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This article stands in support of Eacott's primary intention of promoting a relational approach to leadership. However, its distinctiveness is in how this relational quality of leadership is understood, described and defended. In contrast to the essentially philosophical description provided by Eacott, this article offers a far more research-informed and practical understanding of leadership as a relational phenomenon. It begins by highlighting widespread international corporate research, which is paving the way for the general acceptance of leadership being a relational phenomenon. Also, the article draws upon a multidisciplined array of understandings to illustrate what can be considered as the relational foundational of leadership, which are then captured within seven fundamental principles of relational leadership practice. The final section of this article offers a pathway for those who wish to work towards enhancing their relational leadership capacity.

Despite the availability of an abundant amount of guiding literature, only about 30% of planned educational changes are successful. Clearly there is something essential missing from our understanding of how to successfully lead educational change. A review of the literature provides an awareness that success is far more likely if the leader pays as much attention to the needs of those who are bringing about the change as they do to the elements of the planned change strategy. Arguably, however, this still maintains a top-down perspective of the change process. Hence the departure point of this article is its presentation of a change process from the perspective of those explicitly affected--that is, a view from the 'bottom up'. Specifically, this article presents and discusses both quantitative and qualitative data from research conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand involving primary school teachers who changed the class levels in which they taught. It seeks to provide a unique contribution to the development of successful educational change strategies by presenting the teachers' views about the most effective leadership practices during times of change.

Organisational learning within an educational context is a complex and multidimensional process. This paper reports on a study that investigates organisational learning during the process of development of Vanuatu's nationalised English medium secondary school assessment process, a significant educational change in Vanuatu. This qualitative inquiry reviewed and critiqued the organisational learning that resulted from a pilot programme leading to the change, and involved participants from a number of levels within the Vanuatu education system. The study identified several factors that may have hindered the planning process. A revised change management framework for the Vanuatu education system is proposed, as a result of the critique, and recommendations towards improving the implementation of future educational changes in Vanuatu are made. The resulting framework and recommendations may assist other Pacific countries engaged in similar senior assessment nationalisation, and, also contribute more generally to others involved in systemic educational change processes.

This article utilizes an acceptance of an evolutionary pattern in how humans have understood the nature of leadership in order to extend this pattern into the 21st century. Based on the works of numerous writers, such as Gebser, Sorokin, Bellah, Habermas, Foucault, Berger, and Wilber, it is possible to outline the origins of predominant worldviews where some form of leadership was noted. These origins of worldviews are summarised as the magical context, the mythical context, the agrarian context, the modernity context, and the post-modernity context. By examining how the nature of leadership has evolved from these contexts, a pattern becomes perceptible. This perceptible pattern can then be applied to the contemporary theory of leadership to ensure it more accurately guides current leadership research and practice.

The capricious state of Australian educational leadership is evidenced in the publication, "The Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety, and Wellbeing Survey 2022 Data", which highlights unsustainable adverse health outcomes for an increasing number of school leaders. According to this report, the accumulation of stress caused by the sheer quantity of work, the lack of time to focus on teaching and learning, a lack of sufficient teachers, and having to care for an increasing number of staff and students with mental health issues were the main causes of professional disillusionment and burnout among Australian school leaders. Moreover, the level of destabilisation and chaos that this situation could cause, should it continue to rise, is compounded by current research highlighting an ever-decreasing number of applicants for school leadership positions. To assign blame for this serious predicament on the excessive school leadership demands during COVID-19 is to ignore the abundant pre-existing evidence already pointing to this eventuality. However, the way in which Australian school leaders were able to constructively lead during the intensely demanding COVID-19 period does provide additional compelling support for the adoption of a far more relational foundation for leadership theory and practice. Hence, in response to this understanding, this article first presents during-COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 Australian school leadership research literature to not only describe the evolving concerning issues but also to present the demand for a more relational approach to leadership. Then, the article proceeds to justify and illustrate a new relational approach to the practice of school leadership informed by our theory of organizational ecology. It is proposed that this new way of leading relationally will enable Australian school leaders to ultimately overcome the myriad of complex and stressful crises that now confront them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines actions that educational change leaders can take to better meet their curriculum change obligations and responsibilities. In order to do this we extend Vygotsky's (1978) zonal theory and its many extensions and elaborations by positioning educational change leadership within this theory. We rename the zones to Zone of Principal Responsibilities, Zone of Principal Support, Zone of Professional Learning, Zone of Teacher Resistance and Zone of Principal Illusion, and we introduce the Zone of Curriculum Change and represent these zones in diagrammatical form. We use our research on mathematics curriculum change in one school as an example of how our new zonal theory lens supports educational change leadership. Our findings illuminate possible actions and reactions of the principal and the teacher that ultimately suggest a way forward for turning around unsuccessful curriculum change. Our new zonal theory provides opportunities for change leaders to reduce teacher resistance with evidence that the action and reaction of the principal and the teacher are not independent of each other but are, in fact, co-constructed.

Background. A mounting body of research literature is highlighting the prevalence of serious malpractice by persons in leadership positions. Arguably, too many of those appointed to a leadership position believe that they have the right to act in any way that they choose. They believe that the title of 'leader' affords them the licence to act with little regard for others. But just because a person has been appointed to a leadership position, this does not automatically make them a leader. Nor does it imply that everything they do is leadership. Thus, the impetus for this article is the acknowledgement that it's time to clearly distinguish what truly constitutes leadership from that which is its antithesis - leadership malpractice. Not to do so only allows serious leadership malpractice to become normalised as acceptable leadership activity. Research Aim. Therefore, the aim of this article is to first use research literature to describe the growing concern about the prevalence of malpractice by persons in leadership positions and then to illustrate how such malpractice can be naturally eradicated when leadership is seen, fundamentally, as a relational phenomenon. The purpose of this article is thus to provide a new theoretical perspective of leadership, one that will help to distinguish between that which is and is not leadership. Findings. A close inspection of the extremely damaging and injurious outcomes produced by leadership malpractice shows that these mirror those caused by persons with extremely harmful psychosocial disorders. Despite any short-term gains, the research shows that leadership malpractice can ultimately cause serious and enduring poisonous effects on the individuals, families, organizations, communities, and even entire societies they lead. Furthermore, rules, regulations and policies have proven powerless. Seemingly, one cannot mandate true leadership; its manifestation must be inherent within our leadership theory. Practical implications. In response, this article first explores the foundational values, principles and norms underpinning true leadership practice and then presents a new way to understand leadership from a transrelational perspective which naturally eradicates malpractice by those in leadership positions. Social implications. Given that worldwide research has demonstrated how leadership malpractice causes seriously toxic personal, organisational and social outcomes, this article seeks to provide a theoretical rather than a technical or practical way of redressing this untenable situation. By inference, when leadership is practiced properly, when it is based upon apporpriate foundational values and principles, then malpractice is ended and workplaces become safe, gratifying and productive. Originality. This article makes a significant contribution to the expanding area of research that is exploring the benefits to be gained by theorising leadership as a relational phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]