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Dynamics of social and symbolic capital within diverse school settings affect how stakeholders (i.e., administrators, teachers, parents, students) influence, interpret, and/or implement the complex demands of education leadership. Educational leadership, as simultaneously possessing both constant and fluid tendencies, is fundamental to establishing benchmarks to successfully impact the educational experience. Having the requisite social and symbolic capital serves as a conduit for accessing quality networks as well as the signification of having gained reputable, legitimate schooling experiences. Notwithstanding, the transferability of those forms of capital provides the venue for K-12 administration to ‘teach effectively’ and ‘lead responsibly’ within leadership contexts, particularly given this era of accountability. The intersection of the theoretical (teaching) and applied (leading) functions of educational leadership lends a democratic model for managing the resulting politics and generating leadership strategies as representative of social and symbolic capital.

Building on earlier research and discourse on women in educational leadership, we conducted a qualitative secondary analysis on conceptual and empirical research. A permeating theme throughout literature was women’s ability to negotiate gender and race in a historically marginalizing working environment. A key assertion made by authors is that by incorporating this dimension to their leadership can be helpful for those who search for life-sustaining contexts while simultaneously empowering themselves as agents of transformative change (Shields, 2010) who align everyday practice with core values. Implications and recommendation are offered that capture the impact of how women leadership behaviors interplay with race and gender.

With the demise of the empiricist theory of knowledge and the increased prominence of postempiricist and hermeneutical perspectives, it is clear that various aspects of our social lives – including educational leadership – should no longer be thought of in terms of technological or instrumental rationality and technical expertise. Although the current philosophical ferment allows for different ways to rethink leadership, this article examines the implications of one school of thought – philosophical hermeneutics – for the research on, and especially the practice of, educational leadership. The central point is that this perspective, when interpreted in terms of how we think of ourselves as persons, results in a conceptualisation of leadership as a predominantly practical and moral activity.

This paper seeks to set the stage for the exploration of female leadership in educational systems within developing countries by reviewing the current research on women in educational administration within developing countries and suggesting future directions for further research on this subject in non‐western countries.

The paper is based partially on a systematic review of 13 English‐language papers that have been published in peer‐reviewed journals in educational administration, gender studies in education, and comparative education.

The review points to particular barriers to women's career advancement in educational systems within developing countries (e.g. strong family obligations, low levels of girl education, majority of men in teaching positions), unique career experiences (e.g. the important role of the father), and to the adoption of “androgynous” leadership style by the few women administrators in these countries.

Future directions for further exploration of this area of study are suggested (e.g. adopting a different theoretical view, the policy influences).

The paper is an initial attempt to accumulate knowledge about the life and work of women administrators and educators in developing countries, an issue that has received marginalized attention in the extended research on gender and educational administration. Likewise, the paper provides researchers with suggestions for new empirical directions of high importance to the understanding of women administrators' lives and work in different cultural settings.

This paper aims to investigate whether educational leadership in Greece implements the values of total quality management and contributes to the improvement of the educational process, and to offer proposals for a framework of total quality management that would contribute to an improvement in the overall quality of the education process.

The paper is based on theoretical analysis and on the current legislative framework. Three different aspects of the Greek education system are critically reviewed and discussed.

This study recognises that, due mainly to the lack of a long‐term educational strategy, the absence of an educational leadership development programme and limited financial support, the Greek educational system needs to review its structure and procedures ‐ even those that are “taken for granted”.

Given the differences between education and industry, and the fact that only three different aspects of the Greek education system are investigated here, more research and analysis would be required in this field.

The paper is useful to educational planners and policy makers. From the perspective of total quality management, there may be a substantial impact on the improvement mechanisms and outputs in education, contributing to a country's social and economic well‐being.

The paper contributes to the better understanding of the value of total quality management in education, and offers recommendations that may be more widely adopted, and may contribute to an enhancement of overall educational quality.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research synthesis of substantive findings drawn from studies of educational leadership and management in Hong Kong between 1995 and 2014. The goal of the research synthesis was to identify and elaborate on key trends identified by scholars who studied educational leadership in Hong Kong over the past two decades. The synthesis drew upon on relevant articles published in eight “core international journals” specializing in educational leadership and management.

The study first identifies a clearly delimited body of relevant literature comprised of empirical, non-empirical and review/synthesis types of studies in a total of 161 published research articles from the eight journals. Information concerning the nature of the studies as well as substantive findings was extracted from each of the articles. The findings were then initially coded in preparation for data analysis. Synthesis of substantive findings was accomplished by cross-article comparative mapping aimed at identifying key themes in the literature. Findings within four of the most robust themes were then synthesized and reported.

