Following substantial changes throughout the Australian education system, primary schools are no longer in the protected position of having a regulated flow of clients, a pre-determined curriculum and marginal levels of staff development.
Recent moves have brought new or increased responsibilities for all schools in areas such as:
*curriculum and policy development
*staff development
*monitoring and assessment
*the use of new technologies
*resource allocation
This book seeks to review the impact of this change on Australian primary schools, on the people who are involved with them and the issues they face. Primary education is being re-structured throughout the world, and therefore these issues are of great interest and relevance to educators worldwide.

The restructuring of schools systems across the world has been controversial. Have reforms been driven by a desire to cut educational budgets or the need to improve the quality of educational provision? This book explores the restructuring movement, with a particular emphasis on how decentralisation of power has affected the quality of education. It provides a broad and international picture of educational reform.

Following substantial changes throughout the Australian education system, primary schools are no longer in the protected position of having a regulated flow of clients, a pre-determined curriculum and marginal levels of staff development. Recent moves have brought new or increased responsibilities for all schools in areas such as: curriculum and policy development staff development monitoring and assessment the use of new technologies resource allocation This book seeks to review the impact of this change on Australian primary schools, on the people who are involved with them and the issues they face. Primary education is being re-structured throughout the world, and therefore these issues are of great interest and relevance to educators worldwide.

This book offers a new perspective on the management of schools by bringing together the knowledge and understanding of school effectiveness and community education. Tony Townsend argues that the core activity of the school, to provide a learning environment for children, should be supplemented by educational activities that service the needs of the community as a whole. He offers a model for the development of the `core-plus' school, including practical ideas for school leaders to build strategies for improving school programme possiblities and processes to encourage greater community involvement.

Series Information:
Educational Management

This book explores major factors impacting on teacher education in recent times. It uses examples from a broad range of international contributors who compare larger countries such as the USA, England and Australia with their smaller partners: Canada, Scotland and New Zealand, demonstrating the substantial differences existent in all three cases. They also contrast the approaches of the countries that are members of the European Union with those that are not and discuss the special circumstances of developing countries, using Malawi as a case study. The international dimension of the book allows it to address the impact of globalisation on teacher education, with attention given to subjects such as the implications of rapid technological change, the movement of teachers and students on a global level and the drive to improve standards in various parts of the world. The book asks key questions, such as whether teaching is a craft or a profession and whether teacher educators view themselves as practitioners or researchers. The question of how the profession is viewed from outside is also addressed, highlighting the lack of trust displayed by politicians and communities towards both teachers and teacher educators. The final chapter looks to the future, and considers strategies for dealing with it. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching.

This book focuses on what school leaders need to know and understand about leadership for learning, and for learning to read in particular. It brings together theory, research and practice on leadership for literacy. The book reports on the findings from six studies that followed school principals from their involvement in a professional learning program consisting of five modules on leadership and the teaching of reading, to implementation action in their schools. It describes how they applied a range of strategies to create leadership partnerships with their teachers, pursuing eight related dimensions from a Leadership for Learning framework or blueprint. The early chapters of the book feature the use of practical tools as a focus for leadership activity. These chapters consider, for example, how principals and teachers can develop deeper understandings of their schools' contexts; how professional discussions can be conducted with a process called 'disciplined dialogue'; and how principals might encourage approaches to shared leadership with their teachers. The overall findings presented in this book emphasise five positive positions on leadership for learning to read: the importance of an agreed moral purpose; sharing leadership for improvement; understanding what learning to read involves; implementing and evaluating reading interventions; and recognising the need for support for leaders' learning on-the-job.

This book focuses on what school leaders need to know and understand about leadership for learning, and for learning to read in particular. It brings together theory, research and practice on leadership for literacy. The book reports on the findings from six studies that followed school principals from their involvement in a professional learning program consisting of five modules on leadership and the teaching of reading, to implementation action in their schools. It describes how they applied a range of strategies to create leadership partnerships with their teachers, pursuing eight related dimensions from a Leadership for Learning framework or blueprint. The early chapters of the book feature the use of practical tools as a focus for leadership activity. These chapters consider, for example, how principals and teachers can develop deeper understandings of their schools' contexts; how professional discussions can be conducted with a process called 'disciplined dialogue'; and how principals might encourage approaches to shared leadership with their teachers. The overall findings presented in this book emphasise five positive positions on leadership for learning to read: the importance of an agreed moral purpose; sharing leadership for improvement; understanding what learning to read involves; implementing and evaluating reading interventions; and recognising the need for support for leaders' learning on-the-job.

This book provides a wide-ranging review of the current state of teacher education, with contributions by an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on issues confronting teacher educators today and in the coming decade, including the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and the need for teacher education to adapt to changing accountability requirements, and establish a set of minimum standards that qualify a person to teach.

This book provides a wide-ranging review of the current state of teacher education, with contributions by an international group of teacher educators. It focuses on issues confronting teacher educators today and in the coming decade, including the impact of globalization on the profession of teaching, and the need for teacher education to adapt to changing accountability requirements, and establish a set of minimum standards that qualify a person to teach.

This book offers a nuanced understanding of how two different theories of leadership can be applied to achieve better results within schools. These leadership theories - Instructional Leadership and Leadership for Learning - have assisted our recent understanding of school leadership. This book interrogates the theories themselves as well as their impact on education systems around the world. It also looks at how they can be practically applied to educate school leaders within their schools and beyond, building partnerships with families, schools and other community agencies serving students. In doing so, the book considers the possibility that these theories are not opposed, but two sides of the same coin. Both are underpinned by the question 'how do we provide the best educational experience for students?'. The answer to this question will determine the way leaders go about the task of leading schools. This important book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational leadership, as well as educational leaders themselves.

This book offers a nuanced understanding of how two different theories of leadership can be applied to achieve better results within schools. These leadership theories - Instructional Leadership and Leadership for Learning - have assisted our recent understanding of school leadership. This book interrogates the theories themselves as well as their impact on education systems around the world. It also looks at how they can be practically applied to educate school leaders within their schools and beyond, building partnerships with families, schools and other community agencies serving students. In doing so, the book considers the possibility that these theories are not opposed, but two sides of the same coin. Both are underpinned by the question 'how do we provide the best educational experience for students?'. The answer to this question will determine the way leaders go about the task of leading schools. This important book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational leadership, as well as educational leaders themselves.

The International Handbook of Leadership for Learning brings together chapters by distinguished authors from thirty-one countries in nine different regions of the world. The handbook contains nine sections that provide regional overviews; a consideration of theoretical and contextual aspects; system and policy approaches that promote leadership for learning with a focus on educating school leaders for learning and the role of the leader in supporting learning. It also considers the challenge of educating current leaders for this new perspective, and how leaders themselves can develop leadership for learning in others and in their organisations, especially in diverse contexts and situations. The final chapter considers what we now know about leadership for learning and looks at ways this might be further improved in the future. The book provides the reader with an understanding of the rich contextual nature of learning in schools and the role of school leaders and leadership development in promoting this. It concludes that the preposition 'for' between the two readily known and understood terms of 'leadership' and 'learning' changes everything as it foregrounds learning and complexifies, rather than simplifies, what that word may mean. Whereas common terms such as 'instructional leadership' reduce learning to 'outcomes', leadership for learning embraces a much wider, developmental view of learning.