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With women constituting more than two-thirds of the world's approximately 800 million illiterate adults, the importance of gender and equality in education has never been clearer. The education of girls and women has long been associated with positive outcomes such as lower childbearing rates, improved health for women and their families, increased participation in household decision-making, and increased community participation (Wolf & Odonkor, 1997). Consequently, women's literacy and numeracy are widely understood as critical to individual and national development (Floro & Wolf, 1990). With more than 60 million school-aged girls currently not enrolled in school, however, the status of gender equality in education remains troubling, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

This study centers the reflections of principals across the USA as they navigated the overwhelming stress of closing and reopening schools during a global pandemic. Specifically, the authors explored how school principals addressed self-care and their own well-being during the pandemic.

This research study is part of a broader qualitative study conducted by 20 scholars from across the USA in Spring 2020 and organized by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). This national research team conducted 120 qualitative interviews with public school principals in 19 different states and 100 districts. As part of this team, the authors coded and analyzed all 120 transcripts in NVivo using a self-care framework.

The responses from the participants capture some of the complexity of self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors found evidence of both negative and positive sentiments towards self-care that will be described in five major themes. For the tensions with self-care, the authors developed two primary themes: leaders eat last and keep from falling off the cliff. For the demonstrations of self-care, the authors also developed three primary themes: release the endorphins, people need people and unplug from work.

Although researchers have identified the stressors and reactions of principals during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known on how principals engaged in self-care practices. This study aims to identify these self-care practices and offer recommendations for principals.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that historical research methods offer an innovative and powerful way to examine, frame, explain, and disrupt the study of contemporary issues in educational leadership. More specifically, the authors examine how historical methodology might recast some of the questions educational leadership researchers presently engage and how the act of “doing history” might simultaneously lead to new research agendas and social change.

This conceptual paper provides a discussion of the explanatory and disruptive power of historical research methods and how intentional ignorance of uncomfortable historical realities, such as racist institutional structures and practices, undermines present-day efforts to advance equity in schools. Using the mainstream achievement gap narrative as an example, the authors consider the ways in which historical scholarship can effectively disrupt current conceptions of educational inequality and opportunity in the USA.

The paper suggests researchers close the “history gap” by engaging historical research methods in ways that better ground, contextualize, and disrupt the often ahistorical and uncritical ways the field frames present-day challenges like the achievement gap.

This paper explores the explanatory and disruptive power of historical research as a mode of inquiry in education leadership.

Scholarship about communities of practice (COP) is uncovering evidence that interactivity between community members contributes to improvement in practice. Leadership and facilitation are crucial elements of successful COP implementation. The purpose of this paper is to describe an innovative COP facilitator ' s course and report on the experiences of participants in the first course.

In response to this need and emerging evidence, an on-line COP facilitator ' s course was developed and implemented in Alberta, Canada, in 2011. This course included a home-based COP practicum, introductory face-to-face session, an on-line discussion board moderated by faculty and on-line learning modules. Evaluation of the course was formalized in a qualitative study incorporating content analysis of postings, semi-structured interviews of successful participants and narrative responses to questions in a post course survey.

A total of 15 of 22 participants perceived they acquired basic knowledge about community facilitation by completing the self-learning modules and assignments. Many did not establish home-based COP and only partially participated in the interactive components of the course. Six participants successfully completed the course by establishing home-based COP and actively participating in the social and interactive components of the course. They perceived they met course objectives and greatly benefited from participation in the course, in particular when they pushed themselves to facilitate in new and different ways, and when they were actively engaged with their home-based COP where they could practice and receive feedback.

While the main reasons why participants dropped out or failed to complete all course components were reported, the experiences and perceptions of six participants who successfully completed all course components form the major part of the evaluation of the course and hence introduce bias. A more in depth analysis of why learners are reluctant to engage in participatory learning could be the focus of further studies.

The following key recommendations emerged in the study alongside recommendations for further study of best practices in supporting COP facilitation. First, a formal interview before enrollment into the COP facilitator ' s course is recommended to reinforce the comprehensiveness, time commitment and the practical applications intended within the course. Second, methods of “aggressive facilitation” with skilled COP facilitators can best model facilitation to those involved in the course. Third, supporting course participants to trial out a diversity of community facilitation skills in the safety of the course is crucial to success.

The collaboration, networking and interactivity of interdisciplinary health care workers is of tremendous consequence to health outcomes and a vital concern to practitioners and administrators. Little is currently understood of the leadership and facilitation of the COP models and these discoveries lend a timely contribution to the field.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a classroom assessment aimed at determining the extent to which five key sustainability competencies develop in students during an introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. University sustainability programs intend to provide integrated education that fosters the key competencies students need to solve real-world sustainability problems. Translating sustainability competencies into effective pedagogical practice in integrated academic programs is not straightforward. This work builds on a previous study by both expanding the competencies evaluated and considering additional demographic characteristics.

The paper summarizes previously identified key sustainability competencies and describes teaching methodologies used to foster these competencies in students. Development of competencies in students during a semester-long course is assessed using a pre-/post-test based on two case studies. The implications of the findings for teaching practice and overall program structure are discussed.

