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In Germany, principals’ working environments are data-rich for school improvement purposes in a rather low-stakes test-regime. An effective use of externally as well as internally generated data, also known as data wise leadership, is considered to be a key competence of successful principals. The purpose of this paper is to describe data use practices in German schools, especially focussing on schools facing challenging circumstances.

The paper draws on findings from two projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. A standardized questionnaire study was conducted to measure the usage of available data for school improvement quantitatively. The perceived usefulness, the reflection upon, and the use of information sources by principals were measured. Moreover, semi-structured interviews with school leaders from schools in deprived areas were conducted, transcribed and analyzed by means of qualitative content analysis.

The results showed that internal sources of information were used frequently while (international) student assessment, statewide comparative tests, and school inspections proved to be of relatively little use for the principals’ professional practice. Moreover, there was a discrepancy between the perceived usefulness of information sources and the actual use of the data.

In contrast to the USA, for example, research on educational leadership and principals’ data use – particularly at schools in challenging circumstances – is rather limited in Germany. This paper seeks to take up this desideratum.

Teacher collaboration is regarded as a central feature of school quality that promotes students’ learning processes, teachers’ professional development, and school improvement. Although the phenomenon is complex, studies often use global constructs and measures. To meet the research demands, the purpose of this paper is to take a differentiated perspective on teacher collaboration, its particular school conditions and effects on instructional development.

Data were collected through a survey of 1,105 teachers at 36 secondary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Using multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling, the occurrence of three different forms of teacher collaboration and their relations to activities of instructional development, structural and cultural working conditions, represented by appropriate scales and indexes, are analyzed.

The results show that teachers use less resource-intensive forms of collaboration more often and practice more demanding forms of collaboration less frequently. More demanding forms of collaboration not only depend on the working climate but also on individual self-efficacy, institutionalized teams, collaborative and instructional principal leadership and in turn promote the development of interdisciplinary curricula and concepts for individual support.

This study provides evidence for the importance of distinguishing different forms of teacher collaboration. Furthermore, by relating different collaborative activities of teachers to certain school conditions and instructional development, this study makes a contribution to research by emphasizing the relativity of teacher collaboration regarding its desired outcomes as well as its necessary requirements.

Chile has developed the school improvement networks (SINs) strategy to support the work of school leaders. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the functioning and effect of the SINs strategy as perceived by principals and curriculum coordinators across the country.

An adapted version of the Educational Collaborative Network Questionnaire was applied to a sample of 1,723 participants from 1,375 schools distributed in 398 networks. Descriptive, factor and sub-group statistical analyses by school performance categories and by different roles within these schools and networks are presented.

Results indicate that school leaders perceive SINs as an opportunity to work effectively in shared projects that can later be implemented in their own schools. Participants indicate that they can share knowledge in their networks and use it to solve problems in their own schools, which is especially relevant for secondary school leaders who work in difficult circumstances. Results suggest that it is important to facilitate greater autonomy for school leaders in their networks, especially regarding decision making about network goals and activities that are more significant to their contexts.

This is a national study of a recent school improvement strategy, which provides evidence, from the perspective of school leaders, of its strengths and improvement areas. This study shows that despite being in a competitive context, principals and curriculum coordinators value the opportunities to learn from and with others. These results can be of value for other contexts attempting to promote school networks as a means for school and system improvement.

This paper aims to report multiperspective research on ten successful, experienced headteachers working in a range of urban and suburban schools of different sizes (with different school populations and free school meals indices of between 20 and 62 per cent).

A discussion combining narrative and analysis.

The research revealed that the headteachers sustained their success by the application of a combination of essential leadership values, qualities and skills and that these enabled them to manage a number of tensions and dilemmas associated with the management of change.

Illustrates that successful headteachers are those who place as much emphasis on people and processes as they do upon product: all had raised the levels of measurable pupil attainments in their schools and all were highly regarded by their peers. A key characteristic among the heads was that all revealed a passion for education, for pupils and for the communities in which they worked that this was recognised and appreciated by them, that they had translated their passion into practice, and that pupils' achievements had increased over a sustained period of time.

This paper aims to explore the nature of effective schools serving socially disadvantaged communities, and to point to an overlooked feature in the literature on school effectiveness in relation to social inclusion.

As part of a trans‐European project, three English schools are investigated. A qualitative case study approach is utilised. The schools selected have high proportions of ethnic minority students with low socio‐economic status backgrounds, yet demonstrate successful results.

The data show the importance of high expectations, and the development of classroom and school‐wide systems to translate these into practice. This reflects areas highlighted by earlier research on schools in disadvantaged communities. The data also point to important conclusions about school ethos.

The findings are based on a sample of three schools. Though purposively selected (as successful in challenging circumstances), further research is needed into the role of an inclusive ethos in school effectiveness.

As Scheerens and Bosker argue, schools are most important for underprivileged and/or initially low‐achieving students. Improving the effectiveness of schools in disadvantaged communities is therefore vital, and an ethos of inclusion is an essential dimension in this.

The conclusions mirror in many respects the findings of earlier research on effective schools in socio‐economically deprived communities. However, the paper also draws attention to the importance of developing and sustaining an ethos of inclusion in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

The purpose of this paper is to draw from data collected as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) and present cases of democratic and heroic leadership from three countries, discussing to what extent successful school principals in each of their research sites (Melbourne, Australia; Umeå, Sweden; Arizona and Texas in the USA) carry old and new perspectives of heroism in their leadership. In particular the paper explores two questions: first, how do school principals describe aspects of heroic and post-heroic leadership in their practices? and second, how do these heroic and post-heroic leadership practices meet contemporary demands such as accountability standards and build inclusive and collaborative school communities in challenging contexts?

