Effective instructional leadership is crucial for improving student achievement, yet its implementation varies significantly across contexts, particularly in managing instructional programs. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study examines how urban-rural context shapes principals' instructional leadership in Ethiopia's Gedeo Zone, where Grade 12 national examination pass rates have declined from 18.5 percent to 0.2 percent, consistently falling below national averages. Survey data from 180 teachers reveal a significant disparity: urban principals demonstrate stronger instructional managing program, including supervising teaching, coordinating curriculum, and monitoring progress, compared to rural counterparts (p=.022). Critically, the expected relationship between principals' instructional leadership and teachers' classroom practices holds in urban schools (rho=.337, p=.001) but disappears in rural schools (rho=.160, p=.147), signaling systemic breakdown. Qualitative data from nine principals and 54 teachers across focus group reveal the mechanisms behind quantitative findings: rural principals face a triad of interconnected barriers, including overwhelming administrative burdens, severe resource scarcity, and a profoundly demoralized, unstable teaching force, which render conventional instructional leadership impossible. Confronted with these constraints, effective rural principals strategically redirect their energy toward promoting school climate through shared struggle, familial support, and symbolic community recognition. This contextually intelligent adaptation sustains teacher commitment where technical solutions fail. Findings demand fundamental policy reorientation: support systems must validate climate-focused leadership and dismantle structural barriers rather than imposing standardized blueprints ill-suited to rural realities.
Social justice refers to the equitable distribution of resources, opportunities, and rights within a society. While it is a commonly held ideal, its realization varies across countries due to differing political, socioeconomic, and geographical conditions, which influence the experience of social injustices. Higher education institutions can play a pivotal role in addressing these injustices and contributing to social transformation through their academic research, educational practices, and the cultivation of civic-minded graduates. This study investigates the relationship between social justice perceptions and socially responsible leadership among university students. Utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, the research focused on Turkish university students to explore how their understanding of social justice aligns with their readiness to lead responsibly within their communities. The findings indicate that while students demonstrated a strong awareness of and concern for social injustices, prevailing social and cultural norms often constrained them from taking substantial action. This study highlights the necessity of policy initiatives that promote collaboration between the government and universities dedicated to advancing social justice. Such partnerships are essential for empowering students to become proactive agents of change in creating a more equitable society.
This article reports and discusses a study starting from general knowledge of the importance of school leadership and previous research on the impact of principal turnover. It arrives at the conclusion that principal turnover constitutes a critical, practice-disturbing, and practice-changing event in the local school organisation. The aim of this study is to examine how local school practices change during principal turnover and to characterise how such change unfolds across different dimensions of practice. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures and 497 unique free-text responses from a questionnaire distributed to school staff and parents/guardians in five Swedish municipalities, the analysis shows how leadership transitions affect not only the practice of leading but also a range of interconnected practices within the local changes in the semantic, physical, and social dimensions of these practices, highlighting their significance for various stakeholders. Among those most affected by these changes are students with special educational needs and newly arrived students, who appear particularly vulnerable to the effects of principal turnover.
Early childhood educators (ECE) have a major role in shaping children's development; their occupational wellbeing is an important issue for themselves and for their students. ECEs in Israel work in educational units that are not part of a school setting, an almost singular situation worldwide. They have little immediate professional support available to them, making their superintendents a main source of support. The superintendents' heavy workloads and often distant geographical locations challenge their leadership effectivity. In this study, 504 Israeli ECEs were surveyed through an online quantitative questionnaire. Hierarchical regression tests revealed that responders' psychological empowerment mediates the connection between ECE superintendents' transformational leadership and ECEs' burnout fully, and this model explains 12% of burnout. The tests also revealed that psychological empowerment mediates the connection between superintendents' transformational leadership and ECEs' job satisfaction, but only partially; the model explains 29% of job satisfaction. The current study suggests that ECEs' sense of psychological empowerment is a mediator between superintendent's transformational leadership and ECE's wellbeing, i.e., low burnout and high job satisfaction. This research illuminates the role of ECE superintendents' leadership, which has so far received little academic attention, and highlights the importance of the mechanism by which superintendents' leadership improves ECEs' wellbeing.
While doctoral programs have traditionally prepared graduates for academic careers, the evolving global academic landscape now demands a broader approach that equips students for diverse career paths. This study examines educational administration doctoral programs within the framework of dynamic capabilities, focusing on enhancing graduate qualifications and program competitiveness. The research was conducted as an exploratory case study at public universities in T & uuml;rkiye. In the research, program materials of 11 universities selected through maximum diversity and criterion sampling were analyzed. Interviews were conducted with 19 participants selected from the top six universities that most frequently used dynamic capabilities keywords in their programs. Data were analyzed using descriptive and content analysis methods. Findings reveal that educational administration doctoral programs demonstrate a rich integration of key dynamic capabilities concepts and can effectively align with the dynamic capabilities framework. Dynamic capabilities are primarily developed through faculty and advisor guidance, underscoring their talent-transforming roles. This highlights the necessity of qualified supervision, effective mentorship systems, and competent faculty in fostering dynamic capabilities. To strengthen dynamic capabilities development, universities should prioritize institutional leadership, enhance collaboration with public institutions, and implement practice-oriented, mentorshipdriven programs supported by clear employment pathways. These measures can help doctoral programs become more adaptive and competitive. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of how educational administration doctoral programs can gain competitive advantage by producing well-qualified graduates equipped with dynamic skills and offers practical insights for future higher education policy and program development.