The synthesis highlights the challenges faced in Hong Kong’s efforts to reshape its education in a multi-faceted quest for quality education in the twenty-first century. A variety of inter-related issues emerged as policymakers and education administrators sought to implement a full plate of imported globally recognized education reforms. Analysis of the research from this period yielded four robust themes: “leadership development,” “leadership for learning,” “organizational change,” “multi-level performance focus.” The findings also further highlight the impact of “education policy borrowing” on system-level efforts to revamp the structural conditions in which school leaders operate and reshape managerial, as well as teaching and learning processes in schools.

Although the scope of the sources included in the review are highly representative of the “Hong Kong literature” of the past two decades, the authors note that it was not an “exhaustive” review of all potential sources.

Prior research by Hallinger and Bryant (2013b) had identified Hong Kong as having produced the largest volume of literature in educational leadership and management in Asia. This paper represents the first systematic review of research findings that emerged in the recent educational leadership literature produced in Hong Kong. Therefore, although the authors make no claims of generalizability to other parts of Asia or even to China as a whole, the paper offers insight into how global trends have reshaped the practice of educational leadership in one East Asian society.

The purpose of this paper is to undertake a personal, historical, analytical and interpretive investigation of the evolution of the concept of authentic leadership in educational administration/leadership over a number of decades.

The paper includes the author's reflections on his own journey on the topic as well as an analysis of the contributions of great researchers, theorists and writers since early in the twentieth century but, especially, since the early 1960s.

While there is no coherent body of literature on the development of the concept of authentic leadership, there is a general discernible trend starting with a focus on self (know thyself, to thine own self be true); to considering and defining self in relationships; to accepting that there is a moral force behind notions of self-fulfillment; to recognising that authentic leaders operate in a real post-modern (perhaps post-post modern) world of pressures, paradoxes and ethical challenges. This is often a world of standards, assessment and accountability for performance outcomes.

The paper draws on the author's own research journey and legacy on the topic as well as the contributions of “giants in the field” who have continually pushed the envelope when exploring the topic and closely interrelated topics.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze an Arizona university’s educational leadership program and the revisioning/restructuring process that program faculty have engaged in to ensure that the program provides aspiring school leaders with the conceptual knowledge, dispositions, and skills necessary to transform their schools in ways that directly address the needs of Arizona’s increasing diverse student population and ensures equitable and excellent educational opportunities for every student.

Through a narrative inquiry approach (Clandinin, 2006), this study examined the Sonoran Leadership Academy and how the program faculty prepared aspiring school leaders to meet the needs of Arizona’s changing demographics.

The findings indicate that the program faculty have been able to work collaboratively to establish an ecological framework of transformative leadership to develop aspiring school principals’ dispositions to tackle systemic racism and practices associated with deficit thinking and low expectations of diverse student populations. By more explicitly and seamlessly weaving concepts and skills related to race, racism, and the structures and cultures that can either perpetuate or disrupt inequitable treatment of diverse student populations throughout all of the courses and experiences of the program, the program faculty made substantial progress in supporting their students to meet the program outcomes around equity and excellence and transformative leadership.

The knowledge generated from this study is limited to one specific educational leadership program in Arizona, but the conceptual framework emerged from the study has implications on how educational leadership programs can embark on a similar revision effort to ensure that leadership studies is responsive to the issues of race and racism in the context of schooling and demographic change.

The results of this study will operationalize a new conceptual model to demonstrate concrete effective teaching practices on ways to prepare school leaders for diversity and demographic change.

By the year 2050, it is estimated that white Americans will no longer make up the majority of the population in the USA. Since the school system has historically been envisioned as the bedrock of democracy, there is a pressing need for the educational system to respond to issues related to this demographic change and to prepare effective school leaders to establish conditions of equity and excellence for all children across multiple forms of diversity in their local schools.

This study contributes to scholarship in several ways. First, it introduces the field of educational leadership to an antiracist framework for critical race leadership studies and principal preparation. Second, it methodologically contributes to educational studies by using narrative inquiry to understand the experiences of those who are situated in the research context. Third, the paper connects theory to practice by identifying specific strategies on how to revise a program to meet the needs of diverse K-12 student populations, and how these efforts are connected to the university classrooms in the ways school leaders are prepared for transformative leadership.

This article explores how ethics education has evolved over the last 15 years in graduate schools of educational leadership. A review of previous studies showing an increased attention to ethics education is analyzed in the context of external pressures such as new NCATE standards, and the emerging role of moral psychology to inform how ethics is taught in other pre-professional college programs.