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All gender identity is socialized, but anything gendered feminine is marginalized. In the United States, we live in a patriarchal culture that is bounded by binary gender identity. Up to this point, work on gender and education leadership has remained within the bounds of patriarchy, and thus been confined to binary, hierarchical gender definitions. This study pushes past prior work to advance a more complex and messy understanding of how identity impacts aspiring leaders in their careers. Using Carol Gilligan and Snider (2018) Listening Guide Method, this study of 18 aspiring school leaders of different gender identities, sexual identities, and races focuses on how gender identity and gender performance impact school leaders' career trajectories. A key finding of this study is that women, regardless of race or sexual identity, have difficulty finding mentors while men, regardless of race or sexual identity, are tapped by schools leaders and offered mentoring opportunities. This chapter posits a new framework for mentoring that will lead to more liberatory pipeline structures.

This article describes a new partnership for leadership preparation between the University of Virginia and three school districts in the metropolitan area of Richmond, Virginia: Hanover County Public Schools, Chesterfield County Public Schools and Henrico County Public Schools. A brief history of the establishment of the partnership is given along with some of the key planning details that helped create it. The initiative is grounded in the current literature on new programs for principal preparation and some reflections are offered on its potential strengths. Other school districts and universities are encouraged to form similar partnerships for the benefit of future educational leaders.

This short essay aims to reflect on the global experiences women in education have had in becoming leaders as noted in the articles in this special issue on women's leadership.

The essay draws upon relevant historical and contemporary literature about women in the professions and in the workforce.

The case is made for women educational leaders from kindergarten through higher education to reshape leadership rather than lead as men have done in the past.

The essay highlights this moment in history is seen as particularly promising for women leaders who are no longer anomalies, but who have not yet redefined leadership.

As women professors of educational leadership who are involved with feminist research and the preparation of k‐12 women leaders, the authors came to the realization that while they have dedicated their professional lives to advancing women leaders in the k‐12 environment, they have neglected women like themselves, particularly young women, in the academy.

The authors utilized biographical narrative inquiry to allow readers a window into their lives as young women faculty in departments of educational leadership and extended this to advocate for changes in university climates for women.

The authors analyzed their narrative data to develop strategies for young women faculty in educational leadership that include: action‐oriented mentoring; the valuing of home and person; living within gender, age, and skin; and celebration of youth and womanhood.

This paper is an emergent approach to understanding and facilitating social justice and diversity in higher education based on four young women professors' attempt to find a creative and feminist outlet for the expression of their experiences in the academy. Little to no research exists outside of informal personal reports on young women's experiences in the academy and, thus, is the impetus for the paper.

Women find it difficult to achieve promotion into senior administration positions in education systems throughout the Western world. This paper reports on interviews with 23 women who are employed by Education Queensland (Australia). These women, who were all participants in a Women in Management course offered by the Queensland University of Technology, have been successful in being promoted into administrative positions in schools and school support centres. The focus of the paper is on why these women have gone for promotion and the successful strategies that they employed to achieve promotion. These strategies included “putting runs on the board”, being persistent, networking, managing in their own way and accessing appropriate professional development. The paper concludes with the warning that the culture of the central bureaucracy, however, is perceived as overwhelmingly male and this acts as a significant barrier to further career progress.

The critique of western ethnocentric notions of leadership presented in this paper is informed by debates on issues such as gender and educational leadership that have produced meta‐narratives that explore and explain women and men's ways of leading. One of the troubling aspects of western leadership theories is the claim that the functions and features of leadership can be transported and legitimated across homogenous educational systems. Despite changes that have been made in definitions and descriptions of educational leadership to provide a focus on gender, there is the implicit assumption that while educational leadership might be practised differently according to gender, there is a failure to consider the values and practices of indigenous educational leaders. Thus, the construct of educational leadership needs to be more broadly theorised in order for knowledge of indigenous ways of leading to emerge.

Established educational leadership discourse has been dominated by Anglo‐American perspectives oblivious to the cultural diversity that characterizes the contemporary world. It has frequently privileged mono‐cultural, mainstream values which have meant indigenous and ethnic groups have suffered alienation, exclusion and disadvantage. Western‐led educational interventions in developing nations also frequently fail to acknowledge the rich cultural traditions of recipient societies and theories and practice are rarely appropriately scrutinized for “cultural fit”. The purpose of this paper is to construct a theory for leadership in intercultural contexts.

The article reviews how monocultural assumptions of colonial and national leadership cultures in the past were frequently inappropriate for the diverse populations they were intended to serve. The global era has witnessed the emergence of cross‐cultural theory and research paradigms to combat cultural blindness and develop cultural sensitivities. While applauding these developments, the epistemological assumptions that underlie such research are questioned. A case for more nuanced theory, which acknowledges complex interactions between agents from different cultures, is developed. This includes a call for more dynamic research tools based upon constructivist and phenomenological premises.

Cross‐cultural research has generated territorial maps that promote insight and mutual understandings. However, it relies upon essentialist stereotypes that mask the existence of complex sub‐cultures and dynamic forces of change within national cultures. Case study research which taps the subjective understandings of cultural actors is cited to reveal a more complex process of interaction between cultural agents.

This is a theoretical exploration, not an empirical report. It is limited by the scarcity of existing research in a fledgling field.

The article encourages researchers to move from observationally based, stereotypical portraits to more nuanced concepts of cultures as complex, multi‐layered and changing phenomena. It establishes the epistemological foundations for future research in inter‐cultural contexts.

The paper develops new directions for future theory and research.

George Counts' classic 1932 speech asks, “Dare the school build a new social order?” This article proposes examining whether emerging school leaders are prepared to face this challenge and embrace the society‐building responsibility at the core of public schooling. It aims to focus especially on students from homogeneous backgrounds, their capacity to address issues of diversity, and the extent to which their educational leadership program has prepared them to champion social justice within schools.

This study looks at emerging leaders in three master's level cohort programs in educational leadership at a state university in New England. It incorporates survey data, interviews, and document analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to organize and summarize the data. Open‐ended questions and interviews were transcribed and coded, and program documents examined to identify overall purposes of educational leadership and evidence of diversity awareness.

Findings indicate these educational leaders are not adequately prepared to lead public schools toward a greater understanding of diversity or to help change the social order. They claim little responsibility for promoting social justice, especially when social change may challenge local norms. Responses indicate their perspective is not broad enough to understand fully the social responsibility Counts advocated.

This study is limited to graduate students in New England, most of whom experience little diversity within their communities.

The study concludes with suggestions for educational leadership programs.

This study reveals the difficulties in preparing educational leaders to address the complexities of a diverse society – difficulties arising both from their limited personal experience and from voids in their educational leadership program.

Outside RQ, writing on reference service, whether at craft or at management level, is rare. Attempts by LR to establish a practitioners' reference column have consistently failed. One referee doubted whether the following paper really deals with management aspects. Readers with other viewpoints may like to comment.