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This article explores two intermediary organizations that are attempting to alter the landscape of US education by building organizational networks and professional capital that disrupt traditional relationships between K-12 education and higher education.

The work is a theory-driven, comparative case study of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) and the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP). Through the lens of institutional theory, the authors employ an extended case method that uses comparative analysis of situationally-embedded organizational case studies to build theory.

The two organizations play an intermediary role by The two organizations play an intermediary role by establishing new standards, norms, and patterns of practice between higher education and local systems of education. In doing so, these organizations serve as meso-institutions, alliances that mediate the processes of institutionalization and play essential parts in developing new facets of infrastructure and new professional identities that hold the potential for nurturing and sustaining professional capital. System leadership hinges on strategic bricolage to identify near-term next steps that align with longer-term strategic goals related to field building.

Professional capital as a concept was initially characterized from a bottom-up perspective, valorizing the agentive dimensions of human, social and decisional capital in opposition to top-down, centralized control. Our conceptualization of intermediary organizations as meso-institutions addresses how the processes of mediated networking and system leadership operate to build professional capital in specific ways that crystallize institutional change.

Informed by learning transfer theory, the purpose of this paper is to validate the instrument measuring educational leadership preparation program (LPP) quality attributes and graduates’ leadership learning and to assess the direct and indirect relationships among them, as reported by program graduates.

This study uses data collected from the 2016 INSPIRE-G Survey, which gathers information from LPP graduates in the USA on their perceptions of program quality and leadership learning. Structural equation modeling was used to determine which program quality factors directly and indirectly influence graduate leadership learning.

The results suggest significant relationships between the assessed LPP attributes and leadership learning. Faculty quality and program rigor and relevance (PRR) had the strongest association with leadership learning, although the relationship between faculty quality and learning was fully mediated by PRR. Internship experiences and peer relationships were also important predictors of leadership learning. Studying with a cohort had a small but positive relationship with graduates’ leadership learning, although the relationship was fully mediated by perceived peer relationships.

This study further validates the INSPIRE-G Survey and affirms the imperative role of leadership preparation as a predictor to graduate reported learning outcomes and learning transfer. Moreover, this study illustrates the importance of leadership preparation by demonstrating positive relationships between program quality features and reported leadership learning outcomes. Finally, the INSPIRE-G instrument demonstrates its utility as a reliable measure of program quality, which opens the door to large-scale and longitudinal studies of the transfer of learning from leader preparation to practice.

How confused are young people about cannabis reclassification? Who do they really trust when talking about drink and drugs? Do they believe the health warnings and ‘the messages’ to stay away from drugs? Michelle Duffin draws on her national discussions with young people to explore their perceptions of drugs and alcohol and to assess their awareness of young people services and preferred methods and sources of information for drugs and alcohol.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an online virtual academy utilises a different approach to learning in order to engage hard‐to‐reach learners; for whom traditional methods of learning are not effective.

Small scale research using case studies of the students, phenomenographic professional development research for the tutors and academic results to demonstrate impact.

The findings appear to support the “community of inquiry model” proposed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer as well as the recommendations from the Framework for the National Curriculum (DfE), i.e. this interactive and experiential process between what is taught (subject knowledge) and the learner (individual development).

The learning circle proved to be an excellent tool for visually representing the phenomena and it was observed that this tool could also prove beneficial to learners in future application of this pedagogy.

The research enables educators to consider: what constitutes effective learning online and what tools can be utilised to enhance this pedagogical approach? What are the barriers to learning for these hard‐to‐reach learners? How can the online environment and a range of technological tools be used to overcome the barriers for these learners?

For many hard‐to‐reach learners social interaction can be a challenge. The feedback from case studies demonstrated how learners felt a greater sense of security by using an online environment and therefore were able to form stronger and sustainable social relationships, thus enhancing the learning process.

This research aims to add to the body of knowledge defining “effective online pedagogy”. In this instance phenomenology was used as an approach to engage the tutor and learner in a co‐constructive process of development and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to review the purpose of the Community Meeting and how it fits within the Sanctuary Model®, it will outline the tools theoretical underpinnings and finally how the tool is used in other trauma models specifically Therapeutic Communities.

This paper draws the key literature together related to the Community Meeting within the Sanctuary Model®, making links to theoretical influences between the Community Meeting, Trauma Theory and Attachment Theory. Finally it provides a comparison of the Community Meeting within Therapeutic Communities and the Sanctuary Model®.

