors talks about the autonomy of faculty members based on bonds created on ethics. The style of leadership and the concept of democracy and social justice also play a role in leadership. Authors have emphasized that higher educational institutions need to look beyond regular extrinsic motivators to ensure employee engagement to mentor students effectively as well as explore the concept of the glass ceiling and regressive cultures that poses impediments to women as leaders in universities and other educational institutions.

One of the most important issues plaguing our planet is the depletion of natural resources and climate change, creating new disasters, and global challenges. The international community has expressed its anguish and concern for these problems through several international forums and treaties. As a response, Education for Sustainable Development is a program that aims to educate students on these issues. Teaching sustainability to young graduates needs to be holistic and pluralistic in nature. Discourses and modules on sustainability help in making them sustainability conscious which will enhance the competencies of people and help them to live and act in a more sustainable way. This book has several chapters written by academics across the globe who have spoken about their experience of incorporating sustainability into their curriculum and adopting various pedagogical approach that has helped their students to learn and understand the subject. Sustainability has been part of the teaching and learning in general, and as part of management, engineering, medical, and design courses, for instance. This book helps us to understand how such teaching and learning strategies can be made more effective for students.