Multiple-perspective case studies involving semi-structured individual and group interviews with principals, teachers, students, parents and school board members were used to understand the contribution of principals and other leadership to school success.

The definitions of heroic and post-heroic leadership are inadequate in defining successful principal leadership. The Australian, Swedish and American principals showed characteristics of both heroic and post-heroic leadership. They showed heroic qualities such as: inspiring and motivating others; challenging the status quo; showing integrity in conflicting situations; putting duty before self; taking risks to champion a better way; showing courage to stand up to those in authority; advocating for students in struggling neighbourhoods under the scrutiny of both district and public expectations; and, showing uncommon commitment. Yet our principals showed post-heroic leadership such as involving others in decision making and recognising that school success depended on collective effort, and being sensitive to community needs through a deep respect for the local culture.

The research shows that we may need to redefine and recast our images of who school principals are today, and what they do to generate academic success for students. Both heroic and post-heroic images of leadership are needed to explain successful school leadership.

The purpose of this article is to report findings from a national study of primary headteachers in their second headship in England. This investigated their reasons for moving schools, their choice of second school and a comparison of their experiences as heads of the two schools.

The research design involved a national representative survey of primary school headteachers who were in a headship beyond their first. Questionnaire responses were obtained from 86 primary headteachers: a 74 per cent response rate. Follow‐up telephone interviews with 20 of them obtained more detailed responses on the research questions.

The reasons that heads gave for taking a second headship fell into three groups – personal, school and external. The over‐riding reasons were to provide a fresh challenge and prevent feelings of stagnation. Movement between schools was complex and the clearest overall trend was a move to larger schools. Heads generally considered themselves more effective in their second school than their first and there were many accounts of the re‐energising effect of taking on a new post.

The findings suggest that second headship should be considered as a valuable means of contributing to the continuing development of headteachers. Headteachers should consider a second headship as a possible extension to their headship career. They may need to plan their career before and during their first headship in order to obtain their desired second headship.

This is the first large‐scale study of headteachers in a second headship. The numbers of headteachers choosing to move to a second headship and their positive experiences suggest that further stages should be added to the current conceptualisations of the career of the headteacher.

This paper presents a review of empirical research on educational leadership during times of crises in K–12 schools. This review aimed to map the recent literature and identify key characteristics of educational leadership during crises to understand how this type of leadership is different from current understandings.

A scoping review of empirical research from 2010 to 2020 on how school leaders have managed and responded to crises in K-12 was completed. The empirical research was analysed and synthesised by using the preview, question, read and summarise (PQRS) system.

The findings draw attention to the fact that the notion of crisis leadership has been a neglected aspect of educational leadership research. Additionally, the review reveals six emerging characteristics which depict how school leadership has been enacted during different types of crisis across a range of contexts and crisis phases.

The findings add to current practical understandings of educational leadership by illustrating the complexity and multi-layered nature of leading during times of crisis. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the field by identifying how leading during a crisis is different from current understandings. Lastly, they highlight the need to develop theories and models that account for how leadership is used to deal with the unpredictable nature of crises that schools across the globe face today and into the future.

Leadership is as widely used as it is misused and misunderstood. This paper seeks to argue that in an educational context it is important not only to revisit and reframe conceptions of leadership but also to see it as having an essentially subversive purpose. The paper aims to dicuss subversion in an intellectual, moral and political sense, as a sacred mission to confront the “noble lies” of politicians, the superficiality of the designer culture and the line of least resistance opted for by overworked and demoralised teachers.

The empirical base for this paper is a seven‐country three‐years study entitled Leadership for Learning which brought together staff from 24 schools in seven countries to explore the connections between learning and leadership and to arrive at some common understanding which could be tested in practice across national and linguistic boundaries.

While recognising the unique contexts and differing cultural traditions as diverse as those of Australia and Austria, the USA and Greece, engaging in an international discourse through face‐to‐face workshops, virtual conferencing and exchange visits led one to five key principles held in common.

The paper offers intriguing and insightful discussion into the subject of leadership as a subversive activity.

This study aims to explore the extent to which schools principals serving disadvantaged communities in Germany are able to set appropriate goals and choose suitable measures for improving their schools according to the specific challenges they face. The authors determine whether principals are able to identify their schools' challenges or whether they merely follow “universal recipes” of the school effectiveness research paradigm regardless of their particular school context. This effectiveness-driven accountability approach requires an in-depth evaluation of the school and its stakeholders and might lead to a new attitude toward failure that sees it as an essential part of developing effective school improvement plans.

The authors conducted descriptive and correlative analyses as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using longitudinal data of 164 school principals. Through cross-sectional analyses, the authors investigated the connection among challenges, goals and measures and how they correlated with (self-reported) improvements.

From a leadership perspective, priorities for school improvement should be aligned with the school-specific challenges they identify and the goals they set to address them.

The extent to which legislation concerning individual school quality development programs can translate into feasible and effective actions is unclear. Caution should be taken when interpreting the findings of this study, as they reflect school principals' self-selected evaluation measures and therefore might be biased.

In future research, emphasis should be placed on school management processes, in particular, the development of strategic decision-making, structuring of target perspectives and derivation of steps in school improvement and instructional development. The authors recommend the government offer school principals appropriate and adequate training and support services to prevent them from overburdening their staff.

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of processes concerning strategic leadership, as opposed to operative management, of schools by revealing context-sensitive considerations.