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This paper describes and justifies the protocol for a research project investigating regional secondary school consolidation reforms in New South Wales, Australia. The study is designed to describe the experiences of those directly involved in the transition to a consolidated school in a way that has so far eluded educational leadership researchers. Identifying five themes from the international literature on school consolidation (leadership and governance; staff and student wellbeing; teaching and learning; curriculum and pathways; community satisfaction), the paper then articulates a systematic research protocol for examining the transition from individual schools through to a consolidated school. Previous studies have not systematically examined this transition and how it shifts practices and perceptions from different stakeholder perspectives. Using a purposeful merger of quantitative and qualitative forms of evidence, this study protocol has the potential to play a defining role in the area of school consolidation reforms. The applicability of the study design holds promise as an adaptable, focused, and sustainable protocol for generating understanding of school consolidation transitions and developing an empirical evidence base that is localised, internationally benchmarked, and critical for school decisions about investments and outcomes for educators, students, and communities.

Globally, education systems are faced with dual workforce crises: a shortage of teachers and a lack of affordable housing. Attracting and retaining teachers through improved renumeration, working conditions, and quality preparation have been central. However, initiatives to attract and retain teachers mean little if the workforce cannot find appropriate (quality and affordable) housing within commuting distance to their workplaces. The present study undertakes a scoping review of research on the intersection of housing and the school education workforce. Specifically, we examine the volume, variety, and characteristics of evidence through the question of 'What empirical studies have been published on the relationship between housing and the school education workforce?' Online databases were used to identify 23 studies published in 2000–2024 from Australia, China, England, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Tanzania, Uganda, the UK, and the USA. Publications drew on a range of methods and housing was rarely the focal unit of analysis. This study finds that beyond establishing unaffordability through salary and housing costs ratios, and the peripheral inclusion of housing issues in studies, there is insufficient published peer reviewed evidence available to purposefully inform and measure interventions. Greater interdisciplinarity is required in research to highlight the complexity of issues at the intersection of housing (availability, affordability, and distance from workplaces) and workforce distribution. More rigorous data should be collected to support robust reporting on the state of housing for the school education workforce to deliver the type of evidence necessary to develop targeted and tailored interventions to improve outcomes for the workforce and ultimately students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times considerable attention has been devoted to the performance of schools and in particular, of students in literacy and numeracy. As part of a national agenda addressing what is portrayed as a crisis in numeracy, and hence mathematics education, governments have introduced a wide range of reform initiatives to improve performance. Examples include, national testing, a national curriculum and the "Education Revolution" just to name a few. Comparative international tests such as TIMSS and PISA contribute to the performative nature of this policy environment which has significantly impacted on the leadership and management of mathematics education reform. The most significant influence has been the reduction of teaching and learning to what can be measured and the numerous, often uncritical, uses of comparative data on school and student performance. In this paper we examine the complexity of mathematics education reform by bringing together the discourses of mathematics education and educational leadership. In doing so, we develop and argue against a prescriptive "how to" lead mathematics education reform, in favour of a more sophisticated framework of leadership for mathematics education which embraces both global and local developments in the field. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

This paper seeks to engage the field of educational leadership in a methodological conversation. It outlines a methodological position taken by the author (a focus on leadership practice using Bourdieu) in a currently funded project and seeks discussion with the wider field. The paper is structured to provide the reader with background to the theoretical position of the author and the implications this has for the study of school leadership practice. The discussion highlights the need for multi-layered descriptions of leadership and the dual purpose of leadership research. This provides for a greater understanding of the phenomenon of leadership, and the subsequent implications for leadership practice and, potentially, preparation. The intent of this paper is not merely to critique existing works in the field, nor to create a modernistic binary between the positions of others and those presented here. Rather, the value of this work is its potential to intervene in the scholarship of the field and disrupt the status quo, highlighting the benefits of embracing the complexity, ambiguity and moment-by-moment contestation that defines the social practice that is school leadership.

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This paper seeks to engage the field of educational leadership in a methodological conversation. It outlines a methodological position taken by the author (a focus on leadership practice using Bourdieu) in a currently funded project and seeks discussion with the wider field. The paper is structured to provide the reader with background to the theoretical position of the author and the implications this has for the study of school leadership practice. The discussion highlights the need for multi-layered descriptions of leadership and the dual purpose of leadership research. This provides for a greater understanding of the phenomenon of leadership, and the subsequent implications for leadership practice and, potentially, preparation. The intent of this paper is not merely to critique existing works in the field, nor to create a modernistic binary between the positions of others and those presented here. Rather, the value of this work is its potential to intervene in the scholarship of the field and disrupt the status quo, highlighting the benefits of embracing the complexity, ambiguity and moment-by-moment contestation that defines the social practice that is school leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times considerable attention has been devoted to the performance of schools and in particular, of students in literacy and numeracy. As part of a national agenda addressing what is portrayed as a crisis in numeracy, and hence mathematics education, governments have introduced a wide range of reform initiatives to improve performance. Examples include, national testing, a national curriculum and the 'Education Revolution' just to name a few. Comparative international tests such as TIMSS and PISA contribute to the performative nature of this policy environment which has significantly impacted on the leadership and management of mathematics education reform. The most significant influence has been the reduction of teaching and learning to what can be measured and the numerous, often uncritical, uses of comparative data on school and student performance. In this paper we examine the complexity of mathematics education reform by bringing together the discourses of mathematics education and educational leadership. In doing so, we develop and argue against a prescriptive 'how to' lead mathematics education reform, in favour of a more sophisticated framework of leadership for mathematics education which embraces both global and local developments in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]