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This paper is based on personal narratives of three transnational women academics of colour, within education faculties in Australian universities. As postcolonial subjects we focus, on providing spaces for future educators, to find multiple ways of knowing, being, and relating. Reflecting upon our pedagogic practices, we analyse the empowerment afforded by our individual positionings in facilitating a deeper understanding of social justice and inclusion in our classrooms. Using collaborative autoethnography, we outline our endeavours to raise critical queries through Freire's notion of "conscientizacao." We unpack our own pedagogic frailties while enacting 'pedagogy of discomfort', as we subvert the proliferation of educational hegemonies considering it may lead to erasures of certain epistemologies. This paper conclusively highlights our efforts to ensure the creation of "conscientizacao," in ourselves and our students, while concomitantly abnegating 'pedagogy of rupture' and being mindful of our individual positionings and our students' varied contexts.

As COVID-19 unfurled around the world in early 2020, it triggered volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) for school leaders. This study explores the experiences of four school leaders, working in inner Melbourne, Australia, through a VUCA lens, and identifies their perceptions of such contextual disruption. Data were collected through focus group meetings over the initial phase of the pandemic in 2020. Findings illustrate the ways in which the school leaders perceived changes to their role and relationships, alongside their experiences of reprioritising approaches to their work and wellbeing. From the findings, implications are discussed for leadership preparation programmes, the rebalancing of ongoing professional learning for leaders and the need to resource and support school leaders' wellbeing through and beyond this challenge as they negotiate the 'new normal'. This case study is an empirical contribution to the collective effort of scholars immersed in the discourse of school leadership generated in this critical time and context.

This paper analyses the move by an Australian university faculty to a new building featuring open plan and alternative workspaces. Through the lens of the theory of practice architectures, the paper examines how the new built spaces both enabled and constrained the professional learning practices of academics. Drawing on a case study of the transition, the paper explores the ways in which the move to the new building disrupted existing ecologies of practices around professional learning, and how academics subsequently sought to establish new 'niches' to foster professional learning practices. The six study participants, who are also the authors and represent a range of career stages, made efforts to establish conditions for professional learning practices and a praxis of 'becoming an academic'. They did so by working with, around, and against the pre-figuring arrangements of the new built environment. The paper contributes to knowledge about how workspaces can disrupt and reconfigure the professional learning practices of educators. It addresses a gap in the literature on academics' professional learning in relation to changes in physical workspaces, making visible the ways in which academic practices are shaped by and shape new arrangements for professional learning in response to the built environment.

Concerns with how religion is placed in education has garnered considerable attention in the past fifteen years, due in large part to heightened politics and social agendas to strengthen community cohesion. This paper addresses the need to better understand how school leaders are internalising such discourses on religion and spirituality. A qualitative case study of school leaders situated in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh, involved observations across five schools and semi-structured interviews with 54 participants. Theoretically informed thematic analysis revealed that while some school leaders consider religion and spirituality to be connected and integral to their leadership practice, others were equally firm in their perceptions that religion is an entirely personal practice separate from professional work. These contradictory perceptions are discussed in relation to local and global tensions on religion and secularity. The paper makes an empirical contribution to considerations of religion and spirituality within school leadership.

Purpose: Identity, positioning and possibilities intersect differently for South Asian women in white academia. Within a broader migrant community that defines Australian life, these identities and positioning imply great possibility, but pursuing such pathways within academia is a walk on the last strand of resilience. This paper explores this tension of possibilities and constraints, using hope theory to highlight the cognitive resistance evident in the narratives of three South Asian women in Australian academia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use collaborative autoethnography to share their narratives of working in Australian universities at three different stages of careers, utilising Snyder's model of hope theory to interrogate their own goal-setting behaviours, pathways and agentic thinking. Findings: The authors propose that hope as a cognitive state informs resistance and enables aspirations to contribute within academia in meaningful ways whilst navigating the terrain of inequitable structures. Originality/value: The authors' use of hope theory as a lens on the intersectional experiences of career making, building and progression is a new contribution to scholarship on marginalised women in white academe and the ways in which the pathways of resistance are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies of crisis leadership have historically been limited to analyses of particular events, captured in themes of flexibility, care and the importance of communication as a response. Since 2020, the crisis has been global, demanding immediate and multiple pivots for school leaders. While care and communication are particularly incumbent on the leadership work of women, gendered perspectives of leadership during this crisis have been limited. This paper shares the experiences of crisis leadership through a case study of women principals in Australia, examined through a lens of hope, to identify the ways in which these women leaders negotiate crisis. Findings highlight the outward manifestations of hopeful actions balanced by the inward moments of silent contemplation. Data were collected through a series of focus groups which were part of a larger study. The stories and reflections were thematically analysed and inform a discussion of the significant moments of self-protecting silence- quiet in the mind- critical to navigating the blockages triggered by crisis, and to sustaining the agency to step into demands of care and risk. The paper concludes with thoughts on future research implications that are mindful of how women negotiate the spaces within and beyond crisis work through hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a self-study exploring the experiences of women leaders, and the intersections of leadership work with roles as mothers. Drawing on narratives of women from across experiences of leading to support women in the workplace, to women who juggle leadership work and mothering, and women whose mothering involves caring for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, we address the dearth in scholarship addressing these positionings and implications for women in leadership. Using self-study as a qualitative approach to bring together three current school leaders and an ex – principal, this study uses autobiographical experiences and shared reflections on blogs and materials accessed through our professional networks to contribute robust and rich analysis of personal narratives on the challenges and opportunities afforded to women in the state school context in England. We apply a conceptual framework of micro-meso barriers to consider the relationship between self and organisation level interactions. Findings contribute strategies from the personal to the organisational, with implications for the ways in which coaching, flexible working and an equitable approach to decision making can be utilised by schools to support and engage women without a sense of compromised leadership practice or motherhood priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the psychometric properties of an existing school-based Parent Opinion Survey (POS) in order to investigate its validity as a measure of parent sentiments which may (eventually) be used to better inform the decision making of school leaders. The study focusses on the POS administered by all Victorian public schools at the time of this study, and uses Rasch analysis to identify a subset of items which form a psychometrically robust, unidimensional measure of parent sentiment. We propose that 13 items identified through this analysis could lay the foundation for providing policy makers who currently manage the distribution and collation of this survey, as well as school leaders, with a more reliable and valid overarching POS Scale score. Such an approach could better inform and support the home–school partnership that forms a crucial part of the Victorian Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO) school improvement continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a review of leadership in schools during the COVID-19 crisis, mapping the intensity of changes wrought by the pandemic, and the effects on school leadership during this time. Data for this scoping review were gathered in two phases - first, from an online panel discussion involving five international academics held at Monash University in April 2021 that considered educational leadership in the postpandemic era; and second, a review of research into the impact of COVID-19 on school leadership from the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 to November 2021. The review identified five themes - the role of school leadership in managing an exacerbation of inequities; the impact of COVID-19 on principal/headteacher retention; school leadership as a relational practice in times of crisis; the emotional labour of educational leadership during the pandemic; and re-framing effective school leadership during the pandemic. This review has added new knowledge to our understandings of leadership in times of crisis, and the necessity for school leaders and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to effectively navigate the significant impacts of crises such as that caused by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]