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In recent years, a number of significant Australian initiatives in schools have focused on a deeper understanding of the process and the role of leadership in cultivating and promoting the core work of the school – teaching and learning. This chapter reports the research findings of the Leaders Transforming Learning and Learners (LTLL) Program (2004–2009) and in particular on how teachers experienced the changed approaches to leadership and the resultant ownership and commitment to the various learning projects utilized to implement a new framework for learning. The purpose of the project was to develop and implement with nine schools a professional learning program to assist schools and teachers transform their teaching and learning processes through leadership practices that emphasised sharing. The program was premised on a strong view that transformative learning must be the objective of all schools and a critical element of the responsibilities of leaders in those schools. A framework for leadership and learning highlights the importance of moral purpose for learning innovations, teacher leadership as the core imperative for school change and the critical elements of authentic learning and educative leadership that contribute to successful linking of learning and leading.

This study aims to explore the dynamics by which exposure to a moral rationale is given expression in schools, and how this is perceived as impacting on teaching, leadership practice and student outcomes.

A total of 11 Australian schools were part of a project in which they were supported in applying a conceptual framework involving moral purpose, learning and leadership to self‐selected improvement initiatives. Extensive focus group interviews with the school project teams were analysed to identify recurrent themes, and to illustrate the dynamics of engagement with moral purpose.

A significant insight that emerges from this study is that the movement towards increased moral sensitivity enhanced commitment to shared purpose. This movement provided a driver for ethically driven behavior. Part of the contribution of the intervention was to draw attention to these elements of moral purpose, which, in turn, increased teacher and leader sensitivity to their operation, and resulted in changed teacher practice and enhanced learning outcomes for students.

The findings of this study highlight the potential of explicit attention to moral purpose in school communities, and suggest some points of emphasis for school leaders who are committed to improvement built on staff commitment.

While many authors signal as a matter of principle the importance of moral purpose in schooling, and in the leadership of change, it is a comparatively under‐researched area in terms of its practical application. This study makes a contribution to addressing that gap.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the development of a national curriculum for Australia. The paper challenges stakeholders to interrogate the question of national curriculum, its purpose, values and potential for delivering the type of education Australia wants for its citizens in the twenty‐first century.

The paper provides a general review of the literature, research and opinion associated with the politics, purpose, leadership and potential for change associated with national curriculum innovation.

The national curriculum looms as the largest educational change in Australia's history and requires a thorough examination by stakeholders of the purposes and values underpinning it and how such a centralised curriculum can build the learning capacity of the nation. Authentic engagement of teachers, “buy in”, bottom‐up and top‐down strategies, extensive time for negotiations and the engagement of educational and political leaders are seen as important for community ownership of the product.

The paper challenges political and educational leaders to conduct the national curriculum building dialogue at the local, state and national level and to open up previous “givens” to interrogation. It calls for a long‐term process to protect the authenticity and moral purpose of the process and maximise its ownership and potential for change.

The paper addresses the greatest challenge yet to face Australian education, to deliver a national curriculum that delivers authentic learning for the future needs of Australians and Australia. It presents a case for stakeholders to engage the challenge through a professionally informed and morally defensible approach.