In the last two decades especially ,there has been an exponential growth internationally of research and publications which have focused on school effectiveness, school improvement and school leadership . During this time there has also been a growing acknowledgement by governments of its importance in their efforts to raise the quality of educational achievement of students. Such interest can be seen to have been realized, however, not so much through researchers’ work but more through a number of national and international evidence based publications ( OECD,2009; Hattie,2010, McKinsey,2010; Orr,2011). Policy measures to improve the recruitment, preparation and in service training and development have been informed, perhaps, more by these data  than those generated by academic research. However, successful principals’ behavior and qualities are related to their personal/professional and internal and external organisational contexts. They cannot, research suggests, be translated into a generalisable ‘ toolbox’ for use in training and development or up-scaled or cascaded . Moreover, it cannot be assumed that all principals are capable of achieving and sustaining similar levels of success. This symposium will address the current limitations of school effectiveness and improvement, policy critique and school leadership research both in terms of its conceptualization and methodological stances. It will raise issues about the future foci for leadership research with the intention of improving its potential to influence more directly the policy and practice communities.

Chair: Professor Paul Bredeson, University of Wisconsin, US

Discussant: Gary M. Crow, Indiana university, US