The paper detailed how the Community Meeting tool is underpinned by the norms and theories of the Sanctuary Model®. It detailed the direct link between healing from trauma and building attachments to the Community Meeting. It found the similarities of the Community Meeting within both Therapeutic Communities and the Sanctuary Model® in that they always included all participants and occurring regularly in circular groups. However, it noted the distinct differences including in Therapeutic Communities the Community Meeting forms a significant intervention, whereas within the Sanctuary Model®, the Community Meeting supports the broader intervention of the model for all members of the community including staff and clients.

The Sanctuary Model® is gaining international interest and as such, critical consideration of its theoretical influences, similarities and differences with existing models is critical to understanding the model.

The purpose of this article is to consider the impact of incorporating a set of readings focused on issues of gender, diversity, leadership, and feminist thought into the curriculum of a statewide educational leadership doctoral program.

Based data from open‐ended surveys, semi‐structured interviews, and reflection statements, the article presents a qualitative analysis of how students react to, learn from, and resist social justice‐oriented curricula and teaching strategies, particularly those related to gender issues.

The analysis of the data collected in this research suggests that, after a year of exposure to readings and written assignments about gender and other diversity issues, few students had undergone significant transformations in their learning regarding gender issues. Moreover, it was found that many students demonstrated resistance to reading, reflecting on and discussing gender issues.

Programs and professors that endeavor to prepare leaders who are transformative, require transformative teaching practices that assist in the development of such leaders. When content includes issues of diversity, our findings indicate that it is particularly important that faculty increase their knowledge of student responses to difficult content and transformative teaching strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of critical policy analysis (CPA) in the fields of educational leadership and policy. In addition to exploring how CPA compares to traditional research approaches in educational leadership and policy, the authors consider the influence of long-established ways of knowing, why scholars choose to engage in CPA and how and why scholars who utilize this approach decide on specific methods.

The exploration draws primarily on the use of CPA in the USA, though the authors also examine how scholars working within the UK utilize CPA.

In the review of critical policy literature, the authors identified a number of assumptions common to traditional and critical policy research theories and approaches. For example, systems theory and analysis, structural analysis, cost-benefit analysis, technicist models, and political models were commonly used within traditional literature. In comparison, critical policy researchers relied on theoretical perspectives informed by critical theory, feminist theories, and critical race perspectives, among others. Critical policy researchers used these perspectives to engage in critique, interrogate policy processes, and epistemological roots of policy work, reveal policy constructions, and examine players involved in the policy development, interpretation, and implementation processes. Notably, the work of critical educational leadership and policy scholars also emphasizes the importance of context, the theory-method relationship and methodology.

While there is a growing movement occurring in the education leadership and policy fields toward critical analyses of educational research, little is known about how scholars decide what methods to employ when conducting such analyses. The authors discuss the possibilities for scholars utilizing these methods in order to explore the complexities of education leadership and policy problems.

There is a meager body of research addressing the role educational leadership preparation programs in colleges and universities play in preparing women leaders. Also educational leadership preparation research has yet to explore ways in which mentorship provides additional capital for female graduate students. This study seeks to understand the challenges facing, and the opportunities available to, female graduate students in educational leadership departments.

The study used qualitative methods to explore the constructs of educational leadership preparation and mentorship of female graduate students. Qualitative methods, specifically a questionnaire and a collaborative focus group, were informed by the work of feminist theory and were used to explore participants' experiences and perceptions with the larger purpose of understanding the implications of their experiences for the development of strategies and programs intended to support female graduate students.

The following themes emerged from the participants' stories: constraints within the organizational culture, personal and familial sacrifice, struggles with identity, questioning self, and experiences with mentoring.

The findings have important implications for the roles university leadership preparation program structures might play in supporting female graduate students and their career success. The findings also offer recommendations for the development of mentoring programs for female graduate students.

Currently, there is an exceptional lack of research documenting the lived experiences of female doctoral students, particularly research that can be used to inform policy and program development. To that end, the qualitative study described in this paper helps in understanding the challenges facing, and the opportunities available to, female graduate students in educational leadership departments as well as in understanding the implications of such experiences for the development of strategies and programs intended to support female graduate students.

This article was written to offer an introduction to blogging.

The initial research was undertaken as a project stemming from a request to present on blogging at the Virginia Library Association Paraprofessional Annual Conference in May of 2006.

The article covers a range of topics from history, to a description of what a blog is, and why to create or use one (personally and professionally).

Libraries have only just begun to think about blogging and this introductory piece may help novices.