Educational Administration Quarterly

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the interaction of social justice leadership and instructional leadership types might influence collective teacher culture and student achievement in the Turkish education context. Methods: This research employs a quantitative approach, utilizing a dataset comprising at least 4,318 students and 313 teachers, nested within 40 schools. We performed a quadrant analysis to determine the interaction between instructional and social justice leadership types across schools. We also applied Bayesian multilevel structural equation modeling and Markov chain Monte Carlo bootstrapping analysis to estimate whether social justice leadership moderates the relationship between instructional leadership and student achievement, with collective teacher culture serving as a mediator across schools. Results: The quadrant analysis of principals’ two-dimensional relationship between instructional and social justice leadership revealed that schools were distributed across four quadrants, labeled as “socializing,” “competitive,” “limiting,” and “integrating.” Additionally, while there was no direct relationship between instructional leadership and student achievement, this relationship became significant when moderated by social justice leadership. Finally, the indirect impact of instructional leadership on student achievement, mediated by collective teacher culture, was larger in schools with stronger social justice leadership. Implications: The impact of instructional leadership on student learning can be enhanced by integrating social justice leadership with instructional leadership practices. This integration can benefit students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, beyond the individual effect of each leadership type. Therefore, principal preparation, training, and evaluation programs should support aspiring and current principals in simultaneously utilizing and integrating leadership into daily practice.

Purpose: This study examines how principals’ exercise of individual autonomy and discretion shapes their roles as street-level managers, bridging the gap between strategic goals and operational demands in precarious institutional contexts. The paper contributes to an emerging area of research and offers valuable empirical evidence. Research Methods: A longitudinal qualitative design involved semi-structured interviews with 14 purposively sampled school principals over three years. Grounded theory principles guided data analysis, employing synchronic and diachronic approaches with open and axial coding. Triangulation and comparative category analysis were conducted iteratively. Findings: The analysis traces the evolution of principals’ strategies during the implementation of the Chilean New Public Education Law. In response to perceived abandonment by the middle tier, unclear guidelines, and community demands, principals exercised autonomy through three adaptive strategies: Collective Influence to strengthen systemic impact; Territorial Networks to secure essential resources; and Pedagogical Improvement to sustain educational quality despite challenges. These practices illustrate how principals adapted to the improvised reform and transformed institutional contexts. Implications for Research and Practice: This study contributes to the understanding of principals as street-level managers by documenting how their use of individual autonomy evolves to adapt and respond to educational reforms and institutional changes. It highlights the need for longitudinal research to capture how principals’ adaptive strategies influence policy design and implementation.

Purpose: South Asian students in Hong Kong belong to one of the fastest growing diverse groups in the city. Historically, Hong Kong South Asians have experienced social and educational structures that have complicated their collective progress. Particularly, South Asian students face unwelcoming school climates that are exclusive of their identities. The purpose of this study is to explore the ways in which school level leaders enact their roles to foster an inclusive school climate at a South Asian majority secondary school in the city of Hong Kong. Research Design: An in-depth qualitative case study was conducted. Data were collected through 51 interviews, observations, and document analysis. A culturally responsive leadership framework was used to analyze the data. Findings and Conclusion: Findings from this article cast a light on how Hong Kong leaders can potentially contribute to the creation of more welcoming school environments for diverse students. The discussion focuses on the possibilities and challenges for inclusive school climates in Hong Kong and their potential to create counter-spaces that engage South Asian students despite prevailing challenges. This study can better inform educators who serve diverse students in Hong Kong and similar East Asian contexts. The findings offer insights into the possibilities and challenges for culturally responsive school climates in contexts different from Western liberal democracies.

Effective management and development of human capital among educational staff are paramount to encourage teacher retention and satisfaction and to achieve successful educational outcomes, especially in the wake of the recent global health crisis. Nonetheless, the extant scholarly discourse concerning the development of human capital within educational milieus remains scarce, particularly with respect to the leadership inherent to the roles of principals. To address this scholarly lacuna, our qualitative study investigated the perceptions and practices of principals for managing human capital within school contexts. Drawing on data collected from 60 secondary principals in Israel, employing maximal differentiation sampling, our research identified three cardinal dimensions that encapsulate principals’ conceptualizations of human capital development: the essence of their leadership role, the domains needing development, and the parties responsible for such development. Noteworthy among our findings are the importance of integrating social-emotional dimensions into human capital development initiatives and the shared accountability for human capital development among principals, mid-level school leadership, and staff. By illuminating these dynamics, our study offers theoretical and practical implications for principals seeking to optimize human capital development strategies, especially given the shortage of highly qualified teachers seeking employment or retaining positions in today's schools.

Considering the importance of social climate for teacher motivation, this study, grounded in self-determination theory, examines the longitudinal links between teacher trust in colleagues and the satisfaction and frustration of their basic psychological needs: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. The study was conducted among 666 Canadian vocational teachers. Results of the structural equation modelling analyses reveal that: trust in colleagues at T1 positively predicts the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy) at T2; and trust in colleagues at T1 negatively predicts the frustration of the three needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy) at T2. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the key role of trust in colleagues in teacher motivation, from a longitudinal perspective. In fact, when vocational teachers perceive the presence of relational trust in their colleagues, their motivational resources are more enhanced, which ultimately contributes to quality work motivation. In light of these findings, principals would do well to look at ways of cultivating teacher trust in colleagues when they want to motivate their teaching staff.