Based on the assessment methods used here, four of the five sustainability competencies evaluated in this study developed differently in students according to gender, disciplinary affiliation and age. Females improved interpersonal competence more than males. Systems thinking competence improved for students associated with the three disciplinary affiliations considered in this study: sustainability major, sustainability minor and business major. Anticipatory competence improved for sustainability and business majors only, but not for students minoring in sustainability and majoring in other disciplines. Finally, normative competence improved for younger students only.

Insights for teaching practice and overall program structure are based on assessment of one introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. Much additional work is needed to draw strong conclusions about general teaching practices and program structure for sustainability education. This study provides a flexible and field-tested rubric for further evaluative work in other sustainability courses or degree programs.

Universities incorporate sustainability into their undergraduate curricula in many ways, ranging from certificates to entire degree programs focused on sustainability. The results of this study suggest that educators pay attention to gender diversity, classroom teaching practices, disciplinary perspectives and student attitudes and developmental stages as they figure out how to make sustainability part of undergraduate education. This information may help create more effective sustainability courses and academic programs, which may maintain the viability of current sustainability programs and promote the institutionalization of sustainability in higher education.

This research contributes to undergraduate sustainability education by providing insight into how sustainability education might thoughtfully be integrated into academic programs. It also offers an assessment approach for use by other sustainability educators to evaluate effectiveness of teaching practice and overall program structure based on five key sustainability competencies commonly cited in the literature.

The challenges of achieving housing stability are examinable from a variety of locations and perspectives, resulting in a range of solutions and recommendations for practice. Attending to the experiences and understandings of both service users and service providers within a broad environmental scan, one can obtain a more complete picture of how housing stability can be supported and sustained. The purpose of this research is to better understand the practical landscape, human relationships, interdisciplinary understandings and everyday activities of housing stability.

The paper draws on thematic analysis from expert informant interviews conducted during an environmental scan of housing options and facilities for those who have been labelled “hard to house” in a large, ethnically‐diverse urban city in western Canada. Interviews of selected service users yielded information on their perspectives of the barriers and facilitators of housing stability. Parallel interviews of service providers and/or policy makers were also conducted, and responses compared and contrasted with those of service users.

Three interconnected patterns on the path to housing stability were experienced by the expert informants, and are explored herein. The overlapping and developmental themes “more than a house,” “finding support,” and “connecting multiple supports” are discussed. Conditions and realities of coordinated support need, particularly for those deemed “hard to house” because of addictions or mental health problems were revealed by the expert informants in this study.

Thematic analysis of the parallel interviews brought the landscape of housing stability into clearer focus and contributed to practice recommendations. This qualitative research approach was not intended to provide generalizable findings, but rather sheds light on particular experiences and understandings in ways that may contribute to further research. The themes identified may resonate in differing circumstances having arisen from the more generalized practical realities and social conditions which warrant an ongoing analysis.

The analysis revealed an ongoing gap of support for the management and coordination of the often complex requirements of support for housing stability for service users. Various service agencies, providing houses, providing financial aid, providing health and social support need to “connect multiple levels of support” something identified as an all too often missing link in achieving housing stability. Recommendations include recognizing the necessity of multiple sectors working together with multiple sites and layers of support, in particular for those who experience addictions or mental health problems. More tailored support, follow up and recognition of the potential for instability is a particular practical implication of the study. Invigorating a coordinative, case management role, with a view to bridging and bringing together seemingly disparate sectors and service providers are relevant practical implications of this study.

The research is novel in approach, drawing on a parallel expert informant interview process, and findings are of relevance to practical activities in housing, social and health services and policy as well as for scholarly dialogue and discussion.

This chapter discusses the creation of The Icarus Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 2007 to address the issues of climate change and tourism in Canada. As Canada's first nongovernmental organization in this area, the role of the foundation will be described and current initiatives undertaken will be outlined. Challenges to starting a nongovernmental organization in Canada will also be discussed, such as lack of funding, an unmotivated tourism industry, relaxed government regulations, concern about climate change, and its impacts on the tourism industry. The Icarus Foundation began and continues to operate with skeletal staff and the manpower of a few individuals, precariously facing the potential to become extinct if action and support are not provided.

This chapter examines the significance of multisensory experiences in the branding of the Swedish tourist destinations. Firstly, it provides a critical review of the relevant literature in the field of nation branding. It discusses about the tourism branding strategies that are intended to attract more visitors to Stockholm and in other areas in Sweden. Secondly, this contribution suggests that the destination marketers are engaging with tourists and are providing them with multisensory experiences to drive their emotional resonance for the Swedish destinations. Thirdly, it analyses how the ‘Swedishness’ could be expressed through the destinations’ attractions and from creative marketing campaigns. In conclusion the author provides four case studies on ‘The Swedish Number Campaign’, ‘ICEHOTEL’, ‘The ABBA Museum’ and ‘IKEA Museum’ to better explain how the Swedish destinations are providing the mentioned multisensory experiences to tourists.