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The purpose of this paper is to show how school principals in France spend their work time and when and under what circumstances they deal with school improvement-related matters.

For the study presented in this paper, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used. Five French collèges (secondary schools) from one school district were visited for a week each. Each principal was shadowed, his/her actions and the context were recorded and categorized. The shadowing was conducted using a structured observation approach derived from Mintzberg. In addition semi-structured interviews were conducted with all principals. The data were analyzed following a grounded theory approach.

The results show how principals spend their work time and as well as possible areas of improvement. Among other things, they reveal very fragmented workdays. Most principals put a low emphasis on school improvement and struggle with conflicting expectations (preservation vs innovation). Shared leadership was only observed in one case.

The specificity of the sample limits the possible ranges of interpretation and generalization. Also, it remains unclear whether one week of observation per school is enough to get a reliable estimate of a principal's daily work. There is a need for further empirical studies of the matter.

This paper offers rare insights into the day-to-day work of French school principals. It contributes to the understanding of school leadership practice as well as to the transcultural understanding of school leadership.

‘Over my dead body’ said the Vice‐Principal. He was reacting, somewhat predictably, to the suggestion that a students' union might be formed in the college. No doubt it was the word ‘union’ that gave rise to his fears of strikes and bloody‐minded shop stewards. However, there is a students' union flourishing now in that particular college, and the Vice‐Principal is still alive, and I imagine quite reconciled to the idea, but his fears must have been echoed by many people in authority in further education, especially when they read the often lurid press accounts of sit‐ins at the LSE and ‘Red Rudi’ in West Germany. Why then have a students' union in a technical college?

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of teacher leadership on the enactment of educational reforms in southeastern China. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders in schools is structured to support reform enactment at the school level.

The research was conducted in three case study sites in one school district in Shenzhen, China. Low, moderate and high academic achieving schools which had engaged teacher leaders in instructional reforms were selected. A combined total of 34 senior, middle and teacher leaders participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed through a comparative coding process.

Across the three schools, teacher leaders without positional authority strongly influenced the instructional reforms. Their influence was strongest when bolstered by a combination of formal recognition systems, opportunities to lead projects that were directly related to the reform efforts, and mentorship systems that skilled novice teachers in reform-related skills and experienced teachers in leading reform enactment. Mechanisms and structures embedded in schools, when coherently focused on selected reforms, supported the efficacy of teachers without formal authority. And, middle leaders’ impact was enhanced when working collaboratively with formal and teacher leaders.

This research yields insight on teacher leaders’ influence of reform. It considers how the work of middle and teacher leaders can be structured as a collective that impacts on reform enactment at the school level. And, it illuminates teacher leadership in a Chinese context other than the scrutinized Shanghai school system.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how socio-religious dynamics influence (and are influenced by) principals in Islamic schools.

This qualitative case study took place in Semarang, Indonesia. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with school leaders along with school site observations. To frame the study, we drew from both Indonesian and international scholarship to understand extant perspectives on the context and on the ways that principals influence socio-religious thinking and practices in schools.

Findings suggested that principals' personal experiences and beliefs are central to the ways that socio-religious thinking and practices are manifest in their school. Principals practice more progressive or conservative leadership by influencing the degree to which the school is (a) an open or closed system, (b) inclusive or exclusive in their practices and (c) plural or unitary in their teaching. In making decisions along each of these continua, principals in Islamic schools “curate” a socio-religious educational environment.

This paper contributes to the literature on principals and socio-religious dynamics in schools by discovering specific continua of practice that collectively suggest a more conservative or progressive interpretation of Islam. As this area is understudied in educational leadership, the study makes a foundational empirical contribution, suggests theoretical constructs heretofore unexplored, and advances the notion of principal as curator of educational practice.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and burnout among vice‐principals (VPs) in primary schools.

A total of 103 VPs at 103 different primary schools in Germany were surveyed with a questionnaire that assessed the four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self‐determination, and impact), emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Participants also reported demographic data, including days absent from work over the past year. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.

Regarding the consequences of empowerment, SEM revealed a strong indirect relationship with emotional exhaustion via job satisfaction. The direct relationship between empowerment and emotional exhaustion did not reach statistical significance. Of the dimensions of empowerment, competence and meaning were the strongest predictors of the outcomes. Emotional exhaustion and days absent from work were positively related.

Job related burnout can cause serious consequences for the individual and the school, because VPs have a central role in the functioning of primary schools. Since the empowerment dimensions competence and meaning have the strongest influence, measures should be implemented to foster them. Because job satisfaction is highly related to emotional exhaustion, it could serve as an early alert system. For this reason, VPs should be surveyed at regular intervals regarding their job satisfaction.

The study is the first that examines the relationship between psychological empowerment, satisfaction, and burnout among VPs in schools.

This research was exploratory in nature, conducted in the context of a field study. A questionnaire was developed through a series of iterations, one important component of which was the use of stress logs by a sample of administrators. The resultant instrument was completed by 1156 respondents from the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (elementary and secondary principals, superintendents, assistant superintendents and central office staff). Twelve stressors are identified and discussed. Although there are differences in responses, all members of the management team are shown to share many common stressors, e.g. complying with rules, attending meetings, completing reports on time.

Emotions are everywhere and, as multiple scholars have argued, can be considered a fundamental part of the human experience. Individuals are expected to behave in socially appropriate ways in a variety of public and private social situations, which often involve managing one's emotions. The management and regulation of emotions are also key components of effective school leadership. This chapter unpacks the emotional aspects of school leadership by exploring how the management of emotions is fundamental to the success of headmasters, principals, vice-principals, and other school-level leaders. I also provide the rationale for using the term ‘school-level leaders’ and call for emotional authenticity in educational leadership. Then I outline several benefits an increased scholarly and practical focus on the emotional aspects of school-level leadership offers for teachers and other school staff, school-level leaders themselves, and the students they serve on a daily basis. I also provide a short description of the methodology used for the participant quotes used to add richness and contextualize key themes explored in Chapters 4 and 5. The chapter concludes with an outline of how the rest of this book is organized and offers additional insight into the topics explored in the forthcoming chapters.